Getting to Know You  —  The conventional wisdom in this radically unconventional presidential race is that the voters have to get to know Barack Obama better.  That's what this week's overseas trip was about: to showcase the senator as a potential commander in chief and leader of U.S. foreign policy.

Microphone Picks Up Private Conversation Between Obama and British Leader on Need for Vacations and ‘Thinking’ Time  —  At British Parliament today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with Tory Leader David Cameron.  —  Seemingly unaware of an enormous fuzzy boom mike held by ABC News' Eric Kerchner …

Oil prices and economic fundamentals  —  Oil was selling for $123 a barrel on May 7, and that's where it closed this week.  Sounds like a calm and rational market, except for the fact that just last week it was going for $145.  —  Spot price of West Texas Intermediate in dollars per barrel.

Beer: It's What's For Dinner  —  Beer is back, regaining a large lead over wine as America's favorite alcoholic beverage after wine threatened to close the gap around 2005.  Fascinatingly, I see no plausible way of correlating this “beer track"/"wine track" data with anything happening in politics.

Democratic Congressional Candidate Alan Grayson on Iraq Reckoning: “We'll Put People in Prison”  —  One of the most exciting candidates I've met this cycle is Alan Grayson, a high profile trial lawyer who has been suing defense contractors for fraud, and is now running for Florida's eighth district in central Florida.

Barack and the Hispanics  —  Back during the primaries, everyone kept formally admitting that it was wrong to engage in the form of inference “candidate X lost group A in a primary, and therefore he's likely to lose group A in a general election against candidate Y of the other party” …

One world?  Obama's on a different planet  —  The senator's Berlin speech was radical and naive.  —  SEN. BARACK OBAMA said in an interview the day after his Berlin speech that it “allowed me to send a message to the American people that the judgments I have made and the judgments …

Blogging's Glass Ceiling  —  FOR two days last week, many of the men's bathrooms at the Westin St. Francis Hotel here were turned into women's bathrooms.  The stalls on the second floor were lined with note cards featuring nurturing messages like “You are perfect.”

“Media Matters”; by Jamison Foser  —  Even while carrying McCain's water, media worry they aren't doing enough for him  —  John McCain complaining about media coverage is a little like an oil company complaining about profit margins: hard to believe, and even harder to feel much sympathy.

4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Public Images  —  BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort …