The Grey Lady reports that the President somehow lacked the exuberance he displayed when Saddam Hussein was first captured at the time of the execution. The President issued a statement that the execution would not end the violence in Iraq (and indeed, bombings just today have already killed at least 68). Then, after being told that the execution of Saddam Hussein was imminent… the President quite literally slept through it. After all the years of telling us about what a bogeyman and monster Saddam was (Hitler meets Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Darth Vader and the Grinch)… to then just sleep...

And so it appears, at least according to one Iraqi judge, that Saddam Hussein’s execution will take place around 10 pm EST (0200 Zulu (GMT)) (its now around 1900 EST/2300 Zulu… so maybe 3 hours from when I write this now. Somebody now screwing around with his chainsaw in Crawford, TX wants the diversion of a Saddam execution to get him through until next week when it can be all-Gerald-Ford-all-the-time… worse, the Bushmen may well want an escalation from the Iraqi side which will inevitably be part of the shit-storm they are trying to cause by executing Saddam. (Note that...

Bob Woodward has, evidently, decided to keep them coming… yesterday of course, we learned that Ford didn’t like the Iraq war thing so much… today Woodward tells us of Ford’s lengthy and secret friendship with Nixon. Not that this is a surprise; the two were moderate Republicans, Ford in a leadership position in the House. Nixon a House and Senate member and later Vice-President and President… they certainly knew each other, and could certainly have been friends. Ford struck everyone as a most affable fellow… But, of course, beyond affable, Ford struck everyone (me included) as a decent fellow, who...

It seems that it’s o.k. for Republicans to criticize the President and even the inconceivably unpopular Iraq war if (1) they’re dead, as in the case of the late President Ford, who strongly opposed the President’s handling of the war (including the decision to have it) according to Bob “Head Courtier” Woodward writing in WaPo; or (2) if their party’s been thrown out of the majority, as in the case of Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, who gave a rousing speech critical of the Iraq war and its escalation (complete with reference to the word “criminal”). Smith, of course,...

The 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, passed away at age 93. He managed to just barely outlive Ronald Reagan (who helped cost him the 1976 election with a primary and convention challenge) as the oldest man ever to serve as President, and Ford was the only man to serve in that office without having been elected to either it or to the vice-presidency, having taken that office after Spiro Agnew resigned, and then assuming the presidency after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. Despite having officials around him that included Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State), George H.W. Bush...

In the most unsurprising affirmance in the history of unsurprising affirmances, the Iraqi appeals court set up to affirm death sentences imposed by Iraqi death sentence courts has affirmed the death sentence of Saddam Hussein by hanging (he said he preferred to be shot). Given that the Vice-President has recently suggested that American forces take sides in the escalating Iraqi civil war on the side of the Shiites, executing the former Sunni President would be a nice way to kick off the festivities. I suggest former New York Jet Mark Gastineau as honorary executioner (or at least, part of the...

The singer known among other things as the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness, Soul Brother Number One and Mr. Dynamite, James Brown, has died at age 73. And on Christmas day, no less. I don’t feel good.

A holiday for the rest of us. Although, one fears that maybe this guy has changed things forever. (For some more Festivus miracles, check out our post “Kabuki of karnage” over at AmStreet.)

It’s actually kind of interesting that Iran, a country that we are officially not speaking to, values its foreign exchange reserves in our currency… but it’s even more fascinating that Iran has just announced that, “in light of all the pressure we are putting on” (that, and that the dollar’s value is falling… a lot), Iran will now shift its reserve currency out of dollars and into euros sayeth the BBC. Indeed, Iran will now aspire to conduct all of its foreign business in euros. None of this is greatly unexpected. Before jumping to the immediate conclusion that a war–...

On this, the shortest day (and longest night) of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the Boston Globe urges us all to make some noise about global warming (and of course, bashes Bush in the process, because let’s face it, if he’s in favor of something, it’s almost certainly catastrophically bad for the rest of us, be it continuing the carnage in Iraq, or blocking dissemination of information on climate change.) FWIW, we’ll try to do our part here at the talking dog… we’ll see if we can’t expand our ongoing “war on terror” coverage to include the “war on...