Are The Russians Sending A Contract Killer to the U.S.?

This can't be right, can it?:

"A contract killer has been dispatched to assassinate the Russian double agent who betrayed Anna Chapman and nine other spies in the United States this spring, according to reports in Moscow.

'We know who he is and where he is,' a high-ranking Kremlin source told the reputable Kommersant newspaper.

'You can have no doubt – a Mercader has already been sent after him.'"

Paul Krugman Asks A Good Question

I'm not panicking about the deficit commission, myself, for various reasons.But Paul Krugman has an interesting observation: "The goals of reform, as Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson see them, are presented in the form of seven bullet points. “Lower Rates” is the first point; “Reduce the Deficit” is the seventh.So how, exactly, did a deficit-cutting commission become a commission whose first priority is cutting tax rates, with deficit reduction literally at the bottom of the list?"

This Is What Authoritarian Nations Do

They treat dissent, literally, like a mental illness. Sometimes they even end up creating it:

"Xu Lindong’s confinement in a locked mental ward was all the more notable, his brother says, for one extraordinary fact: he was not the least bit deranged. Angered by a dispute over land, he had merely filed a series of complaints against the local government. The government’s response was to draw up an order to commit him to a mental hospital — and then to forge his brother’s name on the signature line.

He was finally released in April, after six and a half years in Zhumadian and a second mental institution. In an interview, he said he had endured 54 electric-shock treatments, was repeatedly roped to his bed and was routinely injected with drugs powerful enough to make him swoon. Fearing he would be left permanently disabled, he said, he attempted suicide three times."

George W. Bush: Still A Bad President

In our Scripps Howard column this week, Ben Boychuk and I examine George W. Bush's rising poll numbers as the former president goes on tour to support his new book, "Decision Points." My take:

George W. Bush is more popular than he was two years ago? Of course he is! His approval rating really had nowhere to go but up.

And since he hasn't had his hand at the wheel of government for nearly two years now -- some might argue that it's actually been longer than that -- it's easy, natural and understandable for Americans to lose some of the passion in the white-hot grudge they once deservedly held against him.

Here's what I wrote in this space in December 2008: "Consider this record: Hurricane Katrina. The financial meltdown. An explosive national debt. No WMDs in Iraq. Warrantless wiretapping.

"Torture. The list goes on and on. In most democracies, such a litany of failure and abuse would have led to the resignation of the chief executive long before now."

Nothing in that list has changed in the last two years, of course: It is history, set in concrete, impossible to undo. And none of it reflects any better on Bush now than it did then.

Bush has been fond, over the years, of saying that history will vindicate his decisions. Here's the problem, though: History never loses its job or pension. History never sacrifices its son in a war fought for a flimsy premise. History is never waterboarded, never has its phone calls and e-mails intercepted, never pays a price. It's the people who actually live through an era who must deal with the real-time consequences -- and benefits -- of a president's bad decisions.

Their judgment, expressed in the 2006 and 2008 electoral repudiation of the GOP, should count heavily in history's ledger.

Our memories of that time are already growing hazy. They can never grow hazy enough to make Bush a good president. He was one of the worst.

Can A Muslim Be A Good American? Kansas Legislator Says No

This is in the neighborhood of where I grew up:

State Rep. Joe Seiwert, R-Pretty Prairie, recently forwarded an e-mail essay titled "Can a good Muslim be a good American?" to about 40 of his e-mail contacts, including people in government and business.
The essay concluded:

"Perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish it's still the truth. You had better believe it. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future."

Seiwert's defense just makes it worse:

When it was pointed out that Muslims live in Reno County, Seiwert replied, "Sure, there's murderers, there's tax evasion people, there's all kinds of people live in my district.

"There are people who make negative comments about farmers all the time. I don't get upset about that," said Seiwert, a farmer.

To be fair, people rarely equate farming with murder -- PETA excepted, perhaps -- or suggest that farming in antithetical to being American. How sad.

Bush, Obama, Bipartisanship

Adam Serwer: "Bush was a more bipartisan president than Barack Obama. But that has to do less with him being ideologically heterodox than it does with the quality of his opposition. Democrats were willing to work with Bush. Republicans simply don't think anyone else should be allowed to govern and have taken to opposing Obama even when he proposes things they once supported."

Bomb Was Philly-Bound

Inky: "Philadelphia was the next destination of the plane that was carrying a toner-cartridge bomb discovered in England last month. The explosive device - which almost went undetected - was set to detonate at 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, when the plane could have been over the U.S. East Coast, British police announced Wednesday."

Sometimes, I wonder if it was the wisest thing to move from the Midwest to a major East Coast city that, statistically, has a much higher chance of being targeted by terrorist bombs. Mostly, I try not to think about it.