If you're interested in picking up some selections from a Grammy-winning recording artist after last night's awards ceremony, you're in luck. Not only is there a substantial library of these recordings available online, but there's new material being released just about every week. Best of all, you can get them all completely free of charge — and no, that doesn't mean you have to fire up some Napster clone or troll MySpace.com profiles looking for free MP3 files.

The recording artist I'm talking about is Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), winner of this year's Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. Obama won recognition for his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," beating out nominees Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, Sean Penn and George Carlin. more

About a month ago, my buddy Joshua wrote a blog post about the Think Cropp signs which had cropped up (no pun intended) across D.C., seemingly overnight. He praised the nontraditional nature of this campaign effort, and he wasn't the only one who noticed. DCist blogged about it, and as a D.C. resident with a front door that leads onto the street I'd taken an interest as well — especially because someone had surreptitiously stuck one of the signs into the patch of grass right out front just as I happened to be looking out the window. Actually, because I live in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, the sign deliverer had used a Spanish Piensen Cropp sign which made the message that much more cryptic.

The only thing I really knew about Linda Cropp was that she had been the target of the Drop Cropp campaign last year when the negotiations for a baseball stadium here in D.C. got complicated. So after the guy with the signs left, I did what any self-respecting web geek would do: I Googled everything I could think of. A URL on the sign sure would've helped, but there was none to be found. I searched for the phrase "Piensen Cropp" and found nothing. The bottom of the sign listed something called the "Think DC PAC," so I checked for that. Nope. And there were no results for "Think Cropp," either. more

For someone who spends so much time reading online — blogs, news sites, and pretty much anything I can point my browser at — I really don't spend much time reading. Thanks to Bookmark Now compiled by Kevin Smokler, I can say that not only have I just read an honest-to-goodness good book, but it's also given me the kick in the pants I needed to start reading more.

I met Kevin at the SXSW interactive conference several years ago, and I'm honored to count him as a friend. He's the type of person who encourages and inspires others to follow their dreams, so it's especially satisfying to see his success with this inspiring project. As an internet-savvy Bay Area resident, Kevin of course has a blog, but as a sort of modern-day ambassador for the written word he's done some innovative stuff with his Virtual Book Tours, and Bookmark Now has its own comprehensive website. more

Today is a special day for anyone who's been following the ongoing saga of Republican Leader Tom DeLay's ethical misadventures. It was a year ago today that Chris Bell, a Democratic congressman from Texas, filed the ethics complaint against DeLay that resulted in official rebukes from the House Ethics Committee and opened the floodgates for all the revelations, allegations and investigations that continue to dog the GOP's leadership in Congress.

When he filed that complaint, Bell faced a lot of pressure from his colleagues in Congress — including Democratic leaders — because he was breaking a seven-year ethics truce between the two parties. But he did it because bringing these abuses of power to light was the right thing to do. Despite the findings against DeLay, the GOP has continued to stand by their man. House Republicans even changed the rules earlier this year to protect DeLay from further ethics investigations, but then had to reverse themselves in the face of public outcry. more

When the SXSW Interactive conference started, I fully intended to blog live from each and every panel session and keynote. I made sure my iBook battery was charged, furiously typed copious notes during the sessions, and researched any URLs that were mentioned. But then I looked up.
Once I downshifted and took a step back I found I enjoyed my experience in Austin that much more. I kept taking notes, and there are a few sessions I hope to write about here on the blog over the next several days — I have a feeling that after a few days of rest, some of the ideas presented at SXSW will have had a chance to sink in and I'll do a better job putting them into words. Besides, thanks to the miracle of tagging there are plenty of links, musings and photos available under the "sxsw" tag on del.icio.us, Technorati and Flickr. Michael also helped Tim and I do our best to summarize the trip in a SXSW wrap-up podcast. more

Tim and I have reached the midpoint of the SXSW Interactive conference here in Austin, Tx., and we're doing our best to soak up as much as we can. SXSW is a unique conference not just because of its location — though that doesn't hurt — but because of the convergence of so many creative people in one place. The interactive conference overlaps with SXSW Film, and then the better-known SXSW Music festival starts later this week.
Of course, we're here to talk about what's happening on the web. All the buzzwords you've heard about are being covered (not to mention some you haven't), and while we're used to working in an office where RSS, XHTML and online community are part of normal conversation, there's something comforting about being surrounded by people who literally speak the same language. Besides, any conference that includes evening events on the official schedule has got to be doing something right. more

During Saturday afternoon's panel "Blogs and Blockades," the panelists used a variety of metaphors to talk about the way blogs are impacting China and Iraq despite government attempts at censorship.
Benjamen Walker, producer and host of the weekly radio program "The Theory of Everything," refers to "The Great Firewall of China" — an appropriate comparison to the actual Great Wall given the fact that the original is not nearly as impenetrable as it was meant to be, and neither are restrictions on internet use. In reality, while there is definitely a real effort to control access to information, the Chinese people are able to get around government barriers in a variety of ways. more

SXSW Interactive runs from today through Tuesday, and Tim and I arrived in Austin, Tx., yesterday to get a jump on things. The headline on the Wired News story about SXSWi yesterday said "Austin Is the Place for Netheads," and while I'm not sure anyone here would ever use that term, the story rightly points out that this is where the people who create internet culture gather to mingle, brainstorm and turn online aquaintances into face-to-face friends. more

Rep. Robert Matsui passed away Saturday night after being hospitalized last week for pneumonia. Matsui had recently been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Disorder, a rare stem cell disorder which affects the immune system. He was 63.

Matsui, a 14-term congressman from Sacramento, was a prominent member of the Democratic leadership in the Congress and was serving as the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He was known for his strong stance on fiscal responsibility and, as the ranking member on the Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, he was leading the Democratic effort to protect Social Security from privatization.

Some of us had the privilege of working at the DCCC under Matsui's leadership and saw first-hand his dedication and commitment to Democratic values. Our thoughts are with his family and those who worked closely with him in the House. more