The Dish

Live-blogged by Ryan Sager. Only $11.2 million for the second quarter.

… even random ESPN broadcasters know you’re a flip-flopping opportunist:

Mike Tomasky notes an obvious problem with Senator Clinton’s usual flim-flam on the Iraq war:

Clinton said at the time, and has said since, that she was not voting for war per se, but merely to give George W. Bush the authority to launch war if inspections and diplomacy failed. But if that was the case, she might have voted for an amendment offered by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, which authorized war pending a second United Nations resolution. She voted against it.

How Italian police discovered a secret mountain-top marijuana plantation:

Locals in Trento began telling tales of the abnormally high-spirited animals, while forest rangers began to wonder why the normally shy and straight-laced cervine population was letting it all hang out by day and "making great leaps on the mountainside"…

Despite the seemingly damning nature of the prosecution’s case, defence lawyers say the charges may yet be dropped since the deer had eaten most of the evidence.

And several hundred packets of Snackwells.

The Muppets classic was first recorded for a Swedish porno film. Try playing it as bedroom music.

The latest from Gaza:

The Hamas network added that they have "proof of homosexual relations between Fatah officials."

Video, please.

Taped audio evidence from his bathroom that Bruce Willis needs a laxative.

Ninth place? It’s no Fahrenheit 9/11. A reader dissents:

The movie was in 440 theaters and still came in at 9th (all of the top 8 were in 2000+ theaters). After three days it’s now the 14th highest grossing documentary of all time. $10,000 per theater average for an opening week is a hit for any movie, not to mention a non-fiction film.

The worrying aspect of the British terror-rash is that it’s obviously an amateur effort, inspired rather than organized by al Qaeda. This means we are likely to face more of these things, but that most of them are not going to be massively successful. They can still be deadly, of course, and we should be vigilant. But it seems to me we shouldn’t grant them the capacity to terrify us. That’s one happy consequence of 9/11. It’s hard to top; and every time they fail, they look sadder. A reader points out another salutary observation:

You can’t watch the response of UK police authorities in their public statements without being impressed with the careful balance they strike between exorting the public to vigilance and resistance to being stampeded into premature conclusions.  And particularly their restraint in talking about those who were arrested.  "Out of respect for proper process, we will avoid comment," they say.  And indeed, that’s exactly what responsible law enforcement in a democratic society should say.  It couldn’t contrast more sharply with the conduct of the Ashcroft and, still worse, Gonzales Justice Department which engages in hysterical rants, leveling charges that almost never pan out, and screaming "terrorists!" at the top of their lungs – on a manifestly partisan political message.  Let’s call it department of calm heads vs. department of headless chickens.  In any event, our friends in Britain are providing a model on this.

Stay calm and carry on.

Patrick Ruffini:

Hillary is now basically in the same league as Romney and Rudy when it comes to money, maybe a bit stronger. Edwards just fell off the face of the planet this month, shading Richardson. Both the Hillary and Edwards number show us that the Dem money edge is not a Democrat thing. It is an Obama thing.

More Dish and Ambinder reax to Obama’s money blowout here. Oh, and why Hillary can’t win.