money: Barney Frank comedic gold

Representative Barney Frank on the 12 Republicans who switched their votes, torpedoed the bailout bill, then claimed it was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's mean speech that made them do it:

“Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country,” he said.
“I'll make an offer,” he added. “Give me those 12 people's names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them [laughter] and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they'll now think about the country.”

video at The Boston Globe, 4:14 minutes in.

politics: the real security threats and how to diss your boss Bush

9/11 was a stunning attack on the USA, but are a bunch of puny terrorist cells really the biggest threat to the USA necessitating an endless Global War on Terror? Here's Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker posing the question to Bush's s Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

   I asked McConnell if he believed that Al Qaeda was really the greatest threat America faces.
   “No, no, no, not at all,” he said. “Terrorism can kill a lot of people, but it can’t fundamentally challenge the ability of the nation to exist. Fascism could have done that. Communism could have. I think our issue going forward is more engagement with the world in terms of keeping it on a reasonable path, so another ism doesn't come along and drive it to one extreme or the other. And we have to have some balance in terms of equitable distribution of wealth, containment of contagious disease, access to energy supplies, and development of free markets. There are national-security ramifications to global warming.”

Hmm, the emphasis bits sure don't sound like any part of the Bush doctrine I've ever heard. Next time a Democrat is attacked on national security, I hope he or she quotes this guy.