Finally, the bad news about the United States of America not being in the top tier in stupid things like life expectancy, infant mortality, education of our children, and so forth, just has to give way, because we are among the world’s elite… in the category of surveillance states. (h/t/ U.O.) We join other notables like China, Russia, and the United Kingdom in this elite category. Yes, the U.K. has a big edge on us in surveillance cameras; we certainly have our work cut out for us to catch up on that one. Further, the U.K.’s “unwritten Constitution” gives that...

As I sit here listening to a repeat local broadcast of Naomi Wolf tell us about current parallels to Weimar Germany (hint: think “Blackwater in the streets”)… we’ll jump right in with the WaPo’s account of the detention of Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan. Fouad had, evidently, been warned that his blogging, which often was critical of government corruption and critical of other arbitrary detentions in Saudi Arabia, might get him in trouble. Apparently it has, as he has been arrested for violating mysterious “regulations not related to state security”. Our supposed key ally Saudi Arabia, now led by King Abdullah,...

And so we come to the end of 2007, where, the party of primogeniture has trotted out its cast of affluent White males, and the other party’s field is led by the potential first female President and potential first President of color. For 2007, here at the talking dog, we have watched our regular blog traffic decimated by various factors, but, whether anyone reads them or not, the interviews have kept coming– and if you count ’em up on the side-bar, you’ll see that we’re up to 50. Three dozen of those are directly in the “war on terror detention...

It seems that 2007 wasn’t going to end without at least one more Guantanamo (GTMO) detainee death (via Candace); in this case, the death of 68 year old Abdul Razzak, of Afghanistan, was attributed to colon cancer. This is the first “non-suicide” detainee death and fifth overall (three suicide deaths in 2006, one earlier in 2007), though, the death of a Saudi detainee earlier this year might well have been from medical neglect. Note that since that death, Saudi efforts to extricate its own citizens from GTMO have accelerated dramatically, and there are only around a dozen Saudis left at...

A bittersweet year in many respects. One of the bitter parts was the untimely passing of Steve Gilliard, remembered here on the successor to his own “Newsblog”, as well as a tad more… creatively?… in the Grey Lady. We also lost Jim Capozzola. Other friends lost parents, including Lindsay’s dad. And others we know lost loved ones as well. All in all, a difficult year to take, especially for my fellow males in their 40’s. There’s always next year, which we hope, will be full of promise, and happiness, and success: material and spiritual, and all that sort of thing.

Right now… I got nothin’! Check out my American Street entry “Bid’ness as Usual” (I’m slated to be a regular weekly feature over at the Street… kind of like Bill Kristol.)

That is one of the many implications of the shocking assassination of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto by a suicide-bomber gunman in Rawalpindi, Pakistan today. Her death will doubtless cause a rescheduling (at a minimum) of parliamentary elections now set for 8 January (particularly as Ms. Bhutto’s current partner in opposition, the other former PM Nawaz Sharif– himself deposed by Musharraf– has now indicated his party will boycott the election). Still, more immediate concerns must be dealt with in Pakistan. For one, at least 20 were killed in the attack that claimed Bhutto’s life; around a dozen others have been...

And a Merry Festivus, as well.

Wonkette gives us this very interesting post examining the back story of the current press-self-instrospection-and-self-aggrandizement-du-jour, to wit, the Grey Lady’s sitting (possibly at the behest of McCain, or possibly not) on a story about Sen. John McCain doing some sort of improper favor for a female telecom lobbyist, allegations McCain, through his lawyer Bob Bennett (remember him?) denies. I’m actually more interested in the point made by Wonkette at the end of her post (I suspect that this will end up being something like a Keating 5 scenario– poor judgment, but nothing dreadfully sinister on McCain’s part… but who knows,...

Quite literally, as Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut…the Constitution State… stood on the floor of the Senate in defiance of his [I don’t have enough vile things to say about him] “leader” the worthless piece of *&^% Harry Reid, who took our money and support last year to become majority leader apparently so he could advance the Bush agenda as well or better than Mitch McConnell could. (Even more ironic, as his fellow Connecticut senator, “independent Democrat” Joe Lieberman announced his endorsement not of Dodd, but of Republican John McCain… thus probably killing any chances McCain may have had, and...