A LOOK AT The 10 Best Planes from the Oshkosh Air Show.

MAUREEN DOWD gets romantic with Obama.

THE BELMONT CLUB looks at the anthrax investigation. “But when the anthrax attack did come the remarkable thing was that it was never spun as a WMD attack on America, an assertion which in the heated atmosphere following the attacks, might actually have gained currency. Instead the FBI went almost direct to the ‘lone American’ theory rather than impute the attacks on al-Qaeda. If the Bush administration had in fact planned to use the anthrax attacks to frame someone, the ‘lone American’ theory was precisely the wrong way to go about it.”

DALE AMON LIVEBLOGGED the SpaceX Falcon launch. Bottom line is in this statement from Elon Musk: “It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened.”

It’s okay, as long as they learn from it. So often, it’s not the big high-profile parts that fail, but things like frozen oxygen valves or failed stage-separations.

Mission timeline here. Full story here.

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANY GREENHOUSE TALK FROM OBAMA as long as he’s flying this airplane:

Barack Obama’s new campaign plane is nothing short of grand. Well, for the candidate that is.

Obama’s section of the plane rivals that of any first class. Recently the front cabin of the Boeing 757 was retrofitted to install four individual chairs that resemble La-Z-Boys. They are free-standing and made of plush leather with pockets on the sides. There is also a booth which seats four for a meeting or a meal.

His chair has his name and campaign logo embroidered on the back top — “Obama ‘08” on one line and “President” underneath. To one side is a small table stacked with newspapers ready for the candidate’s arrival. The table of the booth is always covered in snacks and cheese and is where Obama spends most of his time during flights meeting with staff and sitting for the occasional interview.

“Typically the candidate’s cabin is like business class — roomier and less chaotic than the staff and press areas, but still short of the accoutrements of a pro team’s charter,” says Politico’s Mike Allen, a frequent campaign flier.

After looking at a few photos of Obama’s cabin, Allen quipped, “Air Force One may seem a tad claustrophobic.”

Also no complaints about corporate fatcats.

ACCIDENT? SO TAKE ME TO THE BODY SHOP, PLEASE: Is Aging an Accident of Evolution? Stanford Scientists Say “Yes”.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST: “Obama says that he will not run for anything in 2008. He is quick to temper high expectations and scrying [sic] about his lofty political future with quips about how he doesn’t yet know where the Senate bathrooms are, and how he’ll be ‘sharpening pencils and scrubbing floors’ for the first few years. ‘He says that the first thing is for him to learn to be a first-rate senator,’ says Jarrett, the finance committee chair. If that leads to something else one day, fabulous. But first things first.'”

I don’t think Obama was lying in 2005. I’ve always thought that he didn’t expect his campaign to take off the way it did; I think he figured he’d run a good attention-getting primary campaign, drop out after South Carolina, and set himself up for the future. I think that the coalescence of the anti-Hillary Democrats around his campaign surprised him as much as it did Hillary, and that he’s been running a brilliant piece of improvisation ever since.

CLAUDIA ROSETT says that Bush is rewriting history regarding Iran and North Korea.

T. BOONE PICKENS talks about his wind power plans.

RAND SIMBERG: Water on Mars? Big deal. Tell us something we don’t already know.

BECAUSE THEY HAVEN’T DONE ENOUGH TO MAKE TRAVEL UNAPPEALING: Feds now arrest your laptops at border:

Not content with taking your shoes and confiscating your water, now the Department of Homeland Security is gunning for your laptops.

As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Border Patrol and Customs agents can now “detain” laptops “for a reasonable period of time” to “review and analyze information.”

They don’t need probable cause under the new policy. Doesn’t matter if you’re a U.S. citizen or foreign visitor. Officials can hold the laptops indefinitely. Or hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, video and audio tapes. Ditto papers, documents, books, pamphlets, even litter.

The litter they can have. But screw with my laptop and you’ll regret it.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Smith questions the timing:

This laptop story is old news.

There could be no *possible* reason why it should come out now, as a big revelation, just when Obama’s lead in the polls is basically non-existent?

I predict no improvement in this department regardless of who’s elected in November.

BRENDAN LOY photoblogs early voting in Knox County.

SITEMETER IS FIXED, and I’ve put the code back on my page. Seems to be working fine.

A HEROIC HISTORIAN: The first to hit the Unitarian Church gunman in Knoxville was my University of Tennessee colleague John Bohstedt: “Frankly, I’m not terribly surprised that he helped stop the attack. Heck… he’s an expert on riots and mobs, so he probably knows a thing or two about how to act in a seemingly chaotic environment.”

A LIST: Essential movies of the 2000s.

Plus, the trailer for Lord of the Rings Online: The Mines of Moria.

JOE DAVIS WRITES THAT THE SATURDAY NEW YORK TIMES IS ALWAYS INTERESTING:

I used to particularly like the sat edition back in the old ‘paper’ days…they would often bury stories they really didn’t want to promote but felt they had to acknowledge there…so I was really interested to see how they would play yesterdays drama in congress which is hard to do without making the DEM leadership look bad but I can’t find anything on the web site…

Now they bury stories that they don’t want to promote in the Times political blogs! This shortstops the critics in the blogosphere, without exposing the Times’ subscribers to uncomfortable information.

UPDATE: Reader Christopher Fountain sends this story and writes: “It was on the last page of the 1st section in today’s paper version and a search online turned it up there,too. Notice the reporter doesn’t say who turned off the lights, cameras and mikes. For all Times readers would know, it was some kind of natural phenomenon.”

Huh. I searched “Pelosi” on the site and found the blog entry but not this story.

OBAMA AGAINST REPARATIONS: “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders.”

DRILLING FOR OIL IN SUBURBAN BACKYARDS: If you can drill safely here, you can drill safely anywhere.,

JOHN TIERNEY: Worriers vs. Nonworriers.

JOHN SCALZI: “I’d just like to say that, yes, my arms really are that buff.”

TALKLEFT: “Barack Obama is having a press conference this morning and it is being dominated by questions about the ‘race card.’ That makes it a good press conference for McCain. The big hook for McCain is the fact that Obama supporters disgracefully smeared Bill and Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries. The McCain riposte to pushback from Obama supporters is ‘that’s what you said about Bill and Hillary Clinton.’ . . . The fairy tale has come home to roost. All the dirty work these folks did during the primaries to slime Bill and Hillary Clinton is now fodder for John McCain.” Yes, it kind of suggests that anyone who dares to oppose Obama will be called a racist.

HEH: “We all know that politics is a con some of the time. It has begun to feel like politics is a con almost all of the time.”

BEACH READING: Read Greg Egan’s Incandescence and it was good — though a bit cerebral even for Egan.. Started the new Naomi Novik book and it’s good so far, but I haven’t gotten too far into it.

TOM MAGUIRE: So In The Tank They Don’t Know They Are In The Tank. From the comments: “At some point shouldn’t all of these articles be reported to the FEC as inkind contributions?”

Plus, Extreme Mortman on Washington Post photo choices.

UPDATE: “Few rhetorical stumbles?”

ADVICE FOR OBAMA: “He can’t use his race as a factor and disqualify it simultaneously. Pick a position and stick to it. Obviously, the better position for Obama is transcending race, and obviously, if he thinks he can dip gracefully into the subject whenever it works for him, he’s wrong.”