Please define "excellent idea" for the rest of us

Maya's definitely into a rhythm as of late that we enjoy. Her nights feature a long stretch of sleep leading up to an early rising time (most mornings around 6:30). She tries a bit more often to nap, although it occurs in her swing or bouncy chair not her crib and almost always only in the mornings. Daily runs in the park, lots of chatter, and a general need for one or both of us to be within visual range or she'll call for your return "pronto!" And when it comes to eating, the more the merrier is her mantra. So hopefully we're not screwing her up in any sort of noticable fashion. For Father's Day, we played it pretty casual. It's a fake holiday after all - not like Halloween or Groundhog Day where the tradition runs deeper than the right to choose whatever sort of take-out food sounds interesting and obligatory tolerance for the desire to watch 7 hours of golf on TV with one's hand down one's own boxers. And now with yet another lovely San Francisco morning facing us, we'll head out for our run and take advantage of one of the longest days of the year. But first a few stories that demand comment on my part.

The bloom is certainly off Dubya, with stories like today's NYTimes analysis of his agenda and the last few months of defeats (which reads more like an editorial, to be fair) carving him a new one. Some will claim that it's too early to start describing the Bushies' downfall. But the public is restless and the summer's a terrible time to get anything done in DC. Iraq's an inevitably bad barrel of pickles, yet what I could see being the bigtime agenda stoppers are, 1) Rehnquist announcing his retirement at the end of the Supremes' session this week, and 2) another delay on the Bolton nomination vote today in the Senate followed by a recess appointment (which would put him in place until January 2007). You can expect that I'll be watching closely for what happens with each story.

Porter Goss wants credit for having "an excellent idea" where Bin Laden is currently hiding. How moronic is that? The Bushies more tightly control the release of government info than any Administration in modern American history. Everything gets held back by claims of "national security" and the need to protect sources. And then the CIA Director casually drops a smug, off-hand claim that we know where Osama is and that we're making great advances. Does anyone other than me see that as being either a terrible bluff or a lousy tell that will totally blow whatever hand we may be holding? Goss has always been a chump. But yesterday's attempt to create "news" more importantly shows he's little more than a mouthpiece for the Bushies. I'll be the first to concur that catching Bin Laden would totally change the dynamics in DC. But I'm not holding my breath that ol' Porter's got the goods on anyone accept probably all the bloggers out there drawing attention to his inadequacy.

Speaking of chumps, after all these years Drudge still can't stop flinging mud at the Clintons. Anytime a political hack claims that Bubba's cheating on Hillary (in this case also supplying a grainy, dark picture supposedly capturing an "open mouthed kiss"), you can bet that Drudge will make it his top story. Get some therapy, Matt. Or just come out and admit that you're in love. Give in to those feelings and you'll be stronger for it. So what if the vast majority of your audience will drop you like baggie full of doggie doo when they hear that you're gay. At least you'll be happy.

In a very different part of the world of information, there appears to be a rather public "he said, he said" exchange beginning between Neal Pollack and Dave Eggers. Pollack - who I've always found to be a one-joke ego of impossibly lame proportions - wrote a piece in the NYTimes Book Review yesterday trying to pick apart the success of McSweeney's and 826 Valencia and the world largely centered on Eggers' growing literary personality. Egger's responded on McSweeney's website, followed by Pollack's re-response. If you care at all about these characters, it's certainly worth a looksie. And in a related sense, I'll be passing along more info this week about my marathon training and the desire to raise money for 826 Valencia and the expanding number of 826s around the country. So you can probably guess where I land on the pillowfight between Neal and Dave. Rock on.