BOOKBLOGGING: In what I laughingly call my “spare time,” I’m reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and so far enjoying it. It’s vaguely reminiscent of Tim Powers’ Expiration Date and related books.

EXPLOSIVE TRACES FOUND in crashed Russian plane. Much longer story here, suggesting an Al Qaeda connection.

TOM MAGUIRE IS BACK: The blogosphere can breathe a sigh of relief.

HERE’S MORE on lawyer overlap and 527s. There seems to be rather a lot of it.

“KERRY REQUESTED A PURPLE HEART,” says Admiral Schachte. The wound was accidentally self-inflicted, he says. (“‘Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 (grenade launcher),’ Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, ‘Kerry requested a Purple Heart.'”)

That’s not malfeasance or anything, but it certainly plays to his image as an opportunist who worked the system to get out of combat as soon as possible. (“John Kerry, reporting for duty — until I can finagle a way out of here!”) More here, and Beldar has more analysis, with some interesting stuff in the comments.

That said, the medal issue is really a distraction. It’s Kerry’s postwar behavior that deserves more scrutiny. Here’s his 1971 testimony. And here’s a 1971 TV interview where he talks about throwing away his medals, and about opposing the war “right there in Vietnam,” and about how veterans, especially minority veterans, remain a menace after returning to America because they’re angry and were “taught to kill.” He backs away a bit later, in an early version of his signature straddle, but it’s still pretty damning stuff.

UPDATE: Thoughts on records that Kerry should release — from Vietnam and elsewhere — here, and a review of Kerry’s testimony here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More records questions here, in an interesting article from the Chicago Sun-Times.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More on the Admiral here.

IS IT ALL DOUGLAS BRINKLEY’S FAULT? That would explain why he’s laying so low.

UPDATE: Or maybe it’s all neurochemical evolution.

RECIPEBLOGGING: This week’s Carnival of the Recipes is up. Soon we’ll need a Carnival of the Carnivals.

ANTI-TERRORISM GOOD NEWS:

BALTIMORE (AP) – When three Baltimore County police officers saw someone aiming a camera from a sport utility vehicle on the Bay Bridge and decided the videotaping looked suspicious, Maryland’s intelligence center was notified within minutes.

The state’s counterterrorism center has local, state and federal authorities sitting next to each other 24 hours a day at an FBI building in Calverton in Prince George’s County. That’s why police were able to arrest Ismael Selim Elbarasse, a man wanted for questioning in Chicago about the finances of the Hamas extremist group, so quickly, state officials said.

More on the arrest here and here.

JAMES LILEKS:

Leaving aside that pesky constitutional prohibition, Clinton could have gotten the nod if he’d wanted. He would have beat George W. Bush in 2000. He would probably beat Bush today, given our nostalgia for the happy, shiny ’90s. But perhaps he enjoys retirement. Sure, it’s good to be king, but there’s something to be said for turning on “Monday Night Football” and letting someone else worry about loony long-beards with nukes. . . .

So why does Kerry want to be president?

The reason is almost tautological: John Kerry wants to be president because he is John Kerry, and John Kerry is supposed to be president. Hence his campaign’s flummoxed and tone-deaf response to the swift boat vets. Ban the books, sue the stations, retreat, attack. Underneath it all you can sense the confusion. How dare they attack Kerry? He’s supposed to be president. It’s almost treason in advance. . . . Inconsistencies are irrelevant, because he’s consistently John Kerry. And he’s supposed to be president.

That does seem to capture the tone. And don’t miss Lileks’ conclusion.

TRAFFIC: Already way ahead of last month’s, which set a record. Just a dollar a pageview, that’s all I ask. . . .

Okay, actually I don’t ask anything. I’m just glad that someone besides my mother reads this stuff.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ED MORRISSEY, who had a piece in the New York Sun today.

HOWELL RAINES has a piece on Presidential intelligence in The Guardian that isn’t all that bad. Perhaps Howell has learned that there’s more to management than SAT scores. . ..

However, he can’t avoid this line: “Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I’m sure their SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead.”

Actually, Ann Althouse was doubting that very thing. We seem to know Bush’s grades and test scores. But I haven’t seen Kerry’s anywhere — release the transcripts! — and so it’s all a matter of inference from things like where he went to law school. Given Kerry’s tendency to trumpet credentials he’s proud of, the absence of any data here may support an inference of its own.

But we also learn — well, confirm — something about Howell Raines. He hasn’t seen the numbers. He doesn’t offer any real comparison or data. He just knows that Kerry is a lot smarter, and it seems that he knows this because everyone he talks to thinks the same thing. Which is, no doubt, the case.

JOHN PERRY BARLOW plans to disrupt the Republican Convention through spontaneous dancing.

This would work, if the Republican Convention were taking place in the movie Footloose.

TRAITORS to Rock and Roll.

TIME TRAVEL UPDATE: On the Harper’s website, an apology for Lewis Lapham’s, er, premature account of what transpired at the Republican Convention. There’s something a bit odd about the heading, though:

Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2004.
Originally from Harper’s Magazine, October 2004.

Let’s do the time warp again!

HOW JOHN KERRY COULD SALVAGE THINGS: A helpful observation from Bill Adams.

SET YOUR VCR: Tonight on C-Span at 8:PM – John Kerry 1971 Testimony Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

UPDATE: Here’s the full text.

Thoughts on the testimony here. I’ve read it before, but what struck me looking at it again just now is how little Kerry is questioned or criticized. He’s really never had to stand up to serious criticism before, which is, I guess, why he’s handling it so badly now.

A MAJOR UNCORRECTED ERROR AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: It just gets worse.

UPDATE: The error is repeated in The New Republic. (“The veterans featured in the organization’s TV ad claim to have ‘served with Kerry,’ but none actually served on the same boat.”) The “same boat” claim is dumb — but forget Clintonian parsing of what “served with” means, it’s also not true. I thought weeklies were supposed to have the time to get stuff like this right.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Refuting this error is this new ad from the Swiftboat Vets featuring Steve Gardner who says that he spent more time on Kerry’s boat than any other veteran, and that the Christmas in Cambodia story is false. It’s going to be hard for the Kerry campaign to argue with that, since they’ve already admitted it.

BLOGGERRIFFIC! This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is up. Don’t miss it.

JOHN KERRY’S MISSED OPPORTUNITY: “He could have healed the wounds of Vietnam. Instead, he tried to exploit them.”

Plus, he made Bob Dole angry. And you never want to do that.

WHO IS MICHAEL WOLFF?

UPDATE: Oh, yeah, that guy.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader John Tabin reminds me that he’s this guy, too.

<Burns Voice>“Wolff, eh? I’ll remember that name.”</Burns Voice>

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh, and this guy!

<Burns Voice>“Smithers: Release the hounds!”</Burns Voice>

OUCH: From ABC News:

KERRY CHALLENGES BUSH TO WEEKLY DEBATES: In Anoka, MN, John Kerry challenged President Bush to weekly debates on the issues. MORE

BUSH CAMP REAX: “There will be a time for debates after the convention, and during the next few weeks, John Kerry should take the time to finish the debates with himself. This election presents a clear choice to the American people between a President who is moving America forward and a Senator who has taken every side of almost every issue and has the most out of the mainstream record in the U.S. Senate,” said BC’04 spokesman Steve Schmidt.

I guess this is part of the new Bush Campaign Strategy.

SEAN HACKBARTH NOTES that there’s a new documentary coming out, called Stolen Honor featuring former P.O.W.s speaking about John Kerry. He’s got a link to previews, though the miserable SONICWALL CONTENT FILTER here at Panera Bread won’t let me play them. (It’s even blocking The Mudville Gazette as pornography today, which is exceptionally lame).

“NEVER PICK A FIGHT WITH A GUY WHO BUYS INK BY THE BARREL:” That’s old wisdom. The new wisdom — being taught to a guy at the Star Tribune — is don’t pick a fight with guys who buy pixels by the passel. And who know how to use Google. Just keep scrolling.

UPDATE: Reader Ken Watson emails: “‘Ink?’ What is this… ‘ink’?”

It’s what people used before pixels. Some publications still use it!

CELLPHONE PHOTOBLOGGING from the RNC.