As if he hasn't teased voters enough about his likely presidential bid, TV's Fred Thompson is now blogging for support and hinting that his backers will soon hear more about his plans. He went up on the Pajamas Media site this week to thank supporters for giving him six victories in the PJM Presidential Straw Polls.

It probably doesn't feel much like basketball season to the troops in Iraq and other hot Middle Eastern cities, but that should change right after Thanksgiving. Because that's when the fabled Harlem Globetrotters hit the area in a 21-day, 12-city tour with stops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Djibouti. Owner and former college ball star Mannie Jackson plans to lead 10 members of his team into the area, where they'll play some games, shoot hoops, and conduct "meet and greets" with the troops. The Globetrotters even plan to perform on an aircraft carrier. The team has a long history of entertaining the troops; this will be the third straight year the team has visited troops right before Christmas.

While it's a long trip, we're assured that the team will return home for the regular U.S.-Canada tour kicking off on December 26. It's called the "2007 North American Harlem Globetrotter Nothing Like It Tour" and hits 193 cities.

Below are exclusive photos from their 2005 military tour:

Come on, join the bandwagon for Howard Dean for president. OK, the crowd so far is small, but once he starts to get the credit he deserves for last week's Democratic takeover of the House and Senate and major gains in statehouses and state legislatures, the bandwagon will be off and running. Here's what we learned last week: Dean's not in over his head at the Democratic National Committee and, in fact, may turn out to be one of the best chairs ever. And his 50-state strategy, which was sneered at in Washington, worked.

Those midterm elections Tuesday continue to help weed out and build up the list of candidates expected to run for president in 2008. Let's start with the growing list of big losers. You can add Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who whined about the travel, and two foot-in-mouth senators, Republican George Allen and Democrat John Kerry.

At the risk of angering everybody happy to see another election season fizzle out, here's an idea for a new constitutional amendment: Hold midterm elections every year. That's right, instead of electing the House and a third of the Senate every two years, split it up so we have elections every year. And here's why: It will greatly help to weed out all the dopey presidential candidates who make stupid comments on the campaign trail. And it will also show some of those White House hopefuls who think that they can get away with just a little travel and fundraising just how hard it is to run for president.

Here's a rare chance to help write a new book and humiliate Enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden. World Ahead Publishing tells our Suzi Parker that it's collecting ideas for 101 Uses for Osama bin Laden. Until November 12, the conservative publisher is soliciting your ideas at usesforosama.com. While hounding him militarily is the Pentagon's job, says the firm, "doling out the humiliation he so richly deserves, well, that's our job," adds the publisher. "The flea-ridden beard, the shifty eyes, the dime-store turban, the lousy videos, the camels, the Whitney Houston obsession," says World Ahead. "If the guy wasn't a grotesque mass murderer, he'd be a joke." And once it's published, some of the proceeds will go to the National Military Family Association.

It only makes sense that candidates who see lots of Internet searches are high in voters' minds, right? Well, Ask.com thinks so, and it's telling us that "query volume" is a great election predictor. The popular website checked out search data results last month in the top eight Senate races: Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia. Their offbeat result: Most incumbents win, and only one seat switches parties. Here are the predicted winners:

–Sen. James Talent, Missouri Republican

– Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican

– Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican

– Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island Republican

– Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican

– Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat

– Democratic Rep. Harold Ford wins Tennessee.

– The Ohio race between Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. Mike DeWine is too close to call.

It's not easy to be rejected, but popular former CNN morning host Daryn Kagan has more than come to grips with it. For the first time, the 12-year CNN veteran tells Whispers that the cable network's suits dropped her–and didn't even tell her why.

Hats off to Hillary tracker Gregg Birnbaum and his site JustHillary.com for digging around to see if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has just found religion, as displayed by that little cross some have seen around her neck. The story seemed too good to be true, and it was. What Birnbaum—who went into the Hillary-online business after working for the New York Post—did was find pictures dating to 2001 of the New York senator wearing crosses to snuff out this little scandal. Dang those cameras.

There had been some concern that Bill Clinton would not attend the graduation of the first class of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. After all, he receives hundreds of graduation speech requests yearly, and the guy does stay busy promoting his AIDS and global warming issues and helping Democrats raise money. Really, how much time does he have? But his refusal to commit to being at the first graduation on December 13 was really starting to irk students at the Little Rock, Ark., school, our Suzi Parker heard. Well, she reports, everybody can rest easy now. The school's namesake will attend after all. But hurry up and get those graduation tickets. The Great Hall in Bubba's library isn't that big, and they don't plan to move the graduation to a larger venue.