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There’s a backstory, but it’s too late in the evening for me to write it up. This is for Jeff.

Last night during the debate, Cheney suggested that you could find out the truth about his connection with Halliburton by visiting factcheck.com (original). At the time, factcheck.com was a spam site with ads for various and sundry scams; Cheney meant factcheck.org. Sometime in the last 12 hours, the owner of factcheck.com redirected all traffic to that site over to georgesoros.com. That’s pretty impressive reaction time; either the owner is partisan or Soros got to him and offered him enough money to make the swapover really quickly. It’s also very Internet-savvy. ...

So here’s the campaign. This is Mike’s fault. It’s a little known fact, but once you’ve been President of the United States, you don’t get to die. You live on in eternal unlife after your death; sure, you leave a corpse, because everyone likes funerals, but your Ka goes on. Yes, Ka. Just like in Egypt. Look at the dollar bill; you think the pyramid isn’t there for a reason? You are bound to the country. You can speak to the current President, but each sentence you speak takes a year of his life. That’s the real reason why Presidents age in office. Once a President leaves office you lose your connection to them, but you’ll be there to welcome them to the afterlife, oh yes. It’s the only excuse you have for a party. ...

The Barry Hughart pages (original) are small yet worthy of study; for those who don’t wish to study, well, the original draft of Bridge of Birds is here (original). There, that was easy. (Via Kip.)

Josh Marshall reports that House Republicans are trying to bring Charlie Rangel’s draft bill to a vote. Well, uh, good for them. Using the bill to fuel the draft rumor is dirty politics. (Pointing out that Bush’s policies may well require a draft is legitimate; it’s the fear tactics I abhor.)

Fly, motherfucker! Fly! (original)

“After last night’s victory, the Sox said Bronson Arroyo and Tim Wakefield would pitch Games 3 and 4 (if necessary), but did not say which pitcher would start which game.” ( Boston Globe (original).) Also, Schilling’s going to pitch Game 1 and Martinez will pitch Game 2. Advantage: Population: One.

I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow again today, and my adoration of Polly Perkins is confirmed. And here’s why. (Spoilers, of course.) First and foremost, she is a woman who stands on her own two feet. Her career is important to her and by all evidence she’s pretty good at it. On second viewing, the triangle created by the skills of Polly, Dex, and Joe is fairly obvious: Polly notices, Dex analyzes, and Joe acts. Time and time again, Polly’s the one who notices things first. She makes contact with Doctor Jennings. She finds the scrap of map that Dex left behind. She figures out that the staff is important. She realizes the purpose of the rocketship. ...

Does anyone (I’m looking at you, Harvard affiliates) happen to have floor plans for San Simeon hanging around? I know I could get a peek at ‘em if I were at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (original), and I know that Thomas Aidala’s Hearst Castle, San Simeon has some. So I could always just snag a used copy, but I figured I’d plumb the depths of the Lazyweb first.