Sundown this evening begins the eight-days of Pesach, Passover, the Jewish celebration of Freedom. The at-home service can take hours and sometimes last past midnight, which often leads children and others to ask the four questions: Is it time to eat yet? Is it time to eat yet? Is it time to eat yet? and Is it time to eat yet?

In that spirit I offer Michael Rubiner’s Passover Service For The Impatient.

Opening prayers: Thanks, God, for creating wine. (Drink wine.) Thanks for creating produce. (Eat parsley.)

Overview: Once we were slaves in Egypt. Now we’re free. That’s why we’re doing this.

Four questions:

1. What’s up with the matzoh?
2. What’s the deal with horseradish?
3. What’s with the dipping of the herbs?
4. What’s this whole slouching at the table business?

Answers:

1. When we left Egypt, we were in a hurry. There was no time for making decent bread.
2. Life was bitter, like horseradish.
3. It’s called symbolism.
4. Free people get to slouch.

A funny story: Once, these five rabbis talked all night, then it was morning. (Heat soup now.)

The four kinds of children and how to deal with them:

Wise child-explain Passover.
Simple child-explain Passover slowly.
Silent child-explain Passover loudly.
Wicked child-browbeat in front of the relatives.

Speaking of children: We hid some matzoh. Whoever finds it gets five bucks.

The story of Passover: It’s a long time ago. We’re slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We cry out for help. God brings plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through; the Egyptians aren’t so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without being persecuted again. (Let brisket cool now.)

The 10 Plagues: Blood, Frogs, Lice-you name it.

The singing of “Dayenu”: If God had gotten us out of Egypt and not punished our enemies, it would’ve been enough. If he’d punished our enemies and not parted the Red Sea, if would’ve been enough.

If he’d parted the Red Sea-(Remove gefilte fish from refrigerator now.)

Eat matzoh. Drink more wine. Slouch.

Thanks again, God, for everything.

SERVE MEAL.

Michael Rubiner writes for movies and television. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

And then, of course, there’s the 10-second Haggadah:

They tried to kill us…
We won…
Let’s eat!

Dayenu.

My Soundtrack: Run, Run, Run by Phoenix on WOXY.

A few weeks ago I emailed my dad about a post I’d seen concerning the Union Pacific Railroad’s displeasure with railroad enthusiasts of different stripes profiting from its logo and trains. It turned out that the controversy was nothing new and my dad sent back some links to the most recent issue of Model Railroad News.

The specific discussion is interesting: does a photographer have a right to take pictures of Union Pacific trains and then sell those images at a profit? But what fascinates me more is the wider intellectual property rights involved.

Take, for instance, Cleveland’s Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. While the building is operated by a foundation, it’s construction was heavily subsidized by tax payers in the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. Shortly after it opened a photographer (I forget his name) was sued because he included a photo of the building in a calendar of Cleveland landmarks. I also forget how it came out, but that the Rock Hall’s handlers thought it OK to sue someone for taking a picture of their building is instructive.

When we were a nation that made things we didn’t care much about people making money off of pictures or reproductions of the things we made. For those of us who grew up building plastic models of cars, trucks, tanks and airplanes, the idea that we were somehow ripping off Ford or Boeing would have seemed silly.

But in today’s world where ideas, concepts and visions are more important than bricks and mortar, the idea is not so silly.

Gene Rodenberry created a universe that became the cash cow for Universal Pictures. The Star Trek universe spawned hundreds of fan-created stories and illustrations. It was fans who early on conceived of things like selling blueprints of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701. To attempt such a project today would bring more than the wrath of Kahn down upon the fan.

And, from my point of view, rightly so. Fans of Anne Rice were shocked to learn that she did not appreciate that budding writers were using the Vampire LeStat as a character in their fanzines. She told them in no uncertain terms that LeStat belonged to her and that they should create their own characters.

The April letters-to-the-editor section of Model Railroad News contains three letters offerring the view points of Union Pacific, John Sipple, the magazine’s editor and retired California Superior Court Judge John E. Buffington. Two sections from those letters caught my attention.

First, from Union Pacific:

In order to protect the company’s trademarks from unauthorized use and potential harm, Union Pacific requires a licensing agreement for any use of a current or historic trademark of Union Pacific or its constituent railroads. Anyone wishing to use these logos must file a licensee application and obtain a licensing contract from Union Pacific. Applicants are reviewed carefully to ensure they will positively represent Union Pacific brand values. These restrictions do not apply to in-home model railroad hobbyists who create Union Pacific-branded equipment for personal use. [Emphasis mine, JH]

As I read that, Union Pacific is taking a position very close to that of Creative Commons, a standard used by many bloggers. In essence, it states that you’re free to copy what I’ve written in part as long as you give me credit and you’re not making money off of my words.

Second from Judge Buffington:

Any person who knows a thing about modeling will tell you that a good modeler can create a model of a Union Pacific [or fallen flag road] engine, or piece of rolling stock, and then paint and decal that model so as to make it a realistic model of the original. So your licenses simply will not control use of the trade name or trade marks within the modeler”s realm.

The judge is absolutely correct here. And that is why, I’m sure, Union Pacific clearly states in the emphasized portion above that it is not interested in hammering modelers like my dad who have no intention of marketing their handicraft, but rather do it for the personal enjoyment.

But he continues:

The licenses will create a harmful bar to the small businessman who may be in this sort of business. The licenses will be a restraint that will cause some companies to abandon the manufacture of such items. Ultimately, the enforcement of the licenses will tend to harm small businesses, diminish the supply of parts and models available for purchase and deny some less skilled modelers the ability to create the models that they would otherwise create. I submit that those results will also cause the public to view Union Pacific as a huge, money-grubbing corporation that has little concern for members of the public.

What is the harmful bar to the small business? Union Pacific offers two options:

The first option asks businesses to pay Union Pacific a royalty of three percent is payable on any product bearing a modern, historic, or constituent logo licensed by Union Pacific. The licensee will pay an advance on royalties based on the wholesale price of the product(s) and estimated annual sales of UP-branded products.

The second options asks for an annual fee of .5 percent (one half of one percent) of total licensee gross sales of all model railroad products will be paid to Union Pacific. Gross sales will be calculated on the most recent completed year of sales and will be based on an audited financial report.

In addition, Union Pacific offers a third option to not-for-profit organizations. For places like railroad museums, etc., there is no fee for licensed non-profit use of Union Pacific logos or names, but ALL uses must be approved in advance. Non-profit organizations may distribute Union Pacific-licensed items only through an on-site gift shop, internet-based gift shop or to organization members. Distribution beyond these categories requires specific approval from Union Pacific and may incur a use fee.

This harmful bar does not seem to have been so harmful to the long list of licensed companies.

Model manufacturers could create their own logos. (My dad has his own.) But a lot of buyers want the more authentic big names. And as a business, I think it’s reasonable to pay a portion of your receipts for the privilege of making your product more salable by including those logos.

My Soundtrack: Handcuffed To A Fence In Mississippi by Jim White on WOXY.

A long time ago I remember reading a bit of dating advice for women that said something like: if you want to know what kind of person your date is, look at how he treats the waitress. How we treat the powerless speaks volumes about who we are. That is why when I read this story from Los Angeles I saw red. From The Associated Press:

An 82-year-old woman received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street. Mayvis Coyle said she began shuffling with her cane across Foothill Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley when the light was green, but was unable to make it to the other side before it turned red.

She said the motorcycle officer who ticketed her on Feb. 15 told her she was obstructing traffic.

Where is a good Boy Scout when you need him?

My Soundtrack: Marvelous Truth by Hotel Lights on WOXY.

Tomorrow evening Jews around the world will sit down to the first Pesach Seder to remember when we were slaves in Egypt. But despite more than two millenium of such gatherings, we have been slaves again and again. We have allowed others to be slaves. Remembering is never enough. Action is demanded. Action keeps us free.

From The Writer’s Almanac:

It was on this day in 1945 that American troops entered the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, a camp that was judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. It had been established in 1937, and about 56,000 prisoners died there. There had been reports of concentration camps from the field, but no American soldiers had seen the camps.

Many people assumed that the reports had been anti-Nazi propaganda. But then, on this day, the American soldiers saw a concentration camp for themselves, and they became the first Allied observers of one of the worst atrocities in human history.

The American troops weren’t actually liberators. Most of the Nazis had fled the camp before the approach of the Allied army, and the prisoners themselves had risen up and taken control of the camp from the few SS guards who remained. But most of those prisoners would have died from malnutrition or disease in the next few days if Allied troops hadn’t arrived with food, water, and medical supplies.

Many of the soldiers who entered Buchenwald on this day had been fighting in World War II since D-Day. They had participated some of the bloodiest battles in history. But nothing they’d seen prepared them for what they saw at Buchenwald. Several of the soldiers carried Kodak cameras, and so they took photographs of the surviving prisoners and the dead, so that people would believe what they had seen. Their photographs showed human beings so emaciated that they could barely walk, and victims’ bodies were stacked around the camp like piles of wood.

Sergeant Fred Friendly, who would go on to work as a CBS producer, wrote to his mother, I want you to never forget or let our disbelieving friends forget, that your flesh and blood saw this.

One of the reporters who covered the liberation of Buchenwald was Edward R. Murrow. He was so disturbed by what he saw that he couldn’t write about it for days, and let a subordinate break the story.

One of the children liberated at the camp that day was a teenager named Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He had been forced to march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald a few weeks earlier, and his father had recently died in the camp.

He saw American jeeps rolling into the camps, and he later wrote, I will never forget the American soldiers and the horror that could be read in their faces. I will especially remember one black sergeant, a muscled giant, who wept tears of impotent rage and shame. … We tried to lift him onto our shoulders to show our gratitude, but we didn’t have the strength. We were too weak to even applaud him.

Please remember to include a fourth matzah at your seder tomorrow evening.

My Soundtrack: Tear Off Your Own Head by Elvis Costello on WOXY.

A lot of us sit at tables in wifi hotspots with our laptops all over Cleveland and other than asking a neighbor to watch our computers while we get a more coffee (or get rid of coffee we’ve already drank) we don’t think much about the expensive hardware we’re working on. Now from San Francisco comes a story to send a chill up your spine.

A San Francisco finance manager stopped in at a Mission District cafe and was tapping on his laptop as he enjoyed his coffee just before noon on a Thursday. Suddenly, he was under siege.

I looked up, and I saw this guy leaning into me as if he was asking a question, he said. I leaned forward, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone fiddling with the computer cord. I tried to stand up, and as I stepped back, he stabbed me in the chest.

The attack marked a violent turn in a wave of crime that has hit the city — the hot spots frequented by wireless laptop users are becoming hot spots for laptop robberies.

The 40-year-old San Francisco victim of the March 16 attack suffered a partially collapsed lung and was hospitalized for six days. The two suspects fled with his Apple PowerBook, worth $2,500.

I’ve never used one of those security cables. Does anyone think it’s time to make an investment?

My Soundtrack: God Is A Bullet by Concrete Blonde on WOXY.

If I were a reporter working at a Guild (union) newspaper I’d be very concerned with tomorrow’s roll-out of BlogBurst. The consortium of more than 600 bloggers has already been picked up by Gannett, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman and the San Antonio Express.

It’s fairly easy to see that more newspapers are going to quickly follow.

Why? Because bloggers are used to writing for glory, sex and the occassional cup of free coffee. (OK, I haven’t made it past the free cup of coffee yet, but I’m really working hard at it.) What bloggers aren’t doing is earning Guild-level wages writing their blogs everyday.

The official line from BlogBurst’s parent company, Pluck (I’m not making this up) is that bloggers will fill holes not currently being addressed by dedicated, read well-paid, staff.

Those holes, according to Pluck CEO Dave Panos, are in areas such as travel, women’s issues, technology, food, entertainment and local stories. Since most newspapers get their national and international news off of the wires, that leaves things like, uh, ah: travel, women’s issues, technology, food, entertainment and local stories, for its dedicated staff.

Are bloggers poised to become the Wal Mart associates of the Internet?

My Soundtrack: All The Arms Around You by Haloween, Alaska on WOXY.

I’ve been using term Religious Wrong to define those people who I think act counter to the religion they pretend to espouse and use it’s lexicon to further their political ends. Conservative Republican blogger Andrew Sullivan has felt something of the same but chosen to coin his own word: Christianist. This morning he discusses his intent:

Some readers have objected to my attempt to coin a new word to describe those who would deploy the teachings of Jesus as a political ideology as Christianists. They don’t like the analogy to Islamists, and think it imputes to politicized Christians an endorsement of terror or violence. The latter is not in any way my intent.

In the war on terror, many have distinguished between Muslims and Islamists. The distinction made is between those who sincerely hold to an ancient faith, and those who are deploying that faith as a political weapon, who see no distinction between state and mosque, and who aggressively foist their religious doctrines onto civil law. And this is a critical distinction. It helps us to criticize regimes like the Taliban or Iran’s, while not tarring all Muslims with that label.

That is my intent with the term Christianist and Christianism. The truth is: I do not recognize my own Christianity or the Christianity of millions in the blasphemous words of Tom DeLay or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. These individuals are political figures, using faith as a weapon to advance a political agenda that aims at policing people’s moral lives, removing people’s civil rights, and marginalizing minorities.

Today, in the NYT, Garry Wills brilliantly defends Christianity and Jesus from such blasphemy and hubris. In this, I think many evangelicals and even fundamentalists quietly but overwhelmingly concur. The distinction between religion and politics was long understood among American evangelicals; and it is central to Jesus’ message.

It took hubristic liberalism to galvanize American evangelicals into a politicized response; but subsequently the movement of right-wing Christianism has achieved a momentum all its own. It has even spawned a Catholic off-shoot: the theocons who also want to deploy faith for political gain and an assault on liberty. Wills is right that a left-wing Christianism would be no better. Democrats should do all they can to resist that temptation.

Sounds pertty good to me. What do you think?

My Soundtrack: Deep Down by Calexico on WOXY.

[Update — 1659, 16 April — Ashlee raises a number of points and I attempt to address them in the comments section.]

[Update — 1315, 10 April — Two sources on the Anthony Soltero story independent of the original Internet source have now been found. Thanks to readers Bob Morris and Cruz for forwarding the links to me.]

From the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

Student walkout organizer dead
School’s threats led teen to commit suicide

From the LA Indy News Service:

Threatened by Principle, Student Walkout Organizer Commits Suicide
First Death from Walkouts
Student Suicide: A Phone Interview with the Family”s Attorney
In Memory of Anthony Solteor

Anthony Soltero shot himself on 30 March. He died the following day. Why has it taken more than a week for this story to pop-up on the national radar screen?

Over the past few days an internet tirade of indignation has been spewing forth concerning Anthony Soltero. The story line runs like this: Anthony, an 8th grader, committed suicide after organizing a pro-immigration march and then being told by a school official that he was liable for various punishments, including up to three years in prison.

The story began with a blog entry from Steve at The News Blog.

When I first read the story on MetaFilter something didn’t smell right so I Googled Anthony Soltero. I got zip, nada, nothing that was relevent. That, of course, is inconclusive, but given the fascination of the dead-tree and talking-head media with school-related shootings, I’d have thought they would have been all over it.

Now, more than two days later and after the time of a posted press conference there is still no independent sources discussing this story and my lemmings meter is ticking.

A few people in the comments on both KOS and MetaFilter have called bullshit, but most of the comments are just rants of rage over the insensitive school official. A few have claimed to have talked to family members and the police, but it’s quite possible that those posters are in on the hoax.

[Update –0915, 10 April — Still no second-source confirmation on the events surround a Anthony Solteros or his mother Louise Corales. When I Googled the mother’s name this morning I got only four hits, all of them related to the origial News Blog story.]

Curiouser and curiouser.

My Soundtrack: Alabama by on BirdmonsterWOXY.

On Thursday I wrote: Or, as I”m fully expecting will be the case, will you backpedal with some story about he only lied for the good of the nation? Well, that is exactly what White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was trying to sell yesterday. McClellan has been spinning the story nearly as quickly as the Presidential Approval Ratings swirly.

From this morning’s Los Angeles Times:

There were irresponsible and unfounded accusations being made against the administration, suggesting that we had manipulated or misused that intelligence [in order to justify going to war], White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around … we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified, be declassified. And that’s exactly what we did.

And the pile of straw just gets higher and heavier.

My Soundtrack: Modern Way by Kaiser Chiefs on WOXY.

I wish I knew what the law was here, but if one person dies in South Africa because they didn’t seek proper medical treatment for AIDS after the self-delusional Ernest Angley told them they were cured, then he should be tried for murder. We used to watch his show late at night for the humor benefits. I’m not laughing now.

Yesterday I posted about the further revelations arising from the special counsels investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. It took them longer than usual to agree on the talking point, but the NEO/Theocons are now in full voice with a no story here, move along, move along message. And then the Washington Post adds today:

President Bush authorized White House official I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to disclose highly sensitive intelligence information to the news media in an attempt to discredit a CIA adviser whose views undermined the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, according to a federal prosecutor’s account of Libby’s testimony to a grand jury.

The court filing by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time places Bush and Vice President Cheney at the heart of what Libby testified was an exceptional and deliberate leak of material designed to buttress the administration’s claim that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear weapons. The information was contained in the National Intelligence Estimate, one of the most closely held CIA analyses of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war.

[snip]

Libby, who was indicted last year for allegedly lying to the FBI and a grand jury about what he said to reporters about his contacts with the media, wants the materials because he thinks they will show that his misstatements were innocent and did not stem from an orchestrated administration campaign to discredit Wilson, according to his court filings.

Fitzgerald’s brief uses unusually strong language to rebut this claim. In light of the grand jury testimony, the prosecutor said, “it is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to ‘punish’ Wilson.”

For a look at the chronolgy from a Conservative Republican’s view here are links to Daily Dish’s coverage:

Bush Nailed.
Bush Nailed?
Quotes For The Day.
Declassifying And Leaking.
When Is A Leak Not A Leak?

Any bets are whether or not Fitzgerald bills us taxpapers more than $40 million for his good work?

My Soundtrack: Making Plans For Nigel by XTC on WOXY.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter has indicted three Cuyahoga County Board of Elections workers in an investigation of the 2004 elections. Indicted are: Kathleen Dreamer, Rosie Grier and Jacqueline Maiden. All have been charged with misdemeanor and felony counts of failing to follow the state elections law, says the Pee Dee.

But you would have to read 76 percent — 537 out of 706 words — of the story to discover that piece of information.

Dreamer was manager of the board’s ballot department. Grier was assistant manager. Maiden was Elections Division director and its third-highest-ranking employee.

I was one of the volunteers counting ballots that week. One of the first red flags we came across was that all Republican votes were grouped together in the boxes, clearly they had been presorted and examined before we got to them.

While Michael Vu, executive director of the Cuyahoga County elections board, has not been indicted, it is a little more than silly to expect that the three indicted workers — who are still employees of the board — hatched the scheme on their own.

Baxter says more indictments are possible.

And the next question has to be, if Vu is named, who is he going to trade?

Thanks to Bill Callahan for the heads up.

My Soundtrack: Motion 11 by Cornershop on WOXY.

You just never know when the Secret Service may drop in to your living (or class) room. We all remember President George Bush reading My Little Goat while the the country he was sworn to protect was under attack. As our presidential swirly continues, here’s a bit of Internet humor from my dad.

George W Bush goes to a primary school to talk about the war. After his talk he invites questions. One little boy puts up his hand, and the President asks him his name. Billy. And what is your question, Billy?

I have three questions, says the boy. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden?

Just then the bell rings for recess. George W Bush informs the children that they will continue after recess. When they resume, the President says: Okay where were we? Oh that’s right, question time. Who has a question? A different little boy puts his hand, George points him out and asks his name. Steve! And what is your question, Steve?

I have five questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden? Fourth, why did the recess bell ring 20 minutes early? And fifth, what happened to Billy?

My Soundtrack: Blue Skies by on The Young RepublicWOXY.

OK folks, can it be any more plain than this? Does special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald have to drag Scooter to your front door and have him tell you himself before you’ll believe that the President George Bush is a liar? Or, as I’m fully expecting will be the case, will you backpedal with some story about he only lied for the good of the nation?

From the Washington Post:

A former top aide to Vice President Cheney [I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby] told a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent’s identity that President Bush authorized him to disclose classified intelligence information about Iraq as a way of rebutting criticism from the agent’s husband, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.

That the president is fully authorized to declassify anything he wishes is not the point here.

President George — we will find who ever is responsible for the leak and punish them — Bush ordered Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff to disclose classified information and then lied about doing it. There it is, in black-and-white. What else do you need to know?

[Update — 1608 — Just checking around. Total silence so far from Power Line, Little Green Footballs, Captain’s Quarters and The National Review. The talking points memo must not be out yet. Faux News does have video.]

My Soundtrack: Don’t Jones Me by Th’ Faith Healers on WOXY.

Fuck-and-tell blogger Jessica Cutler is back in court and the judge in the case brought by fuck-and-tellee Robert Steinbuch has ruled that Steinbuch’s invasion of privacy suit may go forward. Both parties worked for Ohio Senator Mike DeWine. Cuter was DeWine’s aide and Steinbuch was his counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

According to the Associated Press:

At a court hearing, lawyers for Cutler and Steinbuch argued whether Steinbuch had waited too long to file the suit. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that Steinbuch had one year from the time of the Internet postings to bring the matter to court. Almost all of the material at issue in the case went up on the Internet more than a year before the lawsuit filed on May 18, 2005.

The case, of course, has serious implications for bloggers everywhere. While the bar for violating the privacy of public figures is high, I’m not sure that Steinbuch meets the criteria for a public figure. And while truth is always a defense in a libel suit, outing ex-lovers, or just admirers whose affections you disdai, could become actionable.

We should all watch this case carefully.

My Soundtrack: Now The Shadow Of The Column by Prosaics on WOXY.

It’s still all about the conversation. And to have a conversation, you need at least two voices. If only one person is talking, that’s called preaching. Russell, Tim and Jeff all offer interesting angles on the pastors dead-tree media. If everyone has a pulpit, why does anyone need a pulpit? Join the congregation and have a conversation.

I’ve spent two hours working on a longer post on Calvin’s musings, but it’s not jelling for me so I’m going to post the cartoon and ask for comments. Why do so many of us buy into everything marketers strive to sell us? Is it that we’re just sheep? Are they evil? Are we self medicating with stuff? Would our economy collapse if we stopped?

EcoCity Cleveland’s David Beach emailed me today about the progress on his Green City Blue Lake initiative: an interactive workspace to tell the story of sustainability in Northeast Ohio. The structure of the website is up and David expects to flesh it out it out over the next few weeks. He writes:

In the coming months, we will be working with many partners to cover the diverse activities that are moving the region toward a more positive future. The pages of the site will gradually fill in with content as we explore how the region is being transformed.

As you can see in the menu to the left, we are featuring 11 practice areas where people are doing amazing work. We also will be compiling background information on major planning and development projects. The goal is to be the best possible community resource to help citizens learn, get connected, and become involved.

In surfing around one of the sections that caught my attention was a list of sacred places in Cuyahoga County. David provides a beginning list of 11 sties. Where’s your sacred space?

My Soundtrack: Unsound by Bettie Serveert on WOXY.

Chas Rich and I have talked about a beer version of last year’s Coffee House Tour. Chas has suggested that we might just go one place with lots of beer like the AleFest on 22 April. I’m going to email and see if they might be interested in a blogger promotion during the event. I think that the venue has wifi, but I’m not sure. Who’s with us?

The bug man is bugging out. Republican Congressman Tom DeLay announced his intention to resign from Congress. Buried under growing charges and indictments of corruption and other crimes DeLay becomes yet another Conservative icon to leave in shame. In an interview with Time magazine, DeLay did his best to put a good face on his decision:

After the primary (March 7), I started looking at — reevaluating the primary — evaluating what the general election was going to be, looking at the landscape. I spent a lot of time talking to friends and people I have respect for and staff — Christine and I every day discussing what the future holds. And I’m very proud of my record and I feel very strongly about what the 22nd District that I represent deserves.

I spent a lot of time in prayer. It was obvious to me — I’m a realist. I’ve been around awhile. I can evaluate political situations. And it was obvious to me that the 22nd District needed an election that discussed issues. It was obvious to me that this election had become a referendum on me.

And DeLay is leaving his native Texas as well. He’s moving to the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia. You don’t suppose that impending lobbyist rules that might put a damper on his cashing in on his former status as The Hammer have anything to do with that decision do you?

I never thought I’d say anything nice about Richard Nixon, but, you know, when it came time for him to go, he went quietly with as much dignity as could possibly be mustered. It’s pretty bad that when Republicans like DeLay have to bail, they dive right for the Washington money teat.

[Update — 1515 — This is a prime example of why I don’t associate with the Moveon.org/Democracy For America people:

Received via email from Jim Dean…

Dear Supporter,

Tom DeLay announced he’s quitting Congress today because he’s afraid of losing his seat to a Democrat.

Democracy for America has dogged DeLay for years. With TV commercials and billboards, at rallies and online, DFA has been on the front lines of the battle to clean up Congress. But we didn’t think DeLay would “cut and run” like he did.

If he did nothing wrong — as he claims — then Tom DeLay shouldn’t be afraid of a re-election campaign in a district he drew for himself. But he is quitting by mid-June.

Let’s help send Tom DeLay the rubber chicken award he so richly deserves:

For every $50 Democracy for America raises today, we’ll send Tom DeLay an authentic rubber chicken for his mantle. It’ll be our goodbye present.

My response to this? It’s childish. It amateurish. It’s buffoonish and it’s flat out wrong. I think it’s stupid, stupid, stupid.]

[Update — 1211 — Comment from Andrew Sullivan:

You know it’s bad for the GOP when National Review and Instapundit barely mention the big news of the day. Tom DeLay’s resignation from elective politics, barely a year and a half after the triumphant Republican re-election campaign of 2004, is a remarkable fall from grace. It happened because the bankruptcy of contemporary Republicanism is increasingly unmissable. And it happened because of obvious corruption, sleaze and a complete lack of broad public appeal.]

My Soundtrack: Low by Cracker on WOXY.