‘Tis the treason

Ron Suskind has a partial transcript of his interview of Rob Richer on the forgery of a letter purporting to connect Al Qaida and Iraq.

Understanding the Agencies

Discussion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Joe Stiglitz on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Main points:

Taxpayers have no chance to benefit if Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) recover

FNM and FRE are paying dividends only because taxpayers are pumping money in

They are lobbying Congress using money we provided

This Is Perfect

McCain’s bus makes improper right turn with Lieberman aboard, smashes into car.

And the bus has an Obama sticker on it.

I’m not kidding.

US loses monopoly on senseless wars: Russia v. Georgia

Via Atrios, Tom Lasseter, McClatchy:

Heavy fighting between Georgian government forces and Russian-backed separatists brought Georgia and Russia to the brink of war on Friday.

The president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, in a televised address, accused Russia of sending fighter jets to bomb Georgian towns to help the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, where a large number of Russian citizens live.

Russian officials in turn said that the Georgian military had attacked Russian peacekeepers stationed in the area….

there are grave geopolitical considerations.

Georgia, which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, is a key transit point for oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Europe. It’s also a focus of Russian officials’ anger about the encroachment of western powers on Russia’s borders: Georgia is seeking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is an ally of the United States. (emphasis added)

So, this is yet another theater in the world-domination-through-control-of-resources fantasy that the Bushies kicked off.

Friday Cat Blogging

“Was that the can opener?”

Cobell decided

bmaz links to an update on Cobell by Del Quentin Wilber in the WaPo, the epic court case on the theft of funds from Indian trust funds by Interior (or, rather, Interior was the laundry through which others siphoned off funds for heaven knows what–probably off-the-shelf black ops, if I had to guess).

Bottom line: the Indians get $455 M, less than a penny on the dollar of what was stolen. Eloise Cobell has more.

Where there is no justice, there is no peace.