HOPE, CHANGE, AND A NEW KIND OF POLITICS:

Nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country will probably receive a foreboding “warning” letter in the mail next week. The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual new outside political group on the left that is poised to engage in hardball tactics to prevent similar groups on the right from getting off the ground this fall.

Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions. . . . The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.

No doubt they all go around exchanging Obama Salutes and clicking their heels; I hope they’re appropriately attired. . . . .

PARIS ON THE POTOMAC: “Voters usually get what the voters deserve. But will that be the case in ‘08?”

A WHILE BACK, I reviewed Robert Zimmerman’s The Universe in a Mirror for The Wall Street Journal. Now here’s another review in The New York Times.

AIRLINES CUT 60 million seats for Christmas.

BILL ALLISON: Will Sens. Dodd and Conrad attend the financial literacy lunch? “Maybe the two should attend the event, Dodd to learn where he can look up the interest rate and Conrad for a primer on how to read a mortgage document.” Heh.

STOPPING GLOBAL WARMING BY KILLING “as many rich Westerners as possible.”

RASMUSSEN: “Americans overwhelmingly believe there is an urgent national need to find new sources of energy, and this need is more important that reducing current energy usage, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. With energy issues taking center stage in the presidential campaign, 81% of Americans see development of new energy sources as an urgent priority. Only 9% disagree. For nearly two-thirds (65%), finding new sources of energy is more important that reducing the amount of energy Americans now consume. Twenty-eight percent (28%) think reducing current usage is more important.”

JEERING WHAT THEY SHOULD APPLAUD. And vice versa.

ROMENESKO on the Edwards allegations.

THE NEW OBAMA SALUTE. “We want to see it everywhere, but more importantly we want this sign to take the world by storm.” I expect it to be enthusiastically adopted by Obama’s troops.

UPDATE: A Pink Floyd angle.

MORE: Star Trek! “The group is impressed by Mr. Spock however, who gestures with an oval ‘symbol of peace’ the party makes with raised hands, and speaks of ‘The One.'” (Thanks to reader Melissa Lambert).

MORE STILL: It’s on YouTube!

And reader Neil Sorens emails: “As a video game developer, I have seen ‘goatse’ cleverly hidden in various game levels. The Obama O is far more blatant.” Heh. If you don’t recognize the “goatse” reference, think twice before googling it . . . .

FINALLY: Andrew Morse emails: “I’m confused: Why do the Obama supporters in the Star Trek video you posted keep referring to Bob Herbert in a derogatory way? Isn’t he a pro-Obama guy?” Even space hippies have some standards.

BASED ON MY BROWSER HISTORY, I’M ANDROGYNOUS:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 50%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 50%

(Via Megan McArdle).

THE RACIST ADS MAY NOT HAVE WORKED: “In a contentious primary that garnered national attention this week, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen took a substantial early lead over his Democratic rivals.” I like Steve Cohen anyway, and not just because of the swell John Fogerty tickets he gave me once.

COULD OBAMA STILL LOSE THE NOMINATION? There are still quite a few Clinton folks who’d like to see that, but I doubt it. On the other hand, after all the Obama-overexposure, Hillary would come in as a fresh face!

ALICE THOMSON: Suddenly being green is not cool any more. “Where only a year ago the smart new eco-warriors were revered, wormeries and unbleached cashmere jeans are now seen as a middle-class indulgence. . . . Espousing the green life, with its misshapen vegetables and non-disposable nappies, is increasingly being seen as a luxury by everyone.”

OBAMA GETS MORE DONATIONS FROM EXXON THAN MCCAIN. “What’s next, we find out that Obama is a puppet of Dick Cheney?” Or maybe the other way around . . . .

GREEN OR ELSE: E.P.A. Won’t Ease Requirements for Ethanol in Gas. “The Environmental Protection Agency rejected on Thursday a request to cut the quota for the use of ethanol in cars, concluding, for the time being, that the goal of reducing the nation’s reliance on oil trumps any effect on food prices from making fuel from corn.”

MORE ON NIKKI TINKER from Christian Grantham.

And some further thoughts from Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Frankly, I’ve always doubted the power of Jew-baiting as a method of scaring up votes in any black community outside of the tri-state area Gotham. That’s not because blacks aren’t antisemetic, it’s because–in the words of the great Jimmy Baldwin–they’re antiwhite. Jew-baiting against a white Jewish guy in a majority black district, is like attempting a 360 dunk. Why go through all that when the the plain-old race-baiting layup will suffice?

To show off?

FARHAD MANJOO rounds up some web conspiracy theories about the anthrax attacks.

HMM: McCain takes lead on YouTube hits: “Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama’s channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote. That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain’s YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video viewing.”

HEH.

ANNOUNCING THE World Fantasy Award finalists.

ANOTHER CASE OF Name That Party!

THE END OF the diet wars? I doubt it.

HMM: Fake names get voter registration workers investigated “Criminal investigations could be launched against at least six voter registration workers who tried to add dead, imprisoned or imaginary people to the voter rolls, according to the Milwaukee Election Commission and the organization that employed them.”

PLUS, THAT SONG IS REALLY ANNOYING: The High Cost of a ‘Free Credit Report’.