HERE’S MORE on the Houssein Zourkot arrest in Dearborn.

A MCCAIN SURGE? Up nine points — that’s pretty big.

“BETRAY US” at a discount!

UPDATE: Giuliani wants equal time.

Meanwhile, Uncle Jimbo files a complaint with the FEC. I disapprove of McCain-Feingold, etc., but the New York Times really wanted these laws, so I say let them get what they want, good and hard.

And Bob Owens, who noticed this first, does some well-modulated gloating.

DID TIM TAYLOR kill the do-it-yourselfer?

ADVOCATING VIOLENCE AGAINST BRITNEY SPEARS: I’ll bet Britney could take this guy, though.

TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: Okay, I’m not sure “marches” is exactly the right word here.

JEFF GOLDSTEIN looks at the master narrative.

OUCH: “Almost immediately after the launch of Fred Thompson’s long anticipated presidential candidacy, important neutral Republicans decreed privately that it had crashed and burned on takeoff. Many of these critics had wanted to board the Thompson campaign but were repelled by his ‘gatekeepers.’ That helps explain their attitude now, and not merely because of bruised feelings caused by their exclusion.” I don’t think he’s crashed and burned, but I agree that the campaign has sometimes seemed curiously isolated.

Ann Althouse, however, isn’t so sure about these criticisms: “It’s possible that he knows what he is doing.”

Meanwhile, Wired says: “It’s official: Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson’s media strategy for his campaign launch was a success. Thompson’s web site Fred08.com was the most visited presidential candidate web site last week, according to Hitwise, a Web site traffic and search trends analysis firm.”

KEEPING HIS MOUTH HSUT: “John Edwards isn’t exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to criticizing Hillary Clinton, or bringing up the Clintons’ past scandals – recall his ‘the Lincoln Bedroom is not for rent’ speech. In fact, that speech came on the 23rd of August, just a few days before the whole Norman Hsu mess exploded on the nation’s front pages. Yet John Edwards hasn’t yet commented on the Norman Hsu matter.”

NORMAN HSU = Oh Man! Runs. At the Anagram Genius site.

FROM FEDERALISM TO FREDeralism. But Rand Simberg has a question. But he finds something else to like about Fred: “Fred Thompson doesn’t go to church regularly, and isn’t afraid to say so. I’ve nothing against church goers in general, or even church-going politicians, but I’d much rather have one who doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve. Particularly compared to hypocrites like Bill and Hillary Clinton, who primarily went as a photo op, Bible in hand, usually when trying to tamp down a scandal.”

MICROSOFT INSTALLS SOFTWARE without users’ permission.

THE FARMER’S ALMANAC predicts a warm dry winter. With oil prices going up, that’s good, right?

SOMEWHAT FRIGHTENING: The Angry Pharmacist blog.

TUGGING ON SOME HSU-STRINGS.

DESPITE ALL THE TALK, Senate chooses pork over bridge repair. By a huge margin. And next time you fly, think of this: “Want to know what had to be cut from the bill in order to get the North Dakota Peace Garden? Oh, just a silly little project that would have updated technology in air-traffic control towers.” Bravo for Bob Corker, anyway, who voted with Coburn.

AN OBSCURE MUSCLE CAR: “When people reminisce about classic General Motors muscle cars, the Buick GS455 isn’t often the first car to come to mind. . . . Torquey and smooth, with aggressive but restrained lines (a restraint that quickly vanished with the GSX appearance package), the GS455 is one of the great overlooked hero cars from the late 1960s.” IowaHawk probably has three.

UPDATE: IowaHawk himself emails:

Funny you should mention that… I’ve never had a Stage I (let alone three) but do have another 60s Buick of similar brute force and Rat-Packy elegance: 1966 Riviera, 425 ci Nailhead (360 hp, 465 ft-lbs torque). It’s currently for sale, so someone else will be slapping Gaia around with it soon.

Check out that classic interior.

SOMETHING ELSE TO HSU ON: “Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson and a host of congressional candidates from both parties accepted cash from Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. and his wife, Lynn,since the federal government accused the Texas oilman of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. Wyatt was indicted in 2005 on charges related to illegal payments for oil contracts from the Hussein-led Iraqi government under the United Nations’ oil-for-food program. And since then, the Wyatts have found willing recipients for nearly $22,000 in political donations.” This doesn’t seem to be a field where “willing recipients” are hard to come by.

LIBERTARIANS AND CULTURE: More responses to Kay Hymowitz, here and here.

“SO IT’S ‘PUBLISH AND PERISH?'” That’s the question asked in the L.A. Times regarding the bungled Chemerinsky deanship hire. And there’s a big roundup at the WSJ Law Blog.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt wonders what’s up with Christopher Edley.

IN THE MAIL: Eric Muller’s American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II. Do Muller’s horror tales from World War II indicate that America is bad, or that war is hard and leads to lots of bad things? Watch for reviewers to insert various war-on-terror spins.

JOHN MCCAIN: If you’re not tough enough to stand up to MoveOn, you’re not tough enough to be President.

RANKING COLLEGES on sexual health.

MARK WARNER WILL run for the Senate in Virginia. You can hear our podcast interview with Mark Warner here.