THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING: “A federal judge has ordered Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) to testify in a defamation case related to the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005, according to the Associated Press.”

DOES BERNANKE KNOW ABOUT THIS? “The Dollar Aisle has abandoned all pretense. Some items now go for $2.50, which contravenes the very foundational premise of a dollar aisle.”

THE BEST THING WRITTEN ABOUT the Ahmadinejad visit.

NEWS FROM COLOMBIA, where FARC isn’t doing that well.

HSUPOCRISY: Talking reform but taking cash.

CAPTURING WAR ON FILM: This is not a trailer.

JAMIE KIRCHICK ON MUGABE IN the Los Angeles Times: “Those who say Zimbabwe’s president was once a hero are fooling themselves.”

IS HILLARY the new old Al Gore?

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, leading queer theorist?

UPDATE: Somewhat related item, here.

NEWS FROM UKRAINE: “Yulia Tymochenko has said she is preparing to become the next prime minister of Ukraine after exit polls gave her more than 30 per cent of the vote in the country’s legislative elections.”

IT’S NOT A “SMEAR” — it’s better understood as “battlespace preparation.” And the target is the traditional media; the intent is to limit the ability of people like Limbaugh or O’Reilly to drive stories in the mainstream news as we get closer to the election. Expect more of this, with more targets.

Of course, it’s also generated some blowback.

UPDATE: More here.

MORE: Desperately seeking “Betray-us.”

HEH. Indeed.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: More trouble for Ted Stevens:

The 83-year-old senator is under scrutiny in a far-reaching Alaska corruption investigation. The FBI has been looking into whether Stevens received illegal gifts from a once powerful energy contractor, Veco Corp. Last week, a former Alaska House speaker was convicted of taking bribes from the same company. And during that former legislator’s trial, bruising details of the bribery scandal—which has engulfed several former state lawmakers, including Stevens’s son—have come to light.

Chipping away. No charges have been filed against Stevens or his son, and the senator maintains his innocence, as does his son, Ben Stevens. But the recent revelations appear to be chipping away at the elder Stevens’s support base. GOP Gov. Sarah Palin has called on Stevens to explain himself, and one independent poll taken this summer showed that 44 percent of voters in Anchorage had a negative view of the senator.

Stevens should retire now. But I doubt that he will.

THAT’S PROP-A-TAINMENT! “What accounts for Hollywood’s failure to capture the reality of war? . . . Tinseltown’s ‘moralistic monkey has climbed back up on its shoulder,’ resulting in films that have nothing to do with combat and everything to do with politics.”

Actually I think it’s just evidence that this prediction (“War focuses issues in ways peace cannot.”) was overoptimistic.

I GUESS IT’S A HYBRID, OF SORTS: A human / electric bike with an electric-powered range of 62 miles and a top speed of 28 mph.

A GAY LOVE SONG for Ahmadinejad. “I know you say that there’s no gays in Iran — but you’re in New York now, baby!” I hope that the image of Ahmadinejad in a slinky red dress atop the piano gets plenty of circulation with the folks back home.

THIS IS INTERESTING:

A KEY suspect in the alleged plot to mount an attack in Germany on the scale of 9/11 is on the run in Britain, German security officials disclosed yesterday.

Scotland Yard counterterrorism detectives are hunting the man, who escaped from Germany after a plot to explode bombs at Frankfurt airport and a US airbase. The collective power of the bombs would have exceeded those in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005.

The plot was foiled on September 4 when three men were arrested at a rented holiday apartment near the central German town of Kassel. Police recovered chemicals and bomb-making equipment which investigators believe would have led to the biggest loss of life since the 9/11 attacks in America six years ago. . . . Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s interior minister, revealed last week that the three arrested men had acquired detonators that originated from Syria and had received direct orders to act from operatives in Pakistan. “We know that there is a clear network, highly conspiratorial,” he said.

Read the whole thing. And note this earlier report: “The prime suspect in a German terror plot that allegedly intended to blow up hundreds of people may have had contact with Mohammed Atta, who hijacked one of the planes that was flown into the Twin Towers.”

UPDATE: Beware of the fear-mongering.

CAR LUST: Remembering the Plymouth Super Bird: “The Super Bird came with the stock 440, the legendary 440 Six Pack, or the epic 426 Hemi. Power was not a problem.” I used to see one of these driven around Knoxville occasionally, but I’m sure it’s been snapped up by some collector in the past few years.

DOUG BAND QUESTIONS, from Mickey Kaus.

MORE ON the Marines in Oakland.