Tommy Thompson makes it eight of fifteen. Who's left?

Agriculture	Commerce	Defense	Education
Resigned	Resigned	-	Resigned
Energy	HHS	Homeland Security	HUD
Resigned	Resigned	Resigned	-
Interior	Justice	Labor	State
-	Resigned	-	Resigned
DOT	Treasury	VA
-	-	-

Drudge for Democrats.

Buffalo alternative newspaper The Beast publishes their list of the Top Ten Election Campaign Hacks. My favorite: number four, James Bennet:

Take Bennet's wrap of the second debate ("In a Disguised Gym, Softballs and Political Drama," Oct. 9). Bennet's general argument in this piece was that there was a special "dynamic" to the debate that you missed if, unlike Bennet, you weren't there.

"Inside the hall, the scene was of a theater in the round," he wrote, adding that "Viewers at home were denied the peek behind the political and news media curtain that voters here received."

Bennet goes on to describe some of those elements of the "dynamic" that were invisible to TV viewers:

Those viewers did not see how the moderator, Charles Gibson of ABC, hammed it up with a colleague, Chris Wallace of Fox News, who was seated in one of the network boxes overlooking the hall.

"Hi, Chris," Mr. Gibson hallooed, before the debate began, to the delight of the assembled voters. "Hello, Charlie," Mr. Wallace called back with a grin.

In the hands of a mere mortal, this scene is written as follows: "Charlie Gibson said hi to Chris Wallace." But in Bennet's hands, this "hallooing" was a bit of "theater in the round," part of a "drama that mixed calculated stagecraft and moments of genuine improvisation," only discernible to those who were there to hear Charlie Gibson say "hi" to Chris Wallace.

Iraq's new color-coded Terror Alert System.

Delightful and refreshing news from an Iranian cemetery.

Some 200 masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery Thursday to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis. A spokesman, Ali Mohammadi, described Thursday's group as the "first suicide commando unit," though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel. "Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands," Mohammadi said.

How to solve Florida's Election Day woes? Do away with Election Day.

As if we could offend the Canadians more than we already have...

To reduce Ugly American incidents, the Office of the Chief of Protocol on Air Force One provided "Protocol Essentials" to passengers. The pointers reminded Americans that Canadians enjoy firm handshakes for people they meet and customary hellos upon greeting, although the French speakers go with "Bonjour." Diners can rest elbows on the table after meals, the protocol office declared. Also, the Canadian expression "eh" - pronounced "AY" - means "you know?" or "isn't it?" but is "used mostly in rural areas."

In Quebec, the protocol tips advised, don't give thumbs-down gesture, as it is "considered offensive." This information came in use when U.S. reporters who might not otherwise have understood the significance of the thumbs-down gesture spied a man who presented a downward pointing thumb as Bush's motorcade passed.

When the right wants to protest something, they bring out scary rednecks and women carrying pictures of aborted fetuses. When the left wants to protest something, we bring out the "Raging Grannies." And we wonder why we lost.

Busloads from across Ontario and Quebec will carry protesters with a wide range of beefs, said march organizer Joe Cressy of the No to Bush Committee. The group is a collection of labour, student, church and individual activists formed solely for the president's visit.

"You'll see the Raging Grannies in addition to radical cheerleaders, Belly Dancers Against Bush, (and) Artists Against War who have created an 'Unwelcome Mat.'"

The Schwarzengovernor will pop down to Texas today, to recieve a silly award and raise money for his re-election campaign:

Schwarzenegger will accept the 2004 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service at Texas A&M University, where Bush's presidential library is located.

You don't suppose his qualification for the award (which is similar in level-of-name-irony to the George Bush Center for Intelligence) has anything to do with Ahnold's presidential campaign cooperation, do you?

Stuart Rothenberg picks the biggest losers of the 2004 campaign cycle, and calls it a four-way tie: George Soros, Michael Moore, Bob Shrum, and France.

Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede is driving the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich (the "VMGCS," he calls it) across the country, and blogging as he goes. Worth a look.

Reason #73,294 why NASCAR fans and Wal-Mart shoppers should be prohibited from making decisions.

The 20th annual Christmas Price Index finds that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" will cost you 1.6% more this year than last:

"The abundance of cheaper labor in countries such as India and China has resulted in pressure on U.S. manufacturers to outsource unskilled labor. As a result the cost of skilled dancers has steadily increased while the unskilled milk maids haven't managed an increase in pay for their services in many years."

The War on Terror goes green: Gerry Adams gets his first national headline since Clinton left office.

Another reason why my big-ass-electric-fence-around the entire-United-States theory is becoming more of a reality.

The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.

Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, with no sign Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.