YEAH. I WATCHED THE TONYS. SO?You want heart and class and sheer awesomeness? Check out Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and lyricist for In The Heights, winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Original Score.--for updates and to continue the discussion in comments, please go directly to http://heywriterb...

THOMAS SCHALLER in Salon today has a very trenchant, short piece on one of the big problems in McCain's stump speech. In a week where lots of 'illions have been thrown around, it's worth getting into: A sage Washington observer with whom I dined this week pointed out to me something that politicians and even the media are not allowed to say, so I will: Too many Americans struggle with basic math and, knowing this, ...

FUNNY THING, Canadian Politics. Though the campaigns here are lightning fast (usually about 33 days, total) the actual speed at which engagement happens in this country seems to me to be slow, slowwww, slowwwww.First, there's the fact that the CBC didn't jump to get its comedy shows on the air earlier -- even in a special version.Next, here's -- and I kid you not -- the first EVER personally created election themed YouTube thingie I ...