Eavesdropping on Congress

"Make no mistake: This story is not going away, and neither is the Islamofascist threat. The freedom of speech we take for granted is under attack, and it will vanish if it is not bravely defended. Today the censors may be coming for some unfunny Mohammed cartoons, but tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence. Like it or not, we are all Danes now."

Mahablog takes aim not at the rioters but at the conservatives:

"The Right Blogosphere has gone foaming-at-the-mouth, hair-on-fire crazy over the cartoon controversy. They've worked themselves up to a screaming pitch about the mad dog Muslims who are fixing to massacre Europe. They have gone off the insufferable self-righteousness scale because most American newspapers will not republish the cartoons, and those newspapers and the State Department and, of course, liberals are . . . sell-outs of democratic principles.

"Can we say they've come unhinged ? I think we can."

Veteran blogger Virginia Postrel minces no words:

"My response to this nonsense is to wonder why Muslims don't grow up. If your co-religionists are going to take political stands, and blow up innocent people in the name of Islam, political cartoonists are going to occasionally take satirical swipes at your religion. Those swipes may not be nuanced, but they're what you can expect when you live in a free society, where you, too, can hold views others find offensive. If you don't like it, move to Saudi Arabia. Or just try to peacefully convert people to Islam. As Fred Barnes points out, the current cover of Rolling Stone is offensive to (hypersensitive, paranoid, publicity-seeking) Christians, but they aren't threatening anyone with physical violence."

That would be the cover in which Kanye West is dressed up as Jesus.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has had a blog problem similar to that at the WashPost, in which one commenter said auto workers were overpaid because a "monkey" could do their jobs. (And I'm not just linking because I'm quoted in the piece!)

The Baltimore Sun ombusdman has found other attribution problems in some past pieces by now-departed columnist Michael Olesker.

This sounds pretty PG to me, but Wonkette says Sen. Jeff Sessions has shut down a blog by his scheduler Stormie Janzen because it included a picture of her in a midriff-baring shift and unzipped jeans. We'd give you a full report, but the thing has been zapped.

New Republic reporter Eve Fairbanks says she really doesn't have a porn sideline; it's all Google's fault, honest.