Caught my eye…
snip of transcript from Gary Kasparov on Maher this past Friday night… begins a bit more than halfway down.

KASPAROV: But, it went – but, it went wrong for Bush from the very beginning, because at their first summit, Bush tried to play psychiatrist and look at Putin’s eyes, searching for his soul. [laughter]

MAHER: Right.

KASPAROV: Instead of looking – looking at his record. And now, Putin – Putin just is basically spitting in his face by making this open friendship with Admadinejad. But it was obvious from the very beginning, because Putin has only one item in his due political agenda. He needs high oil prices. And tension in the Middle East helps him to keep the oil prices all-time high.

MAHER: Right.

KASPAROV: So that’s why he sells nuclear technology to Iran; he sells missiles to Hezbollah and Hamas via Syria, because it helps Putin to stay in power. If the oil price goes down, Putin regime goes down. And I’m surprised that White House didn’t recognize it in time. [laughter] [applause]

The entire interview is and funny and slap-in-the-face chilling.

Kasparov is very bright about Soviet and Russian politics, but doesn’t really understand America very well. He was also a big supporter of Boris Yeltsin (without Kasparov Yeltsin might never have been prez). Still, his own political efforts can’t be successful as long as Putin is around.

BTW, Kasparov isn’t originally Russian. He was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. He and his family ran for their lives when the Azeris had their civil war.

Also, curious is that Kasparov’s name comes from his mother’s side of the family. His father died when he was young. His original name was Harry Weinstein (honest to God). Apparently the first letter is pronounced like GH and he was Harry, but as Kasparov he became Garri.

I like him.

…

Valley Girl @ 197

Katie Couric to Interview Valerie Plame Wilson on ‘60 Minutes’ Sunday
…
Already the wingnuts are howling that one of the activities suggested (by Couric) that Plame was involved in, Operation Merlin, backfired.

But I think that it’s just a little bit bizarre that Operation Merlin was leaked to James Risen in 2006…just as the evidence that Plame WAS an active covert agent working on Iranian non-proliferation was being disclosed.

…

BUT if someone in the Bush Administration leaked the information to Risen last year to undercut Plame’s credibility…and there actually was NO Soviet Scientist (Boris) that blew the CIA’s operation…then that leak sacrificed a still viable program that could have seriously impeded the Iranians using these for weapons. …

Well, as I’ve previously said, you can’t have a war if the other side isn’t armed. And without the war there’s no war profiteering or reconfiguring of the Middle East or glory or whatever.

I don’t know who’s doing it, but they oughta hang.

twolf1, this is amazing, and wonderful. Beauty does feed the soul! Thank you!

“To talk about him is to drain the vocabulary of superlatives…”

Great quote from a UTube about a football player posted by Bonddad @dailykos this a.m. on Pelosi and Reid. Take a look, highly recommend it. If you’re not into football, you’ll still enjoy it, I’m sure.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…../1271/2933

I agree that Colbert’s appearance is book promotion as well as cross promotion – Comedy Central and NBC are both owned by GE. A nitpick, the Correspondent’s dinner in question was 2006.

Anyway, it was an awkward appearance, Russert did not seem happy to be doing it.

i.e. the gov. is ‘punked’ by cbc’s rick mercer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BhTZ_tgMUdo

The first:

Sam Smith: Why Hasn’t John Edwards Done Better?
Sunday, 21 October 2007, 1:31 pm
Opinion: Sam Smith

Why Hasn’t John Edwards Done Better?

By Prorev.com Editor Sam Smith

When Democrats talk about things they don’t like about John Edwards, they typically express skepticism about a wealthy trial lawyer advocating populist positions or his $400 haircut or the size of his 10,000 square foot home and 15,000 square foot barn. These same Democrats – and the media – never talk about Hillary Clinton’s $1200 makeup job or the fact that when you add up the size of her Washington and Chappaqua homes, they surpass 10,000 square feet, not to mention her husband’s 8300 square foot office with a $30,000 a month rent is picked up by taxpayers.

The difference is another example of how some politicians get away with the same things that do others in. In the end, it isn’t about the haircut or house at all; it’s about who is getting it or living there.

In fact, John Edwards falls into one of the smallest and most appealing classes of politicians: a reformed sinner who is better than he used to be. Hillary Clinton is not only unreformed, she has never uttered the slightest words of remorse for behavior that almost got her prosecuted, let alone for all her other offenses against integrity and decency. And Barrack Ohblahblah is still trying to convince people that he deserves the White House primarily by regurgitating endless bromides like a bulimic fortune cookie.

Go here for the rest of the story

The 2nd piece was Frank Rich’s column

Suicide is Not Painless

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 21, 2007
IT was one of those stories lost in the newspaper’s inside pages. Last week a man you’ve never heard of — Charles D. Riechers, 47, the second-highest-ranking procurement officer in the United States Air Force — killed himself by running his car’s engine in his suburban Virginia garage.

Mr. Riechers’s suicide occurred just two weeks after his appearance in a front-page exposé in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Air Force had asked a defense contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, to give him a job with no known duties while he waited for official clearance for his new Pentagon assignment. Mr. Riechers, a decorated Air Force officer earlier in his career, told The Post: “I really didn’t do anything for C.R.I. I got a paycheck from them.” The question, of course, was whether the contractor might expect favors in return once he arrived at the Pentagon last January.

Click here for the rest of the story

[snip]
OT – re NC meetup…I’d be interested as well…I’m in Raleigh.

Super! I’ll put your name on my list. Having some problems trying to figure out how to get hold of people (other than highjacking the thread like I did this morning) for planning purposes.

You can usually find me present or lurking most mornings from 5-9-ish.

Katie,
Very cool. One of my “things to do before I die” is to head to the Black Hills and check out the Crazy Horse monument and seek a spiritual connection with the first people to live on this land.

We saw it a few years back. It’ll be cool when it’s finished.