It’s been a couple of days now since we first learned of the surgical implantation of a ventricular assist device to keep former Vice President Dick Cheney alive. Given that his horrendous policies also won’t die, it seems only natural that he should join the undead, too.

How appropriate is it that the same week we learn about Cheney’s pump that keeps him alive without a pulse we also learn of the insatiably growing and definitely never to die network of private contractors playing huge roles in our nation’s intelligence gathering?

Georgia is the only state with a primary tonight. Georgia, like several other states, requires a runoff if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. Georgia’s runoff is scheduled for August 10th. So what is important is not just who wins the primaries tonight, but their winning percentage and who takes second place are very important, too.

Raw Story has an interesting article about Faith in Public Life’s campaign to spread awareness of Glenn Beck’s “warped gospel” and his outrageous claim that talk of social or economic justice is tantamount to Marxism or Nazism (because if there was one thing Stalin and Hitler were known for, it was their intense commitment to social justice), and it reminded me once again of the obscenity of conservatives claiming the mantle of Christianity while opposing everything Jesus stood for.

Watching the story of Ms. Sherrod’s unfair firing unfold, there are several people who deserve to be fired in the Obama Administration today, possibly even in the White House. But so far, the only person to lose her job is Ms. Sherrod, the lone honest public servant in this sorry episode.

Republicans, in the minority in West Virginia’s legislature, now understand that they can basically push around the majority to meet their desired ends.

That’s a familiar tale in this short era of Democratic control in Washington. Looks like it’s spreading outside the Beltway, too.

Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited by NPR to submit an essay on a favorite thriller of mine. I decided to write about George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is both an excellent thriller and an increasingly powerful and relevant political warning — a combination readers of my latest novel, Inside Out, will know I find appealing.

Though I’m of course pleased that NPR decided to run the essay (which you can find here, along with an unrelated radio interview I did with Michelle Norris on All Things Considered), I’m also disappointed that NPR insisted on watering down the essay through successive drafts. The NPR editor I was in touch with, Miriam Krule, found the first three drafts “too political” (my response — that an essay on Nineteen Eighty-Four that’s too political is like an essay about the Bible that’s too much about God — was unpersuasive), and though Ms. Krule didn’t articulate the precise nature of her objections, the parts of the essay that had to go nicely demonstrate what in this context “too political” really means.

Apart from aiming for another Pulitzer Prize, the other most (perhaps more) likely explanation for the style of the piece is that editors have tried so hard not to piss off the security establishment–and to stop short of voicing the conclusions that Dana Priest and William Arkin’s work support–that they’ve turned Priest and Arkin’s work into a bunch of disembodied fluff.

Even if it fails at the start of the next Congress, it should be a major focus for progressive advocates. The House is not an invalid body because it’s majoritarian. Neither is the Supreme Court. Neither are the hundreds of majoritarian legislatures around the country and around the world. The move to let the Senate join that club is just beginning.

Before he danced with wolves, Academy Award winning actor/director Kevin Costner made a never-before-seen movie that’s being released today after nearly 25 years in a vault: Bad Day, directed by the award-winning rock video director Modi Frank and photographed by punk rock queen, singer, poet and visual artist Exene Cervenka, co-founder of the seminal band X. The duo are releasing the cowboy-themed short as a digital downloaded for a “you decide” amount. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Gulf charities providing aid to both people and the environment.

Because of the perilous state of the economy, this circumscribed measure will nonetheless help 2.6 million people get their benefits restored. And because they’ll get retroactive benefits, probably in a lump sum, it could be a mini-stimulus for late July/early August. But this is the bare minimum that Congress can do to cope with the jobless crisis.