According to Bruce Springsteen himself, the album is created from material that is much in the same vein of 2007’s Magic album, material that more feasibly would make up a whole new album rather than another couple songs on Springsteen’s previous album. Although Springsteen has been known to slowly produce his albums in the past, Working on a Dream is the fruit of a remarkably quick period of labor for the beloved singer. By January 12, 2009, the album had already leaked onto the internet, but the official release of the music will not occur until January 27, 2009. The release of the album was preceded by a Golden Globe Award for Springsteen for his song, “The Wrestler” and will be followed on February 1, 2009, with a halftime show performance from The Boss himself.

Bruce Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey and he spent his high school years in Freehold Boro, attending Freehold Regional High School. His father was a bus driver and his mother a legal secretary, while both of his sisters, Virginia and Pamela, are photographers. When Springsteen, raised Roman Catholic, attended parochial school, he often did not get along with the nuns and the rest of the students, but a heavy Catholic influence is present in much of his music regardless. Throughout high school, Springsteen never quite felt comfortable with his peers and his surroundings, to the point where he even opted to skip his own graduation as to not have to go through with the ceremony. As a teenager, Springsteen spent much of his time learning to play the guitar and sing, and his self-teaching paid off in 1965 when Springsteen met with two music patrons who would help Springsteen to become the lead guitarist and singer of his own band, The Castiles.

From there, Springsteen continued to play the local circuit, next with a power trio known as Earth. Around this time, Springsteen earned his nickname, “The Boss” because of his practice of collecting the band’s money and dividing it among the band members. His big break came in 1972 when talent scout John Hammond signed Springsteen to Columbia Records, along with many of Springsteen’s New Jersey colleagues. In January 1973, Springsteen released his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., to much critical acclaim, but sales were not as quick as would have been desired. His second album received a similar response from critics and the public alike: while the album was lauded by many, the sales of Springsteen’s sophomore album were less than stellar. Regardless, Springsteen’s sound, along with that of his E Street Band, continued to evolve as they created larger songs in form and scope. Springsteen’s next effort, Born to Run, proved to be difficult to produce, with Springsteen growing more and more frustrated and unhappy with the results of the recording. He would be cast into the public eye, though, with his legendary five-night, ten-show stand at New York’s Bottom Line club, and the widespread publicity this caused made Born to Run a massive critical and respectable popular success. Soon, Springsteen was in the forefront of the rock and roll community, a household name and an iconic figure.

Bruce Springsteen’s sound continued to evolve into the 1980s, much of it having to do with his personal life. His Nebraska album, a solo acoustic depiction of American life, was said to have been influenced by deep depression and disenchantment. The album would not sell much, but it went on to achieve massive critical acclaim, named the album of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. In 1984, Springsteen would release Born in the U.S.A, which became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Selling 15 million albums, Born in the U.S.A. would spawn seven hit singles, the most successful of these “Dancing in the Dark”. International megastardom would follow the release of the album as well as the extensive touring, consisting of the height of Springsteen’s mainstream visibility. Throughout the 1990s, Springsteen continued to tour and release albums, but this period marked a spat of rare disappointment of fans and critics alike, but by the turn of the millennium, Springsteen was back into the hearts and minds of the world with a sold-out ten-night engagement in Madison Square Garden in 2000. His 2002 album, The Rising, was a critical and popular success, and Springsteen’s fan base across the world continued to grow. In the mid-2000s, Springfield would become more politically active, participating in the Vote for Change tour. Springsteen would debut his new song, “Working on a Dream”, at a November 2, 2008 political rally in support of Barack Obama.

The Working on a Dream album was recorded with the E Street Band during breaks on the 2007-2008 Magic tour, finishing most of the songs in just a few takes. This stood in contrast to Springsteen’s attempts to record Born to Run in the 1980s, for example, as he had come to be known for taking his time on his albums. One of the songs from the album, “What Can Love Do”, was written, according to Springsteen, as a “love in the time of Bush” meditation, while the bonus song, “The Wrestler”, first appeared in conjunction with the release of the film, The Wrestler, at the 65th Venice International Film Festival. On January 11, 2009, the song would win a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the album version having been released on iTunes on December 16, 2008. Springsteen introduced the title track at a Barack Obama rally, and then a chopped-up airing of the recorded version of the song appeared at halftime and an NBC Sunday Night Football airing. On November 21, the song began appearing on radios, and on November 24, the song was made available for a free download on iTunes. Several other songs have been released as free downloads throughout the course of the album’s production.

According to the track listing, the songs on the album greatly vary in length, with “Outlaw Pete” clocking in at eight minutes and other song just under three minutes. The New York Times has called the released work “more hopeful, less bleak” reflecting a lyrical departure from some of Springsteen’s previous efforts. Springsteen, throughout his long career in music, has explored many different moods and styles of music, with most of his works receiving extensive critical acclaim and a strong reaction from fans all around the world. The Boss has become one of the most notable names in rock and roll history all around the world, and as his expected upcoming tour should show, his fan base shows no sign of dwindling with time. If you count yourself among the almost innumerable lovers of Bruce Springsteen, from casual listener to the hardcore fan that attends every stop on the concert, you owe it to yourself to have a listen to Working on a Dream, due to be released on January 27, 2009.

photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

The transition from the previous president of the United States to the next president is certainly an important time. Every four years, the country comes together and those who are capable of voting give their input into deciding the man or woman that will occupy the seat of the presidency for the next four years. While the road leading up to the selection of the next president is filled with campaigns, clever slogans, television ads, news commentary, and plenty of water-cooler politics, the end result is the same and we are left with the person that will hopefully take the United States in the right direction.

In order to commemorate this passage of power from one president to the next, it is customary to hold a presidential inauguration in which the incoming president is sworn in as the president of the United States, taking the oath of office in front of the rest of the country. Throughout the history of our country, the presidential inauguration has evolved into an enormous ceremony involving plenty of pomp and circumstance. Regardless of what goes on during the day of the inauguration, though, the focal point of the entire day is the moment in which the president-elect takes the oath of office, the symbolic and official moment in which the presidency has been transferred.

The first president of the United States of America was George Washington and his inauguration ceremony was held on April 30, 1789 in New York City. Inauguration Day itself was originally scheduled for March 4 in order to give electors from every state about four months to cast their ballots. A harsh winter had made travel very difficult, necessitating plenty of time so that all of the votes could be rightfully counted. Even more time was required for the news of Washington’s victory to reach Washington himself, forcing him to travel to New York City in order to take the oath of office. As George Washington made his way to the inaugural ceremony, a congressional committee decided what Washington’s title would actually be. The committee finally decided on “President of the United States,” the title that we still use today to describe the highest post in the governmental chain of authority.

Certain customs that are still practiced in modern inauguration ceremonies have their root in the very first inaugural ceremony, such as the Inaugural Address that follows the swearing-in of the president-elect. George Washington prepared a special speech for the inaugural ceremony, and since then, each president has opted to deliver the Inaugural Address that sets the tone for their presidency. Ceremonial gun salutes and church bells rang throughout the city, traditions that are still observed in modern inaugural ceremonies. The president-elect George Washington added the phrase “So help me God,” to the end of the constitutional oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Since then, every president-elect has opted to include the phrase at the end of the oath. The second presidential inauguration started the tradition of having a Supreme Court Justice preside over the inaugural ceremonies. William Cushing, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, administered the oath of office during the presidential inauguration for George Washington’s second term, a practice that continues to this day.

Thomas Jefferson was the first President to actually be sworn into office in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. All but a handful of the inaugural ceremonies throughout American history have been held at Washington D.C., which was chosen as the capital of the United States during Jefferson’s time. Jefferson’s first inauguration was a simple event that involved walking to the Capitol, taking the oath of office, and returning to his boardinghouse for dinner, but his second inaugural ceremony involved riding to the White House on horseback after the swearing-in, surrounded by music and an impromptu procession that would eventually evolve into the Inaugural Parade.

Today, the Inaugural Parade is an iconic institution of the presidential inauguration that winds down from the Capitol to the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue. Another element of the Inaugural Parade involves the presidential reviewing of the troops, a tradition that replaced the Inaugural Open House, the time in which crowds of well-wishers could come into the White House and greet the president. Eventually, the time grew so unruly and out-of-hand that Grover Cleveland decided to change the tradition into something safer.

An important aspect of the evolution of the presidential inauguration is the advent of technology. George Washington’s first inaugural address was only heard by the members of Congress that gathered to hear the president-elect speak. Eventually, the president-elect’s inaugural address would be printed in newspapers, a tradition that started with James Madison’s presidential inauguration, and James Polk’s oath of office would be transcribed by Samuel Morse through his telegraph machine. In 1857, James Buchanan’s inaugural ceremony was photographed and citizens across the country were able to share in the events through the pictures that were taken, a revolutionary idea at the time.

William McKinley’s inauguration would be the first presidential inauguration to be captured on movie cameras, providing a new way for citizens across the country to experience the monumental event. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to have his oath of office and inaugural address broadcast over the radio, and finally, the Harry Truman 1949 inauguration would be the first presidential inauguration to be televised. Certainly, the impact of technology on the proceedings of the presidential inauguration is deep, making a more lavish and impressive ceremony feasible due to the larger proportion of the citizenry that would be able to share in the experience.

Other aspects of the ceremony include group prayers, musical pieces, and poetry readings, depending on the wishes of the incoming president. Another event that takes place due to the presidential inauguration is a special luncheon hosted by Congress to which the president-elect and the vice president-elect are invited, making it one of the only times that the president, the vice president, and Congress are assembled. Inaugural celebrations usually last for about ten days, from five days before the inauguration to the five days after the inauguration. Certain parts of the country, mostly around Washington D.C., enjoy a federal holiday during Inauguration Day which allows federal employees a day off, the primary reason being to avoid traffic congestion that would normally occur without a day off.

On January 20, 2009, President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden will become the President and the Vice-President of the United States, respectively, after President-Elect Obama takes the oath of office. The day will fall on the third Tuesday of January. During the inaugural ceremony, President-Elect Obama will lead the Inaugural Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, be sworn in as the next president of the United States, partake in a luncheon with Congress, perform a presidential review of the troops, and partake in a slew of traditional activities that make the presidential inauguration the monumental, iconic experience that it has become in the last two centuries. Thanks to technological advances, the entire ceremony will be widely viewable by the American public as a new political era begins.

Election Day is held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, which means that it can happen as early as November 2 and as late as November 8. Because the Senate and the House of Representatives hold their elections every two years, many states hold the elections on the same day as Election Day as a matter of convenience. For that reason, Election Day 2008 will not only be a time when the new president is elected, but also a time for much change to occur in Congress. Not all voting occurs on Election Day itself, due to the presence of early voting and absentee ballots. Early voting is available in many jurisdictions and is intended to provide an opportunity to vote for those who cannot otherwise vote on Election Day, and absentee ballots are votes cast by those who, for one reason or another, cannot get to the polling stations in their home state. In many parts of the country, Election Day is a legal holiday, allowing people to get out and vote on the day of Election Day rather than having to circumvent their schedule in order to do so. Otherwise, provides a logistical difficulty for most jurisdictions.

There are tens of thousands of voting precincts in the United States and each person has his own voting station where he can cast his vote without having to contend with every other person in the city. These voting stations must be manned by election judges, people who volunteer, for a small monetary reimbursement, to facilitate the process for the rest of the voters. Election Day as an institution is objected by many social activists who feel that placing the day on a workday, without making it a federal holiday, ultimately decreases voter turnout and makes it difficult for people to actually get out and vote. They advocate spreading the day over a longer period of time or making it a federal holiday in order to get a more accurate sampling of the vote of the American public. Early voting is, in part, a response to this concern, but this has only been adopted on a state level, which means that some states still only have Election Day as the day in which people can vote.

On Election Day 2008, voters will be deciding between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Barack Obama is the candidate of the Democratic Party and John McCain is the candidate for the Republican Party. Although Obama has been enjoying a widening lead in most polls over the last few weeks, McCain is still confident and contends that the country is looking for a fighter who will work for every last vote. All of this means that every last vote will, in fact, make the difference in this close presidential race. There are several other candidates on the ballot: Libertarian Bob Barr, Constitution Party Chuck Baldwin, and Green Party Cynthia McKinney. Also on Election Day, the entirety of the House of Representatives will be up for grabs, with every seat in the entire institution able to be either taken by a challenger or held onto by an incumbent. Approximately one third of the Senate will be contested as well, making for the large possibility of a change in partisan power on Election Day.

The United States Electoral College system means that the next president will not necessarily be decided by a popular vote. Although a candidate could receive more actual votes, the election boils down to which candidate wins which states. Each state has a certain number of electorates, and the candidate that accrues the majority of these electorates is the winner of the presidential election. For this reason, much of the actual Election Day news coverage will follow the various states as they total their votes and award the state to either the Republic party or the Democratic party. Most polls today show that Barack Obama has a clear advantage in both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote, creating the situation in which John McCain will have to win the majority of the states that do not historically align themselves with either party in an overwhelming fashion. For this reason, Election Day 2008 will be a riveting affair as people from all over the country watch to see which state votes which direction. These so-called “swing states” include Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. Of these, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia have the most clout in determining the next president because of their larger number of electorates, but every state will count in the end.

The presidential tickets are certainly among the most unique in this country’s history, something that will make the events on Election Day 2008 that much more interesting. The Republican ticket has Senator John McCain running for president. As a long-time Senator with a reputation for shaking things up, McCain certainly shook things up by announcing Governor Sarah Palin as his pick for Vice President. Since her pick, she has dredged up much controversy, but she is also credited with energizing the conservative base of the Republican Party. Senator Barack Obama and running mate Senator Joe Biden are a ticket committed to change. Obama has long said that the country is in for a change, and his inspirational stump speeches and his clear policies have made him a quick favorite among the working class. Biden brings the experience to the ticket that many of Obama’s critics perceived him to be lacking, making the case for a Democratic president that much more solid. Nevertheless, nobody knows what will transpire on Election Day 2008. As the House of Representatives and the Senate welcome plenty of new faces and the next president of the United States is chosen, people will be standing in long lines waiting to cast their ballot to help propel their candidates to victory. Election Day is a true testament to the country we live in as well as an exciting time for politicians and everyday people alike.

One outstanding source of information concerning the 2008 presidential election can be found at 2008Election.Procon.org. Their mission statement is simple: they just give you the stances of each candidate on key issues and let you decide for yourself. Rather than tossing biased facts at you in an attempt to get you to see things in a light that may or may not represent each candidate well, the website offers a glimpse of each candidate’s stance on the issues. On the front page, you see the Republican ticket, the Democratic ticket, and the 3rd Party candidates that are running for president, and you can click on any of the candidates to view their positions on the issues. To back up the positions that the website displays, there is also an associated quote said by the candidate that encapsulates the view of the candidate on the issue. Next to the quote, it will either read “Pro”, “Con”, or “Not Clearly Pro or Con”, allowing you to quickly go through and see what each candidate actually believes in.

There is also plenty of other information at ProCon.org that can be very useful for those looking to brush up on their presidential knowledge. A side-by-side comparison chart allows you to see how each candidate stacks up against the other candidates according to the issues, which is both interesting by allowing you to see how they vary and useful to see who you should support if one or several issues are your main concerns. The website also has a section dedicated to Candidate videos, allowing you to watch some of the candidates in action as they talk about some important issues. There are also debate and forum transcripts for your perusal, allowing you to dissect everything that the presidential candidates had to say during these landmark debates if just watching them was not enough. Rounding out the available information at ProCon.org is a section concerning candidate finances, providing an interesting glimpse into the money matters in the election, and a section devoted to candidate speeches so that you can follow the actual words of the candidate throughout the election season.

Yahoo’s election coverage site is another great resource for someone who wants to know everything that there is to know about 2008’s presidential election. The front page of the website contains headlines that detail up-to-the-minute developments in the elections, usually concerning speeches on policy, new ad campaigns undertaken by each of the candidates, and political pundits weighing in on events in the election. There is also a section dedicated to Opinions and Editorials on the front page, allowing you to check, at a glance, the most popular pieces written for against the candidates. The next section on the front page is “Most Blogged About” where you can see the articles that are causing the biggest ripples in the blogosphere. An Interactives section lets you use multimedia programs that help to shed light on important issues in the election as well as putting the election into an entertaining light. There are plenty of things to read on the front page of the Yahoo website, and most of these are links that will take you to many more interesting articles about the election. If you are looking for a website to serve as a sort of home base as you navigate the wealth of election-related news and information on the internet, the Yahoo News page is a great place to be.

Another excellent source of in-depth election coverage is PBS’s Vote 2008 website. The site, which is updated every day, contains plenty of news information to keep every voter informed about the current issues that influence the election. A section devoted to the candidates contains biographies, interviews, and links to articles that specifically deal with each individual candidate. There is also an option to see all candidate election coverage, giving you an excellent source to find pertinent information about each of the candidates that you can use in order to make up your mind about who to cast your vote for. There is also a section of the website devoted to analysis, providing a place for voters to listen to political experts as they attempt to make heads or tails of the events that are going on in our country today and how they affect each of the candidate’s chances of getting elected. A “What’s at Stake” section allows you to compare how each candidate would influence the nation at large, giving you another perspective upon which to base your decision, and Reporter’s Blog section is another great place to find opinions about the issues that affect the candidates and what each man plans to do about them. All in all, the PBS website is a wonderful resource if you want to compare the current news and the issues with how each of the candidates intends to solve these issues.

Of course, not all election coverage on the internet is so serious. Twitter has created an election coverage center that allows the public to express its opinion in a consolidated, filtered place in the form of the micro-blogs for which Twitter is known. If you want to see what the people are saying, Twitter’s election center is an intriguing way to do so, providing that you can keep up with the stream of tweets being added to the page every couple of seconds. Other election sites worth checking out include: NPR.org and PollingReport.com.

When all is said and done, this election will be one of the most influential presidential elections in the history of the country, with either ticket’s election creating a first for the United States. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will square off against John McCain and Sarah Palin on November 4, 2008, and the result will be sure to send shockwaves throughout the world as a new set of politicians enter the White House, ready to lead the country.

Few television series have the kind of effect on pop culture and the collective society that we live in like The X-Files. Many aspects of the show have gone on to become pop culture staples definitive of an entire era and, for many viewers, the existence of the paranormal became a bit more difficult to refute. Apart from the television series itself and the numerous slogans associated with it, several movies, including the upcoming X-Files: I Want to Believe, have met with success and expounded upon the events in the series. Throughout the running of the series, the reputation of the main characters Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have become larger than the scope of the television show, taking on a life of their own and truly becoming unmistakably important parts of entertainment history.

The X-Files sprang from the mind of Chris Carter, a television writer who was met with limited success for his efforts, mostly involved with comedies. In the early 90s, Fox Broadcasting Company gave him the opportunity to produce new shows for them, and Chris Carter took it as an opportunity to depart creatively from his previous efforts. Instead of more comedy, he took inspiration from a report that 3.7 million Americans had been abducted by Aliens, as well as from the Watergate scandal and a horror series from the 1970s. Through these inspirations came the idea for The X-Files, for which he wrote the pilot episode in 1992. Although the idea was met with interest on the part of Fox executive, Carter struggled with certain concepts and the casting of the characters. Executives wanted a love interest for character Dana Scully, and they were also unhappy with actor Gillian Anderson because they wanted a tall blonde instead. Nonetheless, Fox Mulder, Scully’s love interest, was successfully cast as David Duchovny, and Carter felt that Anderson was the only choice for the part of Scully after the auditions.

The main concept that Carter wanted to create within The X-Files was the direct conflict between science and the paranormal. Character Dana Scully was to be the one who is firmly rooted in the scientific method of only believing in that which could be explained rationally, while Fox Mulder was to be the one who is open to the idea that extraterrestrials and the like actually exist. Carter felt that Scully’s perspective would be the driving point of the show in order to allow Mulder’s belief in the preternatural to take flight. Several other themes played out throughout the television series as well, including a romantic tension between the two protagonists. They generally maintain professional decorum, but in later episodes, they have brief interludes of matters purely unrelated to their work. Carter generally wanted the show to be plot-driven, rather than focusing on the relationship between Mulder and Scully, and for the most part his desires were met.

Fox Broadcasting Company brought many of its best and most experienced staff members to work on the show from the start. The contributions of many of the writers, most notably Glen Morgan and James Wong, were highly regarded by critics and fans of the show alike. Their work involved fleshing out the story, although they were also responsible for hiring many of the supporting actors throughout the show’s history. Another important part of the show was the dark cinematography, for which Jon Bartley won an Emmy award in 1996. Production for the first five seasons of the show was in Vancouver, which was seen as highly beneficial because of the landscape in and around the city. The temperate rainforest climate had much to do with this, because it allowed for a mysterious foggy aura to be cast on the set without the need for special effects or waiting for certain points in the year. Production moved to Los Angeles for the sixth season, although fans wondered how the gloomy atmosphere of the show could be maintained.

By the end of the fifth season in 1998, it had been decided that a full-feature film would be created. Although it would be able to stand on its own, the film would expand on the events of the finale of the fifth season and also lead in to the sixth season. The movie was a critical success and had a strong domestic box office opening, but it did poorly the following week. Internationally, the movie fared better and allowed the movie to make a profit because of the high promotional budget limiting the profits of the theatrical release. The film came off the back of the all-time peak in viewership that occurred during the fifth season, when the show also garnered sixteen Emmy nominations, winning two, and also won the Golden Globe for best drama series. It is often said that seasons three to five were the heyday of the show because of its critical acclaim and popularity. The movie itself was filmed during the break between seasons four and five, which meant that for several episodes during the filming of the movie, the lead actors were not portrayed because they were unable to film.

Ten years later, the sequel to The X-Files film is about to be released. Entitled The X-Files: I Want to Believe, the film is directed by Chris Carter and written by Carter and Frank Spotnitz. Although the film was slated to be released in 2001 to follow the conclusion of the ninth series, development difficulties pushed the inception of the project all the way to December 2007. These were said to include legal difficulties between Carter and 20th Century Fox, but these had been worked out by 2007 and a script was in the making. Production returned to Vancouver and actors David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprised their roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Said to take place six years after the end of the series, the film is a standalone thriller that does not continue or delve into the mythology of the series. Carter has said that the film will remain consistent with the story arc of The X-Files, including such nuances like Scully’s child William. Brief internet rumors circulated about a romantic subplot between Mulder and Scully because of the circulation of a picture of the two kissing, but Duchovny has said that the picture was staged as part of a practical joke.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are inextricable parts of entertainment history, and if the movie is successful, they will once again find themselves bastions of pop culture. The X-Files, with its disturbing plots that make one question the existence of the paranormal, as well as its theme song which is as eerie as it is catchy. On July 24, 2008, The X-Files: I Want to Believe promises to take us back into the world that is similar to our own, except that paranormal events happen a lot more frequently than we hope. If you want to take another adventure into such a world, you are well-advised to head out to the movie theater and take a look. Otherwise, just keep telling yourself that aliens are not real and you should be just fine.

credit: edrodgers731

Will this be the year America elects its first Black president? Or will a woman become commander in chief? It’s a Presidential election year and it’s shaping up to be an exciting contest. Already, we’ve seen Hillary Clinton go from “inevitable” nominee to second place in the Democratic race. And John McCain’s campaign was labeled dead in the water only a couple months ago. Now, Hillary’s in the fight her life as she tries to fight off Barack Obama. In the meantime, McCain’s got the nomination locked up, but will he be able to raise enough funds for a national campaign?

If you want to get in on the action, or just see what TV’s talking heads are talking about, here are 50 websites devoted to politics that you should check out.

Spin from within
Here’s where the candidates, and their parties, put on their best face. This is what they want you to know about them.

Hillary for President

John McCain 2008

Obama for America

The Democratic Party

Republican National Committee

All politics, all the time
These sites keep track of the political news of the day. If a candidate stumbles on the campaign trail, these sites will have a link to the story–often within a few minutes.

Real Clear Politics: Updated throughout the day, RCP publishes pundits and polls and links to the hottest stories of the day.

Politico: Congress, the Presidential race, political gossip and the media. A smorgasbord of everything political from the best dressed staffers on Capitol Hill to the latest Obama/Clinton dust up.

Memeorandum: What’s got bloggers in an uproar today? Every 5 minutes, memeorandum updates with links to the most blogged political stories and the bloggers they outraged.

Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire: News, buzz and commentary updated around the clock.

The Drudge Report: Links to news, opinion, gossip, plus Drudge exclusives accompanied by his trademark siren.

Free for alls
Moonbat! Wingnut! Take your gloves off before you enter these forums, where the party faithful meet up to discuss the news of the day and throw a little bit of invective on the other side. Free Republic comes from the right. Democratic Underground comes from the left.

Blogs
This is the fun stuff: Strong opinions from left, right and center, professionals and amateurs.

From the right
Townhall: Hugh Hewitt, talk radio host, law professor and author blogs at Townhall.com along with his fellow rightwingers of radio, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Mike Gallagher.

Hit and Run: The blog for Reason, the libertarian magazine. If you think the most scandalous aspect of the Spitzer brouhaha was the fact that prostitution is illegal, this is your kind of place.

Power Line: Three lawyers with charter memberships in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy opine daily on current events, politics and the Miss Universe pageant. Played a key role in Rathergate, the story on President Bush’s military career that lead former CBS news anchor Dan Rather to resign.

Just One Minute: Tom Maguire, a witty and elegant writer, picks apart media coverage of the daily news with precision, though his coverage of the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson/Scooter Libby story may have bordered on the obsessive.

Michael Barone, the author of The Almanac of American Politics knows a thing or two about elections and American politics.

Classical Values: A libertarian, gun nut who happens to be gay, lawyer Eric Scheie blogs to “end the culture war by restoring classical values.”

Andrew Sullivan–The Daily Dish: Sullivan, former editor of the liberal stalwart The New Republican, is a self-described conservative who now supports Obama.

Little Green Footballs: Web designer Charles Johnson blogged about bicycle racing and web design until 9/11 when he began posting about the War on Terror, Islamic extremism and the Arab/Israeli conflict. Another veteran of Rathergate. Also known for exposing as altered, photos run by the news agency Reuters. Has been criticized for the vitriol coming from his commenters.

Right Wing News: “America’s Ambassador of Whoop@ss” is famous in the blogosphere for his interviews of conservative bigwigs. Master listmaker: Most annoying liberals, best political websites, etc.

Instapundit: Law professor, blogger, podcaster–he’s a one-man content machine. Indeed. Blog owner Glenn Reynolds specializes in the pithy, with lots of short posts linking to stuff he finds interesting. An early adopter, Reynolds inspired many of his readers to start their own blogs.

Hot Air: “The world’s first full-service conservative Internet broadcast network” is the brainchild of syndicated columnist and über blogger Michelle Malkin. Lots of videos with commentary by AllahPundit, a popular conservative blogger who helped expose Rathergate; and Ed Morrissey, who blogged at Captain’s Quarters before jumping ship and becoming a full-time new media guy.

ScrappleFace: Funny stuff.

Patterico’s Pontifications: The blog of a mysterious Los Angeles County prosecutor who took to blogging as an alternative to “forcibly jamming” his opinions down people’s throats. Bête noire is bias at the LA Times, though that’s just a jumping off point.

Redstate: “Not as big as Instapundit, but then again – he’s not human.” A community blog, similar to liberal powerhouse Daily Kos (see below), that allows users to post content.

Ace of Spades HQ: Vulgar. Sophomoric. Hilarious. Favorite target is fellow blogger Andrew Sullivan. Comment threads often funnier than the actual posts.

From the left
Talk Left, billed as “the on-line source for liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news,” is the blog of Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney.

The Reality-Based Community: Six left-wing policy wonks with unlimited opinions.

Wonkette: Snark delivered daily. Original editrix Ana Marie Cox became famous for exposing the identity of Washingtonienne, a Capitol Hill staffer who slept her way to the bottom.

Oliver Willis: Self described liberal bomb thrower. Fits.

Talking Points Memo: Former magazine editor Joshua Micah Marshall turned to blogging after the 2000 election. Partisan muckraker won a George Polk Award for coverage of the firing of eight United States attorneys, a first for a blogger.

Huffington Post: Launched by millionaire socialite Arianna Huffington, a former Republican. Features big Hollywood names opining on their cause du jour as well as professional columnists.

The Daily Kos: A a discussion forum and group blog for what MyDD founder (see below) Jerome Armstrong calls the netroots–known on the right as the nutroots–liberal and progressive activists whose goal is to restore the Democrats to the White House. Founded by Markos Moulitsas in 2002 “when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous,” Daily Kos is a collaborative blog that allows visitors to publish their own blog posts and comments.

Think Progress: Blog of the Center for American Progress Action, which was founded as a liberal alternative to Republican think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.

Crooks and Liars: Posts lots of video clips, with commentary, of political events, and TV and radio shows like “The O’Reilly Factor” and “The Daily Show.”Washington Monthly Political Animal: Began as a 2004 campaign blog for the magazine but turned into a permanent feature, thanks to writer Kevin Drum’s well-researched and lucid commentary. Drum also gave the world Friday Catblogging, for which he is either to be thanked or reviled depending on where your sympathies lie within the feline spectrum.

Eschaton: The trademark of Atrios, aka Duncan Black. is the one- or two-word snarky comment with link, often deployed in long-running feature, Wanker of the Day.

Skippy the bush kangaroo: Coined the term blogtopia, meaning the universe of left-leaning blogs. It’s a land where they’re apparently opposed to using capital letters.

MyDD: Founded by political activist Jerome Armstrong, MyDD (Direct Democracy) is a collaborative blog founded by activist Jerome Armstrong, who was instrumental in the rise to prominence of the Howard Dean campaign.

Crooked Timber: Group blog of academics covers political theory, philosophy, political and cultural commentary. Tagline is Immanuel Kant’s: “Out of crooked timber of humanity. No straight thing was ever made.”

Matthew Yglesias: Long-time blogger who now blogs at the Atlantic Monthly site. Andrew Sullivan named the Yglesias Award in his honor “for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe.”

Somewhere in the middle?
Kausfiles: The “mostly political” blog of self-described neo-liberal Mickey Kaus, professional journalist and author of The End of Equality.

The Moderate Voice: Group blog, stridently centrist.

Megan McArdle: The blog of the “world’s tallest female econoblogger” covers business, politics, economics and cooking. A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Media blogs
The Caucus: New York Times staffers blog about the 2008 campaign and other things political.

Poynter Online–Romenesko: This is where the media goes to leak memos from news organization, pick apart news coverage, carp about their jobs and snipe at each other.

The Corner: Group blog of National Review. A freewheeling discussion among such luminaries as Mark Steyn, Jonah Goldberg and John Derbyshire, to name a few.

The Plank: The New Republic’s group blog vows: “We can’t promise always to be the most incisive or funniest blog. But, dammit, we know how to waste your time.” And isn’t that what the Internet’s for, after all?

Tapped: Group blog of liberal magazine The American Prospect.

Contentions: From influential opinion journal, Commentary, a group blog covering foreign policy, American politics, international affairs, Israel and the Middle East.

One of the main subjects of attack from this camp of criticizers is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has been reported that there are vulnerabilities in the system which leave the plan open to hackers. The problem is that connecting to the Internet requires that there be a connection to the navigation and control system of the plane. A sophisticated hacker could theoretically get into the control system through the wireless connection and take over control of the plane. The risk that this poses is obviously troublesome.

This is bad news for Boeing because it means that the new 787 might not get off the ground. Nobody wants the plane to fly if it’s causing a risk to passengers (and the rest of America). The company is working actively to get the problem remedied in order to avoid delays in launching the plane. Thus far, they say that the first flight (due sometime in March) will be on schedule.

According to reports, Jacobson spouted obscenities directed at Jesus Christ, Notre Dame football and others during her tirade. Jacobson, who was booed off the stage, was one of many sports anchors and entertainers who were part of the roast.

The 36-year-old Jacobson has been with ESPN since 2002. She started off as an ESPNEWS anchor before moving onto larger projects within the network. “ESPN First Take,” which was formerly called “Cold Pizza,” has featured Jacobson since 2005.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Jacobson has been suspended for one week by ESPN. To date, ESPN hasn’t confirmed that punishment but has confirmed that she will be disciplined.

“My actions at the roast were inappropriate and in no way represent who I really am,” Jacobson said. “I have personally apologized to many of the people involved. I won’t make excuses for my behavior but do hope that I can be forgiven for such a poor lack of judgment.”

“Mike & Mike in the Morning” is a popular ESPN morning radio show featuring Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg.

Ledger, who was 28-years-old, was famous for his acting skills. An actor who thrived in a variety of roles, Ledger was perhaps most well-known for his role in the “Brokeback Mountain.”

Born in Perth, Australia, Ledger’s early work included movies such as “10 Thing I Hate About You” and “A Knight’s Tale.” This summer, Ledger will appear as The Joker in “The Dark Knight” – a Batman movie.

People close to Ledger are understandably stunned by his passing.

“We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident,” said Mara Buxbaum, Ledger’s publicist. “This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family’s privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known.”

Ledger was found dead in his bed by his housekeeper and a massage therapist at 3:30PM EST. Toxicology results are pending but there does not appear to be any foul play involved.

The debate, which was shown live on CNN, at times turned into a one-on-one argument between Clinton and Obama. Each candidate slung accusations at the other during the duration of the debate.

Obama was outwardly perturbed by what he says are untruths told by former President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband.

“There was a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate,” Obama said. “I think that part of what people are looking for right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we’ve seen in Washington.”

Clinton, meanwhile, accused Obama of never taking a firm stance.

“Senator Obama, it’s hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote,” said Clinton.

Edwards spent much of the debate trying to get a word in.

Said Edwards: “Are there three people in this debate, not two?”

The biggest upcoming date for the presidential hopefuls will be Feb. 5. That will be Super Tuesday when 24 states are scheduled to hold primary elections for one or both parties.