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MAIN: What If?

So, what would happen to the election dynamic if the Iraqi government were to set a timetable for withdrawal of American forces before November? And that's not rhetorical. I don't actually know. It would certainly make things interesting, as Obama and McCain wouldn't really be able to argue or differentiate themselves on the issue, so they'd have to fall back on other aspects of their candidacies, and my gut is that Obama has more to fall back on than McCain, but my gut is very pro-Obama to begin with.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.07.2008

Last week, I somehow managed to forget that I went to see Coldplay perform for The Today Show while I was in New York. Pictures are on Facebook and will hopefully be up on notabbott.com soon as well.

MAIN: The Reign In Spain

First the European Championship. Then Wimbledon. And a Spaniard had the yellow jersey in the Tour de France until today.

I'm just saying, if you're up against Spain any time in the near future, you may have a tough time.

MAIN: Learning From Their Mistakes?

NBC is using this summer's Olympics as a "billion-dollar research lab" for multimedia and innovative user access to content. And they don't seem to be charging extra for it, which means someone over at 30 Rock remembers that disaster back in 1992 when they tried pay-per-view.

MAIN: Upshot

If there's anything to be gained from the media firestorm over Barack Obama's comments about Iraq, it may be that responsible journalists will actually look at the issue intelligently and/or that some outlets will push back against the fact-free caterwauling of the McCain campaign.

Whether or not that's enough to transform this into a sane discourse remains to be seen. I'm not quite holding my breath.

SOCCER: A Freebie for Section 8

I know Tom reads this, and maybe Ben, too. So, to the tune of the chorus of "Pepper" from the Butthole Surfers, which should give this enough hipster cred to actually work:

We're the club from Chicago And you can call us "Fire" We stand and sing for ninety And we never, ever tire
Barrett, Rolfe and Blanco
And the other guys as well
If you support another club
Then you can go to hell.

Add that to the list of songs I would do if I were still a capo, along with "This Fire" from Franz Ferdinand, "We Are The Angry Mob" from Kaiser Chiefs and "Reggata de Blanc" from The Police, although the latter would be a bit tricky and require longer attention spans than the section is accustomed to.

PHOTOS: The Big Pearl Jam Finale

PHOTOS: Spotlight on Eddie

PHOTOS: Pearl Jam (1)

PHOTOS: Pretty Colors

MAIN: Clearing Out The Backlog

I've got lots and lots of pictures from London and New York, but I figured I should finally get the rest of the Lollapalooza shots up on the site before I get to them. So now that's done, and I've refreshed my memory on how I have the photos section set up. With another week of Daily Show reruns, the odds are pretty good that I'll get at least some more stuff uploaded this week.

PHOTOS: Lots and lots of people

PHOTOS: My Morning Jacket From Really Far Away

PHOTOS: My Morning Jacket

PHOTOS: Chk Chk Chk, or However You Pronounce It