Hey folks. Sorry it has been little while, but it has been very difficult for me to write. One of my best friends in Washington, a fantastic woman named Maria Leavey, just suddenly passed away.

Maria was one of those people in the progressive movement behind the scenes, never asking for credit, but tirelessly working to promote people she barely knew on her own dime.

For example, she invited me to the conference where I met The Young Turks, which led to that gig on their show. She also introduced me to an interested publisher in my forthcoming book.

I will get back to writing soon. Hopefully today. She most certainly would have wanted it that way. But you should all know that a wonderful person and an important progressive ally was lost a few days ago. And a lot of people are hurting right now because of it.

Here is a tribute Cenk Uygur of the Turks wrote at The Huffington Post. He did an excellent job of capturing who she was.

Don't forget to listen to The Young Turks on Air America tomorrow morning when we return from our week off to discuss more Republican Sexcapades (hint: Giuliani be the object of some scorn).

8AM EST, be there or be...well nothing, because I will post the video anyway. But be there darn you!

John Aravosis does a better job than anyone I have seen yet in breaking down the op-ed--in all its idiocy--that Bush "wrote" for the Wall Street Journal, defending what has easily become one of the worst presidencies in the history of this country.

For the second time tonight, I am just about speechless.

If you have not seen it...You. Must. Watch. This.

It is Keith Olbermann's Special Comment tonight on the reports of Bush's supporting this ridiculous escalation in troops in Iraq. I will not even try and use rhetoric, because I cannot top Keith tonight. I have no chance.

He bordered on calling our president a traitor, claiming in plain language that he was continuing the war and KILLING (yes he used that word many times) more of our troops for war profiteers, politics and "his ego." He also called out McCain.

You must go watch this now....

Ok, I'd like to fit a little humor in here, but I can't do it. Every once in a while, when it is so clearly obvious that our media landscape is so very fucked, I am not sure how to react.

Bill Kristol, you know, the neoconservative, prissy little chickenhawk who predicted easy victory in Iraq, has never seen battle in his life outside of an X Box and now is calling for escalation so more people who can't afford to live in his part of town will die, has JUST BEEN HIRED BY TIME MAGAZINE.

That's right, this panty-waist pajama warrior who has lived on right-wing welfare his entire life, from ABC to FoxNews to Dan Quayle to The Weekly Standard, now also can add Time to the list.

Seriously, I want to know something.

Is the criteria for being given another huge microphone that you have to be WRONG about everything? The ludicrously stupid Krauthammer, the willfully dishonest Joe Klein (remember his denial about writing Primary Colors) and the "I see fifth columnists" Andrew Sullivan weren't providing quite enough of a voice to right-wing YYY chromosome types...

So to add balance to that, wait a minute, wait a minute, I got it...how about we give a job to that fuckin moron Bill Kristol!

Unbelievable. For once, I think I'm even speechless (all evidence to the contrary).

You want to laugh your ass off, just read this. No, it isn't a joke.

These pathetic, Republican pants-wetters actually wrote this after the Saddamian way they have behaved the last 12 years in Congress...

BTW Saddam is still dead. Have we won the War on Terror yet?

Add the dollar to the long list of things George W. Bush has killed...

Ha ha, poetic justice for a such a schmuck.

A copy of Giuliani's confidential campaign plan was lost and now has found its way into the press.

Knowing Rudy, he'll have the cops shoot a random African-American in response and then blame his family.

Book proposal edits are driving me batty today...so sorry posting will be light (even by my low standards)...

But I just wanted to get this up, and actually meant to sooner. My good pal John Amato, the man behind Crooks & Liars, not only had the number two and number three most linked to blogs last years, but four of the top ten.

(full disclosure: I sometimes guest blog at C&L, and in fact was one of the hosts for election night coverage there--all of my posts however were probably somewhere in the range of 259,000 most popular to 1,116,000 most popular).

In any case, congrats and recognition are in order. John was YouTube before YouTube was YouTube. He pioneered video blogging, in addition to having great written content. I don't think he always gets credit for that (from a personal standpoint, YouTubed videos of some of my appearances v. Republican morons definitely got much traffic due to John's efforts).

So congrats John--and now send some of your damn traffic my way!

PS John is also a New York City boy like me, and us weirdos gots to stick together!

Phew! Saddam's still dead.


So things are inevitably getting better in Iraq!

Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism chief who was one of the first insiders to publicly point out that Bush's national security policy sucks and got smeared for his efforts, has a great op-ed in today's Washington Post.

Shorter Clarke: While we have been fighting a war in Iraq that was unnecessary, seven real national security problems (at least before the callow Crawfordian got on the job and added Iraq) have gone from bad to Limbaugh. (hat tip to my pal Taylor Marsh).

FYI, Saddam's still dead.

So are things getting better yet?

Pathetically desperate or on crystal meth?

I report you decide.