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October 25, 2006

Dixie Chicks Flick Is A Good One -- If Free

Talk about cajones: FreeRepublic.com's Kristinn Taylor's got 'em. How so? the conservative website led the outcry against the once popular country band Dixie Chicks when singer Natalie Maines screeched how she hated that President Bush hailed from Texas. Well, last week at the Washington premi ère of the Chicks' decidedly anti-Free Republic documentary, Shut Up and Sing, Taylor showed up. But he wasn't kicked out, reports our Elizabeth Green. The hosts at the lefty Center for American Progress invited him to join the group discussion, where he told the director the movie was a good one.

Why go? "This was a chance," he tells us, "to see it for free."

Posted at 02:39 PM by PaulBedard

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WHAT IS THIS?

Have you ever wondered what reporters do with all the stuff they collect but never write about? Well wonder no more. The bosses here pay me a good chunk of change and haven't ever choked on my Amex bill so it seems only proper to dump out my notebook every week. It won't be just news we didn't use. The blog will sometimes write about the process of getting stories-like why we choose Charlie Palmer's (quiet, spacious) for source lunches on Capitol Hill over Bistro Bis (crowded and noisy). Or why it's hard to get reporters at U.S. News to answer their phones on Fridays (it's our deadline, silly.) We'll even include pictures of our travels. Don't hesitate to applaud or criticize. We might just run your comments. Go ahead and email me at pbedard@usnews.com.

HISTORICAL STUFF

In Washington Whispers One Year Ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy can be one of the Senate's blustering best, but we found him in a candid moment last week when he sized up his speech this week at the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. "You're gonna miss a great speech there," he said with a chuckle. "Same one I've given for 40 years. It's going to be breathtaking."

Five years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney knows how to keep reporters happy. Flying home on Air Force Two from an energy policy town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, his press corps asked stewards for beer. Breaking with practice, the jet was dry. Scribes whined to Cheney who found two bottles of vino, red and white, to give the pampered pressies.