The Hadron particle collider

A recap:

1. An unstable and pugnacious ally starts shelling one of its own cities, a deliberate provocation against the Kremlin, which, being the Kremlin, responds in force. Dick Cheney is dispatched to the region to assure the ally that we're ready for them to join NATO.

2. The US invades Pakistan, an nuclear-powered ally already teetering on the edge of collapse. Rather than make an effort to confer legitimacy to the new Democratically elected government, we give them what is tantamount to the back of the hand. Civilians are killed in the raid, which, as with almost all such American efforts, comes across as half-assed mucking about. Pak is pissed.

3. Insane vampire Kim Jong Il dies or has a stroke. No one knows who's in charge or what's going on in a half-starved nuclear power with a lot of big guns.

4. The Treasury takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the market flies into an epileptic fit. Lehman Brothers announces everything must go sale, and no one shows.

5. Venezuela and Bolivia yank their ambassadors from the US and announce naval excersizes with Russia in the Caribbean.

6. The current frontrunner to win the presidency, arguably the most physically unfit candidate in the history of the US, allows his Vice Presidential nominee to answer some softball questions from the Disney Channel. This is what if feels like:



America loves it.

Russia loves the Alaska Independence Party

Russia loves the Alaska Independence Party. The Kremlin has a storied history, after all, of using its neighbors' disgruntled minorities as a lever to expand its own geopolitical influence.

Beyond the hilarity and hijinks that is the Sarah Palin Vice Presidential nomination, her links to this little-known group deserves a bit of digging. What do we know about these guys, beyond their crappy design concept? (Their logo looks like something you'd see stenciled on the side of a van).

Marc Ambinder has made a good start here, but I want to know more about this group.

Quit Blaming Us For Your Shit, Guey!

Great bit of investigative work by Sean Mattson of the San Antonio Express- News, raising some very serious questions about the veracity of the FDA's claims about the Great Mexican Salmonella scare of 2008. So far, has yet to be picked up by any bigger papers. Stay tuned, cabron.

Dmitri Medvedev is 5'2

There, I've said it. That makes him slightly shorter than Prince, and slightly taller than Bilbo Baggins. It also makes him dangerous.

Russia's Center Of Gravity

Of all the news yesterday, I was struck most by the words of Russia's ambassador to the UN, who laid down an ominous marker when he said, "Historically Russia was and will remain the guarantor of the security of the people of the Caucasus.”

By these standards, we could be in for a busy time.

Fascist Memorabilia

Old Silvio Berslusconi didn't waste much time turning Italy's latent Xenophobia into a all out military operation. Today's AP piece chills the blood of anyone who has read anything about the country's history in the 1930's.

The good news, though: Italian military operations tend to turn out poorly.

Also kind of weird, the deputy chief of the general staff, according to the story, is called General Mario Buscemi. That's right. Mr. Pink has a new job.

Sweet Scent Of Service

That is the literal translation of the name of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard line faction of the Conservative party.

For Real.