Nightnote Kentucky correspondent and friend Janice felt it! The big midwest shaker shook her area and she sends us this report:
You Californians might think this is normal but I was awoken at 5:30 this morning with my house shaking and a making all sorts of noise! We had a 5.2 quake and an aftershock of […]

Despite Republican tactics that pulled the House of Representatives into a late-night secret session — only the third since 1825 — today the House said no to warrantless government wiretapping and no to immunizing telcos that participate in warrantless trolling of American citizens’ communications. Nicely, they also said yes to investigations of the whole Bush […]

Divide the $608 Billion spent on Operation Iraqi Freedom through FY 2008 [1] by the population of the U.S. and you’ll see that the war is costing every US man, woman and child about $2,400 — that’s just through the end of this fiscal year. Now, take note that public broadcasting costs about $1.53 per […]

Val e-mails from work to ask if I hear the black helicopters, because People for the American Way used my protest photo in their new video against illegal domestic spying by our government. Val’s in there too. Check it out:

From the People for the American Way: The Senate passed a FISA reform bill last […]

At the nexus of history geeks, graphics geeks and politico-geeks there are things like these HistoryShots’ posters, “History of the [American] Political Parties I and II”. Fascinating. Whiggy. See them at historyshots.com.

TPM: GOP Bid to Block Amendments on Surveillance Bill Fails.
Louisiana readers note: Mary Landrieu was one of only four Dems to cross the line to vote in favor of administration secrecy and telcom immunity.

Tomorrow — Monday, January 28 — the Senate will take up the question of cloture on the FISA Amendments Act (S. 2248). Now before your eyes glaze, this is important! Ever say anything on the phone or in an e-mail that you would rather not share with loyal Bushie operatchiks? Believe Bush administration should keep […]

First a disclaimer: the fires are a major disaster for Southern California — 350,000 homes evacuated, more than 1000 homes are lost. And, though the winds are predicted to drop by Wednesday, things are far from over. But, for me personally — the fires have been just an irritant and an inconvenience. I am not […]

Watching the Republican debate tonight, I find it hard to believe that Americans can get behind any of these guys. But then I remember the party’s last candidate, and the sad reality sets in.
 

I miss Bill. I really do. I miss his silvery Rhodes Scholar ass. I miss the way he had thoughts in his head and how he didn’t plunge us into war all the time. You know, and that cute way he had of not turning America’s name to shit around the world, that was […]

A collection of blogging bits and pieces that I haven’t got around to posting, or things that fell out of this or that post — leftover, but still tasty.
Val makes a special Hidden Cheese Pizza where the oh-so-creamy Buffalo Mozzarella hides under the fresh tomato slices. This — and the perfect roasting of the red […]

• The National Hurricane Center
• Times-Picayune Storm Watch
• WWL-TV
CNN reports temperature of Gulf waters today: 86°

Friend and scholar Ed Humes writes about Belief Addiction for the Huffington Post:
Belief untempered by reason, however, has not served us well, bringing crusades, the KKK, Nazism, jihad and, yes, an Iraq war launched against the wrong adversary for the wrong reasons with the wrong expectations (remember the cakewalk? the roses that would be tossed […]

The Wall Street Journal ran a weekend review of Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America’s Soul — a new book on the Dover, PA creationism trial by friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes — but the paper neglected to mention the “reviewer” is a long-time Intelligent Design advocate with a […]

• The National Hurricane Center.
• WWL-TV.
• The Times-Picayune/nola.com.

at the National Hurricane Center.

was outdoing itself today: House Assails Media Report on Tracking of Finances and House approves coastline oil and natural gas exploration.

We squeaked by today when the Senate declined pass a Flag Desecration Amendment by a single vote. There was a particularly revolting performance by my Senator Diane (for it) Feinstein — in which she went on about iconic flag-raising Marines on Iwo Jima, but seemed not to understand that those men did not fight and […]

Just when commercial broadcast news is at its most disgusting, it looks like Congress is getting ready to cut funding for public broadcasting. That lead me to tellthempublicmatters.org. I used their pretty cool letter-building tool to send a letter to my Representative. (Of course, since my Rep. is Dana Rohrabacher …)

Mad cow cases in Texas, Alabama called mysterious.