Putin now saying that former spy who was poisoned wasn't poisoned at all

If you want to see a guilty man in action, just watch Russian President Vladimir Putin over the next few days. A former Russian spy just died, after being poisoned with a radioactive toxin. The spy was a top critic of Putin, and was looking into last month's murder of a top Russian journalist. When asked whether he was responsible for ordering the murder, Putin responded that he didn't need to answer the question because there was no evidence that the guy was murdered at all.

He was found with a highly toxic radioactive substance in his body, but Putin says, in answer to a question about whether he just murdered somebody, that there was no murder at all.

We have a president who is an idiot. We have an administration who is more interested in overthrowing governments than focusing on the real problems of the world. And now we are witnessing the next level of their incompetence. Russian is falling back into dictatorship, and Bush is nowhere to be found. Welcome to the benefits of Republican rule. Read the rest of this post...

Black Friday has a different meaning in Iraq

Big day for shopping in America. Day of extreme violence in the country America invaded.

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Friday Carmella Blogging

You may get your orchids later, but in the meantime, you get Carmella the wonder dog (also known as my sister's dog). I got to spend the afternoon in the park with the dog, and my niece and nephew (ages 6 and 8, or so). Which was fun, but a bit weird. I always find when I go to the park with my siblings' kids, somebody else's kid always adopts me. It's weird, nice, but weird. Basically, some other little boy, about the age of my nephew, decides he needs to show off for me - look how high I can go, etc. It's very cute. Odd, but cute. Though things got a bit weird when the adorable kid on the swing next to us, whose grandpa was pushing him, started bragging about how high he could go (because, you know, kids in parks feel compelled to adopt me). Well, after grandpa gave the kid an extra hard shove, the kid turns to me and yells "when I go this high, it makes my pee-pee tickle." I said "okay," looked and grandpa, and we both continued to push, a bit quieter than we were before. Read the rest of this post...

Hastert is looking for something to do -- before he quits

Almost missed yesterday's NY Times report that Denny Hastert is "dejected and embarrassed." Tough. And, more bad news for Denny Hastert. He has to fly commercial now. But, come on, it's not like he ever really was the Speaker. He had all the perks, none of the responsibility:

It will also be a major change for Mr. Hastert. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he has rarely if ever flown on commercial planes because of security concerns, and he has been surrounded by a staff of 60 or so, including Congressional and political workers. For the last eight years, he has stood behind the vice president in the constitutional line of succession to the presidency. Now he will be just one of 435 and a member of the minority in the House, where as Mr. Hastert knows too well, the majority clearly rules.

Friends of Mr. Hastert say they expect he will try to make the most of his remaining time but that it will be surprising if he serves his entire term.

So, for now, Denny isn't doing anything but collecting his big fat paycheck.

The fact that Hastert is the ex-Speaker is something to be thankful for. Read the rest of this post...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Congress

Friday's NYT:

Seeking information about detention of terrorism suspects, abuse of detainees and government secrecy, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are reviving dozens of demands for classified documents that until now have been rebuffed or ignored by the Justice Department and other agencies.

“I expect real answers, or we’ll have testimony under oath until we get them,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who will head the committee beginning in January, said in an interview this week. “We’re entitled to know these answers, and in many instances we don’t get them because people are hiding their mistakes. And that’s no excuse.”

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Cliff's Corner

Thanksgiving

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Ok so we’re coming up on Thanksgiving, a time when we give thanks for all that is special in our lives. And I don’t mean special in a George W. Bush hooked-on-phonics kinda way.

I’m thinking about the truly wonderful things that have hopefully graced our lives over the past year.

But that’s not all! We’re also granted the opportunity to unpack stale mythology as we pretend we bonded with Native Americans long enough to eat a meal ensemble where they actually weren’t the main course — and conveniently forget that we did to their land what Bob Ney did to their casino profits. And if they didn’t like it, we stuck a gun barrel in their face and told them to go Jack Abramoff.

Yet, with that lumpy gravy about to flow like the dopamine levels in Karl Rove’s cerebral cortex during pseudo-giddy electoral predictions, I figured why not use this hallowed space to give thanks for all that has blessed my life over the past year:

Thanks to my one-month old adorable son Douglas, for entering my life (and my beautiful wife for doing, let’s say, 98.7% of the work) and already having more hair and understanding of the Sunni Triangle than Dick Cheney.

Thanks to IMs, Congressional Pages and attempted GOP cover-ups.

Thanks to Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for fighting the insidious "liberal media.”

Thanks to “Democrat” Marty Peretz’s wife for buying his public platform, so we can listen to his post-Trotskeyite, pathetically pretentious, imbecilic faux-sagacity on Iraq.

Thanks to obscure Tunisian racist phrases.

Thanks to The Young Turks, the best damn show on radio — where I am allowed to spew my pablum once a week.

Thanks to J.D. Hayworth, for losing.

Thanks to Sean Hannity’s hairdresser — it’s really a delight (and kinda gay).

Thanks to FoxNews Democrats like Susan Estrich and Kirsten Powers for their helpful and insightful analysis as to why their party sucks.

Thanks to Democrats for suddenly remembering the word “Iraq” during the campaign.

Thanks to the great slate of Democratic populists who have the ability to change things in this country (I can’t just name a few here, it would do injustice to the rest).

Thanks to Connecticut election law for allowing primary losers to run for office until they finally find a way to win.

Thanks to Ken Mehlman’s closet… that must be where he his turnout formulas disappeared.

Thanks to Robert Greenwald for making the best damn progressive films out there.

Thanks to Tom DeLay for aborting his soul.

Thanks to AMERICAblog for everything you do.

Thanks to Anne Northup for losing.

Thanks to Ted Haggard, temptation and voicemail.

Thanks to Michael J. Fox.

Thanks to Brittany and K-Fed for the memories.

Thanks to Ann Coulter and her pet larynx for the memories.

Thanks to MSNBC bookers for allowing me to have nice conversations with Republicans on TV.

Thanks to Michael Steele for losing.

Thanks to Don Sherwood’s aggressive massage technique.

Thanks to Jim Talent for opposing stem cell research.

Thanks to bloggers for doing the MSM’s job.

Thanks to President Bush for waiting until after the election to go Ike Turner on Rumsfeld.

Thanks to martinis for turning Mark Foley into a molester and Mel Gibson into Charles Lindbergh.

Thanks to Howard Dean and the 50 state strategy.

Thanks to “The Dukestir.”

Thanks to the Republicans for bringing back Trent Lott — and Michael Richards for playing him on stage.

Thanks to Katherine Harris, just for existing — I smell reality show darling (I’ve already pitched it: Pearls Gone Wild).

Thanks to Karl Rove for “dealignment.”

Thanks to Dick Cheney for having stellar aim… I hear Grover Norquist has some free time and airline miles.

And finally, thanks to the entire GOP for running an operation Lucky Luciano would have been proud of. I appreciate your kindness in letting us have the legislature back so my son only had to spend three weeks and one day under unified criminal rule of our government.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Hopefully you, like me, can rest a bit easier knowing Republicans actually have an assorted check or balance.

(Quick Plug: Check out a Podcast of my appearance on The Radio Agonist on KTLA San Antonioif you are so inclined.) Read the rest of this post...

Baghdad Shiites burn six Sunni worshippers alive

Yes, Iraq is a far better place now that Saddam Hussein is gone.

Militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and seven Sunni mosques came under attack as Shiites took revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 people in the Sadr City slum.

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Saddam's WMD: Slingshots and Molotov cocktails

Not kidding. This is why we went to war?

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Novak: "there's something deeply wrong" with the Bush presidency

Okay, it took the GOP and other right wingers six years to figure out that Bush is deeply flawed. But, now they're really getting nasty about their leader. In case you missed Bob Novak's Thanksgiving gift to George W. Bush, here's a flavor:

The treatment of his war minister connotes something deeply wrong with George W. Bush's presidency in its sixth year. Apart from Rumsfeld's failures in personal relations, he never has been anything short of loyal in executing the president's wishes. But loyalty appears to be a one-way street for Bush. His shrouded decision to sack Rumsfeld after declaring that he would serve out the second term fits the pattern of a president who is secretive and impersonal.

Sounds like Dick Cheney is crankier than usual:

It is hard to find anyone in the Bush administration who endorses the way Rumsfeld was handled. His friend and comrade, Vice President Cheney, is reported to be profoundly disturbed. But even before the election, Cheney appeared melancholy. A high-ranking administration official who visited the vice president then reported him to be nothing like the upbeat Cheney of earlier years in this administration.

Cheney upbeat? Sure, he was the puppet master. But, he's led us to weakness.

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al-Sadr followers in Iraqi parliament say they will boycott government over Bush meeting next week

Bush's meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister next week could bring down the Iraqi government. Everything Bush does in Iraq makes the quagmire worse:

In Baghdad, followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to boycott parliament and the Cabinet if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with President Bush in Jordan next week, a member of parliament said. Bush and al-Maliki were scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Amman.

The al-Sadr bloc in parliament and government is the backbone of al-Maliki's political support, and its withdrawal, if only temporarily, would be a severe blow to the prime minister's already shaky hold on power.

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Friday Morning Open Thread

It's early. It's the day after Thanksgiving. But, let's get it started anyway. Read the rest of this post...

Baghdad death toll climbs to 202 dead, 252 wounded

No wonder Cheney didn't want anyone to talk about him being in Baghdad yesterday. How much more of this Bush-style democracy can a country withstand? Between reaching the highest single month death toll in October and now the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, there is nothing in the real world that suggests anything is moving in the right direction in Iraq.
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