The daily political topics being tossed about are best found at these sites…

Aggregators:

Memeorandum - continually updates, links original news stories with links to all major commentary on the item, all by topic

The Daou Report - major commentary from the left in the left column, from the right in the right column – free if you click through a sponsored web ad

PBD - Progressive Blog Digest  - as it says

Real Clear Politics - links to the major editorials of the day, about two-thirds on the right side of things, with some commentary
Cursor – weekdays, by noon Eastern Time, links to the major news stories, a left-leaning selection

The Huffington Post - Arianna Huffington's stable of big-gun commentators, and more
Working for Change - posts the latest Molly Ivins items and other "progressive" opinion, and a daily cartoon

Crooks and Liars - the source for media clips

Townhall - daily collection of major conservative opinion pieces

The Smirking Chimp - daily collection of Bush items, sometimes carries our own Bob Patterson

General:

Slate – formerly a joint venture of Microsoft and MSNBC, now owned by the Washington Post group - co-produces some material the NPR radio show "Day to Day" weekdays at noon from the new NPR studios out here in Culver City.  Mainstream - carries good summaries of movies, and book reviews too

For the daily wire stories and everyone's schedule, ABC's "The Note" is useful, even if it leans right – go here and click on "The Note."  If you want to know just when Bush will arrive in Peoria tomorrow, they have it.

Today's Front Pages - images (.pdf) of 488 front pages from 42 counties, with links to the papers – test your language skills

News Voyager - links to all major dailies, weeklies, and college new publications, and media organizations – includes Canada and other international papers

The Blogs?

Here is a selection of the majors, and minors….

The Daily Kos – the most visited blog on the left

Eschaton – Duncan Black, every lefty's basic issues

Hullabaloo – Digby is blunt and essential - one of the best

Political Animal - Kevin Drum's daily blog for the Washington Monthly is a must.
Andrew Sullivan - issues as seen by a conservative gay right-wing Republican, born and raised in the UK but now living at the tip of Cape Cod. Yep, he's conflicted.

Talk Left - multi-award winning blog on criminal and constitutional law - creator and principal author, defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt

The Volokh Conspiracy - a big-gun UCLA law professor, his students and friends hold forth on the issues of the day, from the prospective of constitutional, criminal and copyright law

The Reality-Based Community - UCLA public policy professor Mark Kleiman and friends

Talking Points Memo - Joshua Micah Marshall, the ultimate Washington insider (see also TPM Café the group blog)

Informed Comment - Juan Cole, University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert, on matters there
Semi-Daily Journal - Professor Brad Delong of UC Berkeley - used to work in the White House as an economist for the Clinton Administration - mostly about economic issues

The Left End of the Dial - James Benjamin is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Behavioral and Social Science at Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Politics as seen by a psychologist – and some jazz items too, as he's a fan

Body and Soul - again, mostly long form, but the best of real humanism

Whiskey Bar - one of the most thoughtful, with long-form essays, not little nuggets, updates infrequent (postings have been spotty)

Altercation - Eric Alterman, NYU professor and author, Monday through Friday

Tapped - the blog of The America Prospect

This Modern World - the political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow and his friends hold forth on the day's issues

James Wolcott - the man from Vanity Fair, extraordinary prose

Oliver Willis - short, pointed, and spotty
The Best of the Blogs - not really, but pretty good

World O'Crap – "A daily diatribe about current events, bad movies, pop culture, Ann Coulter, etc." - and so it is

UggaBugga - often has good diagrams but posts at odd intervals…
Sisyphus Shrugged - wise woman blogger

Martini Republic - a good daily read

Roger Ailes - no, not THAT one, the other one…
Sadly, No! – as it says

The Corner - short posts at the conservative Nation Review Online

New March 6, 2005 - Velvel on National Affairs – ''sets forth the personal views of the Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence R. Velvel, on national events.  Occasionally, the responses to his views or other interesting articles are also posted." - for those of a legal turn of mind on current events

Local:

LA Observed

Golden State - Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times

Attitude:
 
Wonkette - political gossip at its best

Patriot Boy - General JC Christian who signs each item "Heterosexually Yours" – the manly man – tries to rid himself of his “inner Frenchman” and wonders why his little general (and two grenades) won’t stand up at attention when called upon - political satire at its snarkiest
FafBlog - way off the wall political humor from the Medium Lobster

Bartcop - very angry left and not terribly coherent

Betty Bowers  - America's Best Christian (satire)

The Press - media industry news, commentary, and memos

CJR Daily – from the Columbia School of Journalism

Editor and Publisher

Poynter Online

Media Matters 

For what's up in France try these:

The Tocqueville Connection - for AFP wire items in English updated several times a day
RFI Press Review - Radio France International's daily English summary of the top stories in the French national press
Yahoo - France - current AP and Reuters (and other wire services) stories regarding France

The Arts:

Arts and Letters Daily - a service of The Chronicle of Higher Education providing links to stories on music and all the arts, book reviews of note, and some politics
About Last Night - Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal on music, dance and theater, with neat quotes now and then, and no politics at all