Here are some things that I would have blogged about if I had more hours in the day:
+ A federal judge in California has ordered the opensource journalism site wikileaks.org taken offline. A bank in the Caymans apparently found some docs on the site they weren't happy about, and the judge decided the best way to handle it was to order the entire site shut down. But of course the Internet being what it is, that's easy to say but impossible to do. Within hours, mirrored versions of the site had sprung up all over the world, embargoed docs and all. Makes the fight over the Pentagon Papers seem quaint, no?
+ In case you didn't feel like wading through the hideous details of John McCain's highly unethical campaign finance scheme, Hilzoy has captured its essence in a single sentence: "in exchange for a loan, John McCain gave away his right to decide for himself whether or not to stay in the race for the Presidency." To which I would add: Doing so may not have been illegal, but for a man famous for straight-talking his way to campaign finance reform, it is shockingly unethical.
+ The Onion has put together a hilarious glossary of political terminology here. My favorite: "Experience- A quantitative score any politician may increase by slaying foes or solving riddles."
+ The Economist's Free Exchange comes out against Obama. But from my vantage point, all of their complaints sound like compliments to me. An excerpt:
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama will not inspire venomous, high-spirited obstruction from the Republican congressional minority. On the contrary, an Obama victory will be cast as such a triumphant watershed moment (and quite reasonably so) that we should expect an especially drawn out and sunny honeymoon. Republicans will be anxious to take off the kid gloves, but will be much constrained by the prevailing spirit of celebration and hope, which may leave the charasmatic young president seeming untouchable, at least for a time. Add to this Mr Obama's much-touted skill for diplomatically forging consensus, and it seems we could end up with an American economic policy rather further to the left than seemed politically possible even a few month's ago.
+ Fidel Castro is officially heading into retirement. I don't expect this will change, well... anything. It is worth noting, however, that Castro survived all of our attempts to loosen his grip on power. At some point you would think we would reconsider what we're doing, but no... [UPDATE: I spoke too soon. Looks like Obama wants to use this as an opportunity to rethink our entire approach to Cuba. Know hope!]
+ Talking Points Memo just won one of the biggest awards in journalism. Not online journalism, but journalism. Imagine if Will Farrell's Landlord web video won a Golden Globe and you'll have some idea of the magnitude of this. (More here.)
+ Yet another example of how conservatism is stuck in the 1980s: Over at the Corner, Lis Schiffren concludes that because Obama's father was black and his mother was white, they must have been communists. Nope, I'm not kidding.
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