The Details: The tone and content of the Pentagon Memorial dedication on Thursday were perfect, a superb tribute to those who died there on 9/11 and a credit to the private Pentagon Memorial Fund members who raised $22 million to make it happen.

The Politics of Unity

Candidates suspend hostilities on 9/11.

The Details: Both John McCain and Barack Obama acted with grace in standing together to honor the dead of 9/11 and in suspending all campaign attacks for the day. The photos of the two of them together sends the right message to the world.

Adding Bench Strength

President Bush keeps nominating judges.

The Details: Even though Senate Democrats are blockading Bush judicial nominees en masse, Bush last week forwarded two more well-qualified nominations to the Senate, thus at least making clear that court vacancies should not go unfilled.

Not Playing Chicken

Maryland fights Bay pollution.

The Details: Maryland moved to protect the Chesapeake Bay on Friday by announcing new regulations against waste runoffs from large chicken farms. The regs are reasonable rather than too stringent: When fully implemented, they will still allow twice as much leeway for manure piles as Virginia already does.

Respecting the Military

Obama supports ROTC.

The Details: At a 9/11 “service” forum on Thursday, Barack Obama criticized his own alma mater, Columbia University, for banning ROTC from campus. (So did John McCain.) Military service should be encouraged, not condemned.

Worst

Holy curses, Batman!

DC Comics prints expletives

The details: In a Batman book, some of the most offensive words in the English language were clearly visible through what was supposed to be ink black. But why print the full words in the first place, even if intended to look as if blacked out?

Real racial profiling

Chicago teacher makes example of Muslim child

The details: A sixth-grade teacher singled out the only Muslim student in her class as a hypothetical example of how a terrorist might act in blowing up a plane.

Silencing a good Voice

The Voice of America cuts broadcasts

The details: In India, Russia, and three Eastern European nations, the Voice of America will no longer broadcast. The most eloquent voice for freedom around the world should be aired in more places and languages, not fewer.

Physician, heal thyself

Obama’s inequal pay

The details: Barack Obama has repeatedly made an issue of “equal pay” for women, but columnist Deroy Murdock discovered that women on his Senate staff earn just 83 cents for every dollar men earn. But John McCain’s women staffers make $1.04 for every male dollar earned.

Don’t dig a deeper hole

Disgraced lawyer errs again

The details: Convicted uber-trial lawyer William Lerach was put in 23-hours-a-day lockdown after offering a prison guard his season tickets to San Diego Chargers football games — a violation of rules prohibiting giving favors to prison personnel.

Cutting transportation projects

O’Malley picks wrong place to trim budget.

The Details: Instead of cutting nonessential services or corporate welfare programs to deal with Maryland’s $432 budget shortfall, Gov. Martin O’Malley is targeting a core state function — transportation — for a $1.1 billion hit. So service roads linking to the Intercounty Connector, the top five road projects in Prince George’s and improvements to Montgomery County’s most congested intersection near Bethesda Naval Hospital are on the chopping block.

Keeping malfunctioning voting machines

Machines now vote all by themselves.

The Details: D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty ordered a “full investigation” of the e-voting machines used in last Tuesday’s primary after they produced thousands of fake write-in votes.

But what more proof does the mayor need when a “defective cartridge” or “static discharge” is able to change ballot totals? If the city doesn’t junk this junk or provide a voter-verified, auditable paper trail, D.C. residents might as well stay home on Election Day and let the machines do the voting for them.

Flip-flopping on homeless shelter

Fenty to shutter shelter he once defended.

Details: Mayor Adrian Fenty wants to close a 300-bed homeless shelter in downtown Washington. But as a District Council member, Fenty offered a budget amendment to keep the same shelter — located in the old Franklin School at 13th and K streets — open until a nearby alternative could be found. The redbrick building, a National Historic Landmark, is worth more than $12 million.

End run around the Supreme Court

House panel backs city on guns.

The Details: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted 21-to-1 to back a bill by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton that would allow D.C. to pass restrictive laws making it difficult for residents to exercise their recently affirmed Second Amendment rights. Other members of Congress say D.C.’s temporary gun limits are too restrictive, and want to bar the city from passing any legislation that “discourages or eliminates” citizen’s gun rights.

Losing the police reports — again

Officers told to redo paperwork.

The Details: Police Chief Cathy Lanier has ordered police officers to rewrite more than 3,700 reports on emergency calls from memory because the original reports somehow got “lost” in police headquarters. This after thousands of criminal reports that were supposed to be sent to the FBI for its Uniform Crime Report last year went missing, too.