In likening herself to the fictional Rocky Balboa today, Hillary's made her increasingly racist framing of Obama all the more apparent. For if she is diligent blue-collar white Rocky, Obama must of course be the smug and arrogant black man Apollo Creed. But let's just remember, after a bruising 15-round battle...

Apollo won.

To my shock, Mark Kennedy has made an arguably effective ad against Amy Klobuchar. His previous efforts have been so laughable as to make me wonder if anyone in his campaign has ever even seen a political ad before, but this one ("Security") is considerably sharper. It's very plain and to the point: Iraq is a wreck, but we can't leave, we can't wish our way out of trouble, and he's willing to pay the political price for saying so. Watching it was the first time I didn't feel he was roadkill.

Torture apologist Alberto Gonzalez will be answering questions about the Military Commissions Act at 4 p.m. EST on the White House website. You can submit a question in advance here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/...

My question was this:

What do you think the most appropriate punishment is for people like you who have traduced the Constitution, warped the values of this country, and discarded the fundamental human rights that used to make this country the beacon of freedom in the world?

Naturally, I'm not expecting an answer, but maybe there is some benefit in flooding the board with similar unfriendly queries.

Sorry for the brevity.

I just came across a 1966 book by Joe Lieberman (CFL-CT) that has left me shaking my head in wonder. It's called The Power Broker--it predates Robert Caro's better-known book of the same title--and seems to be a fairly fawning biography of John M. Bailey, then the Democratic machine boss in Connecticut.

Joe's admiration for Bailey is clear, especially for his complexity. Writes Joe: "You think you have fully understood him and then it is painfully clear that you have not. He has eluded your neat mold." A role model if ever there was--note that the pain seems to be inflicted with some joy.

I save the best quote for the jump:

The New York Observer is reporting that everyone's least favorite Times reporter, Elizabeth Bumiller, is taking an extended leave of absence to write a biography of Condoleezza Rice. No word on whether Condi is cooperating. It would be folly and speculation to suggest that Bumiller is leaving the beat so as not to get the crap beaten out of her by a Fighting Democrat somewhere on the campaign trail this fall.

The Observer's focus is on the repercussions for BuBu's husband, Steven Weisman, who has to give up his State Dept. beat in order to avoid the appearance that he might be pulling punches in order to not jeopardize his wife's access--as if her articles hadn't pulled or misdirected enough punches over the past few years....

Here is a link.

For the purposes of its bestseller lists, The New York Times Book Review has classified George Lakoff's DON'T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT as, uh, self-help, thus putting it on a less prominent list than nonfiction. See below the fold for the account given in Publishers Lunch Deluxe, a subscription mailing list for the publishing industry:

So after I wrote to Menard's to protest their advertising on Sinclair stations, I received this reply:

We never have and agree not to be involved in any advertising for biased political shows.
Thank you, Ray

Since this is less than explicit, I wrote back to the mysterious Ray thusly:

Dear Ray,

Thank you for your response. Does this mean that Menard's will not be advertising on Sinclair-owned stations, since they have decided to air overtly anti-Kerry programming?

Ray offered this terse response:

We have a small contract with them we are trying to break.

Thank you,
Ray

It's progress, I say. Thank YOU, Ray!

Didn't see any mention of this ante. After the jump is the e-mail I just got from U.S. Cellular:

Apologies if this has been discussed ante.

I admit that I have long expected that the big October Surprise will be the body of Osama bin Laden in one form or another. Still, I was shocked when Bush brought back the "You can run but you can't hide" line with reference to Kerry, since presumably it might shake a few memories of the last time he used such rhetoric (on bin Laden, that is), without making good on it.

But now that Dubya was taken to pounding on that line so hard, I wonder if it's really just foreshadowing. After all, what better way for Bush to Osamafy Kerry once and for all than to appear to make good on his earlier use of this rhetoric?

Take the poll, if you have nothing better to do:

In today's New York Observer, Richard Brookhiser faults Michael Moore for failing to prescribe alternative policy (as if, say, not lying, cheating, and stealing wouldn't be enough of a start). But the truly offensive moment comes as he likens Moore to... Leni Riefenstahl???

Mr. Moore, grandly boasting of his accuracy, has hired a rapid-response team, manned by former Clinton operatives, to rebut all the criticisms of Fahrenheit 9/11 lodged by conservative critics. But fact-checking is not really the point. There was nothing factually wrong in Leni Riefenstahl's Olympiad. She did not show Aryan sprinters beating Jesse Owens. Her camera gloried in the speed and strength of his body, as it gloried in the physiques and accomplishments of all the athletes she photographed. The only meaningful way to critique her tone poem was to pose larger questions: What was the status, and what were the long-term prospects, of German athletes who might be liberal democrats, or Jews? Are beauty and discipline the only values in a society? What do beauty and discipline amount to in a society run by the Führer?

(http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/observer.asp)

A friend of mine who lives in New York (as I do not) will be delivering her personal apology to the Iraqi people to whomever at the UN will accept it, this coming Monday at noon. (The apology idea appears in a NYT letter to the editor today, too.)

Imagine the spectacle if ten thousand people joined her.

She writes:

Really, I don't know what else to do at this point.

Anybody who wants to join me is welcome to do so. And if you happen to know
any reporters, good. Tell them. Feel free to pass this on to friends
elsewhere. If you don't live in NYC but you know someone who does, maybe
they would be willing to print out an e-mail apology and deliver it on your
behalf. . . .

This is corny, but it beats the heck out of terrorizing naked prisoners.