ACLU Internet Organizer Matt Howes (creator of our cool new Action Center), recently sent this notice from Townhall.com, a grassroots conservative web community. In the message, Townhall President Drew Bond decries the Meetup.com switch to monthly fees for event sponsors. Townhall is now going to run its own meetup events. (As anyone with a bit of capacity will eventually.) The best part is the way Bond promoted these new meetups in the member newsletter: • Easier and more intuitive interface. • Conservatives only! No Deaniacs, no pagans, no liberals. • Greater integration with Townhall.com. • Tools to facilitate action and coordination.... but now look at the subtle difference in how they're promoted on the site:• Easier and more intuitive interface. • Conservatives only! No Deaniacs, no liberals. • Greater integration with Townhall.com. • Tools to facilitate action and coordination. I guess they decided to broaden the base and be more welcoming of pagans. Interestingly, a search of "pagan"…

This picture from the front page of NYT has all the mild tension and anxious nonchalance that I associate with East Coast life since the September 11 attacks. The web photo renders a little differently, but in print Orange Alert Guy, in the foreground, had the slightest of pleasant smiles on his face. Giving the passenger-plane false alarm in D.C. yesterday more of a feeling of a school fire drill, at least in the photo. I can't call the vibe I get from the picture festive, exactly. And I can hardly belittle a sense of anxiety I wasn't there to feel or dismiss. But the media bustle and the tonal uncertainty around this nearly-notable mishap reminded me again how unable we are to even imagine real cataclysm, real chaos. I pray it stays that way, I really do. We know how to leave burning buildings, or run for good seats…

On the Editors' Blog at TomPaine.com, Laura Donelly posted a nice plug for the ACLU Couch Parties. The debate over indecency continues to gain momentum and, more importantly, visibility. The last thing you want is for what you see on TV to be decided by a couple of congressional ideologues, some self-censoring media companies or even a handful of civil rights groups. Get involved, get involved, get involved. Yesterday I had one of those world-too-small moments when long-lost schoolmate Jed Weintrob wrote me about his new film The F Word and I ended up at the Tribeca Film Festival, hanging out with and bumping into a Robert Altman ensemble of friends, schoolmates and former colleagues. Jed's movie, which premiered at the festival, is a stylish, freestyle collage of voices and events surrounding the 2004 Republican National Convention. It's a plea for freedom from bootheel regulations and a grassroots snapshot -…