The Washington Post is reporting that President Bush’s prime-time news conference tonight, in which he’ll answer questions related to the recent Iraq situation, has pre-empted “American Idol.”

Fret not reality fans. John Maynard, the reporter, gets this from Fox:

“There was no debate,” Fox spokesman Scott Grogin said yesterday. “The president asked for time. We’ve moved ‘American Idol’ to Wednesday night.”

Whew. That was close.

And from the Department of Can’t Get Enough, a Canadian radio station quotes a Sony executive on its Web site as saying the company has optioned the rights to Richard Clarke’s book Against All Enemies. John Calley, who the station says “worked on” the film “All the President’s Men,” is quoted discussing his role as producer. (Note: I could locate no mention of Calley as having worked on the “President’s Men,” but he apparently did produce “Catch-22.”)

I wonder if they’ll rush it through production in time for an October surprise.

To lighten the atmosphere after the most recent posts, I thought I’d point out the staggering ways in which we are plied with the little blue pill. And I ask, do people actually respond to this sort of advertising in their inbox? I didn’t think so.

Refer to No. 74 on the Cluetrain Mainifesto: We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

Special MPs to ISP for the link.

MPs to Prints the Chaff for pointing out, in a sideways manner, that I may have let bias creep into my language. (Language is, afterall, politics.)

In an earlier post, I used the term “soldier of fortune” to refer to the large number of private security personnel bolstering the coalition forces in Iraq. In particular, I referred to Scott Helvenston and the three others brutally murdered late in March on the streets of Fallujah.

Rightly, Prints the Chaff points out that the term “mercenary,” and its synonym “soldier of fortune,” which I’m guilty of using, refer to persons who sell military-styled services to the highest bidder. The implication being that such a person would switch affiliations in a conflict, depending on the size of the paycheck.

I did not intend to imply that the casualties of the Fallujah mobs would switch sides, given a bigger dime. Nor did I intend the implication that they were not men of honor. Their families have felt real loss, akin to the families of other, more traditional soldiers.

At the same time, terms such as “civilian contractors” seem, to me, to fall short of describing the roles these people play. My understanding is that some of these paid soldiers, who perform tasks such as guarding oil outlets and Civilian Administrator L. Paul Bremer, earn $1,000 a day. That’s a lot more than more traditional dough boys make for similar sacrifices, and I think it’s an important distinction.

Also, in the discussion of U.S. casualties, I’d like to direct readers to the Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen chart. It appears to list only soldiers, not the contractors of the current discussion, but it’s a valuable and compassionate resource nonetheless. Thanks to SR for the link.