SOME ORDERS FROM THE COURT It's nice to end the week on a positive note, which is my takeaway from the announcement from the federal courts today that the government must release the names of the 147 people still detained under suspicion of terrorism. (More than 1,200 were initially detained after September 11.) The Justice Department continued to beat the tired drum of "revealing too much to al Quaeda" -- Allah knows they probably haven't figured out which of their operatives haven't communicated with them in 11 months...

UKULELE HIPSTERS Take writer Kate Bredimus and musician Monte Jones and sit them at a table. The result is a foray into Richmond's Ukulele Hipster Kings, featuring Monte (whose first band played at the first show I booked at the tender age of 15) and Lee Harris (the first person I ever knew who liked Prince). Read the interview. Follow the links. Listen to the music.

RYAN DEUX? I've had a thing for the Old 97s since I first heard them, and it got worse when I saw them at a showcase event in San Francisco more than a year ago. They've squirmed across the line that runs between the wretchedly named alt-country vibe and regular rock-and-roll in their last release, so I'm curious to hear singer Rhett Miller's first solo release on Elektra at the end of September.

POWELL FOR PRESIDENT Good Lord, read this one in its entirety. Dump Cheney and replace him with Powell. Stop laughing at Don Rumsfeld. Let Colin do the next State of the Union address. Forget all the puff pieces about the noble soldier being battered by his rabid opposition in the administration -- Colin Powell is America's biggest star for one huge reason: he's hilarious. Well, he also looks good in tights...

LEAKING The tension being created between Congress and the FBI as a result of the ongoing investigation about leaked information is healthy. The reason for the tension is not. In the past 11 months, a huge amount of information has been leaked to the media -- about anthrax, Afghanistan, Iraq, terrorist cells... you name it. None, none has been irreversibly damaging to the ability of the country to function and proactively defend its borders and citizens. In fact, much of it has been hugely beneficial in terms of feeding valid, and often delayed, debates about decisions being made almost arbitrarily by various government officials. Leaks happen for two reason: because politicians are engaging in politics, and because debates aren't fully aired. The first is natural. The second happens too often.

RAT FINK If only because of how the first meeting with Mickey Mouse went, this can be considered another "Michael Lewis' Daughter Will Hate Him in 14 Years" article. But he concludes his amusing exploitation of his father-daughter relationship like so: "If she weren't so much like every other small child, she'd be considered insane." I think I suffered the same problem as a child, except I was encouraged to dress as a monkey and entertain senior citizens.»

WHEN KIDS DO GOOD This snippet of The Mirror Project features a doorknob and the six-year-old who done it.

WHEN FICTION MAKES YOU SAY "WHOA" Thanks to Peter Maass for pointing out this excerpt from Jeffrey Eugenides' new novel that ran in last week's New Yorker magazine. All summer I've been looking for a novel that flows with seamless rhythm; this might be it.

MAGIC ROCKS I go away for a week, and Kate Sullivan stays magic. From her treatise on humidity and raindrops, to her collective psychic pools of sadness and emotion, to her epiphany on sadness and music. If Minneapolis brought all of this out in her, I hope L.A. doesn't take it away.

VOICE CARRY Jordan's King Abdullah's got good reason to be nervous and fidgety when he strides into the Oval Office today. As one of several Middle East leaders likely to suffer very real consequences of any American action against Iraq, he's got to be thinking about his grandfather, assassinated by angry Palestinians, or about his father, who was dragged into several wars because of Palestinian popular opinion, or about his wife, who is Palestinian. He may even be thinking about his future, which is simultaneously tied to the large Palestinian population of Jordan and to the United States. There are at least a half dozen Arab leaders who deserve to be on hotter seats than Abdullah is at the moment...

RIDDLE ME THIS Sandy Berger was always the smart kid in the Clinton Administration; I'd sit up in meetings when Sandy started talking. Today, Sandy lays out some core questions about our policy vis-a-vis Iraq that made me sit up straight, because he's on-target. Especially when he says that our policies and timetables are best driven by hard-nosed assessments, not emotions.

THEY JUST WEREN'T BITING Back from a lovely vacation, though someone should warn me next time that the city I'm visiting is going to be 50 degrees warmer than the one I left. I even packed a damn sweater. I'll be on the road and in the studio and in and out of town throughout August, but on weekdays you'll usually find me here at least once.

DAMNED INJUNS AND THEIR TRIBES Joel Garreau is another one of those writers who stays three steps ahead of his colleagues in the daily news media. This week, he takes a keen look at how swarming is changing the way we meet, greet, plan and live. Quite an amazing little article, but oddly enough it just made me pleased that my "tribe" is nowhere near as manic as most. I will admit to planning by phone most of this weekend, though, but I blame my environment...

BEGINNING TO MAKE PUDDING Strands of proof are beginning to emerge of the current state of Iraq's chemical, bioloical and nuclear weapons capacity -- thanks in no small part to the congressional hearings on the matter that started today. The hearings the Bush Administration tried to nudge away. Is this the start of some honest discussion about regime change in Iraq -- as in why, how and what comes next?

EBBING OR FLOWING? Michael Kelly can be such a punk sometimes, but today's commentary in the Post pulls together some threads I've seen scattered about and asks if the chaos in the world might just be bottoming out. What if al Quaeda is one of the last gasps of Islamic fundamentalism? What if a regime change in Iraq changes the nature of the world debate on weapons of mass destruction? And so on. I'm not sure I disagree with the nature of his questioning, but I remain skeptical of the motivation and level of understanding of the handful of people in the Bush Administration making these decisions in a debate-free zone.