Have been geeting some useful feedback to the column today, notably from Kos's lawyer, Adam Bonin, who has posted this excellent background to the issue, which has attracted a number of thoughtful posts in response.



And I suppose this was inevitable.

What a nice headline.... (but not, of course, for the chap concerned.

Likewise, nice headline here. Yes, it's old, but worth revisiting...

George Galloway's testimony before the Senate subcommittee investigating the Iraqi oil-for-food programme is going on at the moment and is, quite simply, mesmerising.

In a chilling display of parliamentary oratory - direct eye contact, no notes, deliberate speech giving full effect to his educated Scots accent - Galloway basically ripped Norm Coleman a new one...

A highlight: "On the very first page of your document about me, you assert that I have had many meetings with Saddam Hussein. This is false.

"I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as many meetings. In fact I've met him exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him.

"The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war."

Here's how our news list tonight described the story - "Barnstorming Galloway blasts Coleman's committee over everything from Abu Ghraib to Rumsfeld's meetings with Saddam 'Where's the money, Senator?'"

Gorgeous George might just find himself the new darling of the liberal left.

Today's hearing also coincided with the publication of the Democrats' minority report showing that there were less than adequate safeguards on illegal kickbacks.

A double first!

My column makes Romenesko and the mediabistro daily email today....

Am honestly quite humbled. Hope it makes some sense!

Makes up for the very, very strange email I got overnight - just after the column was posted:

It read (complete with upper case letters):

"THE BLOG HAS HELPED ME BECOME A BORN AGAIN DEMOCRAT (OUR GOD IS BETTER AND HAS BETTER MORAL VALUES VS. THE RED STATES GOD).. IT ALSO MADE ME REALIZE THAT EVERY MAN SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO ANY WEAPON ( NUKES IF THEY WERE PORTABLE) TO DEFEND HIS PROPERTY AGAINST HIS NEIGHBORS.. ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN, BUT I THOUGHT HE WAS TRYING TO GET INTO MY HOUSE...ALSO ANYONE WHO VOTED FOR KERRY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN ANY CHURCH ...AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...ABORTION...BOTH THE WOMAN AND THE DR SHOULD BE STONED TO DEATH FOR KILLING THE SPERM.....I HAVE BECOME A MUCH BETTER PERSON BECAUSE OF THE BLOGS....."

hmmmm....

Examples... we want examples!

Actually, it was the final paragraph that got me checking that there wasn't an April 1 dateline on the story:

"State Representative Al Edwards, a Houston Democrat and sponsor of the bill, has argued that suggestive routines are a distraction and result in pregnancies, dropouts, and the contraction of herpes and HIV."



Another nice line on the LATimes, via mediabistro's daily email today:

"Tim Rutten delivers a devastating verdict on new CNN Headline News personality Nancy Grace, describing her as the love child of Scarlett O'Hara and Torquemada."



This is interesting, in the potential it represents.


Quite a nice read also in The Washingtonian about the role of newspaper gossip columns in the internet age.

Excerpt:

"The beauty of the Internet is that it takes us back to the town square," says Ann Gerhart, a Post feature writer who once cowrote the Reliable Source with Annie Groer. "‘Did you hear what she did? Let’s stone her to death.’ And you never have to worry about whether she did or didn’t do it. Nothing on the Web has to be corroborated."

In a slightly similar vein, Arianna Huffington tells CNN all about her blog, while Tina Brown is looking for gainful employment.

Quote: 'With its motor-mouthed interviews of chief executives and major stars, "Topic A with Tina Brown" was designed as Charlie Rose for the A.D.D. set.'



My trip to Copenhagen went well, even though the weather was absolutely sensational for the two days we were cooped up in the faculty building, only deciding to rain during my three free hours on Saturday morning.

I think the paper was well-received; even if, as is often the case with these gatherings, if the subject doesn't fall directly within someone's research area, there's a tendency for them to tune out. Can't blame them - I do it myself.

Was a good social gathering, though, and made a few decent contacts. Plus submitting always goes down well at the college, and I have my end of year review with my head of department coming up in a couple of weeks, so need all the good karma I can get.


One of my favourite lines recently:

"By the time all five animals were shot, at least 120 rounds had been fired, a few that hit empty houses and a nearby car, Laxson said. The first buffalo took several shots in the head and "didn't even flinch." (Thanks...)

and from the same source, a simply great headline. The story features this line: "His family had him cryogenically frozen, and his body is stored under dry ice in a shed in Nederland."

Makes you want to read on, doesn't it?