Newshog Blogabout #1

The aboriginal people of Australia have a tradition called "Walkabout", where someone goes of on a wander of indeterminate length, sometimes months, in the wilderness for the purpose of spiritual enrichment. This is something like that. It's a "Blogabout", a wander through blogs that caught my interest over the past week. I hope you enjoy it.

• Blue State Project says Scotland is a lot like the US South, except for the Scots being diehard, unwavering lefties.
  
  
• Common Crap gets a spam-mail from a pro-life group and it leads to a post on freedom of expression.
  
  
• Simian Brain has an excellent post which starts with the Armstrong williams scandal as a lead in to an examination of the right's new love for Statism and big government. She wins extra points for using the word "brownshirts" in a believable context.
  
  
• Tas at Loaded Mouth gets into a discussion, fuelled by a post on why he can't finish an Ann Coulter article, on whether Bush ever took cocaine.
  
  
• The Sideshow quotes at length from a recent Ted Kennedy speech that says the kind of stuff she feels could 'take back Kansas'.
  
  
• Kevin Drum is consistently the most readable of the big liberal bloggers (i.e. he posts the most content that is actually original). Here he has a conversation with himself about Social Security and the case against reform. A must read.
  
  
• Left of Center's Mr. M (who also posts for Newshog) talks about why Americans hate taxes and points out that some taxes are good things - like paying for sewers. A "what have the Romans ever done for us" moment.
  
  
• Moderate Voice says everything worth saying about the Wall Street Journal's feeble attempt to compare two liberal bloggers who worked for the Dean campaign to the unethical Williams. For me, the best post on the matter, period.
  
  
• To win elections, the GOP increasingly relies on socially conservative voters of modest means, but the proposed reform of Social Security means these voters may leave in droves. From Donkey Rising.
  
  
• The Left Coaster asks - does Bush actually regret "Bring It On" and "Dead Or Alive"?
  
  
• Europhobia has the text of Dean's letter announcing his intention to stand for Chairman of the Democrats, and compares the EU and the US in interesing ways.
  
  
• Does the BBC have a unjustifiably pro-EU bias in its journalistic reporting? Straight Banana has a look-see.
  
  
• A US Christian group has flaunted a ban by the Indonesian government on the adoption of Acehnese children and airlifted out 300 muslim kids - "don't mind us while we convert your children", says Steve Gilliard.
  
  
• Well, that's the first 'Blogabout'. What did you think? Should I continue the feature? If so, give me some help and email me your favourite reads in the blogosphere for next week.