Meredith Shiner: Today is the day the @politico gods are coming down and granting me a new BlackBerry. I have been waiting for this day forever.

Congrats to Erin on her new gig with Real Clear Politics. Her first story showed up today. Real Clear Politics: Portman Fine-Tunes Message in Key Senate Race

h/t DCist

Marc Ambinder: After November, I’ll be joining National Journal as White House correspondent. A little less blogging, a lot more reporting. Very excited.

Have the Rex Ryan pep talks on Hard Knocks fired up the Politico folks? Playbook put on its big boy pants and spent the weekend jacking people up. On Sunday Playbook ran an advertisement (with no sponsor attribution to parent company Albritton) to pop Comcast and NBC: ** ADVERTISEMENT: A …

Happy Friday the 13th, Charlie Rangel filibustered the House, Andrew Sullivan likes to do druwings, thank you for teaching prostitutes to handle their booze, this calls for a leg kick, Chuck’s tired, Desiree Rogers got a new gig, Chinese prostitutes benefit from your pay check, photo entries are rolling in,  …

If you were affected by the MASSIVE thunderstorm yesterday, otherwise know as #demonWeather you were not alone! The safest (and quickest) way to get to your destination was to run, walk, crawl or row your way there. In fact you may have needed a flashlight it was so dark! I …

Congress is gone again. Now we’re all back to Chillin’

Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives will reconvene because of one single tweet. This 140 character message, not only ruined thousands of August vacations, but will cost staffers and members thousands of dollars when it’s all said and done. With the help from FamousDC, the fine folks at JESS3 illustrated …

Monica took what might have been a pretty ridiculous assignment and turned it into something wonderful. She transformed a fringe Republican Gubernatorial candidacy into a 962-word think-piece on the intersection of politics, the Internet and Napoleon Dynamite. WaPo: Basil Marceaux lost his race, but on Web he won place in …

DC Summer Interns are on Twitter,  Pete Snyder & Mike Madden celebrated birthdays, Rick Klein drinks famous coffee, Twitter ruined August vacation, another terrible storm in DC, political dish always tastes better with a touch of Basil, should we give Courtney Kolb a mug?, American Recovery project now building portable …

Now there is time and Time is young. ~ May Sarton Be sure to tell Mr. Matt Dornic Happy Birthday tomorrow.

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton:McConnell scolds Franken for making faces from dais during his speech Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) scolded Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the Senate floor Thursday for allegedly mocking him while he delivered a solemn speech on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Obviously God is mad about Congress coming back next week. Hold on to your hats. It looks like the End of Days could be upon us. Please send any storm pics to [email protected] and we’ll add them to this post. Live view of the storm, from the Senate side of …

POLITICO’s Gloria Park: Next D.C. Career: Blogger Relations Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger and author, credited staff at The Heritage Foundation, minority staff at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee and House Homeland Security Committee and staff in the offices of Rep. John Boehner and Sen. …