Salon looks at the situation in Africa. The solution, for Salon and most of the people they interview: blame George Bush and the United States. There are lots of reasons to dislike Bush, but Africa's problems go back for centuries. If anything, Bush has been better than Clinton according to none other than Bob Geldof.

Kim du Toit was raised in South Africa, served in their military, and spent time in jail for protesting apartheid. In du Toit's opinion, Africans will go on starving, killing and dying, and there isn't much you can do about it.

UPDATE: Starke and I were discussing du Toit's article, and he mentioned that it reminded him of the beginning of the movie "Black Hawk Down," which recounts the lost convoy in Somalia in 1993. It's the scene where American military officers are inverviewing a smiling local man who tells them something to the effect that foreigners come and go, but Africa never changes, and Adid will still be in power when the Americans are gone.

Continuing my recent bad luck with technology, my email service has been down since July 4th. If you need to get in touch, call me or use my work address.

SLASHDOT: Court finds that "Thumbnails" are fair use.

USA TODAY: MSNBC has fired idiot right-wing talk show host Michael Savage. Conservative blogger Clayton Cramer comments: "I can't say that I ever listened to him for more than about ten minutes, because I found him too irritating. He was to conservatism what Michael Moore is to intelligent leftist analysis."

ANDREW SULLIVAN: Idiot right wing author Anne Coulter's book stinks.

SAYS UNCLE: A Volunteer Tailgate class post. It's funny. Go read it.

TRUTH LAID BEAR: Rocky Top Brigade member Rush Limbaughtomy won the best new blogger showcase. Congrats, Barry.