The heat turned up in Manhattan today, as speeches by Zell Miller and Dick Cheney provided red meat to party faithful, and protests outside the convention hall increased in intensity and number. After-hour parties abounded, but behind the scenes, the effect of money in politics only got rarely reported. More from on and off the floor:

Reactions to Zell Miller: The angriest speech of the convention, seemingly came from Zell Miller, as Glenn Reynolds notes, "It's funny that the purest voice of Jacksonian America at this Republican convention -- in fact, at either convention -- comes from a Democrat.". Begging to Differ wrote, "Zell Miller was more effective tonight than any Republican could have been. John Kerry will have to answer, if he can."

The two Cheneys - diverse reaction from liberals and conservatives The Technorati Politics Attention Index™ saw heavy blogging from both the left and right regarding Vice President Dick Cheney's speech tonight. Conservatives like Sister Toldjah remarked, "A SOLID performance!". Ann Althouse wrote, ""He lays it out. And you can take it or leave it. He's not doing the twist. He's Dick Cheney." Liberals felt differently. Josh Marshall described a common liberal perspective: "My first thought was, bold words for a man whose office is the subject of an on-going criminal inquiry. But apparently that’s not the subject of polite conversation."
Arnold gets fact-checked The liberal blogosphere has been buzzing about Arnold Schwartenegger's speech last night. Numerous bloggers pointed out that while Arnold has spoken of Nixon debating Humphrey in 1968, the debate never happened.

Protest Vignettes Outside of the convention, New York is filled with protests, from big, to small, to personal. Inside the convention hall, AIDS demonstrators disrupted a Republican youth gathering on the floor, unveiling an anti-Bush sign and disrupting a speech by Andrew Card. Andrew Sullivan reports on a particularly rude protester, while Peter Northrup wrote "of a self-proclaimed liberal [that] was spending her day, not protesting with angry slogans, but sitting in front of an empty chair and a sign that invited conservatives to sit down and talk with her about the future of the country." Ratherbiased has pictures of a protester being removed from tonight's Cheney speech.
Blogging a talk-show appearance: Michelle Malkin blogs her side of the story after appearing on MSNBC's Hardball. First-hand accounts like this are shifting the fulcrum away from show hosts and producers who often attempt to unfairly create controversy. Malkin's account, while completely subjective, allows her to get her side of the story out to the world, just as the FCC's Michael Powell or Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, use their blogs to speak to the world in a timely, unedited fashion.