OBAMA JUST SAID CLARENCE THOMAS DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO SERVE ON THE COURT: Kinda ironic, huh? (Scalia’s qualified, but Obama wouldn’t have nominated him). Just turned off the TiVo and his appearance with Rick Warren was on.

UPDATE: Ouch: “Rick Warren seems more interested in being pals with whomever winds up president than getting real answers.” Will that hold true for his McCain interview, too? Probably.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ann Althouse is liveblogging it.

MORE: Reader Jacob Allen thinks the criticism is unfair: “I think it’s important to remember that Warren isn’t going into this with a journalistic mindset. He’s a pastor, not a pundit. His purpose (no pun intended) is solely to provide the forum, ask the questions and let the audience judge the answers. I imagine he’d argue that the follow-up and critique is a job left to others–like KLo.”

STILL MORE: McCain’s answers are certainly a lot shorter.

MORE STILL: John Podhoretz thinks McCain did well. “If John McCain can perform during the three debates the way he is performing tonight with Rick Warren, he will win this election.”

I have to say that I think the format was very good, with the same questions and the candidates not hearing each others’ answers. It sort of sounded like a game show, but it worked.

FINALLY: Rich Lowry: “They both were very good, but in entirely different ways.” TalkLeft: “Obama held his own, I think, but McCain’s performance was the crowd favorite, my friends.”

And Allah goes to the video on Clarence Thomas. I’m standing by my call — biting the word in half isn’t the same as not saying it. In fact, it kind of underscores things that he recognized the error himself, doesn’t it? “Holy crap, I can’t say that!“

SO BLOGGING’S BEEN KIND OF LIGHT because last night I went up to Cincinnati to see my brother. His band opened for Jason Ricci and New Blood, at a benefit concert in Cold Spring. We had a good time, and 46 Long (named for their jacket sizes; both my brother and Blake are big guys — and, actually, that’s my size, too) did their usual great job. I’d never seen Jason Ricci, though, and his reputation as the Stevie Ray Vaughan of the blues harp is entirely justified. He was terrific, and not just in a way that impressed the harmonica geeks (“Whoa — he’s overblowing in third position! Awesome!”) but in a way that was like a force of nature. I remember the first time I saw Stevie Ray live, and it was a similar feeling. You can hear some tunes here. It was also kind of cool when a gaggle of biker chicks formed a spontaneous chorus on “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”

Jason’s also a really nice guy; he even stepped in to run sound for my brother, which was awfully nice for the frontman of the headline act. I’d have been tireder than him, as I hear he’s doing 300 gigs a year. But you can tell he’s a true professional — the van had excellent tires. As Webb Wilder says, “Take care of the van and the van will take care of you.” There’s always an Econoline rolling to a gig somewhere . . . .

Ricci’s also got a hell of a stompbox rig for a harp player. (See below).

There’s actually a huge ferment of new techniques and equipment among blues harmonica players, mostly started by Ricci. My brother’s harpist, Blake Taylor, is also part of this movement. It’s kind of cool to see after years of things staying pretty much the same. And I think it says good things about America that an openly gay white guy with pink hair can be a blues god.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out Ricci’s act. With 300 shows a year, there’s a good chance he’ll be in your neighborhood sooner or later. Or both!

MICHELE CATALANO POSTS the annual ‘elvis is dead’ apology to my mother.

A THREAT TO FLORIDA from Hurricane Fay. “At this point, Florida could be hit by a weak tropical storm or by a Category 3 hurricane, and these scenarios are about equally plausible.”

FINISHED THE NEW NAOMI NOVIK BOOK. It was good, though I agree with the reviewers who said that this story is getting a bit PC. Also read Days of Infamy, which wasn’t bad. Now reading Charles Stross’s Saturn’s Children, which so far I’m liking a lot. It’s kind of Heinleinesque.

GOOD FOR OBAMA: Obama to General Wesley Clark: Your Services Not Needed. Clark may be the most overrated man in American politics, which is saying something since he’s not rated all that highly . . . .

NBC: FIGHTING THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT with outdoor air-conditioning!

KOBE BRYANT explains patriotism to a journalist.

AN IRAQ UPSIDE: “The United States military is one of the most combat-experienced militaries in history. Virtually every officer of the line has led Soldiers and Marines on daily combat missions. Sergeants and Junior Staff NCOs have come up through the ranks not in garrison or on training exercises but in combat. Virtually every U.S. Rifle Platoon has something the Russian and Chinese military do not–experience in a gun fight.”

CHANNELING COLERIDGE with Major John Tammes.

THE TRUTH ABOUT “prorated” cellphone termination fees.

MORE SUBVERSIVE TOYS: Though this is a lot fiercer than the potato gun.

PHOTO-SCOOTERBLOGGING, from Les Jones.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Going after the porkers, in the WSJ:

An albatross Republicans must haul around this year is that voters no longer clearly see them as the party best able to control government spending and taxes. GOP pork-barrel kings such as Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young are a big reason. Now allegations of corruption are swirling around both men as they face stiff challenges in Alaska’s Aug. 26 Republican primary.

Messrs. Stevens and Young have done enormous damage nationally to the Republican brand. They were champions of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” a $223 million span to Gravina Island with 50 people on it, that became the butt of late-night comedians. But the jokes have been replaced with anger: Mr. Stevens was indicted last month on seven felony counts of lying about $250,000 in gifts he received from the head of the oil services company VECO, Bill Allen, who was seeking earmarks from the senator. Mr. Young has spent over $1 million in legal fees fighting a federal investigation of his ties to VECO. . . . Indeed, it was the power of the purse that Messrs. Stevens and Young wielded for so long that helped entrench the earmark culture among Congressional Republicans. Few dared risk their wrath. When he became chairman of the Appropriations Committee in 1997, Mr. Stevens proclaimed, “I’m a mean, miserable SOB.” When his “Bridge to Nowhere” was challenged in 2005, Mr. Stevens warned fellow senators “if we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next.”

The real damage to the Republican brand has been the national party’s refusal to ease these guys out. They deserve to lose big in the primary. If they don’t, the Republicans deserve to lose the seats.

HERE’S AN UPDATE on the Equal Parenting Bike Trek.

ANGRY, BITTER LOSERS: Lewis Lapham keeps it classy.

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, A DIFFERENT KIND OF BIGOTRY: “The executives of a gay sex site are apparently more concerned about the perception that they’re associated with John McCain than McCain is about the association with them.” Heh.

UPDATE: Plus, a new kind of race-baiting. From Howard Dean. Okay, this isn’t really that new, anymore. . . .

OBAMA-KERRY? “I don’t even want to think about that.”

UPDATE: Obama’s Massive Headfake: Hillary for VP?

IN THE MAIL: The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin’s Secret Service. From the summary, it sounds like a spy thriller, but it’s a true story.

UPDATE: Does it have a happy ending? Well, not for the spy, who — despite his loyalty to Stalin and communism — winds up purged and dying in a gulag. So, kind of . . ..

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER has a great record on space issues, and his supporters are pointing it out. He’s been especially good on commercial space.

UPDATE: George Fillmore emails that he likes this from Rohrabacher, though it’s not about space.

MICHAEL TOTTEN IS on his way to Georgia. “If you have any story ideas that don’t involve me getting shot by the Russians, or if you know someone in Georgia I ought to meet, please let me know in the comments or by email.”

UNFORTUNATELY, MOST OF THE DOUBTS COME FROM THEIR DISMAL TRACK RECORD: F.B.I. Will Present Scientific Evidence in Anthrax Case to Counter Doubts:

Growing doubts from scientists about the strength of the government’s case against the late Bruce E. Ivins, the military researcher named as the anthrax killer, are forcing the Justice Department to begin disclosing more fully the scientific evidence it used to implicate him.

In the face of the questions, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials have decided to make their first detailed public presentation next week on the forensic science used to trace the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks to a flask kept in a refrigerator in Dr. Ivins’s laboratory at Fort Detrick, in Maryland. Many scientists are awaiting those details because so far, they say, the F.B.I. has failed to make a conclusive case.

Perhaps this will resolve the concerns.

IS THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM bad for men?

RUSSIA THREATENS NUCLEAR ATTACK ON POLAND? Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Vlad.

JUDGE NULLIFIES JURY.