Robert Novak, one of the greatest political columnists of all time, was diagnosed with a brain tumor Sunday and will suspend his work which includes his Sun-Times column. Novak attended the University of Illinois and during his time here worked at The Daily Illini as a sports reporter. Last year, Novak, along with dozens of other former staffers visited us here at Illini Media Company for our annual alumni weekend.

The current staff of his former home wish him the best and we hope for a complete and speedy recovery.

In bitter sweet news, many schools across the country have been seeing a spike in demand for online learning programs because prospective students are reluctant to commit to driving to local campuses due to rising gas prices. This may be good news for the University of Illinois’ sputtering Global Campus initative.

And the money quote from the NYT, emphasis mine:

One student taking online coursework for the first time is Kameron Miller, a 30-year-old working mother who lives in Buffalo, Mo., 40 miles north of Springfield. Her commute to classes in her 1998 Chevy Venture during the spring semester cost her at least $200 a month for gas, Ms. Miller said. This summer, she is taking courses in health, humanities and world music — all online.

“I don’t feel I get as much out of an online class as a campus course,” Ms. Miller said. “But I couldn’t afford any other decision.”

Watch very closely at the end of this clip. The man being threatened by the Joker is none other than Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. Apparently, he’s a huge Batman fan. After having a knife to his throat, he’s probably loves the caped crusader even more.

Two in-depth pieces hit cyberspace ahead of the long weekend and they are a study in contrasts.

One, from Vanity Fair, focuses on the infighting in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. A cross between bad Shakespeare and well…more bad Shakespeare, it’s a telling look at the ultimate demise of the junior senator from New York.

The other is a long profile story from the New York Times magazine on legendary AM talker Rush Limbaugh. Interesting reading on two of the most divisive figures in American politics.

Ever wondered what this “blogosphere” thingy is?

Look at this cloud of hundreds of web sites. It’s roughly organized by slant and shows how interconnected the chatters are.

http://presidentialwatch08.com/index.php/map/

Sen. Hillary Clinton in her speech in front of a New York audience Tuesday night.

“This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight.”

And her supporters went wild!

This marks the fist time a politician has ever been cheered for being indecisive.

If only all my action figures were like this.

From the department of “Stuff you don’t want to read but can’t look away from”:

 D.C. Madam’s suicide notes (courtesy TSG)

Although Paul Krugman and I sit on opposite sides of the political aisle, I occasionally find his commentary intriguing.  Here’s a great column by him:

Self-Inflicted Confusion

You have the right to choose, and so should this panda.