Last week Barack Obama made what some of his media acolytes called a "soaring" speech accepting his party's nomination. If by soaring they meant the enormous costs of the lavish promises he made, they were right. But that of course is not what they meant.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," The Tribune reported that Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

Russia's heavy handed invasion of Georgia under former KGB officer Vladimir Putin has raised the specter of a revived Soviet Union bent on expanding its borders by any means necessary.