8/3 Morning Communiqué

THESE DAYS

The Open Voting Foundation, a California-based nonprofit organization that works to promote the adoption of "open source" technology to the nation's voting machines, has announced it has found what it calls the "worst ever security flaw found in Diebold RS voting machines."

As of Tuesday, all phone companies selling long-distance phone service were legally required to eliminate the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance service, which had been established in 1898 as a luxury tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones, to help fund the Spanish-American War.

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) has pulled an image of a burning World Trade Center from a campaign commercial attacking opponent Rep. Sherrod Brown's record on national security because the image was a fake.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Josh Lee, Ben Tesch, and David Zingler cover the Twins and other baseball-related news for Minnesota Public Radio online at the Bleacher Bums.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A great animated short by Jonas Geirnaert about four eccentric apartment dwellers called Flat Life

More domestic hijinks ensue when a homo sapien and an ape share an apartment in Abe & Ape

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"So, oddly enough, I am watching The Passion of the Christ on TV on Sunday night. Watch the whole thing. Chilling. And in the shadow of the recent Mel G. arrest revelation, even more so... And, as a Catholic, I'm thinking, here Mel has dug down deep to glorify JC, the ultimate promoter of the forgiveness program. Killed the whole film for me. Who'd a thought? Mel Gibson... the Opus Dei buzz-kill."

-- Actor Alec Baldwin, musing on Mel Gibson's recent buffoonery at The Huffington Post