WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU THOUGHT OF 'SQUIRREL NUTKIN'? It's been a while, I'm betting. Welcome to Edinburgh, cosmopolitan scum.

GIVING MEANING TO A DAY Most national holidays have almost entirely been sucked clean of intrinsic meaning, which is why it's nice to see an organization asking people to voluntarily give meaning to a day. One Day's Pay is asking Americans to devote the day of September 11 to acts of service, charity and compassion.

SALAM GOES TO HOLLYWOOD Relax. Iraqi weblogger Salam Pax has been giving thousands of people his perspectives from Baghdad since last fall. He's just signed a contract with Guardian Books to publish his journal.

THE ANTI-ARMY OF ONE Take Back the Media is looking to raise funds to put this ad on televisions across the nation. It's a harsh kidney punch to the Republican political body with a clear message: the Bush administration doesn't really give a flying flip about the men and women serving in the military.

THE PSYCHE OF CONSERVATISM What happens when researchers receive $1.2 million in public funds and produce a report that loosely links the psyche of President Bush to facism and totalitarianism? Oops.

NOT A DROP TO DRINK Water and sewage -- the forgotten victims of war in Iraq continue to struggle. This report from IRIN, the United Nations' humanitarian unit, provides some insight into why these systems are critical not only for political stability, but for basic health and survival.

BAN THE DJ, BAN THE DJ Richmond radio's current saving grace, Chris Bopst, bids farewell to one of the people who helped open the ears of locals for more than 20 years -- Eric E. Stanley. Eric E. passed away this week from cancer.

BLACK OUT A chat with Scott Crowder of one of the better bands to claw its way out of Richmond in some time -- Dark Little Rooms.

AND A DANCE First of all, let me note for the record that the name of Delta's no-frills carrier -- Song -- makes me want to fly. And their groovy costumes.... er, uniforms... for their flight crew are chock-a-block with the sort of subtle style you long for at 20,000 feet. Thank you, Kate Spade. [login: buttermilk.com password: buttermilk]

MORE ROCK, MORE CULTURE Sometimes the world of politics just makes for big, thick headaches. Which is why Sea of Angels' view of the world feels like a cold compress on a hot forehead.

MINNEAPOLIS CALLING Minneapolis' City Pages offers glimpses into the cultural whirlwind we sometimes call the Twin Cities via a series of weblogs that include Peter Scholtes' Complicated Fun.

GROWING UNEASE IN THE RANKS The weblogger at Turning Tables, serving in Baghdad with the U.S. Army, talks about the beating of G., a friend of Iraqi weblogger Salam Pax. As troops suffer through heat and hardship -- and months of living on edge with an unclear mission -- and the citizens of Baghdad see liberation becoming occupation, tensions on both sides are mounting.

BEATING BUSH: A PRIMER There are nine Democrats dancing in the primary wing of the 2004 elections, and retired General Wesley Clark continues to flirt with his prospects. Ralph Nader and his Greens remain uncertain. Ross Perot, ol' jug ears, is publishing a new book next month that lays into his arch-nemesis (all things related to "Poppy" Bush) and is said to be considering another run as an independent. And George Bush is well on his way to raising $200 million just for the primary season, in which he has no competition.

The Republicans and Democrats have basically three sets of issues to tackle in 2004, and they are the same three sets of issues they've been tackling since at least 1980. The Republicans are strong on one. They parties are tied on another. And the third is not an exercise in convincing voters, but rather a position that will anchor a core constituency to the first two.

Issue set one: National Defense and International Affairs. Bush owns this one, and has since September 11, 2001. But his ownership is laden with vulnerabilities, ranging from the continued threat of al Qaeda, instability in Iraq, tensions with North Korea and an ongoing reluctance to reform or utilize the United Nations. On the flip side, this is a hurdle the Democrats have to make in order to stand a chance in 2004, and they've continued to make the same mistakes -- time and again, Democrats lunge for Bush's jugular on these issues, and time and again, they walk away flustered. To date there is no cohesive, articulate defense and foreign policy strategy that the Democrats are able to raise as a standard to say, "This is how we think the world should look. And this is how we think the United States should play a role in it." In order to make inroads here, the Democrats need a thoughtful policy roadmap that confronts the Bush strategy on the issues (not the personalities), and they need a candidate at the presidential or vice-presidential who can reassure voters that a Democrat in the White House will put America first without ignoring the rest of the world. (Hello, Vice President Wesley Clark?)

Issue set two: The Economy. It's a tie, but the Republicans continue to lose ground. This issue set ranges from job losses to stock market numbers, from health care to Social Security. The fact is, most voters currently feel that no one is offering answers on any of these fronts. And of the answers that have been offered since Bush took office, few seem to have been effective. The Democrats stand a chance to take Bush to the mat with this one -- all they need is a strong message and good circumstances. Circumstances are a jobless, relatively flat recovery through late summer 2004. It's a strong possibility. The message is -- 3 million jobs lost on the Bush watch, a $200+ million surplus turning into a $400+ million deficit. Let Perot get on the trail with his plain talk, chart-throwing, anti-Bush message about the American economy, and watch the Democrats gain a huge advantage.

Issue set three: The Culture Wars. You thought they were over, didn't you? The next President is going to name three Supreme Court justices. The real possibility of state-sanctioned gay unions and marriages are reminding conservatives that they have a fixation with religious/moral issues, which include prayer in school, the abortion issue and a host of other "traditional" subjects. Bush is reminding liberals that the environment is under seige again, as well as the fact that civil liberties -- while not under seige -- are certainly being nibbled upon. The Dems won't convert moral conservatives, and Bush can't convince liberals that he's a safe choice. Both sides will have to use this area as a rallying point for their core supporters, and do it without giving the other side too much ammunition.

Bush is beatable. The Democrats have a solid chance to win New York, Florida and California -- as well as the Northeast and Northwest. The Republicans can hold on to most of the South. If the economy stays weak, the Midwest is up for grabs.

All the Democrats need now are a candidate, a message and some cash.

JOHNNY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE Inspired to a life of government cover-up mastermind by Ronald Reagan, pardoned by the first President Bush, and brought back into the fold by the current President Bush, John Poindexter has retreated back into the shadows.

John M. Poindexter took issue yesterday with critics of his Pentagon efforts to develop new data scanning systems and an online futures market for flushing out terrorists and predicting Middle East developments, saying the programs had fallen victim to ignorance, distortion and Washington's "highly-charged political environment."

In a letter of resignation ending a controversial 20-month Pentagon tenure, Poindexter pressed his case for employing new technologies to discern terrorists' plans in such everyday transactions as credit card purchases, travel reservations and e-mail. He said innovative approaches are needed to overcome the historic barriers among U.S. intelligence agencies and gain access to stores of information not available to the government.

GEEKS INHERITING Dean Kamen's Segway scooter slowly is making inroads in America's cities. One day, we'll all be tooling around, trying to avoid careening teenagers on souped up scooters.

DEMOCRACY, OR ELSE Working Assets is teaming up with several organizations to push congressional representatives to hold local, public meetings with their constituents on the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq. Sign up here, if you're interested.

TELESANITY In case you need another reason to be skeptical, or downright nervous, about President George W. Bush. Because, you know, Jack Van Impe is about the craziest TV evangelist on the airwaves today. And I mean wacky when I say crazy. Or insane.

FROM WORSE TO WORSER Salam Pax's latest column for the Guardian paints a bleak picture of a country sliding into chaos. Salam has long been an optimistic observer and proponent of regime change in Baghdad -- since he began posting from Iraq last year -- but reality is sinking in. As temperatures rise, as fuel, water and electricity continue to be scarce commodities, as American troops become more resentful of Iraqis... even avoiding the news headlines and concentrating on reports from the ground, it feels like Iraq remains a teetering bomb.

As usual, getting into these press bashes is an event in itself. You have to be there an hour early, you get searched a thousand times and, of course, as an Iraqi I get treated like shit. I have no idea why the American soldiers at the entrance to the convention centre [where the CPA press operation is] are so offensive towards Iraqis while they can be so nice to anyone with a foreign passport. I have to be the Zen master when the soldier at the gate gets condescending. The reporters of Iraq Today were not allowed to get to the press conference and they went ballistic. "This is my friggin' government, what do you mean I can't get in?" My sentiments exactly. Keep this image in your head: an American officer stopping you, an Iraqi, from attending the press conference your government is holding.

Earlier in the day I got frisked and the car I was in searched because the colonel or something who has just passed by thought that he didn't like the people who are standing by the car (me) and that I was giving him dirty looks. Habibi, you have no idea how dirty my looks can get, you didn't get one. What you saw was the I-have-been-standing-for-a-whole-hour-in-the-sun. But because you have the power to decide what a look means I got searched. You really should have looked more carefully before you shot the nine-year-old kid in Ramadi only to find out later that it was a water gun he had in his hands. Dirty looks - yeah, totally justified frisking me.

Yes, I am annoyed because if the occupation forces fail, my country will fall apart. And for some reason the CPA does not look like it has a sense of how serious the situation is.

LIMPING ALONG NYTimes columnist Thomas Friedman is at his best when he tells stories, and when he stays away from broad pronouncements about policy. He remains one of the keener observers of Middle Eastern life and politics at the street level. Which is why I'm pleased to see him scuffing his shoes on the streets of Baghdad.

I'm less pleased with his perspective, which only reinforces my own. The Iraqi experiment is exactly that -- an experiment. The lack of planning, of foresight, of consideration by the Bush administration is sickening. And it may well doom a nation of 22 million people to collapse upon itself in civil war, dragging 140,000 American troops into the fray. Friedman sees the threads unravelling.

Unfortunately, the same Bush Pentagon that had the audacity to undertake this revolutionary project in Iraq did not prepare either itself or the U.S. public for such a vast undertaking. I worry that we're not going to have the time, money or people to finish this job right — for several reasons.

First, there's a word I've heard here that I did not hear on two previous visits since the war: "humiliation." This is an occupation. It may have come with the best of intentions, but nobody likes to be occupied. I just watched a scene at the checkpoint at the July 14 Bridge, which leads to the huge U.S. compound in the heart of Baghdad. U.S. soldiers kept telling Iraqi women — who were coming to work for the U.S. forces! — that they could not enter because no female U.S. soldiers were available to search them. It is 120 degrees here. To wait in line for 30 minutes and then be told you have to go across the city to a different gate produces humiliation and rage, and eventually grenades tossed at Americans. I saw it in the eyes of those Iraqi women and their husbands as they drove away.

Second, America's real enemies in Iraq are exacerbating the situation by cutting electricity lines, which the U.S. does not have enough troops to protect, so many Iraqis today have less electricity (read: air-conditioning) than they had a month ago. The electricity cuts are disrupting oil production and refining, which leads to gasoline lines, soaring prices, more unemployment and more looting.

I was in a five-car convoy that was robbed in broad daylight on Monday morning just outside Baghdad. We were on the only highway linking Iraq to Jordan — the country's lifeline — when several BMW's with masked men, armed with AK-47's, ambushed us under a bridge. These "Ali Babas" blocked the road, pointed guns at our faces and demanded our cash (no credit cards!). They made off with thousands of dollars, which maybe they'll just keep, or maybe they'll use to pay people to kill U.S. soldiers. Who knows? I do know we drove for two more hours before we ran into the soldiers of a U.S. patrol and told them what had happened.

"Sorry," the sergeant said, "we just don't have enough people."

It's a travesty that four months after the fall of Saddam, the main road in and out of the country is still not safe. It underscores how much the Pentagon's ideological reach exceeds its military grasp. All of America's friends in Baghdad say the same thing: I love your ideas, but my daily life — salary, electricity, security — is worse since you came, not better.

CAITLIN AGAIN Caitlin Cary just swung through town, and richmond.com sat down to chat with the fiddle star and former (short-lived) Richmonder about her music and her former band, Whiskeytown.

DEATH OF A DISCO DANCER The only time I met Eric E. Stanley must have been around 1991. A group of us interviewed him for an article in a short-lived tabloid we were putting out -- Circuits. The focus on the article was on the fetid, sad state of radio in Richmond, Virginia. Eric E. was seen at the time as a musical savior, although as I recall we were reluctant to believe that 106.5 FM was really going to have an impact. But it did. And Eric E. Stanley did -- there, and at a host of other stations, where his eclectic musical tastes turned people's heads. Stanley died this week, having lost his battle against prostate cancer. This article, from 2002, captures his impact, and something of his essence.

In an age of ubiquitous ticky-tacky radio programming, Stanley's variety-oriented ideas can't be packaged into a standard format. Thus, his current arrangement with WJMO, 105.7FM, allows him to do as he pleases with the five-hour block of time.

He not only hosts the show and selects the music, but he also arranges for the program's underwriting. In effect, Eric E. is his own boss.

The product, the Bebop Boogie & Blues Revue, is an utter delight. Typical of the Eric E style, he also does the commercials live. With no canned hype, the ads come off more as endorsements than intrusions. At this writing, BB&BR's five sponsorships, one for each hour, are the Richmond Jazz Society, Plan 9 Music, Kuba Kuba restaurant, the Commercial Taphouse, and Creole Arts.

As a child, Eric Stanley spent as much time as he could at his aunt's restaurant, a spacious old log-house with a stone fireplace. The Hilltop Restaurant, located on US Route 1 in Ashland, catered mostly to a rural black clientele. In the summer he'd cook hamburgers and do what he could to seem useful.

The Hilltop featured live entertainment, mostly acts from what was known as the Chitlin' Circuit. Down in the basement, Stanley's uncle poured off-the-record shots of liquor. Fascinated with the raw music and the natural scene surrounding it, Ricky -- a skinny kid with glasses -- soaked up all he could from traveling bluesmen such as Jimmy Reed and Elmore James.

Sometimes Reed would baby-sit for precocious Ricky (who tended to ask too many questions) when his aunt and uncle were running errands for the business. "I remember it from the late '50s to early '60s," says Stanley with his easy smile. Of the legendary Reed, Stanley recalls: "He'd give me a quarter for the vibrating [lounge] chair, drink whiskey from a little bottle, and play his guitar."

REBALANCING ACT Worry not, Democrats, the country is still yours to lose. The latest national poll by the Washington Post shows that, by and large, the nation's electorate has returned to its pre-war tilt. In fact, it has returned to it's pre-September 11 tilt, also known as "one man won the electoral vote, and another won the popular vote." Yes, Virginia, Democrats hate George Bush (and equally predictably, Republicans like him). Iraq and the economy are the big ticket items for those focusing on politics, and Bush generally wins on one and loses on the other. And everyone thinks Saddam Hussein is a bad man.

GET. GOTTEN. Get Your War On has returned from a long summer vacation.

AMELIE'S WORLD In a fit of addiction best suited for rainy Saturdays, I managed to see the French film "Amelie" eight times. The NYTimes recently took its readers on a tour of Amelie's Paris, complete with a multimedia presentation. (log-in: buttermilk.com password:buttermilk)

IN A LANDSLIDE The Center for Democracy and Voting takes a look at how "instant runoff voting" works, using our favorite Muppets as... well, as puppets.

Starting in the early '90s, the Henson production company started to pay the Muppets with stock options rather than a straight salary. Quietly, the Muppets, as a group, gained a controlling interest in the Henson production. In a move that shocked the world, the Muppets decided to elect one of their own as the CEO of the company. Being savvy students of the world, the Muppets chose instant runoff voting in order to elect a candidate who would best reflect their views. They decided to choose among five candidates: Beaker, Elmo, Ernie, Miss Piggy and Oscar the Grouch. Under instant runoff voting (IRV), the Muppet voters ranked the candidates: a 'one' for their favorite candidate, a 'two' for their second favorite and so on - up to five choices. Votes were counted for the top-ranked candidate on each ballot. After counting these ballots, no candidate had a majority of the vote and thus no candidate had won. The candidate with the fewest votes was eliminated. In the second round, ballots were counted without the eliminated candidate - meaning the ballots of that candidate's supporters counted for their next choice. This process of eliminating candidates and counting the votes took place until a candidate won with a majority of the vote.

QUOTH NEIL GAIMAN, NEVERWHERE Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" came out of nowhere to set the acclaimed author of the Sandman comic series onto a pedestal of fantasy novelists. The BBC released a mini-series of the book a few years ago, and it has just been bundled onto a DVD.

One of the most acclaimed fantasy novels in recent years, NEVERWHERE was originally a six-part BBC television series. Rarely seen since its initial broadcast, the visionary tale was the first story written directly for the screen by Neil Gaiman, the prolific genius behind the DC Comics Sandman series and the best-selling novel American Gods. Now, NEVERWHERE comes to DVD with this mesmerizing collection, which includes audio commentary by Gaiman as well as a vintage interview with him.

GEEK LOVE, MARVEL STYLE Author Neil Gaiman was contracted by Marvel Comics to deliver two titles -- the first is an eight issue mini-series that takes the publisher's old school heroes back to the year 1602.

1602, an eight-issue miniseries debuting August 13, 2003, takes place in Europe at a time of great change.  The Catholic Church's Inquisition is pursuing and rounding up "witchbreed", strange individuals with all sorts of unexplained abilities.  Many of the witchbreed flee to the relative safety of England, where they are taken under the wing of Carlos Javier, an expatriate Spaniard with extraordinary abilities of his own.  An elderly Queen Elizabeth sits on the throne of England - her ministers include Sir Nicholas Fury, her Minister of Intelligence, and Dr. Stephen Strange, her Court Physician and Magician.  As issue #1 begins, Fury sends a blind Irish balladeer named Matthew Murdock to Europe to retrieve, from the last of the Templars, a mysterious item that may be either weapon or treasure.  Unfortunately, this item has also come to the attention of Count Otto von Doom (also called The Handsome), ruler of Latveria.
 
All sorts of other odd things are going on, with strange weather, rumors of the end of the world, and a girl named Virginia Dare setting sail for England from the Roanoke Colony.

COLLIDING PRIORITIES A lack of coordination, a go-it-alone attitude and an amazing shortage of foresight are contributing to the near-collapse of order in southern Iraq, the one region of the country where no love was lost for Saddam Hussein. Anthony Shadid reports that anger and frustration continue to climb as residents go without fuel, water and electricity -- and temperatures soar past 120 degrees.

In interviews, residents of Iraq's second-largest city almost uniformly expressed anger and incredulity at the shortages of gasoline and electricity and the skyrocketing black-market prices that have accompanied them. British officials in Basra, openly frustrated themselves, questioned the priorities of the U.S.-led reconstruction. And many feared that remnants of Hussein's government or militant Shiite Muslim groups were prepared to capitalize on the disenchantment.

"There's no question in my mind that people's expectations were raised very high and they felt we had led them to expect dramatic improvements when Saddam was toppled," said Iain Pickard, a spokesman for the British-led occupation in Basra. "We've not managed to meet those expectations. Until we got here, we didn't appreciate the scale of the task."

...Pickard acknowledged that there was "an understandable degree of frustration" and complained that British officials' priorities in Basra -- power, water and fuel -- are not shared to the same degree by U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

"It seems so bureaucratic. It's so difficult to get things going," he said from a building that had been looted of everything but its windows before the British moved in. "We have not had a great deal of say. We don't feel we've been able to influence the reconstruction program."

He pointed to a U.S.-funded project to renovate 200 schools in the region. While admirable, Pickard said, "painting schools isn't going to stop people from rioting."

A SIGN OF THE DECLINE The road from Baghdad to Basra remains littered with remnants of war, and is peppered with thieves and bandits. Post reporter Pamela Constable was set upon by gunmen, fled to a nearby farm and spent an evening listening to tribal elders and nearby villagers as they spoke about their world, which seems at times to have crumbled around their heads.

TOUCHE' E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post wonders at David Brooks' recent Weekly Standard column, which decried Democcrats for their intense dislike of President Bush. Dionne begins with a series of public statements about the President, all of them negative, all of them uttered by Republicans about President Clinton. The shoe, Dionne notes, is now on the other foot.

It is thus hilarious that Republicans have been so self-righteous against Democrats who have had the nerve to behave as an opposition and challenge President Bush's credibility. Republicans are telling Democrats: "Don't you dare do what we did." It's equally amusing, but also depressing, that hypocrisy isn't being called by its real name.

This moment's fashionable subject, the California recall, was born out the very sort of political hatred that Republicans condemn when it's directed at Bush. But it certainly doesn't bother Arnold Schwarzenegger that his chance to start a political career has come courtesy of the partisan animosity against California Gov. Gray Davis that forced the recall election.

Nor does the hatred of Davis bother Bush, who has spoken kindly of the Terminator. That's because Bush understands that one force that pushed him into the White House was the partisan loathing created by Cheney, Baker, DeLay and the rest during the Clinton years...

"I am dismayed that so many feel free to engage in partisan attacks on the commander in chief in the midst of war," Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) wrote in The Post [op-ed, Aug. 3].

This view did not stop the same John Ensign from challenging Clinton in February 1998 over the prospect of airstrikes against Iraq. Clinton, Ensign said then, "has not made the case to Congress to get our support and we are not in a crisis situation." Don't Ensign's comments sound awfully close to what Howard Dean has said about the war against Iraq in 2003?

POLITICAL CASH As President Bush sets his eye on $100 million in primary campaign slush, a new group has emerged hoping to level the ridiculous financial playing field that has been established in political campaigns.

Labor, environmental and women's organizations, with strong backing from international financier George Soros, have joined forces behind a new political group that plans to spend an unprecedented $75 million to mobilize voters to defeat President Bush in 2004.

The organization, Americans Coming Together (ACT), will conduct "a massive get-out-the-vote operation that we think will defeat George W. Bush in 2004," said Ellen Malcolm, the president of EMILY's List, who will become ACT's president.

ACT already has commitments for more than $30 million, Malcolm and others said, including $10 million from Soros, $12 million from six other philanthropists, and about $8 million from unions, including the Service Employees International Union.

ISHTAR SURFACES One of Salam's friends in Baghdad has resurfaced. Ishtar writes in Arabic; Salam translates below.. The Arabic text will appear garbled to the many browsing without the fontset installed; simple scroll down to the translation.

TRASH QUEEN OF BAGHDAD No one suspected that Jenny Seymore would rise to diva status when she left for Baghdad in April, but that was before she started penning her daily missives from her vantage point in OHRA's trash detail. She summarizes her story this week in the NYTimes Magazine.