Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities
Eleven nice covers of Modest Mouse songs. Very good stuff.

Due out December 20th, but you can hear it online HERE!

Ryan Adams on the album:

“That one’s really fucked up. It has nine songs, and all the songs are nine minutes long, they’re all story-songs. And it’s basically just me and a piano, me and a guitar, with [producer] Ethan [Johns]. It’s really cerebral. The theme of it was that I wanted to write a record where I could write myself out of my twenties. So for each year of my life, in my twenties, I kind of assigned different parts of my character, I gave them names. The last song is a song from the perspective, believe it or not, of a ghost. When it’s just passed out of a body, and it goes ‘Don’t go to the light/ I’ll show you how to haunt.’ This spirit is trying to conjure this dead child, this dead person, back to the house where they died. So they can haunt it. It’s really fucked up.”

Group ranks most dangerous U.S. cities

Listed as the most dangerous cities are: Camden, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Flint, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Gary, Indiana; Birmingham, Alabama.

Take THAT, Baltimore!

Okay, why exactly is the Democratic party screaming victory as if they’ve gained ground on the Republicans nationally when all they really did was RETAIN two Governorships? So you didn’t lose ground, great, congrats, but quit treating it like a referendum against Bush or other issues of national or international significance.

Sheesh.

Senator Allen is just finishing up a great speach.

Chin up.

We’ve got a Presidential campaign to look forwards to.

95% in puts him up 50.88% to Byrne’s 48.93%.

CT Woody is on top of Michelle Mitchell.

With 59 of 65 precincts reporting, challenger C.T. Woody has 51.3 percent of the votes.

Incumbent Michelle B. Mitchell trails with 44.8 percent.

The local Fox channel is reporting that Kilgore has called Kaine and conceeded.

With 74.4% of the precincts reporting Kaine is up 50.61% to 47.13%.

I’m glued to this site tonight: http://www.sbe.vipnet.org/

Meebo is a site where you can log into a few of the many IM systems online without having to download anything. Think AIM Express only also for Yahoo, MSM and GTalk.

Shaun gives a great analysis of what is wrong with Bill Howell’s (and many Conservatives’) argument on illegal immigration:

But let’s stop for just a moment and reflect on what we’re really saying here. Check off the arguments Howell makes against illegal immigrants. Why should we shoo them off? Why, the reason they must go is because (apart from the fact they are illegally here, a federal problem) they impose upon our social safety net! As Jim Bacon comments :

[I]llegal immigration is a unavoidably a state/local problem when illegal immigrants apply for food stamps, seek medical care and attend overcrowded, fiscally stressed schools. These problems cannot be fobbed onto the federal government. The problems are inherently local, and they’re real.

Do we hear that? Republicans. Arguing that people should be shooed off because they are adversely impacting our socialized safety net of food stamps, medical care, and public schools.

Does anyone else see the problem here?

Let’s be brutally honest. The reason why these programs are failing isn’t because of the impact of illegal immigration. They’re failing because they are traditionally societal roles that are being hijacked by a government bent on stressing socialism rather than individualism.

Rasmussen and Mason-Dixon both came out with new polls this week and while both have Kaine in the lead (by 3 and 1 respectively) it’s still within the margin of error. This is the first time Kaine has led in the Mason-Dixon numbers, though. And RealClear Politics has a good summary of all the polls and the overall average spread which, gasp, said Kaine +4. Hmmm…. that sounds familiar.

Unless something spectacular happens this weekend or GOTV efforts really motivate people to get out Tuesday, I’m sticking to my prediction.

Microsoft makes big push on ad-based Web software

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, on Tuesday said it is embarking on a major new way of doing business in which it offers its software as free online services, funded by advertising, while seeking to fend off rivals like Google Inc.

Outlining what it said was its biggest strategy shift in five years, the Redmond, Washington company told a meeting of analysts and reporters that it would deliver many of its key products and services as online services as well as selling subscriptions or licenses for software installed on computers.

Windows Live and Office Live will give users some of the basic features of the software giant’s two most-profitable products, but without the complexity of installing and maintaining the software in computer hard drives.

…

Three tiers of service will be offered, starting with a free, ad-supported one, a second tier with more features paid for by a low-cost subscription fee and a premium price, full-featured tier for services that users regularly rely on.

Windows Live is a free Web-based service in which individual users can sign up for a “live” home page that pulls in constantly updating content from a range of information sources including Web searches, e-mail, syndicated headlines from other sites and photos and audio from across the Web.

Office Live will give smaller companies access to many of the features in Microsoft’s collection of programs for business tasks, as well as the ability to maintain corporate e-mail accounts and data.

Wikipedia may go to print

Entries from Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia written and edited by Internet users, may soon be available in print for readers in the developing world, founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday.

He said content from the Web site may also be burned onto CDs and DVDs so computer users in places like Africa, who lack access to high-speed Internet, could consult parts of the reference work offline.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought both of these articles were worthwhile. Microsoft finally further adapting for the internet and Wiki going to print. Neat.