friday reads

Hurricane Ike briefs

• Curfews remain in place for Orange and Jefferson [TX] counties.
• On day 6 of the largest blackout in Greater Cincinnati history, the number of area residents still without power was down to 129,654.
• Bolivar [TX] residents not allowed back in...yet.
• Texas a grim tableau nearly a week after Ike.

Avast! It's Talk Like a Pirate Day.


Glenn Greenwald: The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law


Steven Pearlstein: Scrambling to Clean Up After A Category 4 Financial Storm

What we are witnessing may be the greatest destruction of financial wealth that the world has ever seen -- paper losses measured in the trillions of dollars. Corporate wealth. Oil wealth. Real estate wealth. Bank wealth. Private-equity wealth. Hedge fund wealth. Pension wealth. It's a painful reminder that, when you strip away all the complexity and trappings from the magnificent new global infrastructure, finance is still a confidence game -- and once the confidence goes, there's no telling when the selling will stop.

Tomgram: Steve Fraser, The End of a Gilded Age


A local candidate in Vermont has promised to charge and prosecute President Bush for murder if elected as that state's attorney general.


Products Placed: How Companies Pay Artists to Include Brands in Lyrics


PSA (via Fleshbot)