I almost missed Joseph Braude’s interesting piece from TNR Online about what al Qaeda’s response to Bush’s SOTU meant. Excellent stuff.

Also, it turns out that Bruade, who wrote The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for Its People, the Middle East, and the World, has his own blog. Worth watching.

Blogger Laurie Gigliotti points us to Kos’s admission that he isn’t much of a reader. He recently wrote, “One of my dirty little secrets–I read very few books. In fact, the only time I read books is when I’m traveling, at the airport and on a plane.”

Gigliotti is pretty mean about it, noting that “Even George Bush has outread this guy.”

Daily Kos, the voice of the post-Kerry Democratic party, has this to say about establishment Democrats who are worried that the new Dean DNC might be a tad too strident:

“None of the ‘worrying strategists’ were quoted by name, clearly afraid of incurring the grassroot’s wrath for being fucking idiotic.”

It’s important to take Markos Moulitsas (Kos) seriously.

Meryl Yourish has a good item on a picture that somehow keeps getting attached to AP stories.

Galley Wife S.L. sends along this roomate-wanted ad from her alma mater’s alum site:

Available *now*, looking for non-smoking roommate to sign 1 year lease. Must fill by March 1st. . . .

I’m a 26 year old non-smoking, non-drug using queer Asian woman looking for the same in terms of habits and sensibilities. I am not heteronormative, do not go to happy hours, have not milked my Smith degree for all it’$ got, and my friends are the kind of people who get stared at on the subway and roughed up by police (generally at protests). I look very respectable and am very easy to live with. I spend a lot of free time volunteering, on the computer, and socializing.

I am trans and vegan friendly. I prefer living with other queer women of color, radical activists, community workers, artists, music nerds, and *happy people* in general. But being an educated person and going through 4 years of liberalisation at Smith, I’m equal opportunity. Which means everyone but straight men and smokers should answer this post and let me know why they want to move here and when.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Jay Homnick has a kinder view of Thompson’s legacy than Stephen Schwartz does.

Paul Belien has a report from Brussels about the latest Belgian fad: A urinal sticker with a picture of George W. Bush and the American flag and a caption which reads “Go ahead. Piss on me.”

It would be one thing if this was some samizdat protest, but the ubiquitous stickers were actually designed by a Laurent Winnnock, a young man who works for Belgium’s vice prime minister. Not only that, but Winnock did his designing during office hours–essentially on government time. Maybe I’m naive, but I suspet that even in Howard Dean’s DNC, this sort of stunt would get you fired.

Of course America alreayd has its own piss-on-Bush urinal sticker. You can find it for sale at a place called DemocracyMeansYou.com, along with other fun doo-dads (if you want to know what the far left really thinks, look at their bumper stickers), including my personal favorites: WE Are the Rogue State and the amazing Germans supported their troops too. This last sticker features a yellow ribbon with the universal “No” slash layered on top of it.

Mind you, I would never, ever question these people’s patriotism.

At long last, the Washington Post devotes a homage to local NBC reporter Pat Collins. For those who live in the area, Collins is the unmistakable presence at the scene of the crime–in fact he’s covered thousands of DC-area homicides through the years. Here is a classic Collins opening, as described by the Post‘s Paul Farhi:

“Doreen, she was just 15 years old,” begins the Channel 4 reporter…. “She lived in Fairfax County.” Pause.

“She was found murdered”–pause–“in Prince George’s County. She’d been missing for about 12 days. Now, she’d been having some problems in school. But no one”–huge, hulking, super-dramatic pause–“no one expected something like this.”

And it’s not just murder. Viewers will find Collins in the middle of a snowstorm, carrying his yardstick, performing impromptu measurements. As Farhi notes, “He often looks, as his wife once put it, like a guy who got dressed in the dark. In winter, he’ll go on live in full shambling glory–khaki cargo pants and V-neck sweater, maybe a fleece jacket, his tie loosely knotted.”

Like John Johnson in New York, Collins is part of a dying breed. He might not be slick but he definitely isn’t plastic. And he may not succeed Brian Williams or Katie Couric, but he doesn’t mind. Collins simply enjoys what he does: good old-fashioned reporting.