IN THE MAIL: Michael Novak’s The Universal Hunger For Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable. A very positive take on interaction between the West and the Islamic world.

BILL HOBBS has set up a project to spotlight election fraud, and he wants your help.

SUCCESS, FAILURE, AND THE X-PRIZE: My TechCentralStation column is up.

Space.com will be providing live webcast coverage of the launch at 9 a.m. Eastern.

BABES FOR BUSH: I saw one of these bumper stickers the other day.

It certainly seems like effective advertising.

(Via Power Line).

UPDATE: Another Babe for Bush, here. They’re everywhere!

INTERESTING ROUNDTABLE featuring milbloggers and Iraqi bloggers, over at Online Journalism Review.

RATHERBIASED.COM REPORTS that CBS has been hoaxed again, this time by draft-rumor spreaders.

You’d think they learn. Of course, judging by the collapsing ratings, the only people left watching CBS News are probably fact-checking bloggers. Dan’s gotta give them something to keep them tuning in. . . .

UPDATE: RatherBiased.com has succumbed to traffic overload. You can find the item mirrored at RatherGate.com. And here’s a donations page if you feel inclined to help.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Lindgren observes: “can the Nigerian funds transfer letter be far behind?”

RAND SIMBERG ON SPACE COLONIZATION, quoting Clark Lindsey: “How about we campaign for a moratorium on political references to McDonalds except by ACTUAL sophomores?”

EUGENE VOLOKH looks at churches and human rights activism.

Plus, James Lindgren has joined the Volokh Conspiracy!

DOES ALL THE BAD NEWS DRIVE YOU NUTS? David Warren says no.

HAD DINNER WITH JIM HAKE of Spirit of America, who was passing through town on his way to New York. He shared some interesting stories of his trip to Iraq, and talked about some cool new things they’ll be doing in the near future.

Drop by their site, or their blog to see what they’re doing to help bring about a peaceful and prosperous civil society in Iraq.

DANRATHERMUSTGO.COM — the commercials there are apparently running during the CBS Evening News in some markets. Ouch.

The news story on these ads is here: “Last week, a Texas congressional candidate launched a television campaign ad linking his opponent to Rather, accusing the incumbent of airing advertisements that have ‘more holes than a CBS News story by Dan Rather.'”

UPDATE: Reader Bruce Bretthauer emails:

If people want you to blog about other things than Dan Rather, what about Sandy Berger removing files from the National Archives? Is he still connected with the Kerry Campaign? Why doesn’t Kerry have Berger take “administrative leave” while those accusations are sorted out? Why doesn’t MSM care about this? Is the MSM explanation another example of “fraudulent but true”?

They do seem to have let that one drop.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In response to the email above on Berger, a reader objects that Berger is no longer advising John Kerry, citing this Washington Post article. (“Berger Quits as Adviser to Kerry.”)

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least, this article dated September 23, 2004 seems to have him still working for Kerry:

Sandy Berger, former White House National Security Advisor and key foreign policy and security advisor to Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry, hinted Wednesday that should Kerry win the U.S. presidential election in November, it was possible that the decision to reduce U.S. troops in Korea would be reconsidered.

Perhaps this is just a misunderstanding. Or perhaps Berger’s resignation was only for domestic purposes?

MEGAN MCARDLE has published a memo to Jimmy Carter.

He’s not there quite yet, but at this rate Carter is looking like the Ramsey Clark of the 21st Century.

PLAME UPDATE: Tom Maguire’s got the Plame roundup, with lots of interesting questions and observations.

KERRY’S POLL TROUBLES: I’m no expert on polling, but these numbers just sound terrible to me — in fact, it’s probably a measure of Bush’s weakness as a candidate on an absolute scale that he’s not doing better in the vote-for numbers given Kerry’s weakness on all these specifics.

UPDATE: Ouch. Somewhat more positive take (for Kerry) here.

FOREIGN ELECTION OBSERVERS: No Quarters Blog notes an interview opportunity for bloggers.

IF I HAVEN’T BEEN RESPONDING TO YOUR EMAIL, there’s no need to engage in shameless (if largely well-founded) sucking up.

Over the past few weeks, the volume of email I’ve gotten has exploded beyond its already-unmanageable levels. If you want to tell me that there’s a factual error in a post, please make that clear (e.g., “FACTUAL ERROR IN POST ON ___”). But about all I can do is skim the subjects and read the stuff that looks most important. I apologize for that. I try to read as many emails as I can, but if I read them all there would be no time to blog.

ANKLE-BITER UPDATE: Reader Mark Gist sends this link. Heh.

UPDATE: The ankle-biting is all James Wolcott’s fault — just look at the picture! Plus he produced this year’s plethora of hurricanes. The man’s a regular force of nature. Almost literally!

FAKED PHOTOS AT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC — and a handsome apology from which CBS could take a lesson.

LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LOSE CREDIBILITY: Your ratings collapse:

Dan Rather’s ratings in New York continue to tank in the wake of the fake-documents scandal.

The “CBS Evening News” averaged 160,000 viewers last week on WCBS/Channel 2 — down from 231,000 viewers the week before.

Rather apologized for the National Guard documents debacle on the Sept. 20 newscast, and his numbers actually rose the next two days, reaching a high of 241,000 viewers Wednesday.

In the week before Rather’s on-air mea culpa, viewership was off a staggering 49 percent.

The numbers spiraled downward since Wednesday, with Thursday’s “Evening News” pulling only 140,000 viewers on Channel 2, and a measly 108,000 viewers Friday, according to Nielsen numbers.

No wonder Big Media folks aren’t overjoyed with the blogosphere this week.

ANKLE BITERS: “Not as iconic as pajamas, perhaps, but I think they’re cool.”

Heh. Maybe I’ll order a set. They look comfy!

I’VE FINISHED THE NEAL STEPHENSON BOOK, and now I’m reading Larry Kramer’s The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review, which I’ve been asked to review, together with Randy Barnett’s Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty. I won’t spoil the surprise, but it’s very interesting to see how mainstream constitutional theory has shifted over the past ten years, away from notions of judicial supremacy and toward notions of popular sovereignty.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is now blogging from Iraq. Where, incidentally, InstaPundit and some other blogs are being blocked by Websense, the filtering service used by the military.

DAVID HANSON AND MATT WALCOFF write that the Department of Justice is peddling junk science on teenage drinking:

The bureaucracy’s use of junk science is especially troubling because it calls into question the reliability of potentially life-saving information. If we cannot trust the government about the drinking age, some might argue, how can we trust it about the need to use seat belts, or the danger of HIV?

When it comes to alcohol policy, federal officials should stick to dispassionate, peer-reviewed research, not slick marketing aimed at promoting one point of view. They should act more like public servants and less like pressure groups.

Indeed.

THIS SEPTEMBER KERRY CAMPAIGN TIMELINE may explain why the Kerry campaign hasn’t gained in the polls.

OKAY, I DON’T BLOG ABOUT HEALTHCARE as much as some people seem to want me to. (I’ve got a post on malpractice reform that’s simmering, but it’s not quite tasty enough to serve up yet.)

But the blogosphere is a big place, and that means that if you want people to blog on healthcare, you can let the people who actually know things about healthcare do the blogging. For that, you might want to visit Grand Rounds, a sort of “Carnival of the Caregivers” featuring blog posts from a wide variety of medical professionals.

This is scheduled to be a weekly feature, and if they’ll send me the links, I’ll post ’em. That’s my role here, apparently. . . .

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer is blogging about healthcare, too.

And Sally Pipes and Bejamin Zycher wonder why the press pays attention to doctors when they talk about economics, not medicine.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More healthcare blogging from Lorie Byrd: “I am probably the perfect target for John Kerry’s pitch for a new approach to health care. . . . Since I am currently working nights and weekends solely because we are currently unable to get health coverage any other way, I would love to see some innovative alternatives to the current system.”

No doubt her post will receive a lot of Big Media attention.

MORE: Arnold Kling has an interesting piece on health insurance. Plus, thoughts on “faith-based healthcare.” (No, it’s not Christian Science.)