But rather than getting upset
State your case. Make it terse.
You've got five lines of verse.
Take your marks, rhymers. Ready, get set!

(Shout out and a hat tip, by the way, to kossack Granny Doc, who is the regular curator of the limerick museum and already has a diary up today, I watched it so you don’t have to.)

We once had a Joint Chiefs chairman named Richard Myers, who has a niece named Julie Myers. The president nominated her to be assistant DHS secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The thinness of her resume raised enough questions--even among Republicans like George Voinovich--that the president snuck her in as a recess appointment.

Even Michelle Malkin, of all people, called this a "monumental political and policy blunder."

Now we know she's not fit to judge a costume contest.

General Motors' OnStar communications feature is a powerful tool. It can give you directions. It can unlock your doors. It can call 911 if the airbag  deploys.

And now it can shut down your car via satellite.

Is this a good thing? Let's examine this after the flip.

TVNewser's new editor, Chris Ariens, suggests that "maybe the idea of adding Keith Olbermann to the NFL on NBC roster is paying off for his MSNBC show."

NBC's first regular-season game was last Thursday. Did it work? Here are the ratings in the 25-54 age range for Friday, Sept. 7:

O'Reilly: 324,000
Countdown: 365,000

Keep in mind, Nielsen ratings are based on small samples and have lots of play in them. One day more or less isn't much to work with.

But it wasn't that long ago that O'Reilly and FNC were touting an insurmountable lead in "the demo"--shorthand for that key demographic category.

As Olbermann said in Friday's "Worst Person" segment, "Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted."

UPDATE AND A HAT TIP: To KingOneEye, who diaried "Countdown's" first ratings lead here.

Wal-Mart's greatest buffer against its critics is the size and loyalty of its customer base. For years Wal-Mart has built a reputation for treating its core customers with friendliness and respect.

But today that reputation is in jeopardy. And one reason is a decision Wal-Mart made a year ago: to quit offering layaway.

MSNBC's Allison Linn examines the effect of this decision on some customers here. See the flip for some interesting excerpts.

A la carte pricing for cable/satellite TV is an idea that's been around but is kinda stuck. This might get it moving.
Sirius and XM, the nation's two satellite radio services, want to hook up in the worst way. In order to get the FCC's blessing,

[the companies] said they would offer two "à la carte" pricing plans. One would enable consumers to purchase the best of the premium services now offered by each company — like professional football, baseball and basketball — for a monthly fee of $14.99. For $6.99 a month, the other would enable listeners to choose 50 of the nonpremium channels, with each additional channel costing 25 cents.

What this has to do with dkos and kossacks--and Fox News--on the flip.

Bill O'Reilly's JetBlue Jihad has certainly gotten us all talking. About boycotts, among other things. This is a good discussion to have--but it helps to know the economics of cable TV.

To be blunt, it's not enough to quit watching.

Just by having Fox News in your channel lineup, you've got Billo's hand in your pocket. Your cable company may be paying Fox News up to $9 a year in your name. Appalled?  Detailed rundown and a few suggestions on the flip.

Here are some highlights from the announcement:

• Neil Cavuto leads coverage and appears on air.
• Editorial slant will be more "business friendly" than CNBC. (And we all know what a fearless muckraker that Maria Bartiromo is.)
• DirecTV (34% owned by News Corp.) will carry the channel at launch, along with Comcast, Time Warner and Charter, 3 of the top 4 cable operators. It would be interesting to know the terms. Murdoch secured widespread carriage of Fox News by paying cable operators $10 a head, right up front.

There's a push on, privately and publicly, to persuade Americans to replace at least one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) fixture. For starters. But that task isn't always easy. For one thing, there doesn't seem to be a clearinghouse of practical information as to which brands and types deliver the best benefit at the lowest cost.

So hey, let's make one!

Nearly all the news media have framed Denver as a place you can't get into or out of. With a few exceptions like this Indianapolis station.

But lookit, Amtrak's running out of Denver.

Now is the California Zephyr running late? Of course. Is it crowded? Likely. Might it run out of food en route? Sure; provisioning is more art than science anyway, and abnormal circumstances throw everything out the window. But it's warm and it's moving.

Several thoughtful comments here suggested that personal economy would make a good diary topic. So here goes.

In 2005 I got a handle on living within my means. For 2006 my big New Year's resolution was to move beyond that and start living well below my means: cutting month-to-month expenses and accelerating my savings program. 12 months later, it strikes me as an even better resolution for 2007. To start things off, here are a few steps I took over the last 12 months:

Secretary Mineta's resignation letter appears on DOT's website as a PDF. Excerpt:

There is much talk these days about a lack of civility in our political discourse and of deep ideological and partisan divisions at every level of government, most especially here in Washington, D.C. There is enough evidence to suggest that such talk and the concerns that it reflects are not without merit. But . . . [o]ver the past five and a half years, I would like to think that you and I have demonstrated, even in a small way, that different political affiliations do not have to translate into opposing views on the value of public policy issues or the nobility of public service.