Bloggers go home

So Thursday night I'm at a concert and my date introduces me to two of her friends. "And you're all bloggers," she finished by saying.

I looked at those two guys and thought, this has gone too far. Nothing against them. I'm sure they're decent, witty, insightful human beings. But how can you appreciate songs when everyone's grabbing a microphone? The New York Times Magazine has a piece on the convention bloggers, with the big players, et. al. Hey -- the phenomenon isn't going away, nor should it. The big-league bloggers (I'm somewhere between Fargo and Topeka on that scale, I suspect) are making an impact. And the Dan Rather story wouldn't have played out as it had. But man, the air's getting pretty hot around here, and I can't help but feel apologetic for my own contribution.

The Wichita Eagle speaks out against last week's House pledge vote, saying:

Whether the pledge includes the words "under God" -- which were inserting in 1954, largely out of Cold War paranoia -- is much less important than preserving an independent judiciary.

Sen. Sam Brownback is referred to as a "so-called conservative" in the anti-immigration American Daily for co-sponsoring legislation with California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer that tries to keep border traffic flowing while protecting against terrorists. And with two weeks left in the congressional session, intelligence plans, including Sen. Pat Roberts's, are at the forefront of debate. Look for it to dominate the next couple weeks.

That's the quick-and-dirty of today. Now, back to the plumbers back home. Love the smell of new drywall.