After chants of “Drill, baby, drill” at the Republican National Convention, a Democratic Congress has changed their attitudes on offshore drilling. From the New York Times:

Even more surprising, the turnabout is led by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who has a history of fighting oil drilling going back to the early days of her career in California.

Under a measure being assembled for a vote in the House next week, oil rigs could go up 50 miles from the shores of states that welcome drilling and 100 miles off any section of the United States coast — a stark reversal on an issue that has been a Democratic environmental touchstone since the 1980s.

The Republicans aren’t satisfied with the measure, which they say doesn’t go far enough.

Are the Democrats just caving to pressure? Is drilling really going to solve our energy problems? How long will it even be until the oil starts flowing from these places?

This story brought to you by Where Have all the Liberals Gone? by James Flynn.

The writer’s life hasn’t changed much.

Move to the big city, live in a tiny apartment, and get dragged down by all the distractions and frustrations that accompany this process.

When I moved to New York, I had the same demoralizing situation; jobless for several months; interning for free.

So I can relate to Darwin’s buddy from Cambridge, Henry Matthew. Henry was president of the Cambridge Union. The guy had some serious brains. But when he went to London to make it as a writer, things didn’t quite work out, and Darwin had to send him a little cash at one point. His drinking and persistent letters from his wife didn’t help.

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For a unique window into what we go through in the publishing industry, even as book review sections and reviewers are slashed left and right, The Guardian’s Book Blog:

There are many zany tactics adopted by publishers and authors to get their books noticed, but how about giving them away for free? John Warner, chief creative tsar of struggling independent publisher TOW Books, is so sick of sending his books out to newspapers and magazines and television shows for review, and hearing nothing back, that he’s decided to give up on the media and send books directly to his readers.

(Behind the decision there is also perhaps a measure of ennui for booksellers, too, after a passing gag he made about a ridiculous preposterous novelty book was taken at face value and generated significant interest from retailers.)

“Really, if you think about it in this day and age of Amazon and blogs and Facebook and MySpace, and LibraryThing, and Shelfari, everyone has a public forum where they can express their opinions,” he writes. The only thing he is asking in return “is that you say something somewhere about them, even if it’s along the lines of ‘U think ur funny, but u suck’.”

For an insider’s look, see John Warner’s own account of what it’s like, and TOW probably sends out more publicity copies than we do. But as he summarizes, books don’t stick to walls when thrown at them, and the wall has many book-sized holes in it.