Not that this has much to do with business or L.A., but I noticed that Intrade, the futures market for all kinds of predictions about current events, has the chances of Sarah Palin being withdrawn as the VP nominee at 12.5 percent. It's been as high as 18 percent and as low as 3 percent, a reflection of the very low trading volume - so far - as well as the uncertainty about where this story will go. By the way, Barack Obama's chances of winning the election have risen slightly, to 61.5 percent.

*Update: If you're looking for a good fright, check out a piece posted this morning on the Huffington Post in which Palin addresses the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God. Besides painting the war in Iraq as a messianic battle in which the United States is acting out the will of the Lord ("Our national leaders are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted), Palin said that a $30 billion natural gas pipeline project that she wants built in the state is also God's will. She asked the assembled students to "pray for that."