By now, I dearly hope, you haven't made a beeline to your nearest magazine vendor (save it for tomorrow, Tuesday, when the magazine shows up on a rather limited number of newsstands). Maybe you can ask a friend or relative in the New York City area to get a copy for you.

I know you will want to savor the cover on the July 21, 2008 issue. Maybe you will pass it around among your friends and chuckle over your fantasies made into art. Maybe you can find a way to lift the thumbnail photo off the magazine's Web site:

http://www.newyorker.com/...

Actually, I would encourage you to frame the real cover – put it up on your wall where you can save it for posterity.

Jesselyn Radack posted the first diary on today's Senate debate on FISA here:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

You can view the debate on C-Span 2:

http://www.c-span.org/...

There are more fools in the world than there are people.   -- Heinrich Heine

This morning, while browsing the Internet for information on a poet who wrote about society and its government, I discovered several pertinent quotations and writings in byways I hadn't previously considered.

The poet surprises. And just as Shakespeare is relevant today, many, many poets have considered the human race and skewered its follies.

U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic wrote an article in the London Review of Books last year, ...

Cleaning out my Hotlist did not get very far, as I came across this gem written by SusanG in 2005

The Best of Dkos: Find It Here

http://www.dailykos.com/...

We've had so many new registrants, I see we are repeating old stories, firing up explanations and generally being patient about our history. But nothing tops good reading material, and if you are bored with the day's news try the time-tested recommended compilation and catch up with our reference material.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerged Monday from his St. Thomas beach hideout at the posh Ritz-Carlton -- caught in the non-act by CNN

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...

and played golf at Mahogany Run. Several people got to shake his hand and pose for pictures. The best was the near-full front page photo of the tabloid-size Virgin Islands Daily News – only available free on the Web site's home page as a thumbnail. But, check out the story here:

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.co...

Do we hear moaning, harping about the corporate-owned media? Of course. Daily.

But, lukery's diaries on the latest revelations in the Sunday Times of London related to the Sibel Edmonds case (and Valerie Plame's) didn't even make it to the Daily Kos recommended list.

Ironic isn't it?

By late today, international newspapers are picking up on the story, which is headlined:

Enough’s enough
the diarist said.
I miss my friends,
the laughs, the puns.
We’re way too heavy,
sad and fightful.

Give us back our
wit and wits. Do
write a line or two
and make us bright,
shining, top of the game.
(Alas, I have no shame.)

Santa, honey, last year you left a wonderful CD for me, a two-disc set, "The Very Best of Eartha Kitt," which includes not one, but two, versions of "Santa Baby." Now Santa, you know Eartha had something to say, sort of a "let's get real talk," so leave a little time for a chat as you sweep by for cookies and milk tonight.

An honest chat. It doesn't have to be long. I know you're busy. I'll be truthful and I'll keep it short, I promise. (I'm too mature for sweet. We'll let it go at that.)

I've thought long and hard about this gift business, and I almost sent word for you to skip my house this year. We give too much business, anyway, to the corporate lords. But something stopped me from mentally telegraphing that message to you.

First posted as a comment, but the diary has scrolled off the Recent Diaries list. For those who would enjoy the video clips in this diary by dangangry and the comments, go here:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Artists who can give us the breath of God, the single note of inestimable beauty, who speak to us of the sublime leave their mark from one soul to another.

Luciano Pavarotti attained that mark. He gave us that mark. Forever, he will sound out the ending of "Nessun Dorma," the repeated "Vincero!" (I shall win!)

I have been listening to NPR out of NYC with its raft of critics "balancing" the Pavarotti legend. It increased my pain. Well, that balanced critique is the role of the professional critic. But to me one single note of incredible beauty, the sublime, is worth all of a person’s lifetime. And Luciano gave me many such notes.

Let me speak to you of hope. Take a breath of faith, so to speak, for you are convinced, are you not, that one breath follows another even though you know there will come a time when it will not.

Think of the billions of breaths bestowed on you. Think of the next beat of your heart.

Is it not hope that causes you to plan a day, set a menu, organize an outing, eat, shower, dress, work?

Unless we act, however simply, we become a sack of cells, unmoving, unloving, uncaring – for ourselves or for others. It is how we fight for life, these billions of acts of courage. It is how we disallow depression, depletion, despair. We learn to act, not react.

Here's a goody for y'all:

Ask the Post

Deborah Howell
Washington Post Ombudsman
Wednesday, May 9, 2007; 11:00 AM  (Eastern)

Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell will be online Wednesday, May 9 at 11 a.m. to discuss her weekly column and her role in improving public understanding of the newspaper and journalism.

Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.

HERE:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

GO, GO, GO, GO!!!!!!!!!!

I am seeking advice for my friend, a published writer and writing teacher who is plagued by computer problems at the moment. He lives in Greenwich Village in NYC.

His desktop died. Gateway said they would not be able to recover anything since the hard drive died. Also his laptop appears to not have enough memory to run without getting hung up.

I live more than a 1,000 miles away and am no computer expert, but after reading DKos diaries on the White House’s purported loss of e-mails, I heard you computer techies say nothing is lost on a computer.

Now, the U.S. Air Force is setting up a cyberspace command. Reuters has the story, which was carried by The New York Times and The Washington Post:

[http://today.reuters.com/...]

Yes, you are worth "listening" to.

The Conyers report, the Lieberman follies, Abramoff ties (and don't forget Hastert and Sibel Edmonds' comments in interviews) and general Friday unwinding.

By the way, I downloaded the Conyers report in Microsoft Word and it did not take long, even with a dial-up connection, so go to it.

Here you go.

Available online on C-Span2

Link

"Was it really necessary to subject Mrs. Alito to the harsh glare of the kleig lights, fighting to retain her dignity ...

Obviously something is wrong with our judicial-making process. .... UPDATE: Sen. Byrd states he will vote "yes" on Alito nomination.

Here's a call to the media, more specifically newspapers, where I am more at home: forget the balancing act, forget the he said/she said approach, which takes up an entire story about OPO, Other People's Opinions.

Tell me, dear saints in heaven, WHAT HAPPENED - HOW AND WHY. And, it follows, WHAT IT MEANS TO ME.

Now, you can't do all that if you are toddling between the Democrats and the Republicans, or the liberal and the conservative think tanks. YOU are the one being paid to THINK.