“If Secretary Paulson can’t adjust his thinking, and put transparency and clarity first, he should step down and make room for someone who can.”

“In other words: the beer is free, but you have to pay for a specially designed stein. (Of course, you could always choose to cup your hands.)”

“Night light in neighborhoods populated primarily by embattled Sunni residents declined dramatically just before the February 2007 surge and never returned, suggesting that ethnic cleansing by rival Shiites may have been largely responsible for the decrease in violence for which the U.S. military has claimed credit, the team reports in a new study based on publicly available satellite imagery.”

Among 38 incumbent congressmen in races rated as “toss-up” or “lean” by Swing State Project, just 8 voted for the bailout as opposed to 30 against: a batting average of .211. 

By comparison, the vote among congressmen who don’t have as much to worry about was essentially even: 197 for, 198 against.

“The four-foot-tall oil painting depicts the current governor of Alaska standing atop a polar bear-skin rug in her living room, nude, except for a pair of red stiletto heels and her trademark eyeglasses.”

Nothing new in this story for people who follow open government, but nice to see it discussed in a popular forum like Huffington Post.

“Today, if you made a movie about Chicago hipsters, Caroline Fortis probably wouldn’t write for the Reader. She’d write for Time Out Chicago, or Pitchfork, the music Webzine. The Reader still hits the streets every week, but as a single-section tabloid. Last year, shortly after its purchase by Creative Loafing, the Tampa-based chain, the paper laid off its entire design staff and four investigative reporters. And there’s a feeling around Chicago that the Reader has failed to catch on with the younger generation, and perhaps failed to try, at least until recently.”