LEETHREE Lee's new combo is playing with Ember Swift on October 8, and it's an early show at Club 929 for those of you in town. Here's Lee: "ember swift is a band meanflower played with in chapel hill last year, and they knocked everyone's collective socks off.  Think-the minutemen except it's women playing-sorta naive and young and pretentious, but the bass player kicks ass.  www.emberswift.com.  monty set up this show and he has publicly stated that if you come to the show he personally owes you a favor.  like-he'll rake leaves for you or help you move..."

THE LEARNED HANDS SPEAK The Post gathered six policy experts this week for a roundtable on intervention/regime change in Iraq. It's worth dancing through if you've an interest in some of the nuances that are slowly filtering into the debate.

THE LAST RHETT POST I was thinking of what to say about Rhett Miller's solo release, "The Instigator." I listened to it several times last week as I circumnavigated strange towns of the South, and found it upbeat and oddly compelling. It made sense finally to think of him as a songwriter, and a pop songwriter at that. With the help of producer Jon Brionn (of Amy Mann fame), Miller manages to land gracefully between the softly burnished jiggling of the Beach Boys and the powerpop of Elvis Costello without losing his own voice. Sarah Hepola introduces us to the Brett she followed from afar during their high school days in Dallas....

A DAY IN THE LIFE Like most of our lives, things become very routine, almost comical, when peered at through a microscope. Which is how I felt perusing these dispatches filed throughout the day by reporters from the Washington Post as they covered the IMF and World Bank protests.

SCARYDUCK The Guardian just wrapped up a contest selecting the Best WebLog in the UK. The winner was Scaryduck. You can judge for yourself. You can also view the runner-ups at The Guardian.

GETTING SQUIRRELY You know, I adore Kate Sullivan more when she writes about squirrels, attics and Halloween candy than when she writes about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Apparently, I have a thing for lifestyle columnists.

I WANT A DAILY PHONE CALL I want to hire the person who posts to Girls Are Pretty to call me once a day and leave a rambling message on my answering machine on a topic of her choice. I'm not sure I'd pay much -- a dollar a day, maybe -- but I'd look forward to listening to my messages. Much like I look forward to reading her weblog.

TOO GENEROUS, BY FAR Michael O'Hanlon and Peter Singer are being far too generous when they call our job in Afghanistan only half done. But they are correct when they point to the clear fact that the United States and the Kharzai government are in perfect position to lose the peace. What to do? Three things, they wrote: 1)First, the United States should stop throwing around suggestive rumors about how it would condone an expansion of the International Security Assistance Force, and actually lead the effort; 2) Second, the United States must take the lead in building an effective Afghan military partner that can solve its own problems, rather than conducting the limited and half-hearted training programs going on now; and 3) Finally, a civilian parallel is required to match our military efforts. Afghanistan is in desperate need of economic assistance and political support in rebuilding.

DASCHLE'S DELIVERY Here's all of what Tom Daschle said earlier this week on the Senate floor. It's the best thing I've heard come out of the Senate in months. Too bad the larger gist was lost in the soundbite frenzy. The issue, as Daschle puts it, is simple: regardless of whether war with Iraq is appropriate or necessary, it is the driving force for the Republican Party this fall. And while Daschle calls it politics and condemns it, I think it's time for the politicians to do what they're supposed to do -- politicize the issue, take a stand on it and beat your opposition over the head with it until they collapse. Politicians are supposed to be political -- arguments whither and debates fade when people pretend otherwise.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL SCORECARD As the IMF and World Bank gather in Washington this weekend, clouds drift across once sunny financial skies. Japan continues a 10-year economic struggle; Argentina's wealth has vanished at a rate two times faster than the U.S. in the Great Depression, leaving most of South America wobbly; the U.S. is entering its second year of recession. The Post's editorial today looks at left- and right-leaning critics of global monetary policy and asks what lessons have been learned.

ANTI-GLOBAL SHOWERS Protests in D.C. have been light so far this weekend, but small clusters of anti-globalization protestors managed to block traffic throughout the city this morning on the second day of IMF and World Bank meetings. From the reports I've seen out of Washington this week, it looks like the groups are less focused on driving home a message and more intent on causing disruptions. Which is truly a shame. I can't think of a better way to alienate an audience than to throw a burning tire in front of their car.

DEMOCRACY, OR ELSE Leaving aside questions of intent, it's becoming more and more apparent that the outcomes of some Bush policy decisions (and some of the rhetoric emerging from the White House) are simultaneously creating opportunities for division and a genuine discomfort with honest debate. Michael Kinsley says this position of "if you don't trust us, you're against us" is part and parcel of the Bush White House. "Once installed as president, Bush asserted (as they all do) the right to start any war he wants, with or without congressional approval. You may not agree that this is flagrantly unconstitutional, but you cannot deny that it makes any discussion of the pros and cons outside of the White House largely pointless. Finally, it's already clear that Bush will copy his father's innovation of rigorously controlling what journalists covering the war can see and report. You may not agree that the purpose of this is to protect official propaganda and lies, but you cannot deny that such will be the effect," Kinsley writes.

WE INTERUPT THIS BROADCAST Left Tuesday at 5 in the evening, returned today at 11 in the morning. I think what I need is sleep. 'Til tomorrow then.

NAGGING DISCOMFORT If, like me, you actually find it possible to justify the use of the military as a form of proactive deterrence, yet still have a niggling sense of discomfort (or even a really big niggling sense of discomfort) around questions of motivations on the part of the Bush administration, this blurb from Josh Marshall (courtesy of This Modern World) might hit home: "But let me discuss with you for a moment what I find the most difficult about this debate. The more ardent supporters of regime change lie a lot. I really don't know how else to put it. I'm not talking about disagreements over interpretation. I mean people saying things they either know to be false or have no reason to believe are true." A longer excerpt and a link to Marshall's piece are the TMW, as it a subsequent snippet of a Dana Milbank piece that talks about the Bush team's amazing ability to constantly shift their justifications for just about everything.

WELL, PAINT MY PARROT AND KEELHAUL ME Ah, a well-composed blend of Navy homoeroticism and pirates. There's little more you could ask for on a crisp autumn day like this. Except, perhaps, a hot rum toddy.

EDGY KID LIT Salon pulls out its alphabet blocks and scans the world of children's literature, which this season seems to be dominated by quirky, offbeat adult writers, trying their hand at messing with the minds of youngsters. Hurrah for creepy children's tales, that's what I say.

THE LAST TANGO Howard Kurtz provides a succinct summary of Al Gore's emergence this week. The most notable aspect is Gore's (so far) solid positioning against attacking Iraq. While I have distinct problems with his timing and his perspective, I applaud Gore (politically driven or not) for taking a stand where most Democrats to date have quibbled. I continue to be amazed at the lack of conviction demonstrated by the Democratic leadership on any issue of significance to the country.

ANGRY YOUNG MEN Ah, whatever happened to the happy-go-lucky Chris Bopst of my youth? Oh, wait. He never left. Twenty years ago, Chris' band The Alternatives played a benefit for a horrid little photocopied music zine I made in high school and mailed to punk rockers around the country. Today, I'm still writing and Bopst is still rolling. He's just angrier than I am about music. If you're in Richmond on a Friday night, tune your radio to 1320 AM and find out why. Or read his weekly column.

SILVA, SILVAE Learn some Latin, for goodness sakes! No matter that tongue you speak, odds are that you usually don't connect the following together frequently: Italy, national parks. But Abruzzo National Park in central Italy is the Yellowstone of the Mediterranean. Without Yogi Bear.

LANDFILL MANNA Spike Jonze gets his due (again) as a result of his new, edgy IKEA ad. It really is hep and effective. Too bad the woman doesn't have a yard sale instead. I mean, this country already throws away perfectly good people. Do we really want to encourage it to throw away good furniture, too?

PAINTED PIGGIES My friend Kelly passed this on to me after I related to her the bemusment I experienced at the totally different reactions my six- and eight-year-old neices had when they discovered I sometimes painted my toenails. This LATimes columnist (registration required, so I've included a snippet) experienced the same reaction when her four-year-old son asked her to paint his nails. "So I rummaged and discovered in the medicine cabinet a miraculous bottle of metallic blue polish, the presence of which I could not explain under oath. With strains of "Scarlet Ribbons" wandering through my head, I bent over my son's feet and did my level best not to go outside the lines. I had to admit the blue toenails looked quite fabulous, and of course his little sister, Fiona, had to have hers done too. Then I did mine. My husband declined--he is a bit outside the toenail-painting-male demographic--but he swallowed once, twice and dutifully admired his son's feet. Soon we were all dancing around the house with glittering rainbow toes, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of this before--so much joy from such a little thing." Joy is so under-rated.

EVEN ODDS THAT SHE LOSES IT If you need proof that Julia Childs either a) created an entire mythology of cooking in order to destroy one woman or b) is highly over-rated, please click through. I suspect that even the French sometimes eat the same simple meal a few times a week. Alor.

KEEBLER GOODNESS A Kate Sullivan gem: "I went miniature golfing in Sherman Oaks yesterday and I truly felt that we were entering a magical realm as we entered, because everything at this minature golf is in the shape of a castle. It is also full of candy elf houses that you want to live in, forever."

BY THE NUMBERS You don't have to live in Indiana to tell Congressman Dan Burton what you think about attacking Iraq. In an utterly unscientific poll -- you can cast your vote on his website -- he's asking the people (or those with web access, anyway) to chime in.

MASSIVE ATTACK Wednesday is the big day, the day when a handful of budding film directors have their moment in the sun, the day when Flicker presents "The Attack of the 50-Foot Reels." The glitterati will gather downtown Wednesday evening, and though I am featured in one of the productions I will be out of town. Alas, the show must go on...

WHERE THEY FIT If you've any curiosity as to where the various governments in the Middle East really stand in regards to a U.S. invasion of Iraq, here's a good snapshot.