Can't believe we're here again

News from RUSS in Iowa

Feingold's camp reports that author Sanford Horwitt is working on a biography of the senator, set to be published by Simon & Schuster some time next year, according to spokesman Trevor Miller.

Miller said Horwitt has been interviewing Feingold and his staff and associates about everything -- from his school years, to his tough '98 re-election fight against Mark Neumann, to present issues.

Horwitt has also written a biography of Saul Alinsky, who he calls a "pioneering Chicago community organizer." That book is titled "Let Them Call Me Rebel."

Details of his trip here


Bill Frist scores another direct hit…on himself…with gas rebate inanity

"What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly."

Story here


Stephen Colbert, what a job he did! If you missed the White House Correspondents’ dinner, here is some video
I must say, I did also like W’s bit, pretty funny and self-deprecating. Which brings to mind this comment from Huffington Post:

“You have to love the President's self-defecating type of humor. Colbert's performance shows us that sometimes it's ok to cast our pearls before swine.”

Not sure how to take that one… Judge for yourself


Thanks to Marina, I have an interest in this:

But our press says nothing about who the Maoists are in Nepal. What does it mean to be a Maoist in 2006, long after the death of Mao? What is the political program of these Maoists? Is land reform their central issue? Are they anti capitalist (unlike the Chinese heirs of Mao)? I, for one, would like to know. Perhaps I'm uniquely ignorant on this subject, and most readers of the New York Times and Washington Post already know a great deal about Maoism in Nepal. But somehow I suspect that's not the case.

The issue here is not simply that I and other consumers of news would like to better understand what is going on in a very-far-off place: in an era of immense American power, it would indeed be valuable for Americans to learn what Nepalese Maoists believe and why a Maoist movement has endured in the Himalayas. (Oh yes, it now appears that there are Maoists in India also, most of whom are probably not software engineers.)

The issue is also the use of lazy, politicized labels to describe political movements that are ill understood and out of the (American) mainstream. Reporters always need to use some shorthand, but if the shorthand is nowhere fleshed out, it can only serve to promote stereotypes. Maoists? Populists? Insurgents? Warlords? Words that mask more than they tell can get us into trouble.

Media bias is all too prevalent


So, Pat and Jerry, who’s responsible for this one? The president?

Storms with wind up to 100 mph and hail the size of baseballs battered parts of Texas on Saturday, damaging buildings and slamming parked airplanes into one another at an airport.

Don’t mean to be heartless, but am so sick of their hypocrisy….Here for weather details


This fascinating subject courtesy of a pod on Current yesterday:

Earthship Biotecture designs and builds homes that...
• Heat and cool themselves naturally via solar/thermal dynamics...
• Collect their own power from the sun and wind...
• Harvest their own water from rain and snow melt...
• Contain and treat their own sewage on site...
• Produce a significant amount of food...
• And are constructed using largely the byproducts of modern society;
like cans, bottles and tires.

Really worth a look!


Harsh irony

A 76-year-old woman who drove to a cemetery to visit her husband's grave has been killed by her own car.

Sad story here


things that make you go WTF?????

Keith Richards fans gathered outside a hospital Sunday where the Rolling Stones guitarist was believed to be undergoing treatment for a mild concussion reportedly suffered when he fell out of a palm tree on vacation in Fiji.

What was he doing in that tree??? No answer here


Who says the Germans don’t have a sense of humor?

About 100 bearded men have been preening, waxing, curling, washing, varnishing, brushing and combing their copious facial hair in a bid for glory at the International German Beard World Championship in the northern town of Hesel.
Britain's Rod Littlewood, president of the Handlebar Club, founded in 1947 and believed to be the oldest beard wearers' club in the world, said he once made it into the Guinness Book of Records with the longest beard in England, 1.60 metres. Since then, his ambition has waned. "I'm only here for the beer," he said.

Great photos included here


Neil Young is providing the soundtrack to this blog:

Peace groups including True Majority smartly have seized on the moment to mobilize Young’s listeners. Never before has any album moved so quickly from concept to completion to pre-release controversy, to the ears of millions of listeners. Mr. Young knows how to craft a message, and how to market it in a way that no one has before. He's done it like a martial arts expert, utilizing the venom and energy of his attackers who don't like this Canadian citizen's urgent, compelling, pro-peace vision of the American dream.

Listen here


Bush as Vegas gambler on a losing streak…

It's just like playing blackjack in Vegas.
Invariably, sitting right next to you is some guy, eyes shifty and body twitchy and making weird sounds with his mouth and smelling vaguely of sawdust and horse manure and dead dreams, with a huge pile of chips he is quickly turning into a very small pile of chips.

for the lowdown