7/19 Morning Communiqué

THESE DAYS

Florida state house candidate Charles Grapski has been banned from his hometown of Alachua after being ejected from a recent city commission meeting after he repeatedly objected to the city's "consent agenda."

An "apartheid-like" system of racial segregation imposed by early Anglo-Saxon invaders in England may have massively boosted the breeding of the Germanic interlopers, much to the detriment of the native Celtic race, researchers claim in a new study.

President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the anti-terror eavesdropping program that intercepts Americans' international calls and e-mails, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Shyestviolet lives in Northeast Minneapolis and blogs about Project Runway, pontooning, ear joints, and the Sass of the Week at Is That All You've Got?

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Kevin Smith discusses his Superman scripting adventure

My Cubicle not sung by James Blunt

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride."

-- Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, describing her totally non-sexual relationship with her best bud, Gayle King, in the August issue of O