Christmas Eve Instahoglets

Who do you think most deserves a lump of coal this year? Who should get the trainset?

Because the NSA knows if you've been naughty or nice. They've traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved. Far more than has been admitted. (And you thought you were alone in that chatroom with the interesting person from Spain...) Amazingly, the Totalitarian wing of the GOP - Malkin, Strata-Sphere, Right Wing Nut House - continue to argue the NYT is being traitorous by informing citizen's of an assault on their civil liberties.

Sam Alito *hearts* Presidential power. Not only has he argued that a President has immunity from everything in the name of Nashnul Secuity, he has also argued for overturning Roe vs Wade. No wonder the BTK types love him.

The Totalitarians are also getting worked up over an NY Daily News report that the capture last May of Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader, Abu Faraj Al-Libi, apparently thwarted plots to assassinate President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharaff. Two reasosn to be sceptical about this story - one, it comes from a Pakistani "senior official" and no-one should ever believe anything a senior Pakistani official says anonymously until the facts are thoroughly checked because they've been shown way too often to make things up. You know, like "we dont know where Osama is"....then the following month "he was here but we just missed him, shucks." Secondly, there's no sign at all that Al-libi was in fact Al Qaida's number three rather than Al-Qaida's photocopier repairman.

The ever-excellent Heretik has a new home so update your bookmarks and blogrolls. If you don't already know him, then begin with his take on Snoopgate and the Bush regime, cunningly titled "Implicit BS". It's also worth checking in with Peter Daou for his discussion on how far Bush supporters might go in their allegiance to him? I've already said my 2 cents. If Bush was revealed as a baby-eater then the following day Malkin and her followers would have recipes posted for BBQ Baby-ribs and be swearing they had been devouring infants for years.

Alaska. Where the winter is really, really cold and the GOP politicians are really, really incestuous. Anything They Say has the details on the cronyism, corruption and family atmosphere of Alaskan bridge building.

A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003, Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday. I wonder if the UK's own "Echelon" will pick them up phoning home and finger them for Interpol?

I thought I was through the mirror into Wonderland when I saw that the UK Conservatives were supporting socialist principles of redistributing wealth and closing the gap between rich and poor. But alas, no. The Tory leader scrambled to explain that his new policy chief was wrong (already?!) and that Tories don't care at all how much of a gap there is between the richest and poorest folks.

A coalition of 35 Sunni and secular political groups has formed to demand a rerun of the election and the disbanding of the electoral commission. Religious Shiite groups are making pretty noises about accomodating the outcry but no actual concrete steps are being offered. Everyone has an entrenched position and soon it will be a position in the trenches. At some stage someone is going to use an AK47 or a bomb instead of tough words and that will be the beginning of the "hot" civil war.