Sad News - Tim Russert Dead at 58

My best to his family.

peace to his soul and family

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

from one of his last columns:

MSNBC: Given the way people use the Internet, do you wonder if there are going to be some things said or done during the course of this campaign that will be very unsettling?

Russert: That’s what we have to be conscious of and vigilant against, particularly at the end of the campaign as things are put out there. We’ve already had a few fake videos with different words dubbed in and people say, “This must be true because I saw it on the Internet.”

What we hope to do in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security, taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just instinctively put it out there without vetting it. Or, if it is something that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why. But sometimes it’s very hard to trace it back to its original source.

I ♥ NC General Statute § 163‑211.

I didn't always agree with how he did his show, but his was the only political show I tried to never miss since I was a sophomore in college. I always found it better than "Face the Nation" and "This Week..."

Whoever takes over will have some big shoes to fill. Who will cheer for the Buffalo teams now? Heh.

Was almost unflappable. And what I admired about him was that he skewered BOTH sides, and rarely if ever seemed to take personally the back-and-forth on his show with whomever he bantered.

We see too few of his kind in positions of fostering truly stimulating discussion, giving a critical eye to all sides of an issue, and modeling an attitude of celebration for the fact that we have differences.