This round up is an Obama-free zone!

When will the McCain campaign run its next negative ad on Joe Biden? We know troubles with plagiarism ruined Biden’s 1988 presidential bid, and now the LA Times is reporting about an especially close relationship between the Illinois law firm SimmonsCooper and the Biden family. SimmonsCooper employees have donated almost $200,000 to Biden’s various campaigns since 2001. The firm, which specializes in asbestos litigation, chose to work with rising-start Beau Biden’s law firm when handling asbestos matters in Deleware. When Joe Biden’s brother and son wanted to buy a hedge fund company in 2006, they turned to SimmonsCooper for financing.

It’s unlikely anything at the RNC will top the pomp and circumstance of the über-hyped DNC. Unless a hurricane swings into town. The McCain campaign said today it would consider postponing the convention if tropical storm Gustav had hurricane-force winds when it reaches land, expected sometime this weekend. Gustav will be moving across the Florida panhandle and Gulf coast within days of the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Thanks, pal, just a couple years too late. Moqtada al-Sadr, everyone’s favorite radical Iraqi Shiite cleric, ordered the 60,000 members of his Mahdi Army to cease armed operations. Sadr has long been blamed for bringing Iraq to the edge of civil war, and a freeze on Mahdi Army activities by Sadr last August helped decrease violent death in the country. Now Sadr is saying his group will focus on cultural programs.

And in the “hell in a hand-basket” story of the day, scientists are saying that Arctic Ocean ice has melted to its second-lowest level in three decades. The record was set in 2007 and there are still three more weeks in the Arctic summer. Senior scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say we are now reaching a “tipping point,” where more ice is guaranteed to be lost each year. Ocean water absorbs heat from the sun, accelerating melting, while ice reflects it. When will the polar bear supplant the panda as the world’s cutest endangered animal?

Let’s close with this (via the AV Club): Aaron Sorkin plans to write a movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. Let’s hope it’s better than Studio 60, and has plenty of walking and talking.