Informed Speculation

…so I’ll just simply say a very Happy New Year to you all.
Thanks for your readership, and may you and yours have a safe, healthy, prosperous 2007.
God bless…

It’s a little unfair to name George Allen the Jackass of the Year; for one, I don’t really think he’s a jackass.  He did run a very troubled campaign in 2006, though, and as such, I’m giving him the award as a kind of surrogate for all Republican candidates, rather than pull a TIME-type generic [...]

Oh, I know, it’s hardly fair; the man should be retired from the category for general jackassedness.  Nevertheless, Kerry once again stood out this year.
With the Democrats in control and sailing into the 2006 election with a full tail wind born of an unpopular war and an old-fashioned sex scandal, out pops Mr. Pomposity with [...]

In a year when the Republicans lost their congressional majority in both houses, there is surely plenty of blame to go around (more on this one later).  The President himself can’t escape blame, because of his unpopularity and his inability to sell the war in Iraq to the public.  Nor can reputed mastermind Karl Rove, [...]

Later this evening, I will name the 2006 Jackass of the Year, but there were so many contenders this year, I had to put in a few honorable mentions. The first goes to Ned Lamont.
Joe Lieberman had worked up a mighty torrent of discontent in certain progressive circles, and, remarkably, he lost the Connecticut [...]

Good commentary on ‘08 in, of all places, the Times of London:
THE first vote is still more than a year away, but the campaign to replace President George W Bush in the White House is already throwing up surprises.
Unfortunately for Senator Hillary Clinton, long the front-runner in the Democratic drive to retake the presidency, [...]

Ouch!
Try sipping this single sentence and then rolling it around your tongue and palate for a while:

If Hitler hadn’t turned against their beloved Stalin, liberals would have stuck by him, too.
Well, I am being paid to parse and ponder that statement and I don’t understand it, either. Does it intend to say that liberals [...]

…has been leaked to ScrappleFace:
Reporter Bob Woodward said today he would soon allow his Washington Post editors to publish a secret interview he did in 2005 with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in which the dictator questioned U.S. President George Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq.
Mr. Woodward, who recently permitted his employer to publish a similar [...]

I don’t normally post stuff like this, because it’s a little sickening (in fact, I feel a little sick for watching myself – I’m not joking, this sort of stuff makes me feel actually ill.  I’m not a fan of violence of any kind).
I’ve managed to live my life to this point without hunting down [...]

Robert Fisk, sadly but predictably, uses the occasion of Saddam’s death to blast Western democracies:
Our masters will tell us in a few hours that it is a “great day” for Iraqis and will hope that the Muslim world will forget that his death sentence was signed – by the Iraqi “government”, but on behalf of [...]

Regular readers know that from time to time my geeky side comes out and I post little tips for people who might be doing Google searches for computer problems.
Here’s a new one:
You’ve got a Linksys or other router for your internet connection so that you can, say, use your Xbox Live account without sacrificing your [...]

It is, of course, huge news whenever a former head of state of executed, even one so deserving of the honor as Saddam Hussein.  I’ll update this thread throughout the day to highlight some of the reaction.
Many news sites are now showing video of the noose being placed around Hussein’s neck (for example, here).
President Bush released [...]

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
            – Thomas Jefferson, letter from Paris to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787…

First, we didn’t pull through for Bob Knight last night – and now, we’re getting our clocks cleaned in the Independence Insight Bowl. Not a good couple of days for Red Raider fans…yeesh…
UPDATE 10:58 p.m.: Well, well, what a fair-weather fan I am!  Texas Tech came back, in what was, in point of fact, the [...]

The AP is now reporting that Saddam will be executed tonight:
The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein’s impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.
The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a “red card” — an execution order [...]

Events are now unfolding quickly and Saddam Hussein appears to be nearing the end of his days.  I’ll update with links when available, but the former Iraqi dictator is now in the custody of the current Iraqi government.  The execution may well come in hours…
UPDATE 12:20 p.m.: Uncertainty is still the watchword, and that’s probably intentional.  [...]

Question for the day, if any care to answer it: will Barack Obama’s smoking habit derail his presidential ambitions? I’m not in the least joking – as an ex-smoker, I can tell you from experience that many, many Americans positively have a fetish about hating cigarette smokers.
Obama has admitted to drug use – but I [...]

Conflicting reports this morning on the timing of the former Iraqi dictator’s hanging:
Senior Iraqi officials on Friday dismissed suggestions from Washington that they would hang Saddam Hussein this weekend and said some in cabinet were pushing for the execution to be put off for a month or more.
But Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has [...]

This is not going to endear him to the Kossacks:
If Iraq descends into full-scale civil war, it will be a tremendous battlefield victory for al-Qaeda and Iran. Iraq is the central front in the global and regional war against Islamic extremism.
To turn around the crisis we need to send more American troops while we also [...]

Wow, it’s a bit of a shock, isn’t it, that it might actually come to pass?
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is expected to be executed “this weekend,” Bush administration officials told CNN on Thursday.
Hussein will be transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody within the next day, one official said.
More than one administration source [...]