What I've always loved about Russ is that, irrespective of political ideology, he has remarkable personal integrity and political courage that are sadly all too rare for United States senators. Even more impressively, Russ understands that the goal of being a senator should be the betterment of America and not the betterment of himself. For example, Russ has not only opposed giving himself a raise year after year, but he's actually returned the raises that senators have typically gotten automatically every year. There are very few politicians out there who will turn down extra money, but Russ Feingold is one of them.

Additionally, Russ Feingold was the one Democrat to buck his party on financial reform because he (correctly) felt that the bill didn't go far enough to rein in the power of the banks. Russ, bless his heart, was also one of the few Senate Democrats smart enough to vote against the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act, which for decades had served as a firewall between commercial and investment banks. And of course, when Wall Street came limping into Washington in the fall of 2008 begging for bailout cash, Russ told them to get lost.

And Russ's stances on key economic issues are not his only virtues. As Glenn Greenwald notes, his brave stands on civil liberties issues have been no less compelling, none more so than his lonely vote against the USA PATRIOT Act a mere six weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

For all the good that Russ Feingold has done for this country, I think it's time we help him back. Russ is locked in a very tight race with yet another richy-rich conservative who wants to use his fortune to buy himself a cushy Senate seat. Ron Johnson is your standard fare Banana Republican who rails against the government intruding on the "free market" but is only too happy to line up at the troth if he has the opportunity. And like most Banana Republicans, he longs to see America instill more "business certainty" into its economy by acting more like China, which doesn't have any pesky labor or environmental laws to get in the way of the quest for corporate profits.

Replacing Russ Feingold with Ron Johnson would be like throwing out all your Bob Dylan records and replacing them with Justin Beiber MP3s: In other words, you'd be tossing out a soulful, truth-tellin' Midwestern Jewish progressive for a creepy piece of corporate plastic. That's not what I want and I'm pretty sure you don't want it either. That's why today we've set up a Russ Feingold moneybomb cheddarbomb page here so you can donate money to Russ's campaign and keep him in the Senate, where we need his toughness, intelligence and values now more than ever.

As an added bonus, we'll be hosting a live chat today with Senator Feingold hosted by our own Susie Madrak. Susie, if you'd like to take it away now, I present you all with one of my heroes, Senator Russ Feingold.

Be sure to check out Russ's Act Blue page.

Get along home, Cindy.

Nick Reynolds, a founding member of the Kingston Trio who jump-started the revival folk scene of the late 1950s and paved the way for artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, has died. He was 75.

Another week, another guest host handling the blog round-up here at C&L. Good morning. I'm Lance Mannion and I have a blog. Don't we all?

Mine's called with wry cleverness Lance Mannion and I post about politics, movies, TV, books, and occasionally yard work and home repair. I'm also the television editor for the arts and culture blog newcritics. All our posts come with the James Wolcott Good Blogkeeping Seal of Approval. What this means for you is that since my focus isn't solely on politics, my linkages here won't do that either. For example, over at newcritics right now for your listening and dancing pleasure we have three dueling reviews of the new Bob Dylan fantasy biopic, I'm Not There.

"Dazzlingly fresh and original," says Jason Chervokas, "Makes me wonder what went wrong with movies over the past thirty years." The movie offers "20 REASONS TO BE STUCK INSIDE A MULTIPLEX WITH THE OVERPRICED POPCORN AGAIN," promises the Shamus. "All bizarre medicine show bread and circus with no real insight into Dylan’s connection to the past," grumps Tom Watson.

Meanwhile, on the political front. Julia, of Sisyphus Shrugged, made her debut at Firedoglake Friday with a long and thorough post detaling the weirdnesses, thuggery, shady dealings, and romantic longings of Rudy Giuliani's BFF and now secondary albatross around the neck, Bernie Kerik. Josh Marshall has some more details on Rudy's new and heavier albatross, the Shag Fund.

MediaBloodHound explains why Tom Brokaw is still the only one of the big three network anchors who doesn't understand how he and his colleagues failed us in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq: His "professionalism" gets in the way.

And Tom Tomorrow channels Bill O'Reilly's Advice for Young People.

That's all for now. Lots of good reading for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with a shorter introduction and links to shorter posts for your Monday morning drive time.

Send tips to me at lance at sign lancemannion bigolddot com.

TS here. Lassen Sie uns fortfahren, meine Freunde!

On balance, I’m not nostalgic for the university. The women were gorgeous and plentiful, the hockey team was in its heyday, but all was not bread and roses: the math classes were a real pain in the ass and the administration a mite autocratic. The latter two were the cause of sleepless nights and innumerable semesters on probation.

One in particular – a girlfriend, not an academic torment – was, let’s say, creative to a fault and an incurable Dylan fanatic. She even, to her everlasting credit, made a good case for Bob’s Christian period. I am grateful and tip the cap each time I listen to Saved.

Others were a source of frustration. C. was 23 and spoke French, which, since I was 20, seemed like surefire indicators of maturity. Not so. You’d think after x-number of years my college roommate might let me forget that C. once went through the motions of fellating a Star Market banana.

Good times.

That roommate, in fact, has returned to our undergrad city, and says that we had it pretty good. (He’s got lots of degrees, and is an erudite fellow, so I can’t contradict him without further evidence.) “What the hell happened to us?” he asked me recently. “If I knew,” I said, “I wouldn’t be on Jdate.” Anyway, we do agree that dry spells, which, as it happens, I’m experiencing as I write, are a fact of post-college years and should’ve been foreseen.

You can get me at instaputzen [at] gmail [dot com].

Macon Telegraph:

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

[..]Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, he was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.

"James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close." Read on...

Dylan is well...Dylan. It's interesting to see how the creative mind works.

Video

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