Dems Turning a Whiter Shade of Palin: Sen. John McCain stunned the nation when he announced his VP choice: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The young pro-life, anti-corruption, anti-gambling, mother of five Republican may be adding balance to the bill. Should not the Democrats have seen this coming? Is it possible the Sen. Hillary Clinton-contingent, those still rueing the day she took a backseat to Sen. Barack Obama, could flock over to a less liberal (ahem, pro-life), but perhaps comparably competent other female? Does that swap seem two-dimensional to women? Does McCain’s choice make his attacks on Obama’s inexperience seem now like cheap hypocrisy and the desperate words of a flailing candidate or the prelude to a brilliant strategic episode of ‘wisening up’? Could it be those doubting Obama’s Sen. Joseph Biden choice will see the lines blurring between one grizzled politician and another? The endgame for each side remains the same, but predicting the one more likely to achieve it has, perhaps, gotten a lot tougher.

Labor Day Weekend Travelers may Proceed Through LAX as Before, Worker Strike Over For Now: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for a three week “cooling off” period between “airline service workers and the private companies that contract with LAX for services.” The strike began 24 hours ago when airport employees, who are paid a paltry $10.50/hour without benefits, put a halt on the work day after months of “inconclusive talks” with their employers in which they asked for health insurance and a pay increase of 50 cents per hour. The mayor convinced both parties to lay aside their differences for now, hoping, also, to maintain efficient flow of airport traffic on one of the busier travel weekends of the year.

NOLA Oscillating Between Fear and Nonchalance While Bracing Itself to do Battle with Gustav: Seasoned New Orleans residents are aware Hurricane Gustav may be coming straight their way, this piece explained, some responding with jokes (”‘ain’t nothing too bad gonna happen…if I go to hell, I get to meet all my friends,” said Vernon Navarre), others, like Carey Galloway, with nervous agitation and packed suitcases. The Bush Administration, still smarting from the lambasting it received after its mismanagement of Katrina flew Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff into Louisiana towards the end of figuring out how best to aid the state in its preparation for the storm.

Karadzic Refuses to Plead: Appearing for a second time in court in The Hague since being taken into custody by the United Nations’ war crimes tribunal a month before, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, acting as his own defense lawyer, coolly declined to plead to the 11 charges, including those of genocide and crimes against humanity, against him.