Just now your editors were having a little talky about our secret boyfriend, the New York Times’ token cross-dressing felcher Bill Kristol. “His column is boring and moderate this week,” said our Jim Newell. “He probably has some solid shit-eating lines, though.” And WALLAH, just like that, we found a nugget of silliness embedded at the very end of this kind of dull review of different strains of conservatism. MORE »

George Bush is readying his veto crayon again this afternoon, this time for the defense policy bill. See, he sorta didn’t really read it before they passed it and it reverses a decree-thingie he did after Saddam fell which makes the new government not liable for the terrorist actions of the old (and thus kills a bunch of lawsuits). The new defense policy legislation, if passed, would reverse Bush’s decree and make the current not-particularly-stable Iraq government’s U.S.-denominated assets subject to lawsuits and immediate freezes. The Iraqis threatened to withdraw their money and so Bush is going to veto the bill. Like, seriously? How fucked is our financial system if the Iraq government can threaten to withdraw their presumably limited funds from our financial sector and Bushie gets out the veto crayon for a defense bill? Shit. [Washington Post]