Here are a few things we missed over the last couple of days:
* The DCCC has been throwing big money at the special election to replace Weiner in NY-9, a race where the anti-Muslim rhetoric ran so hot earlier this year that a local blogger characterized it as a “race for the Knesset”. Recent polls are tight, and even though the real-world consequences of a Republican upset in this district are nil (the district is being redistricted out of existence), an upset in New York will get a lot of press.
* The founder of Project Gutenberg has died. He started the project by typing the Declaration of Independence into a computer in 1971, and its grown to contain 36,000 books that are out of copyright. If you have any kind of e-reader and have read a classic on it, you’ve benefited from the work of this group.
* Congress passed a new patent bill that one smart commentator characterizes as “mostly useless”. If you haven’t listened to the This American Life broadcast about our broken patent system, it’s worth some attention.
* In the Department of Who Gives a Shit, the first prima donna out the door of the SuperCommittee may be John Kyl, who’s already threatening to quit. If you’re puzzling over why he would do something that stupid, since he’d just be replaced by some other Senator gagging for the spotlight, wonder no more: he got an extensive fluff piece in Politico for his trouble.
I’ll make this an open thread. Add in anything else you think is worth mentioning.