Get Out There
Just my luck. I've been struggling with a head cold the last few days; I thought I was over it, but it has knocked me over this morning. So I'm going to miss today's Kerry campaign rally in Philadelphia, featuring former President Bill Clinton and singer Patti LaBelle. Tickets are not required but are still available for better crowd position here. If you're in Philadelphia and reading this, please go. (Thankfully, I have a "reporter" in the field.)

Staying the Course
If this -- stolen weapons, mass executions, and Halliburton-style contracting -- is what constitutes "staying the course" in Iraq, it's clearly time for a change.

[Post-publication insertion: The Kerry-Edwards campaign responds. And Sen. Kerry responds directly to the Al Qaqaa disaster. The New York Times reports: "Senator John Kerry seized on a report today that 380 tons of explosives had vanished from a site in Iraq that the United States admits it was supposed to have guarded, calling the disappearance 'one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration.' He added that 'the incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk and put this country at greater risk than we all need.'"]

The "Religious Left"
Yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing.

"Inning" the "Out"
Frank Rich on Mary and Lynne Cheney ("The O'Reilly Factor for Lesbians," New York Times, October 24): "When Mrs. Cheney hyperbolically implies that even using the word lesbian in 2004 is a slur out of the McCarthy era -- "a cheap and tawdry political trick," she said -- she is playing a similar game. She is positioning lesbian as a term comparable to child molester."

See also: Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe: "Who's Insensitive to Gays? Start With the Cheneys," October 21.

Everything You Wanted to Know . . . But Were Afraid to Remember
Not sure how I missed this one . . . The Nation last week summarized it all in "100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration," by Judd Legum.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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