Below The Beltway

But reading Maureen Down is like slowing down on the highway to gawk at the remnants of a traffic accident.
You feel compelled to do it just to see how bad it’s going to be.
And, today’s column is no exception.
Go read it and you’ll see what I mean.

My buddy Raymond on MSNBC’s Russert-porn:
The tragic death of Tim Russert is popping up in the news too much. From analysts talking about him and interviewing people who worked for him to websites talking about what he might have done to avoid what happened…there are too many stories. What are we not being told that [...]

As if it’s recent efforts to define what constitutes “fair use” weren’t bad enough, the Associated Press now says that it intends to charge bloggers for quoting even small portions of AP articles:
The AP’s disharmony with bloggers may have only just begun, as the alternative it’s now offering to being served with takedown notices involves [...]

I’ve generally tried to stay away from a lot of more melancholy commentary surrounding the death of Tim Russert, but this interview with his son Luke is really quite something:

I’m guessing his Dad would be proud.

Markos Moulistas links to and reproduces an Associated Press story about the gay marriages in California, and then has this to say:
The dinosaurs at the AP think they know what the “spirit of the internet” is, and they claim it has nothing to do with copying pieces of information from other sources for purposes of [...]

Geez, can we at least wait until after the funeral ?
Discussion has already turned to who should replace Tim Russert on Meet the Press
The sudden death of Tim Russert has left the management of NBC News, for the moment at least, at a loss to contemplate how to replace him.
Mr. Russert was not only the [...]

But I agree with Juan John Cole:
Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.
Cole refers, of course, to the still-non-stop [...]

I happened to have MSNBC on in the background when this Special Report came across:

Well, this comes as a sad surprise:
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. No [...]

The Washington Post takes up above-the-fold space on today’s front page to inform us that it’s really, really hot out there:
A second day of oppressive weather blanketed the Washington region yesterday, pushing the heat index to 103 degrees in some areas as thousands of households remained without power from last week’s storms and residents hungered [...]