Another point I find amusing is the breathlessly reported fact that on several occasions Bush made more than one attempt at landing an aircraft and that he was sometimes flying a two-seat T-33 jet trainer to get extra training. For those of us who flew military aircraft for a living, doing several circuits through the traffic pattern to boost proficiency was a routine occurrence. In fact, it was (and probably still is) called proficiency training. Doing it in a T-Bird (T-33) means that two pilots can be training at the same time. On the other hand, the Deuce (F-102) was a combat aircraft and a valuable asset that cost more to fly around the traffic pattern. Private pilots do it too: take off, stay in the local traffic pattern, and practice doing both instrument and visual approaches to landing. Many times those approaches become what is known is flying circles as a "touch and go."

Whoever ginned up that crock of crap either didn't know much about flying or thought that most people wouldn't know enough about the flying game to understand that making more than one approach to a runway is a routine training event.

The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of fighter-interceptor training.

That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other training periods thrown in as well. It was full-time work. By the time it was over, Bush had served nearly two years.

Not two years of weekends. Two years.

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. And he earned 112 points in 1971-1972. The numbers indicate that in his first four years, Bush not only showed up, he showed up a lot. Did you know that?

I can imagine Clinton’s first question: “Hi, John, say, is Teresa there with you? What’s she wearing?”

Then, immediately after the formalities, right down to the nitty-gritty. Clinton warning Kerry that he better get his act together real soon, retool his campaign, that he ought to find a message and stay on it, and that he ought to hit back hard at Bush, lest he get used to the idea of spending the next four years playing tiddlywinks with the last guy who didn’t heed his campaign counsel — that goofy Al Gore. “And you know how he wound up,” says Clinton with a dark tone, “fat, depressed and with a beard.”

“I know, Bill, I know,” Kerry answers in quiet, controlled anger as he strokes his ample chin, pondering for just a moment how a beard would look on him.

The Dolphins-Titans game, originally scheduled for this Sunday, was rescheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. due to the projected path of Hurricane Ivan. While the game will be telecast by CBS in South Florida and four Tennessee markets, it will not be available on cable, broadcast, or satellite to the rest of the nation.

[Skip] Oliva said the NFL imposed the blackout to avoid possible antitrust sanctions. Although contracts between television networks and professional sports leagues are immune from antitrust scrutiny under a 1961 congressional exemption, a superseding 1966 law withdrew immunity for any professional football game telecast on Friday night or Saturday if any high school or college football game was being played within 75 miles of the broadcast station that same day.

Daniel Okrent, public editor of The New York Times, said today the paper was right to deny film director Michael Moore’s request to reprint a Times editors' note in his upcoming book. "I’m sympathetic with the decision because the paper has the right not to be used for purposes other than what is intended, to write for their readers," Okrent told E&P.

Okrent also said he "was insulted" that Moore did not want to reprint any of his columns about war coverage. "I would want to be able to say no to him,” he said. “I don’t like to be used for people’s political purposes."

"We strongly value The Times's neutrality in its election coverage and we are determined not to associate ourselves with any work in film or print that attacks either candidate. Our note, 'The Times and Iraq,' was not intended to become part of a political battle."

Mr. Moore, in an interview, said the book did not attack either presidential candidate. The purpose of reprinting the Times article, he said, "was essentially to applaud The Times for having the courage to admit their mistakes; it had nothing to do with Bush or Kerry."

The Times "never asked to see the rest of the book or asked what is in the book,'' Mr. Moore said. "They made the determination of what is in the book without having read it. I think that's pretty lame."

Last week all of Hillary’s players were put in place. She immediately leaked Slick’s advice to Kerry delivered by phone from his hospital so the Clinton-as-guru/Kerry-as-neophyte story dominated the news. She then conned Kerry into inserting a raft of Clintonistas deep into his campaign. Guys like Paul Begala, James Carville, and Joe Lockhart will just make a lot of noise, however. The real player is Hillary’s former chief of staff, Howard Wolfson.

What the media is clueless about is that Hillary is an agent provocateur. It was so easy for her to hijack Kerry’s campaign right under the candidate’s nose, because Kerry has always lived on Election Easy Street, a Democrat in Massachusetts who has never faced real competition and thus hasn’t a clue on how to run a real campaign against an incumbent who has money and moxie and brains.

It won’t be Howard Wolfson’s job to explain to Kerry how to run his campaign right. It’s his job to submarine it. That’s his assignment from Hillary. All that will go wrong, just as all that has already gone wrong, will be blamed on Mary Beth Cahill’s “incompetence.” As the campaign continues to implode, the media will never catch on to Hillary’s role in the implosion. She will leave no fingerprints, and amidst the wreckage on November 3, Hillary will rise to the role of savior of emotionally devastated Democrats, promising to lead them to the resurrection of their party in 2008.

Update... Antitrust guru Skip Oliva writes in:

The Oracle judgment is the third defeat suffered by the Bush administration's antitrust chiefs in just the past month. In August, a district court in Washington rejected the FTC's bid to stop a coal merger -- the Commission said Arch Coal's acquisition of Triton Coal "might" lead to reduced competition for a particular brand of low-sulfur coal. Around the same time, another district court rejected the DOJ's demand that the Dairy Farmers of America divest two dairies it acquired. The DOJ's reason? DFA was monopolizing the market for "school milk contracts" in several Kentucky school districts.

But, lest I be accused of harping on the negative, the antitrust chiefs have scored some recent victories. On August 31, the DOJ forced Connor Brothers to divest part of its business as a condition of acquiring Bumble Bee. The DOJ said, and this is a direct quote, "The Department said that without the divestiture, the recent combination of Connors and Bumble Bee would have resulted in higher prices for U.S. consumers of mainstream canned sardine snack products."

And you thought it couldn't get any lower than "superpremium ice cream".

THE EVOLUTION OF CONVENTIONAL WISDOM:

"At this point, I believe, it's safe to say that unless something happens to change the dynamics and circumstances of this race, Bush will lose." - Charlie Cook on July 25

"Neither side is likely to win big, but the odds of a Bush blowout win seem lower than those of a Kerry blowout, barring some dramatic event such as a major terrorist attack." - Charlie Cook on July 27

"President Bush must have a change in the dynamics and the fundamentals of this race if he is to win a second term." - Charlie Cook on August 10

"It really is pretty amazing how fast the conventional wisdom can change." - Charlie Cook on August 31

"By in large, to the extent that this election is about terrorism and leadership, or if news stories about those dominate the news, President Bush is very likely to win." - Charlie Cook on September 7

"It's the dishonesty, stupid. The real issue in the National Guard story isn't what George W. Bush did three decades ago. It's the recent pattern of lies..."

Update.. Reader Mark Hessey notes that Krugman says in the column, "Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, says there's a 75 percent chance of a financial crisis in the next five years." Hessey wonders: "Volcker is predicting a win by Kerry this November?"

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