Joy Behar, meet David Letterman

More from the Questions the "Serious" Media Will Not Ask file:

Letterman questioned him about Palin's claim that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists," and McCain backed her up, saying his opponent need to better explain his relationship with former Weather Underground activist William Ayers.

"Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" Letterman asked about Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy.

McCain said he knew him. Then, after a commercial break, McCain said, "I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison ... I'm not in any was embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."

"You understand the same case could be made of your relationship with him as is being made with William Ayers?" Letterman said.

McCain said he has been completely open about his relationship with Liddy.

Letterman appeared to ridicule McCain about the implication that Obama and Ayers had a relationship.

"Are they double-dating, are they going to dinner, what are they doing?" Letterman asked. "Are they driving across country?"

"Maybe going to Denny's," McCain said.

I doubt it, John. Denny's doesn't usually cotton to the African Americans. But, in other news, does anyone give a shit that we're so reliant on our "entertainers" to ask serious questions?

DOW 0

Reliably predicting events even a few days in the future is never easy. But this time, I think it's pretty obviously straightforward. Lead-pipe domain. Assuming a continued steady and daily 500 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Index (which is looking pretty optimistic at this point) when will we finally reach Dow=0?

Why, on November 4th, of course. When else could it possibly happen?

I expect CNN and others to have some "Countdown to 0!!!" graphics up by the afternoon.

The Impossible Has Happened

No one could have expected:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

She said US military officers, American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and "collected on" as they called their offices or homes in the United States.

This is only the marginally above board part of this particular iceberg. Guaranteed, absolutely, 100% take-it-to-the-bank: they were using this stuff for purely political ratfucking style oppo research and general mayhem. No doubt whatsoever. Whether or not we'll ever get to that information is doubtful, but it's there somewhere. Start with the attorney firing and work backwards.