Belated Balloting, Blogger Burnout...and Bush Birdies?

Hmmm...this country has survived a Civil War, several World Wars, an October Cuban missile crisis, flu epidemics, Watergate, disco and other horrible nasties without ever once hinting at -- openly -- the possibility of postponing to delaying Presidential elections. But it's a topic that's been blogged about a lot in the past few days, capturing seven of Monday's top 40 links, six of Monday's top 15 phrases and this Newsweek story.

If I understand this correctly, it's great to promote free elections in counties that need democracy, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, but OK to postpone them in the country that supposedly does democracy best of all? And as some bloggers ask...if we postpone elections, do we opt for regime change instead?

Recent blogs contain some other interesting faces and ideas in the news. Among them is Ron Reagan, son of the late president, who's crossing party lines to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Joining him on this week's bursty people list is Tom Mauser, father of Daniel Mauser, a Columbine High School student who died in those fateful attacks. Mauser is promoting a petition to extend the ban on assault weapons...in direct defiance of the National Rifle Association and Bush Administration. And then there's this tidbit from Wired about blogger burnout. How long can bloggers keep filling those entries before tiring or running out of ideas? It depends.

Now about that Presidential birdie? Blogger "jive turkey" claims that as the Presidential motorcade rolled through East Lampeter, PA, last Friday, the Commander in Chief flipped the bird at his small band of teen-age protesters. Read for yourself. The fuzzy photo is not the kind of hard, CIA-standard evidence one would like of the actual event. But given the senate intelligence committee reports of the past week, perhaps as reliable?

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: How is bicyclist Lance Armstrong holding up in his quest for the most Tour de France victories in the history of cycling? See how he compares with leading competitors.