Quick Hits

Some things from the past 24 hours:

• For those who think this matters 23 months out, here are a bunch of polls matching potential Presidential nominees.

• Why is David Duke getting a national forum to spout hate? He can say whatever he wants, but why exactly are people inviting him on the air? Well, probably because it was fascinating television.

• Two years later, the Swift Boaters were fined $300,000 for their activities as a 527 group in the 2004 elections. MoveOn was fined as well. The 527 loophole probably needs some tweaking.

• Pakistan made a deal with the Taliban and surprise! Cross-border attacks have increased, Taliban groups are regrouping and rearming themselves, and Afghanistan is seeing more violence than ever. For the uninitiated, Pakistan is our friend and ally.

• Between dead and wounded, we are at 25,000 casualties in Iraq. Thank your lucky stars for advances in battlefield medicine, or far more would be dead right now.

• If David Geffen's $2 billion CASH bid for the LA Times is successful, maybe it'll reverse course and be a decent paper again, causing me not to cancel it.

• Babel was OK, but I'd hardly say that's the best there is to offer from Hollywood this season. The Queen, for example, was excellent, best I've seen so far. And Borat, of course, especially if you know Hebrew.