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...

I suppose you could read the President’s insistence that “victory” in Iraq was still possible, whatever that means, and that “we need to increase the size of the military”– as a repudiation of public opinion and will, particularly as expressed in the recent mid-term elections. Because the public has said it wants out. In no uncertain terms. In overwhelming numbers. And the public means out NOW. Bush’s approval on Iraq is around 24% and 70% affirmatively disapprove… “No mandate” is quite the understatement. So… when Bush pouts like the spoiled child he is and insists that nothing much will change...

While all of official Washington awaits the long-awaited major strategy change to turn Iraq away from a bloody and expensive unmitigated disaster for American foreign policy (though it does remain a huge win for anyone with substantial interests tied to the price of petroleum… and hence, a huge win), the military has also come up with a fresh new approach to dealing with those irksome alleged terrorists confirmed super-terrorists at Gitmo: as Bruce the Veep so elegantly puts it, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Or, “No More Mr. Nice Torqueamada.” In short, as construction of a new “super-max”,...

That would be the hasty departure of another Presidential contender, Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who announced that he will not be seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination just 13 days after announcing an exploratory committee. That’s got to be one of the fastest acts in the history of exploratory committees: Bayh concluded that the likely “pre-primary primary” fund-raising would likely favor Democratic juggernaut Hillary and current favorite “Not-Hillary” candidate Barack (my college classmate) Obama. Still out there are one-time TD Darling John Edwards, and all-time TD Darling, the sainted Al Gore. The Republican side features the once-and-no-longer-sainted John McCain,...

Yes… the “George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar” from our friends at Sourcebooks… guaranteed to both amuse and horrify you, as it contains Freudian slips and malapropisms and just outrageously stupid things that have come out of the mouth of… you know who… the man from Connecticut Texas who we all love to misunderestimate… along with pictures. Oh, the pictures. The only bad part is that at the end of 2007… there will still be 386 days to go!

Fresh after his stunning Supreme Court victory last summer, former alleged OBL motor pool member Salim Hamdan (for some background, try our interview with his Supreme Court counsel Neal Katyal), apparently, learned that his victory was just a tad Pyrrhic, as (via TalkLeft) federal judge James Robertson of Washington, D.C., who halted Hamdan’s military commissions trial in the first place in 2004 which ultimately led to the Supreme Court’s decision… ruled that the new Military Commissions Act ostensibly screws Mr. Hamdan out of any legal process whatsoever, save the kangaroo kourt he can expect from the military kommissions themselves… i.e.,...

Such is the punchline of an old joke featuring two codgers on a park bench in Miami Beach describing their respective paths to yon park bench, one of whom had a store in the North, destroyed by a fire after which he collected the insurance and retired, the other had a store in Florida, destroyed by a hurricane and then he collected the insurance money and retired… so the man from the North asks the man from Florida… Well, never mind. WTF does that have to do with… Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota entering the hospital with a...