Let's Start The Weekend Early

• Our FISA bill-approving, non-war-ending Democratic Congress is not as pliant and weak-willed as many would believe, because they passed this housing rescue package that Bush threatened to veto but didn't. [ The Hill ]

• More voters believe they share the "values and background" of John McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals and husband of a beer heiress, than Barack Obama, who was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. [ Wall Street Journal ]

• Gullyfornia's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, wants to reduce the pay of 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage -- $6.55 an hour -- until the state hammers out a budget. For a bad actor, he certainly has a flair for the dramatic. [ Los Angeles Times ]

• The Bush administration wants to give the Pakistanis hundreds of millions of federal antiterrorism dollars to pay for planes that the Pakistanis do not use to fight terror. [ New York Times ]

• Americans cannot explain their political ideas or opinions to pollsters, which makes them maybe sound dumber than they are. [ Washington Post ]

• Hurricane Dolly is now just a tropical storm. Maybe John McCain could have held his press conference after all. [ Reuters ]