Russia under Putin seems to be doing some public sabre-rattling of its own these days. Since we can't be the only great power interested in the natural resources of Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan it makes one wonder what's going on behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, I think you're exactly right. While I don't want to even be seen as accidentally defending the Bush administration, the Russian and French government's opposition to the war was disingenuous in many respects, and had as much to do with their own existing oil interests in Iraq than with the case for war. Ousting Saddam Hussein meant we got to ignore their claims on Iraqi oil and replace them with our own. Of course, it hasn't worked and we haven't even recouped the cost, but that was undoubtedly part of the Neocon logic (if that's not an oxymoron).

I'm sure the Iraqis will appreciate watching our ambassadors sun themselves, play tennis, and relax in their air-conditioned movie theater. It's a good thing we destroyed Saddam and his sons' golden palaces so that we could replace them with one of our own.

This was exactly the tactic used to get Bill Moyers' show cancelled (when Kenneth Tomlinson was still around). They counted up the "liberal" and "conservative" guests on his show and determined it was completely skewed towards the left. Among those counted as liberals: Rick Santorum.

According to recent reports, the Navy and Air Force are both retraining troops for the land war, since the Army is spread so thin. Pretty soon, Admirals will probably be running all sorts of ground battles.

Rudy Giuliani may sound good to people who see him as some sort of hero of 9/11, but as a big city mayor, he's got a lot of skeletons in his closet. Giuliani winning the nomination may be the worst-case scenario for the GOP, because I think, once people start digging in his closets, things are going to get ugly fast.

On the other hand, while I'm not Hillary's biggest fan, the right-wing spent hundreds of millions of dollars digging up every bit of dirt they could on her. What there is to know, we already know, and have heard dozens of times. Put her skeletons head-to-head with Rudy's, and that 10% lead will disappear very quickly.

At least no one had an "epiphany". In that group, an epiphany would probably lead to bombing Iran after the meeting.

One thing that the transcript doesn't make clear is that these questions seem to have come from at least three different reporters. It's nice to see people finally asking follow-ups and not taking gibberish for an answer. It may not amount to anything, but it's better than seeing them all smiling and nodding.

The paradigmatic example of the failure to do is the 'macaca' moment. Conservative blogs, who had long been lauding Sen. George Allen, were annoyed by shifting justifications and turned on Allen with a vengeance.

You know how Allen could have avoided all of the fallout? BY NOT BEING A LYING RACIST. Seriously, I love how, when faced with the consequences of "shifting justifications", the GOP just looks for more efficient ways to be shifty. The only reason they need to shift justifications so often is because they're usually lying through their teeth in the first place.

It's good to see him making this a national security issue and not a right-to-know issue. He'd be right on either front, in my opinion, but it's about time Cheney's hypocrisy got used against him. Dick's not interested in national security; he's only interested in his own absolute belief that he's accountable to no one.

They are held in the archives as part of the Presidential Records Act. And all of those rules and regulation are followed.

Sure they are. Unless those records are emails, logs of visitors to Cheney's office, or records of the Energy task force.

Funny, did anyone ask Dana her opinion? They asked what the White House's reaction was, from a policy standpoint. Somehow, I thought providing that was in her job description somewhere. Maybe she's part of Cheney's super secret Branch #4, too.

I know these are labeled as "Reporter" because that's how the White House press briefings are posted (they just show "Q" for question), but is there another source out there where we can find out who's asking the questions? It seems like one or more of the media have actually found their voice this past couple of weeks.

What's truly sickening is that this came less than 24 hours after President Bush pleaded with Republicans for patience on his Iraq policy. Pretty soon, Senator Lieberman will just be standing behind George lip-syncing his words for practice.

Who in their right mind takes advice about manliness from Tucker Carlson? Even as a life-long geek, I want to give the guy an Atomic Wedgie every time I see him.

Eating 5,000 Twinkies each would pretty much make terrorism a non-issue. Of course, Hostess would probably be bought out by KBR.

If the government spent $500B on Twinkies, they would end up buying CheneyCakes (R) instead. CheneyCakes would be made by a subsidiary of KBR, and since they would cost 100X what normal Twinkies do (as laid out in a no-bid contract), we'd actually only get 50/each. That would just make us all fatter, requiring us to give more money to HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry.

Pray that God would supernaturally activate the Christians in Iowa

I'm not a prayer expert, but that doesn't seem like the kind of thing you should be asking God to do. It sounds a bit like they want to create some sort of zombie army for Brownback.

Bill Clinton spent a lot of money on stuff, too. Every single year. So there. Check and mate.