7/21: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

Zell Miller said Wednesday he has paid $156,668 to the state of Georgia to resolve questions about money he kept from an entertainment allowance he received when he was governor.

A Ugandan member of parliament has pledged to reward girls for their chastity by paying their university fees if they are virgins when they leave school. Wait till W hears about this!

James Ridgway of The Village Voice reports Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts gave the Bush presidential campaign $1,000 back in 2000.

We'll never lose Tommy Thompson again! The HHS Secretary in President Bush's first term and former Governor of Wisconsin has joined the board of Applied Digital, which owns VeriChip, the company that specializes in subcutaneous RFID tags for humans and pets. Thompson recently announced he will have a chip shoved under his skin containing his medical info which will allow others to track his movements.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Janet Cohen is a suburban mom who's trying her hand at a little digital manipulation. Track her progress at BabyBoomerBlog.

TIME WASTERS

Are you from Tennessee? I hate people from Tennessee. Mike Vanderhoff at McSweeney's has more Pickup Lines: The First Drafts.

The teaser site for Tenacious D's new movie The Pick of Destiny features an interview with Jack Black and Kyle Gass on the Hell O'Clock News.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The president is a man of his word. He promised to nominate someone along the lines of a Scalia or a Thomas, and that is exactly what he has done."

-- Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council,
positively giddy over the nomination of John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court

"These people are kooky."

-- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, citing a recent Roll Call article declaring him the Democrats' best shot to take back the White House