This makes sense:

The United States on Wednesday insisted it remains committed to free trade despite new quotas on some clothing from China, a move that angered Beijing and apparently led to the suspension of large U.S. farm commodity purchases by China.
Growing tensions between the two trading partners were evident a day after the United States unveiled the quotas, with a delegation of Chinese wheat buyers postponing a trip to the United States planned for late November or early December.
. . .
“The administration is committed to free trade,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters traveling with Bush in London.
However, McCormack also said the United States was intent on “fully enforcing our trade laws,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-China trade arrangement that allows Washington to set “safeguards” against import surges of specific goods.

Of course. We support the free flow of goods, except for the goods we’re going to restrict. Glad we cleared that up.
Seriously, there’s got to be a number of administration officials who have about had it with bizarre marriage between electoral politics and economic theory in current U.S. trade policy.

This is funny:

Ku Klux Klan members were apparently busy distributing a newsletter and fliers as some local residents found them attached to their mailboxes on Monday, Local 4 reported.
The newsletter called “The Flame,” along with a flier, was attached by rubber bands to mailboxes in Ypsilanti and Pittsfield Township.
The materials reportedly called for the boycott of McDonalds, NASCAR and Coca-Cola for what the KKK says are the companies’ tendency for discriminating against whites by hiring blacks and Hispanics.

NASCAR? I’m admittedly not a knowledgeable NASCAR fan; for all I know its pit crews and support staff could be teeming with blacks and Hispanics. But from what I’ve seen (the drivers), NASCAR is about as diverse as North Dakota.
Via Lean Left.

Kieran at Crooked Timber comments on President Bush’s unavailability (cowardice?) in declining to address the British Parliament. Instead, Bush spoke to a selected audience.
I would pay to watch Bush confront an aggressive, parliamentary-styled interrogation Tony Blair routinely handles during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Len notes some recent problems with electronic voting.
I’ve heard a lot of noise about problems with these machines, but I’ve not heard much about the problems being fixed. Maintaining a back-up paper trail isn’t a bad idea.

In a post below, I asked if the Rocky Top Brigade is bound by a mutual defense pact similar to what I had seen mentioned at Calblog covering the Bear Flag League. In the course of the accompanying comments, Xrlq floated the idea of a peace agreement between the BFL and the RTB, to which South Knox Bubba replied:

Xrlq, as founder and maintainer of the RTB blogroll, I accept your proposal for a nonagression and mutual defense pact. We salute your fine outfit and proclaim it a great day for the Blogosphere. May no blog dare ever tread on the BFL or the RTB lest he or she as the case may be suffer the right mighty wrath and furious vengeance of both.

Xrlq responded with this post, in which he submitted the non-aggression and mutual defense pact to BFL members for ratification.
SKB is a great blogger and RTB administrator, but shouldn’t we similarly ratify this pact? The last time a powerful leader secretly negotiated a non-aggression pact, Germany ended up invading Poland. I don’t suspect I’ll ever have a problem with any Bear Flag League member, but you do need to check who you are getting into bed with. According to my limited research, the Bear Flag League harbors not only conservatives, but also at least one Gator fan. That stretches tolerance close to the breaking point. [UPDATE: Breaker is a University of Florida alumnus, not a Gator fan; an important distinction.]
I’m as much a “big tent” kind of person as the next guy, but Angry Clam offers sage counsel: “Beware of the entangling alliances.”