The Ana Log

By Ana Marie Cox

IS OUR PRESIDENT LEARNING? Bush reveals that his summer reading list includes Camus's existential novel The Stranger. Funny. You'd think Kant's Critique of Pure Reason would be more his style.

FAKES ON A PLANE Hair- trigger air security means evacuating a West Virginia airport because of the (false) detection of bomb materials. A New York City--bound plane returns to London after an unclaimed cell phone starts ringing on board. And a flight from London to Washington is diverted to Boston when a woman tells other passengers she's an undercover reporter testing flight security and--no faking here--urinates on the floor. Who said flying isn't glamorous anymore?

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLACKERY The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) pulls an online ad after Hispanic groups protest the inclusion of a shot of people scaling a border fence in a montage of fearful images (other subjects: Kim Jong Il, Osama bin Laden). DSCC then tries something scarier--a ham-fisted send-up titled Snakes on a Senate. And no, it's not about Joe Lieberman.

SNEAKY, SNEAKY The Washington Post reports Dick Cheney's aides now "only announce his movements when he makes public appearances." Sharp-eyed observers learn he is in Jackson Hole, Wyo., after spotting his plane and a radar dish that is his antimissile battery. Does he have reason to be so secretive, or is he just making reporters, you know, report?