While it is so easy to slip into double meanings when talking about Sarah Palin (for example, I considered "Waiting For The Other Naughty Monkey Double Dare Red Shoe To Drop" as a title today... ahem), the title I did choose starts out as a literal one. Because I finally got around to reading Palin's most recent interview, in Runner's World magazine. And the article is accompanied by seven photos, not (as one may have expected) of Sarah Palin actually running, but instead of Sarah preparing to run. We'll get into double meanings later, but first, let's examine these preparing-to-run photos.

Most of the photos are just of Palin stretching or doing yoga, in running clothes. One prominently features her son Trig. But it's the last one that really gave me pause. It shows Governor Palin (we can still call her that for another few weeks) in what is close to a classic beauty queen pose (one leg slightly bent at the knee, hand on hip), in a bright red shirt and what I assume are black running shorts. But it's everything around Palin that really makes the photo.

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What separates humans from animals can be summed up as one simple thing -- the mastery of fire. Even "using tools" doesn't cut it anymore, as apes have been shown to use their own tools to achieve their own modest goals. When you get right down to it, the sole dividing line between us and the other creatures which crawl this planet can be drawn at the mastery of fire. Animals are still scared of fire. Humans, now, are not.

This may sound like a strange beginning to my annual Independence Day column, but I write today in praise of recreational explosions. In a word, fireworks. Fireworks and the Fourth Of July are inextricably linked in American history, beginning with the first time the holiday was celebrated, in 1777, one year after the Declaration of Independence. Celebrating the Fourth with fireworks is not some modern invention, but actually started at the creation of the holiday's celebration.

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This Saturday is, of course, Independence Day. It was also scheduled to be "Round Two" of the tea bag protests. But their planned protest seems to be fizzling like a wet firecracker. At least in the media's view, so far. Perhaps scheduling protests on one of the worst news days in the year is responsible for this inattention?

To refresh your memory (like a hot cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage of choice), the tea bag protest movement (out of solidarity with any group organizing protests, I will refrain from calling them "teabaggers") had their first public rallies across the country on April 15, or tax day. Now, this was a dandy idea -- protesting on the day most Americans hate and dread, when you have to file your income taxes. Feelings about April 15 may run deep, but they run deeply away from patriotic love of country. In other words, a good day for protesting.

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Welcome back to our monthly peek into President Barack Obama's poll numbers. And what a change from last month, when I jokingly started off the column "As a new month dawns with Al Franken still not seated in the Senate...." Franken is still not seated, but that is merely due to the fact that Congress is on one of its weeklong vacations (which they take regularly, after every two or three weeks of actual "work"). Once they return to Washington, Franken will become Senator Al Franken and the election of 2008 will finally be over.

But enough about Al. Because this column is about Barack, and (later) Bill. Every month, we've been charting Obama's approval ratings (as averaged by RealClearPolitics.com on their presidential poll-of-polls page). For a full explanation of why we choose these numbers over others, refer to the first Obama Poll Watch column. As always, at the bottom of the column are links to the full series, and the actual data points used, for anyone interested.

Obama's June poll numbers were down a bit. But not by much. If you had nothing but the inside-the-Beltway pundits to listen to (as opposed to actual data, that is), you might be pretty worried about Obama's standing in the polls right now. Dire warnings that "Obama's dropping in the polls" or "Obama's poll numbers are tanking" or even "Obama has lost the public" and other such tommyrot has been a common theme for a few weeks now.

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The 2008 election is finally over. Former Minnesota senator and incumbent Norm Coleman has officially conceded the race to Senator-Elect Al Franken, after the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously decreed that Franken was the winner. Two hundred and thirty-nine days after the election was held, it should be noted.

For his tenacity and patience, and for his 314-vote victory, we must congratulate Franken. Though the entire process was long and frustrating, the people of Minnesota saw the recount and state court case as a fair and legitimate process, which is important in disputed elections (as we're all aware). But, as far as state law is concerned, the Minnesota Supreme Court had the final say. If Coleman had pushed on to file a federal lawsuit in an attempt to put the issue before the United States Supreme Court, he risked the wrath of the state's voters for continuing to deny them a second seat in the Senate, with very little chance of success for Coleman holding onto his seat.

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Tomorrow will be an important date in the history of America's involvement in Iraq. Because it is the first milestone on the timeline for withdrawal that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki wrested from George W. Bush late last year. Which means, barring unforeseen circumstances (always a possibility in a war zone), tomorrow will mark the beginning of the end of America's military presence in Iraq.

What will happen tomorrow (and by some media reports, has already occurred) is that the American forces will completely pull out of Iraqi cities and withdraw to bases outside of the towns. Iraqis are already celebrating this withdrawal, and tomorrow has been declared "National Sovereignty Day" to mark the occasion in Iraq.

What this will ultimately mean depends on a number of important factors, none of which can be accurately predicted at this point. Looking back on this date in the future, it may be seen as overdue, timely, or rashly premature. Will the violence spike as a result? Will American troops begin returning home rapidly, or slowly? Will Maliki's government be able to stand on its own? Will the Iraq military be up to the job of providing security? Will the huge political questions the Iraqis have (successfully, so far) postponed finally be addressed in one way or another? About the only concrete analysis which can be made at this point is that there are more questions right now than answers.

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It's been a crazy rollercoaster of a week, and at the end of it, California can proudly state that not only do we no longer have the most embarrassing governor in the country, we are not even in the top three anymore! With the antics of Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, and (now) Mark Sanford, we've slipped into fourth place in the state comedians look to for jokes. Or course, some might argue that Spitzer doesn't belong in that category since he's no longer governor of New York, but then the guy who replaced him started his term by admitting his own bedroom wandering, so I'm still going to include New York.

Speaking of New York craziness, Albany appears to be mired in a schoolyard spat of its own, as duelling senates tried to hold two independent sessions (one Republican-led, one Democratically-led, both with gavels) -- from the same room. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

But back to Sanford's problems for a moment, because Salon's War Room gave their Quote Of The Day to anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist for his take on Sanford's affair, which simply must be reproduced here for your enjoyment: "It does indicate that men who oppose federal spending at the local level are irresistible to women."

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Every so often I get a wild-and-crazy idea on a subject I know little about. These usually are later proven to be unworkable or unwise (by people who do know what they're talking about), but this low level of success shall not deter me. Because right now, in the midst of two roaring debates ("how to pay for healthcare reform" and "how to wean ourselves off foreign oil"), there seems to be a partial answer to both that nobody has hit upon yet. Instead of paying for healthcare by taxing soda, sugar, fast food, tobacco, or liquor (all of which have been proposed so far, as well as other less-direct taxes like tinkering with the income tax system), why not tax plastic?

I'm not talking about credit cards, here, I'm talking about the substance used to make them -- and every other plastic item Americans consume voraciously. The plastic itself, in other words. Which comes (a fact not known by all) from oil. This was seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the Gulf Coast oil refineries were shut down -- which caused a severe shortage of the raw material for many of the most popular types of plastic. This shortage was... well... a short one (sorry, I won't do that again), and barely made a blip in the news. But it did point out the relationship between petroleum and plastic.

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The American media has an enormous double standard on portrayals of violence on our television screens. It can be succinctly summed up as: real-world violence is obscured or (even worse) turned into a cartoon, but fictional violence is shown in stunningly full-color and high-definition clinical graphic detail -- for our entertainment. This disconnect is infantile. It is a form of censorship that the American public, for the most part, isn't even really aware of. But sometimes, as in the footage of the death of Neda from Iran, the disconnect itself is glaringly apparent.

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President Obama had his fourth press conference today, the first one that wasn't in primetime. As expected, most of the questions were on Iran and healthcare reform. The healthcare reform battle has changed in the past few days, but Obama is still the chief spokesman so far. And he's doing a much better job of standing up for the public option than anyone else out there, so it is worth reading his words to see how other Democrats should be framing this issue.

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