The Long Weekend Political Thread: You Come at the King, You Best Not Miss

My friend Brian Beutler is recuperating nicely, and Spencer Ackerman has set up a fund to defray his medical bills here.

Also, this morning I recorded a brief, pre-hospital visit, pre-BBQ Inside Washington Weekly podcast with Eli Lake and Jamie Kirchick; it'll be up here shortly. It was a slow news week, but we chewed over the horse race, energy, Colombia, and Montana.

The Week in Brief
– Barack Obama learned to love the surge, allegedly.
– John McCain traveled to Colombia; at the same time, Colombia rescued three hostages from FARC. (If Obama wins, do the hostages go back?)
– Florida Gov. Charlie Crist got engaged.
– former Sen. Jesse Helms died at age 86. Americans started setting off fireworks. The two events were unrelated. (My review of the latest Helms biography is here.)
– At the moment, Obama leads McCain by 102 electoral votes.

Below the Fold
– Brian Beutler examines the odious House FISA bill.
– Zev Chafets enters the empire of Rush Limbaugh.
– I'm going to climb out on a limb and predict that conservative black pastors won't be much of a problem for Obama.
– A Daily Kos diarist wonders if the party can still nominate Hillary. (He's angry about FISA.)

I'm tweaking Politics 'n' Prog this week and digging back into my high school tape archives for a song befitting this absurdly violent week.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Would you believe that Mumia Abu-Jamal agrees with Ralph Nader, that Barack Obama isn't black enough? Here you go.