Back in the Swing...and Lordy, What Swinging!

So I go on vacation for a few weeks across the ocean and come back to this: Dan Rather's "memogate," John Kerry delivering the legendary Top 10 List on David Letterman, the composer of "Peace Train" kicked off a plane and sent home to England, and a funny blog about the existence of God.

But let me say this: While in Europe the last few weeks (Germany, Netherlands, England, Scotland), I had some very interesting political discussions with Europeans, all of whom are very opinionated about what's going on in our country. Like U.S. voters, they're in awe and they're upset, they're confounded and confused, they're inspired and some of them are downright mad at what they think is a complete snub of the international community and its values by a cowboy president. And after the voting debacle in Florida in 2000, they ask incredulously, why aren't U.S. voters up in arms over the lack of a trustworthy, verifiable, hack-proof nationwide standard and system for voting? For what that's worth...

But back to BlogPulse: For the first time in a long time, the Swift Boat Veterans seem to have disappeared from blogland, only to be replaced by the scrunity of Dan Rather's CBS story about the ensuing "memogate" affair, which shows up several times among top links. Dan Rather himself is now the third most talked-about person in the blogosphere (and, according to MSNBC, has experienced a boost rise in ratings.)

While Democratic challenger John Kerry makes the round of late-night TV shows, including the Letterman Show and its notorious Top Ten List, he's also heating up the rhetoric on the Bush Administration's handling of the war in Iraq. Which highlights this interesting piece in the Christian Science Monitor about how U.S. soliders stationed in Iraq are leaning, politically, and how they feel about the commander-in-chief.

And what about the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, now a soft-spoken teacher in England. References to him occupy three of the top key phrases in Wednesday's blog results. (Yusuf Islam is his Muslim name). The composer of "Peace Train" kicked off a flight to the U.S. and sent packing? Are we really a safer nation because of stuff like this?

For today's bit of levity (and brevity), check out this Official God FAQ.

In pop-culture land, there's discussion about the new DVD releases of the Star Wars trilogies, eulogies to the late filmmaker Russ Meyer, and teen energy over "Green Day's latest CD.

Over at Campaign Radar 2004, BlogPulse's politics-only site, John Kerry's recent speech at NYU, Michael Moore's web site and continuing coverage of CBS' Memogate continue to dominate blog discussions.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Those 527 political action committees seem to have waned in September.