SEEMS TO BE A NEW VIRUS: I’m getting a lot of variations on the theme of “something was wrong with my last email, so I put it in this attachment” — all bogus, of course. Beware, regardless of the purported source, as there’s address-spoofing involved.

I HAVEN’T READ IT, but in response to my earlier discussion of Jacksonianism in connection with David Hackett Fischer’s categorizations of American culture and British roots, a reader notes James Webb’s new book Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. And thanks to the miracle of Google, I found this NPR interview with Webb from Day to Day a couple of weeks back. It sounds interesting.

UPDATE: Here’s a column by Webb.

LIVEBLOGGING AL FRANKEN at Colby College. My admiration for Franken has not been increased by this account.

UPDATE: More liveblogging of the Franken appearance here.

MORE PEACE-TALK FROM THE GLOBAL LEFT:

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod’s law dictates he’ll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr – where are you now that we need you?

You know, if a Republican said something like that, it would be hate speech. And, really, if you need a reason to vote for Bush, that it will make people like this miserable for four years surely ought to be enough. (More thoughts at The Daily Ablution).

UPDATE: A reader emails: “The Guardian wants Dick Cheney to be president?” Heh. And who’s the big winner out of all this? Paul Krugman, who looks reasonable, if only by comparison!

ANOTHER UPDATE: People are emailing me to say that the Guardian has pulled the article, but actually the entire Guardian site appears to be down at the moment. I suspect that’s unrelated to the column, unless Drudge has slashdotted their servers, which seems highly unlikely. To be fair, I should note that the guy who wrote this piece (here’s his bio) is just a weekly columnist, and not a Guardian staffer — though this certainly had to get by an editor to see print. Though Tim Blair wonders. . . .

MORE LIVEBLOGGING FROM THE FORESIGHT NANOTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE in Washington.

NORM GERAS OFFERS THE LAST WORD ON THE IRAQ WAR: “There was no persuasive moral case against the Iraq war.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Surely there’s one fair prince among you who holds the key to unlock my weary heart?”

INTENSITIES IN TENT CITY: An Iraq report from The Mudville Gazette.

ROGER SIMON REVIEWS STOLEN HONOR: You can see it yourself online, here. The Internet routes around censorship!

ANGLOSPHERE UPDATE: Jim Bennett has a book out called The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century. I haven’t seen it yet, but judging from his earlier writings on this subject, it’s sure to be interesting.

SOME FRIDAY-NIGHT CATBLOGGING, in homage to Kevin Drum.

This is Precious, who likes to look out that window at the birds.

CONGRATULATIONS TO HOWARD LOVY, who won the Foresight Institute’s 2004 Feynman Award for Communications.

Lovy’s comments are here.

I’M SURPRISED THIS STORY HASN’T GOTTEN MORE ATTENTION:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Preparations for the crucial January election are “on track” and the absence of international observers due to the country’s tenuous security should not detract from the vote’s credibility, the top U.N. electoral expert here said.

Given the record of the international observers in Venezuela, I think he’s got a point.

UPDATE: Hey, that’s two days in a row that I’ve agreed with the pronouncement of a U.N. official! Well, when they’re right, they’re right.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey observes:

Those who claim that George Bush lives outside of reality, as John Kerry put it earlier, because he insists that elections will be held on schedule may find this a shock. However, we saw the Iraqis take back their sovereignty on schedule when everyone said that the US simply could not deliver it. I find no reason to doubt that Bush means to stick to his timetable, but just as in Afghanistan, the doubters likely won’t stop claiming the sky is falling until after the balloting starts.

Indeed.

MORE WEB VIDEO: Amazon.com is running video of Jon Stewart on its homepage, promoting his new book.

SEBASTIAN MALLABY has a rather critical take on NGO’s and poverty. “A swarm of media-savvy Western activists has descended upon aid agencies, staging protests to block projects that allegedly exploit the developing world. The protests serve professional agitators by keeping their pet causes in the headlines. But they do not always serve the millions of people who live without clean water or electricity.”

JOHN PODHORETZ WRITES:

Has there ever, ever, ever been an election as exciting as this one?

The answer, after some consideration, is: No way, not by a long shot. . . .

Most exciting and most addicting are the blogs — the citizen-journalist news sites. They offer campaign coverage of the highest order, from viewpoints spanning the political spectrum. So when I’m awake in the middle of the night taking care of a baby, I can surf Web sites to see the latest polling — and then do so again five hours later, and again every hour after that.

I think by the time this is over I’ll have had all the excitement I want.

UPDATE: A reader emails asking if the above means I’m planning to quit. No, not anytime soon. But I started this blog with the intent of dealing with, um, less intense issues, and I’ll be glad to see the election end. I realize that there will still be lots of stuff to worry about, but still. As Steven den Beste wrote, I was tired of this election in November of 2003.

THIS PROTEST AGAINST ROCK-THE-VOTE PARTISANSHIP and in particular its peddling of the bogus draft story seems to have produced some interesting happenings this afternoon. More when it’s available.

PROF. BAINBRIDGE looks at “small acts of nastiness and mean-spiritedness.”

To which we might add this report: “On Thursday night, an antiwar protestor in Milwaukee spit on a returned Iraqi war veteran, Marine Major Jerry Boyle.”

I THINK THIS REPRESENTS THE FINEST EXAMPLE OF LAPHAMIZATION SO FAR: Evan Thomas has a book coming out on how Kerry won the Presidency!

An extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 Kerry presidential victory reported by Newsweek’s premier political reporters, including bestselling biographer Evan Thomas. A full year before the presidential election, four Newsweek reporters are detached from the magazine to work fulltime on getting inside the campaigns of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Because Newsweek promises not to reveal any information until after the votes are cast, the reporters receive highly unusual access.

Including, apparently, access to the time machine! Heh. [No wonder the press “wants Kerry to win” — Ed. Indeed.]

UPDATE: In response to Kevin Aylward’s question, I think this is just a mistake, though an amusing one.

ANOTHER 9/11 DEMOCRAT announces for Bush.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Daniel Drezner comes out for Kerry. “Like Laura McKenna, I’m not at all happy about my choice. . . . But in the end, I can’t vote for a president who doesn’t believe that what he believes might, just might, be wrong.”

PHIL BOWERMASTER has thoughts on good news and bad news.

PEOPLE ARE COMPARING THE NEW BUSH “WOLVES” AD to the 1984 Ronald Reagan “Bear in the Woods” ad. You can see both of them at The Daily Recycler and decide for yourself. Roger Simon has thoughts on the new ad.

ADAM KEIPER IS LIVEBLOGGING FROM THE FORESIGHT NANOTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE in Washington — with pictures and video, too! He also reports that the conference has drawn an overcapacity crowd. I told you this was a big deal.

UPDATE: Howard Lovy is blogging from the conference, too.

LARRY KUDLOW has a new blog, called Kudlow’s Money Politics. Check it out!

THE TRUTH IS OUT! Fortunately, my goon squads will ensure that it goes unreported.