Time to close up shop, boys and girls.This has been and is a great deal of fun, but unfortunately, to do it properly takes more time and energy than I currently have. Thus, the half-ass job I've been doing lately. I had hoped the morning and afternoon summaries would help, but alas, no luck. In a few days I'll pull the blinds for good on the ol' Blogger account. Many thanks to the loyal readers and occasional guests.Best wishes,Corey Owens (Gregory T. Qualtheim) Read Full Story

Tonight I heard two related complaints - two that I hear more frequently than I care to recount - that just drive me bonkers.1. The media has given lobbying a bad name by only reporting the scandals and not the hard, productive work of most lobbyists.2. The media has given Barack Obama a free pass... They're just so smitten with him they've let him go by unscathed.Let's get a few things straight:a. The media is not monolithic. There have been positive stories about lobbyists and negative stor... Read Full Story

* EU regulators slapped Microsoft with a $1.35 billion fine for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust order to stop overcharging for using its patents to connect to Windows.* Nanotech porn. :-)* Gallup has new data showing that few Democrats think "experience" is key to their vote. Which might explain why their daily tracking poll has Obama up over Clinton 48-43.* Speaking of turns of events, Obama now has at least 200 superdelegates in his pocket, cutting Clinton's lead in that department ... Read Full Story

The Quote of the Day in the New York Times is from 49 year-old Ohio resident Chris Vitell, a self-employed contractor with arthritic knees. Chris' winning line that caught the attention of the paper of record's editors:Whoever can get a handle on health care and stop sending our jobs to China gets my vote.Chris, before you go vote, let's have a refresher course on American democracy and separation of powers. The next president whether that person be John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama... Read Full Story

* Machinist reports that the Apple iTunes store now sells more music than all retailers - brick-and-mortar or online - except Wal-Mart.* New worries have popped up that the United States may be entering a period of stagflation: a period marked by the dangerous combination of high or rising unemployment and high or rising inflation. The Fed signaled yet another rate cut is in the works.* The Encyclopedia of Life - a super-sweet idea - launched on Tuesday. And promptly crashed. The Encyclopedia... Read Full Story

Sorry, totally crazy day at work, thus the low post volume.* China has, in an effort to clean up it's international image before the Olympics, taken to beating its leading human rights lawyer as he walks down the street.* The bad news for Hillary in Texas (in the form of polling data) just keeps coming.* Obama has grabbed one of the third rails of politics - Israel - with both hands, and made a lot of sense doing it: "I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless ... Read Full Story

Any of you in DC with nothing to do over lunch should drop by the National Press Club for a discussion of the unitary executive theory with Jack MacKenzie, author of Absolute Power: How the Unitary Executive Theory is Undermining the Constitution.* Five of the six Gitmo detainees now facing the death penalty for alleged roles in the attacks of September 11, 2001, still don't have lawyers, and the one who does hasn't been allowed to see him.* Dick Morris argues Obama's real value - like JFK's ... Read Full Story

I didn't know whether to categorize this as Man v. Nature or Stranger Than Fiction or create a whole new category devoted to Darwin Award-esque behavior. From The AP:An Austrian tourist died Monday after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.See... I was going to quote more from the article to provide context, but the more I read the more I realized nothing in the article provides useful context to ... Read Full Story

I have started receiving a daily newsletter from InsideRadio.com, and there is a story on there about more problems for Clear Channel trying to find people to buy their things. There isn't much, so I'll just put it all:A $100 million reduction in price for sale of its TV unit appears to be enough to settle a dust-up between Clear Channel and Providence Equity Partners over the sale of its TV group. But there's a new hurdle: the lender. Wachovia is using the revised deal as a window to try to ... Read Full Story

* Pollster has new numbers in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The long and short: Clinton will win the first three by relatively small margins, and Obama will win the fourth by a bit. Well... As soon as I typed that CNN came out with yet another Texas poll with Obama within the margin.* Steve Benen has Bill Kristol slamming Obama for not wearing his American flag lapel pin.* From Reuters, via The Gate, a bipartisan group of governors is pushing for a second stimulus package with more ... Read Full Story