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Friday afternoon political readings:

David Brooks says the Republicans think they're running against some naive university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.

But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there's Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who'd throw you under the truck for votes.

Barack Obama's lead over John McCain in Colorado has dropped to just two percentage points
and Obama's first ad of the general election is up in Colorado and 17 other states.

Rasmussen reports' latest state polling says the race in Colorado

has narrowed again, with Barack Obama dropping to just two percentage points ahead of Republican John McCain. One out of two Colorado residents say the Democrat is too inexperienced to be President.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows Obama with 43% of the vote in Colorado and McCain earning 41%. Eight percent (8%) support a third-party candidate, and 7% are undecided. Support for both major candidates is down from a month ago when Obama led by six, 48% to 42%.

Those who have threatened to move to Canada if a) Obama wins; b) McCain wins; c) the Nuggets don't make a big trade, may want to reconsider if they have a 12-year-old that needs to be grounded occasionally - and don't they all?

A Canadian court has told a dad he doesn't have the right to ground his daughter for excessive internet usage and posting inappropriate photos of herself online.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin said.

Probably won't see beauty queens in convertibles tossing out candy, but all of the groups that wanted to stage parades/marches during the Democratic National Convention will get their day in the sun.

Kevin Vaughan and John C. Ensslin report:

And every parade will end "within walking distance" of the Pepsi Center - but nobody knows yet exactly where that will be.

That is the upshot of a decision late Thursday by Denver officials to hand out parade permits during the convention, scheduled Aug. 25-28.

Telecommunications companies that went along with Bush administration requests to tap phone lines without warrants will be effectively shielded from prosecution under the compromise version of the updated Foreign Surveillance Intelligance Act (FISA) expected to win swift approval in Congress.

Speaking at the White House, President Bush called on both the House and Senate to pass the compromise deal that key lawmakers confirmed Thursday and said he believes it is a vital tool for U.S. law enforcement.

Bush said the legislation updating and revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 will "allow our intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor the plans of terrorists abroad while protecting our liberties at home."

If you cause such a ruckus on an airplane that it has to be diverted and you're hauled off to jail, do you still get your frequent filier miles for the whole trip?

That may be the least of Christina Szele's problems.

The 35-year-old woman stands accused of smoking, swearing and socking a flight attendant on a Jet Blue flight that was diverted to Denver.

Alan Gathright reports:

Veteran flight attendants told the FBI that they never had faced such a disruptive passenger. A fellow traveler said that the woman was "beyond control" and "putting the plane in danger by thrashing about."

Flight attendants said they restrained the woman with plastic flex cuffs but that she slipped free to punch the flight attendant and threatened to kill him, the FBI statement said.

Colorado blinked in the wake of an aggressive industry campaign against the state's proposed rules for oil and gas drilling.

Gargi Chakrabarty reports:

"I wouldn't view (the clarifications) that way," said COGCC acting Director David Neslin, referring to suggestions the agency was weakening rules under pressure from the industry.

"In some instances, we are taking a more surgical, a more nuanced approach to a particular issue," he said. "We are putting forth language that better reflects our intent and provides additional time for discussions of wildlife impact mitigation to occur."

Two influential industry groups - the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and the Colorado Petroleum Association - on Monday launched a weeklong advertising campaign to denounce the proposed rules, saying they would displace 10,714 jobs.

Sen. Barack Obama won't take public campaign funds and will leave more than $84 million on the table in order to bypass spending limits.

He would be the first candidate to do so since Congress passed 1970s post-Watergate campaign finance laws. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee in waiting, has taken steps to accept the public funds in the general election.

Obama officials said they decided to take that route because McCain is already spending privately raised funds toward the general election campaign. Obama has vastly outraised McCain, however, and would likely retain that advantage if McCain accepts the public money.

Western oil companies are close to signing deals to get back into the game in Iraq for the first time since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

The deals, once signed, are something of a stopgap measure to help Iraq begin to increase production until the country is able to approve a new national oil law - now held up by political squabbles among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

But they also could mark the beginning of an important long-term toehold by big Western companies into Iraq's potentially lucrative oil industry, by giving the companies a bidding advantage over other companies in the future.

Iraq's oil ministry spokesman would not name the companies set to get the deals.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil, plus Total, were the four major companies close to signing deals, along with Chevron and some smaller companies.

In March, Iraq's Cabinet gave the nod to the Oil Ministry to sign the deals worth around $500 million each. Baghdad hopes to eventually add another 600,000 barrels per day of output to its current 2.5 million barrels per day.

Jihad, who would not discuss details of the contracts, said the deals will be for two years, renewable for a third. The Times reported that the deals were essentially made for the first two years on a no-bid basis.

In the third year, the contracts would be opened to competitive bidding - but the original holders would have an advantage in that bidding, through a clause that would allow them to match bids from competitors to retain the work, the Times reported. It cited the Iraq country manager for a major firm, who spoke on condition of anonymity.