Just because I've seen the term so much, I just wanted to provide a little backup on conservative, or  "Blue Dog" Democrats.

The term is a reference to the "Blue Dog" paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue of Lafayette, Louisiana; the original members of the coalition would regularly meet in the offices of Louisiana representatives Billy Tauzin and Jimmy Hayes, both of whom had Rodrigue's paintings on their walls.

On a road trip to New Orleans a few summers ago, we actually had dinner in the Blue Dog Cafe.  I was familiar with the paintings generally which you can see by the link are all over the walls, but didn't know at the time who the artist was or that he was based in the town we were in at the time.  The gumbo was awesome and I would highly recommend it.

**********
Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley died of leukemia this morning. He joined the staff of the venerable news magazine 26 years ago.  Damn.  As

zarq

asked me the other day - how the hell does Wikipedia get updated so fast?

**********
Don't mean to stir up all the anti-Semites out there, but we Jews are really over-represented in the Congress.  Growing up in NYC, I thought the Irish were the only ones who went into politics.  Jewish support for Republicans was only 12% according to this report. It was double that according to this report. In any case, it ain't a lot.  "I'm such a lonely boy, lonely and red...."

**********
The Israelis screwed up again.  19 innocent Palestinians dead.  As I generally don't believe about the Israeli army what Amnesty International does ("reckless disregard for human life"), I always assume there is a reason behind such tragic mistakes.  Nevertheless, it's a terrible, terrible thing to have done.   The Palestinians should sue the manufacturer of the artillery gun in it's country of origin if you ask me.  How's that for an interesting application of civil law in times of war?