Thursday links
Today promises to be a busy day for me, so here are some links to what’s hot and happening in the news and around the blogosphere, for your perusal:
—- The Senate has approved Robert Gates as the new Secretary of Defense. Fred Kaplan at Slate writes a piece about Gates titled “Enter the Grown-Up“. Hmmmm.
—- Here’s the latest news on the E. coli outbreak that is happening at Pennsylvania and New Jersey – specifically from people eating at Taco Bell fast food restaurants.
—- The rightie blogosphere is buzzing this morning over an article in the Jerusalem Post that originally reported, among other things, that “sources close to the Hamas-led government claimed that Hamas representatives recently held talks with officials from the US Democratic Party at a secret location.” Captain Ed points out that the article has changed now to where it doesn’t include anything about Hamas reps meeting with reps. from the Democratic party. I’m with Ed on this one in that it’s doubtful that any Dems would have met with anyone from the Hamas-led gov’t. I mean, Dems can really be politically tone-deaf sometimes, but I don’t even think they are that tone-deaf to meet with ‘leaders’ from the Hamas gov’t.
—- Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Maryland) is calling for something new in DC: He’s asking Congress to work …. five days a week. The nerve!
—- New Mexico Governor and presidential hopeful Bill Richardson doesn’t like the idea of the border fence proposed and authorized by Congress earlier this year. He plans on asking Congress to reconsider. Ookay.
—- Congrats to Jay at Stop The ACLU – his blog was mentioned last night on Brit Hume’s Grapevine segment regarding the picture of the nativity scene created by the Young Conservatives in Texas in order to try and please the uber-PC ACLU. Way to go, Jay!
—- Michelle Malkin has posted disturbing news about Jeff Goldstein’s stalker Deb Frisch. Jeff’s had to issue a restraining order against her, but no one knows where she is as she missed a scheduled court date. Scary. Jeralyn Merritt has more details.
—- Voting is scheduled to begin today for the 2006 Weblog Awards. Keep checking this page for info, and once the individual links are posted, you should be able to vote in all categories – but the category for the best of the top 251-500 blogs is the most important one … keep that in mind 
—- Thanks to John Hawkins at Right Wing News, who has named this blog as one of his top 40 favorites of 2006. It’s always an honor to guest blog at his site, and making his top 40 list is just icing on the cake, especially considering he’s in my top ten favorite bloggers 
—- I’m sad to report that Brian at Iowa Voice is closing up shop as of tomorrow, for reasons explained here. Many of you know he guest blogged for me early last month, and I have said many times at this blog that he is the blogosphere’s most underrated blogger. Make sure to stop by his blog and wish him well, and encourage him to return to blogging once he lands back on his feet. He will sure be missed. PM Update: Good news! Looks like Brian’s not going anywhere afterall. Click here to read about the good news.
Feel free to discuss these stories, and/or whatever else that is happening out there, in the comments section. I’ll check in at the blog later today when/if I can. Otherwise, I’ll be back tonight.