So does anyone know...

how Obama and Edwards are planning to act on this? (I would ask about Clinton as well, but she seems so closely tied to the telecom industry that it's not worth asking.) I read the firedoglake post about Obama's strong words (and lack of perceptible action) on the subject, but is there any indication that he's planning to actually do anything about it, even just to the extent of issuing a statement that he's supporting Dodd's hold?

The Congressional Democrats apparently pride themselves on blowing off Edwards, which they figure they can do since he's no longer a sitting Senator. But yes, Obama needs to have the guts to dope-slap Reid (yeah, yeah, the media will holler "the Democrats are in disarray!" again, but screw them) and show us he deserves our vote. Hey, if he's not going to be a Senator after January of '09, who cares about Senate collegiality?

You should be.

Thank you again, Glenn. Every single column of yours is a gem of research and rationality.

My dream president hires Patrick Fitzgerald to be Attorney General, and he appoints you to head up his office team.

1) Tell the Fundies to back birth control. They're against it, and their bought-and-paid-for leader Bush has cut sensible family-planning aid both in the US and elsewhere. Result: Spiraling and unsustainable birth rates.

2) If you live in a rural or even exurban part of the US, take up deer hunting. The deer population in the US has grown waaaaay beyond sustainability, to the point where the deer are scouring the forest floor so that everything below the tree branches in deer-heavy areas is a denuded moonscape: http://www.citypages.com/detail.asp?ArticleID=12655

3) Grow at least some of your own herbs and veggies. Even a condo balcony can support a cold frame. If you've got more space, or even some dirt by a sunny wall of your house, try tomatoes or peppers. (If nothing else, you can grow chiles; they don't take much space to grow and are packed with vitamins and other good things.) Every little bit helps.

Lydaking, if humans don't start using birth control worldwide (which Bush and his religious-wrong friends have done their best to fight), there will be a massive die-off -- and by the time that occurs, our planet will be so trashed that the sustainability level will not allow more than a few tens of millions of us at best.

It doesn't matter what you like or don't like: A 9/10 die-off rate is actually an optimistic scenario. It's much more likely to be around 99/100.

RT: Stop with the whining about JKR's comments at a fan gathering. (That goes for the rest of you.)

In case you've been living under a frickin' rock for the past few decades, fan fictioneers have been refusing to let stories "end" for ages now. Why should Rowling?

The oldest extant community of fan fiction writers and readers is the Baker Street Irregulars, the group of fans of Sherlock Holmes who keep the flame alive. It was the actions and reactions of Holmes fans that not only started fan fiction as we know it -- though they called it 'pastiches' back then -- but wound up convincing Holmes' creator to bring Holmes back from his 'death' at Reichenbach for many more adventures. (One wishes Rowling would do the same for Snape, for whom she has this wildly veering love-hate thing going on, but hey, there's always fan fiction.)

It's a nice way to remind folks that the STATE, not the church, is the entity that legally marries you. Getting the license at the courthouse, not standing in front of the preacher at the altar, is the key event here.

He's saying that nobody's forcing churches to do what they don't want to do. Which is true, because marriage doesn't require a church or any sort of religious input.

Too bad no sane and respectably economist takes the Laffer Curve seriously. (And sorry, the trogdolyte trustafarians on the Murdoch WSJ's editorial page don't count as sane and respectable for anything, much less economics.)

Go check out http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/07/yet-again-tax-c.html

for but one of many smackdowns of the Don't-Make-Me-Laugh Curve. (And here's another one, just for grins: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2006/07/debunking_one_o.html)

So far, Col. Zampolit Boylan hasn't provided any proof of what he's saying. None. Zip. Nada.

Instead, he's trying to put the burden of proof on Glenn, but Glenn's not having it. This leaves Boylan to cut himself to ribbons playing with Occam's Razor.

See Glenn Greenwald's latest, here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/31/boylan/index.html

So we have proof that Boylan can and will lie out his ass about this.

Occam's Razor says that Boylan sent the letters and is lying about it.

And wins.