[Daily Brief]

The Two Meanings of Brief

Read 'em while they got 'em: Dave Brooks has a remarkably entertaining piece of satire about the Roberts hearings up, which I have a hard time believing. Could it be that I'll miss him (for varied reasons) even more than Krugman? Across the fold, the Times editors seem to have finally stumbled onto Lambert's analysis of Bush's mealy mouthed apology: "Mr. Bush accepted responsibility "to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right," which may suggest that he thinks the jury is still out on what the federal government's role should have been."

The pledge of allegiance was again ruled unconstitutional, perhaps setting up another showdown out of which the courts may not be able to wriggle. Northwest and Delta both filed for bankruptcy protection, citing gas prices. Other bad economic news: retail sales were down 2.1% in August. Yes, consumers still buoy the economy, and yes, this is bad. Also bad: Iraq, still awash in violence.

I'll end with two political items. Salon has a nice piece on the GOP's effort to deny global warming, and the Times has yet more poll numbers out (they confirm what all the others have found: Bush is in freefall).

And that concludes today's brief brief...