“Senator Robert Byrd gave a floor speech yesterday that’s one for the history books.” That’s what Rafe had to say about Senator Robert Byrd’s floor speech. Read it. You will agree. The Senate seems asleep at the wheel.

Well at least Congress caught the Administration’s screw-up forgetting to give Afghanistan Aid. via Oliver Willis. Just a little oversight right? Pftt.

“Each one of us for one reason or another dreams of America, and America is everywhere.” That’s Italian commentator Alain Elkann in this NYTimes piece on how some European commentators see the growing rift between us. via dangerousmeta.com

Disable your cookies. Get a personal proxy (well I gotta do that one!). Google may win the Big Brother of the year award. A must read. via Scripting News. Gotta point you to Phoenix, the browser I use when I’m off the clock. Simple to use cookie management.

If you’re poor, the GOP wants to tell you it loves you with it’s compassionate conservative embrace.

Local and certainly not connected – viruses run rampant at schools. A stomach virus is shutting schools down.

What will happen at the UN today?

Finally some good news, from ABC: Terror Alert Partly Based on Fabricated Information.

Comic books. Store houses of wisdom they are. I’ll be seeing Daredevil over the weekend. A quote to heart right now:

“The measure of a man is not in how he gets knocked to the mat, it is in how he gets up.”

InternalMemos.com: A Clear Channel radio station prepares to for war.

CityJournal: How I Joined Teach for America ?and Got Sued for $20 Million. Man oh man.

PolicyReview: From Sarajevo to September 11. “…the world could rejoice in 60 years of extraordinary peace and progress. The first great age of globalization had made the world seem an infinitely smaller place. So great were the twin powers of technology and ideology intellectuals prophesied the end of all wars. Yet on that summer?s day, one act of terrorism in Sarajevo ? the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian fanatic called Gavrilo Princip ? set off a sickening train of events. The world plunged into the most horrific war in history, and even after the killing had stopped, countries everywhere renounced their previous openness, fortifying their borders to limit the movement of goods, people, and even ideas.” A few edits there… but you get the point.

The Moscow Times (yes you read that right) Most Righteous War of All: A supportive (yes supportive) essay from Russia. You can almost here the snicker at the thought of how France and Germany are acting. via dangerousmeta.

Sen. McCain Address to 39th Annual Wehrkunde Conference. There are leaders out there! A Republican I would vote for. In a split second. via dangerousmeta.

BBC: Japan warns N. Korea.

Legal Affairs: Dante and the Death Penalty. A must read. Thought provoking.

Read about the pre-emptive response growing at Wired News. Websites can make a difference… at least to those that read them. Will this get shared in media off the web I wonder?

In other related news… BBC News has posted the entire text of the latest so-called Bin Laden message.

The WashingtonPost, among others, attempts to scare the shit out of us.

While we are being told, how this time, to prepare for the worst.

I bet the Pres isn’t so happy now he kept Greenspan on considering what he had to say about the tax plan. Then again, a whole slew of economists agree with with him.

And thanks to kowgirl who shared a BusinessWeek link that confirms your worst fears about your career in information systems. That is, of course, if you live in the US. Hint.. your job is going the way of the factory jobs that went before them.

Of course, it could be worst. You could be held hostage by ferocious rabbits. Seriously!

I missed it on TV, but thanks to Oliver Willis not the site: Frontline explores the child welfare system.

I remember feeling those those portrayed in this NYTimes article. I remember it all too well. Quote:

…Nationwide, according to a new study by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, the figure is a staggering 5.5 million and growing.

This army of undereducated, jobless young people, disconnected in most instances from society’s mainstream, is restless and unhappy, and poses a severe long-term threat to the nation’s well-being on many fronts.

…It’s an article of faith among politicians and members of the media that the recession we continue to experience is a mild one. But it has hit broad sections of the nation’s young people with a ferocity that has left many of them stunned.

…joblessness among out-of-school youths between 16 and 24 had surged by 12 percent since the year 2000. Washington’s mindless response to this burgeoning crisis has been to slash ? and in some cases eliminate ? the few struggling programs aimed at bolstering youth employment and training.

Education and career decisions made during the late teens and early 20’s are crucial to the lifetime employment and earnings prospects of an individual. Those who do not do well during this period seldom catch up to the rest of the population.

…Whether boys or girls, men or women, those who were interviewed seemed for the most part already defeated. They did not talk about finding the perfect job. They did not talk about being in love and eventually marrying and raising a family. They did not express a desire to someday own their own home.

There was, to tell the truth, a remarkable absence of positive comments and emotions of any kind. There was a widespread sense of frustration, and some anger. But mostly there was just sadness.

There are some good signs however.