This week's Carnival of the Vanities is up. If you don't have a weblog, it's a collection of posts from all over submitted by various bloggers. It's wonderful, variety-packed reading. Check it out. … [Read more...] about A Big Menu Of Delicious Weblog Posts

Has the moment of political truth come for President George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress? Have we seen a classic case of overreaching and miscalculation? The answers will likely be given to us fairly quickly by the political fates. But one thing is certain: suddenly, there is an awful lot of political fluidity out there: President George Bush has his first … [Read more...] about Are Congress And George Bush Facing A Backlash?

This is the era of highly active, vigorous seniors and in recent years one way seniors have tried to stay healthy was by taking lots of Calicium and Vitamin D supplements to help their bones. The medical scuttlebutt has been that the two supplements helped prevent fractures. No more. Two studies have come out saying the supplements don't help. According to the BBC: Taking … [Read more...] about Are Calcium, Vitamin D Worthless For Elderly Bones?

President George Bush discusses the benefits of Viagra. … [Read more...] about Photo Of The Day

President George Bush will hold his first prime time press conference in over a year, raising the question: what took him so long? The press conference will be at 8:30 EDT (does that stand for End DeLay Term? Well, probably not...) tonight. According to reports the prime purpose is to give more details on Social Security reform. The irony is: George Bush has usually done … [Read more...] about Bush To Hold Prime Time Press Conference Tonight

You have to wonder when radio talk show hosts on the left and right make jokes about murdering political leaders or foes whether they have a mental problem — or a mental to begin with. Don't they read the PAPERS and see what kinds of crazy people we have out there? And I'm not just talking about the ones in Congress. The latest person to cross a DEFINITE line that … [Read more...] about How Do You Spell “DUMB?” Air America’s Randi Rhodes’ Assassination Humor

A political scandal continues to unfold in Colorado where it turns out that the chairman of the Young Republicans was apparently among those who booted three people from a speech by President George Bush. Their sin: they had an antiwar, anti-Bush bumper sticker on their car. Part of this scandal also includes allegations that the person who actually ejected them claimed to be … [Read more...] about If They Didn’t Agree With The President They Couldn’t Hear Him Speak

Have the innocent, fun bikini-suicide-frisbee days of blogging passed? … [Read more...] about The end of the beginning for blogging?

Law professor, MSNBC columnist, and libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds has this gentle warning to his party in one of his posts today in reference to President Bush's declining poll numbers: I don't think it's much of a mystery, and I agree with Bush pollster Matthew Dowd that it has something to do with Terri Schiavo....Only it's broader than that. The Democrats' weakness is … [Read more...] about GUEST VOICE: A Gentle Warning To Republicans

A false alarm involving a possible violation of White House airspace sent President George Bush into a bunker today. It underlined an important fact: although the U.S. government seems to have quietly discarded the color-coded terror alerts, the threat of terrorism still looms large — and anything touching on the issue is taken seriously. The last time Bush was moved to … [Read more...] about False Airspace Violation Security Alarm Sends Bush Into Bunker

Today a monster commercial aircraft, operating with a small initial crew, successfully completed its a highly touted and covered test run — thus opening a new era for travelers under the assumption that "bigger is better." The aircraft that took off from France's Toulouse Blagnac airport was Airbus' new 308 ton Airbus A380, a double-decker … [Read more...] about Superduper Jumbo Airbus 380’s Flight Begins New Aviation Era

NOTE: This is the first in a formal series excerpting bloggers who use solid journalistic techniques that live up to the form's potential. In the past we've informally pointed to innovative bloggers such as Citizen Smash, who has done original interviews and attended demonstrations (even organized one) and to The Talking Dog for his excellent recent Q&A report. In this … [Read more...] about BLOGGER JOURNALISTS #1: Jonathan Singer Interviews Sen. DeConcini And Third Way Founder Jon Cowan

If you strip all the niceties away from a recent New York Times article, the highly controversial nomination of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the UN can be boiled down to one sentence: Win this one for OUR team. The Times reports that Bolton's nomination — beset with allegations that he has been a bully, irritated diplomats in England, and sparked negative private … [Read more...] about Bolton Confirmation Framed As Partisan Must Win For Bush

Next time you turn on the tube and you see an ad for a certain kind of drug you might think you're mentally strong enough to resist being greatly influenced by the advertising, and you might be right: you might not automatically embrace the drug just because you see it hyped on TV. But your doctor MIGHT. If a patient asks a doctor for a heavily hyped drug he's apt to get it -- … [Read more...] about Drug Ads Work — On Doctors

What happens when an American is seized and held hostage in Iraq? By now it's predictable: it becomes a big story -- but with each hostage seized it becomes a smaller story. It gets a bit of ink and a line on TV/cable news. And then you don't hear about it. The reason: the media and public perceptions are becoming desensitized. But little by little you notice how weblogs are … [Read more...] about Interview With The Daughter Of An American Hostage In Iraq

Law student Steve Barnett has a manageable and eye-opening history of the filibuster, as well as current law surrounding its use on certain subjects. Forget that it was racist legislators who utilized the filibuster most effectively, to block civil rights legislation; and forget that the earliest filibuster landed the national capital in "a humid swamp now known as Washington, … [Read more...] about Filibuster busted

How did we go from the certainties of World War II to the so-called age of irony we now endure with men proclaiming they are both moral and "did nothing illegal"? Some thoughts on the fifty year wound of the Cold War are expressed at Random Fate. … [Read more...] about A brief interlude from the controversy du jour

From The Christian Science Monitor: As the Senate moves toward a showdown over the so-called nuclear option, risks and rewards confront both Republicans and Democrats, whatever the outcome. Both sides concede that the move to lower the threshold required to end a filibuster from 60 votes to a simple majority could shut down the Senate. But it's not clear for how long, with … [Read more...] about Playing chicken with OUR government

As an expatriate in France during a time of expansion and transformation of the European Union and being a first-hand witness to the questioning of what it means to be "European", I have had a unique opportunity to learn about this gallimaufry of cultures that gave rise to the "melting pot" in the United States. To help me understand what I see and hear, I write "letters from … [Read more...] about A letter from Europe: opinions on the EU constitution and Turkey

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has stuck a verbal pin in what apparently were trial balloons to see if there could be a compromise with Democrats to head off the use of the so-called "nuclear option" that would eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominees. What's going on now is fascinating because there is so much at play here: Frist's well-known presidential … [Read more...] about Frist: My Way Or The Highway On Judicial Nominees