IN THE MAIL: American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War, Torn by Beliefs. The book contrasts Cindy Sheehan with another, rather different, family.

SCANDAL SATURATION? Mickey Kaus wonders about the “Densepack Theory,” in which

the anti-GOP media have launched so many damaging GOP stories–see Josh Marshall’s list– that they are all arriving at once and, like fratricidal incoming ICBMs, are knocking each other out of the news rather than destroying their target!

Hmm. A bigger risk is that with this many GOP scandal stories, the press will feel obliged to run with at least a couple of Dem scandals, too, to preserve the illusion of evenhandedness.

UPDATE: Karl Rotstan agrees: “Now that the Rubicon has been crossed so close to the election, we should prepare ourselves for an avalanche of Congressional filth, the likes of which will make Clinton’s experience look tame by comparison.”

But it’ll be good for ratings! Do ratings trump partisanship?

ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s starting.

MORE: Indeed: “I assume this is the sort of thing the MSM have declined to publish in the past. Unfit to print and all that. Now, they have to print or face denouncement for imbalance. So, come on, everybody, forward to MSM all those evil cybermessages the various politicos have been sending you over the years. Let’s see how MSM handles it, and let’s sit back and enjoy the hijinks. . . . I wonder how many politicians (and others) are sweating out this little interlude in the history of sex.”

THE OUTWARD EXPLOSION BEGINS? Dale Amon looks at developments in space.

AUSTIN BAY: “Are USAF brass and bureaucrats denying airmen the right to wear combat awards?”

RED LIGHT CAMERAS falling short of revenue expectations.

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

RUDY GIULIANI tops the choice for Republican nominee in 2008. Condi is second, and McCain a somewhat distant third (and he’s fallen over the past year). Meanwhile, on the Democratic side Hillary is the runaway favorite. Matched against Hillary, Rudy wins by 7. Rudy’s the only candidate that a majority of Americans want to run in 2008. All according to the new WNBC/Marist poll.

IN MY TCS DAILY COLUMN today, I take a hopeful look at the future of aviation.

THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS: “OMB Welcomes Help of Anti-Pork Bloggers.”

ORIN KERR looks at legal issues in the Foley investigation.

QUESTIONING THEIR PATRIOTISM:

PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s left-wing intelligentsia, questioning its loyalty to the nation over the past decades.

In a speech delivered last night for the 50th anniversary of the conservative magazine Quadrant, Mr Howard said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq, describing Islamic terrorism as the new tyranny.

He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as “ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests”, Fairfax reports today.

Mr Howard said the left was wrong in its view that the Cold War was an equal struggle between the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union.

He seems to be especially . . . forthright these days. It’s certainly hard to imagine George W. Bush saying anything like this.

A RECORD HIGH for the Dow. And I paid just over two bucks for premium unleaded today.

DON’T MISS THIS YEAR’S BLOGGER BOOBIE-THON! It’s got . . . boobies!

KATIE COURIC blasts into third place.

ANNE APPLEBAUM writes that Europe remains in denial about terrorism. Spineless, but in denial.

COMMEMORATING A BATTLE in politically correct fashion.

THE LATEST POLL shows a Ford-Corker dead heat.

Hmm. Just yesterday we had one with Ford up by 5; not long before that there was one with Corker up by 5. Is it just me, or is this more variation than we usually see? Are voter sentiments that volatile (or superficial)? Or is there something about this race that makes minor differences in polling methodology more important? Or is this normal?

UPDATE: Michael Barone emails:

I don’t think the poll numbers in TN are unusually volatile. When you look at all the public poll numbers since the primary (excluding the Zogby Interactive), link, you see that Ford is getting between 42% and 48% and that Corker is getting between 42% and 48% (except for one Democratic poll that shows him at 39%). With an error margin of plus or minus 4%, all those numbers could be the same.

Interestingly, Ford does best (48%) on the two robopolls, Rasmussen and SurveyUSA.

This is about the same level of variation as in the MO Senate race, which seems the closest thing we have this cycle to a tie. Link.

Interesting. And that Ford is doing better in the robopolls casts doubt on a theory I’ve heard around here, that some people are telling pollsters they’ll support Ford over Corker in order not to sound racist, but that they’ll vote for Corker in the privacy of the ballot box. Seems to me that a robopoll would vitiate this phenomenon if it existed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some interesting thoughts on robopolls from Mickey Kaus. For this to be true, though, I’d expect us to see the same pattern elsewhere. Do we?

YET ANOTHER UDPATE: Mark Blumenthal emails:

Barone beat me to the first half of the answer (though I expanded on that a bit), but a very interesting thing happens when we do the Pollster.com thing and draw a picture: The phone surveys track well with each other, but Zogby/WSJ Internet trends are completely different: Link

Hmm. Interesting.

THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT won’t hear the Texas sex-toy case. “An adult bookstore employee in El Paso, Texas, sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis and telling the female officer the device would arouse and gratify her.”

That makes them less progressive than Louisiana.

PIETER DORSMAN LOOKS AT the brief Dutch Sharia explosion.

BILL BRADLEY: “Five weeks before election day, California’s Democrats are in something of a state of disarray.”