The International House of Bacon

* The big news is Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor. As most of you are aware, Ted Kennedy is not my favorite human being, but he’s still a human being and I can speak from very close experience that brain tumors suck, and no one deserves that, period. Here’s hoping for a full recovery.

* McCain on trade. The stark differences on free trade between McCain and Obama are really one of the issues that should be shouted fro the rooftops this election.

* How do you make an obsolete highway project more obsolete? Toll booths! I wonder if these will be “temporary” like the ones on the Mass Pike.

* Obama from earlier this month: “I think actually Justice Breyer, Justice Ginsburg are very sensible judges. I think that Justice Souter, who is a Republican appointee, is a sensible judge.” Yeah, that pretty much speaks for itself.

* For whatever reason, the White House decided to lash out at NBC for some creative editing of an interview, and decided to bring up a few other issues while they were at it. A major flaw in the Bush White House was their complete and utter inability to coherently defend themselves from otherwise idiotic attacks. I often wonder how different things would have been had the White House actually bothered to defend itself rather than ignore it.

* CQ Politics puts Obama’s weekend rally into context. No, Georgy, it wasn’t creative photo editing. d;-)

* Interesting Rasmussen poll: More people consider Iraq victory likely if McCain is President rather than Obama, and by a pretty wide margin. If Iraq is still an issue come November, this could be a neat split.

* I hate smoking, but not as much as anti-smoking zealots.

* More contrary wisdom on the “income inequality” gap.

* Finally, the best article I’ve read about Jon Lester’s no hitter was written by Joe Posnanski yesterday. Excellent piece. If baseball isn’t your thing, though, there’s always The 9 most Devastating Insults From Around the World to tide you over.