The Station Inn is open Seven nights a week with a cover charge Monday - Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m. each night with live music starting at 9 p.m., unless otherwise noted. You must be age 21 and older or be accompanied by a parent or guardian to enter. For high profile performances, please plan on arriving early.

Every Sunday the Station Inn there's a bluegrass jam session. It's the most real deal music left in all of nashville. phreaknic 0x0b. Even though we were tired and still recovering from the weekend's activities the dulcet tones coming from all of the sixteen instruments brought a tear to my eye as they played such bluegrass stand-bys like "Angel Band" and "Mountain Dew". Free and open to all. So bring and instrument or at least your ears for some of nashville's finest.

--timball

The Station Inn

Welcome to the State Department's first-ever blog, Dipnote. As a communicator for the Department, I have the opportunity to do my fair share of talking on a daily basis. With the launch of Dipnote, we are hoping to start a dialogue with the public. More than ever, world events affect our daily lives--what we see and hear, what we do, and how we work. I hope Dipnote will provide you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy, and will give you a chance to be active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today.

With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.

We invite you to participate in this community, and I am looking forward to stepping away from my podium every now and then into the blogosphere. Let the conversation begin.

PS - We're new at this. It looks like we broke our own rule and used State jargon in our blog title. "Dipnote" refers to a diplomatic note. It is one of the many ways in which governments formally communicate with each other.

The dictionary definition of a diplomatic note is: "A formal communication between an ambassador and a minister (usually the foreign minister) of this host government or another ambassador."

It's officially then end of the blogs. The faceless nameless Dept of State has decided to have a blog... In true USDoS fashion it's color scheme is grey on black.

--timball

US Department of State Blog

BOISE — Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will announce Saturday he will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men’s room, Republican officials said today, according to The Associated Press. The Idaho Statesman independently confirmed the report.

Craig's office declined to confirm or deny a resignation.

Craig's communications director Dan Whiting told the Idaho Statesman, "I won't say either way."

It's official a public servant for 27yrs is now resigning because of his "wide-stance".

--timball

UPDATED 4:48 p.m. -- Craig to announce resignation on Saturday | News Updates | Idaho Statesman

In Friday's Washington Post Dan Eggen and I examine two expanding fronts of the Justice Department's internal investigation into Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his top subordinates.

Justice's Inspector General and its Office of Professional Responsibility acknowledged they are examining Gonzales's recent congressional testimony for potential lies or false statements under oath, but in addition we unearthed a key document that serves as a mini-road map for a different portion of the now sprawling probe. This part of the investigation is examining whether Gonzales's top aides improperly and possibly illegally used political considerations in the hiring process at the Justice Department.

A cover letter [PDF] and 12-page questionnaire [PDF] sent out by IG-OPR investigators went to hundreds of people who were interviewed by four top aides to Gonzales over a 40-month period, from Jan. 1, 2004 through this past April. That's a much longer timeframe than was previously known to be under inquiry by Justice's investigators, who began this spring by examining the propriety of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year and now have a multi-faceted probe on their hands.

...

• The investigators are particularly focused on whether Goodling and other Justice officials were using personal political questions when making hiring decisions. Investigators want to know if interviewees were asked:

- to name "your favorite president, legislator, public figure, or Supreme Court justice"
- "what kind of conservative you were (law and order; social; fiscal)"
- what was "your position on the war on terror"

a) Your mother
b) N/A
c) not to land in gitmo

--timball

Document Shows Widening Probe Into DOJ Hiring - Capitol Briefing

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, one of Washington's most influential voices on defense policy, whose political plans could have a significant impact on the partisan makeup of a narrowly divided Senate, announced today that he will not seek a sixth term.

Warner, 80, announced his decision at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he received his law degree in 1953. His retirement is unwelcome news for his fellow Republicans, who hope to take control of the Senate next year. Democrats hold a 51 to 49 lead.

So Senator Warner goes. Which is weird cause I can't imagine a senate w/o him (I just turned 30, he's been in the Senate 5 terms). On so many issues he's been a hawk but his resent demand that 5k troops come home by december was a huge blow to stay-the-course-ers.

At 80 yrs young he's still got that vinegar and spit (along w/ a work ethic not seen in some younger senators) that VA voters love, but now he's forced a time for change. Open seat fun run!

--timball

Va. Senator Warner Will Not Seek Sixth Term

Snow, 52, a former journalist and Fox News talk show host, has signaled in recent weeks that he probably would not finish the remainder of the Bush presidency, primarily because of financial concerns. He was leaving, he said today, "because I ran out of money."

Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 a year as the White House spokesman but made considerably more as an anchor for "Fox News Sunday" and a political analyst for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. He also hosted "The Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio.

How do you make $170k/yr and go broke? ... Ah yes. Subprime.

--timball

White House Press Secretary Snow Resigns - washingtonpost.com

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months, submitted it to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senior administration official said. There had been rumblings over the weekend that Mr. Gonzales’s departure was imminent, although the White House sought to quell the rumors.

OMFG! He PHONED IT IN! Oh hollywood you've made us all stupidier.

--timball

Embattled Attorney General Resigns - New York Times

What is the Solar Decathlon?

Twenty teams have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. (The request for proposals for the 2009 Solar Decathlon will be released during the 2007 event.) The teams, from colleges and universities around the globe, participate in an unparalleled solar competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. In fall 2007, the teams transport their solar houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they form a solar village. The teams compete in 10 contests to determine an overall winner. Using only energy from the sun, the teams generate enough electricity to run a modern household. With an eye on energy efficiency, the students carefully choose the systems, products, and appliances used in their houses.

The decathlon is gonna be on the National Mall October 12 - 20, 2007. It should be awesome.

Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Home Page

Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of CalTech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses.

Virgil's on Wired. :)

(Update: Slashdotted)

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign

My friend's Sammy and Maitland got hitched up in boston. This is a tabblo documenting their wedding. Apparently I am at that age where all of my friends decide it's time to get married.

--timball

Sammy & Maitland's wedding