It started as a bit on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show: a parody of sorts intended to highlight Gov. Sarah Palin’s conservative credentials after she was named as Sen. John McCain’s running mate. It was a make-believe conversation, straight out of the mind of Limbaugh, between the Palin and Sen.

The Obama faithful — those who didn’t spend the eve of his vice presidential announcement frantically refreshing CNN.com — received the text announcing the selection of Sen. Joe Biden (D – Del.) at the wee hour of 3 a.m.

It’s turned out to be a sleepy summer for what was billed as the most important election of our lifetime. The GOP all the way down from Republican presidential nominee Sen.

The arrest of Graham Public Library employee Marxavi Angel Martinez has the makings of a cause célèbre: a sympathetic subject, a murky law enforcement decision and a flashpoint of controversy. Following a couple weeks of reporting by the Burlington Times News.

Taking a page from the Jesse Helms playbook, Amer ican for Legal Immigration PAC in Raleigh launched a public assault on the News Observer last week. Ask any radical or subversive: If you can’t get the media to reflect your bias, relentlessly attack its credibility until you can elevate yourself to the same level of influence.

Tony Snow (1955-2008) RIP Although we didn’t really believe much of what came out of his mouth while he was President Bush’s press secretary, we always had a soft spot in our ink-stained heart for Tony Snow, who succumbed last week to colon cancer.

At the risk of sounding too meta, the biggest spat on the local blogosphere last week involved....me. I went at it for a bit with Winston-Salem's best Greensboro blogger Ben Holder, AKA the Troublemaker, when in a diatribe against Jordan Green he took a shot at me, contending that I had misrepresented my work history on another blog.