Good evening, I'm Wyl. Tim has the night off.

Tim's taking the rest of the week off, so I'm going to try to fill in for him a bit. It's finals week for me here in Madison, which means I'm not going to go link crazy, but I thought I'd at least keep the chair warm for Tim until he's back.

• Time Magazine has named Russian president/Supreme Leader Vladimir Putin 2007 Man of the Year, edging out Nobel laureate Al Gore. A few thoughts:

• Since Mr. Gore has come up short before, I'm sure he's nonplussed by losing out on such a prestigious award. Yes, I'm being sarcastic.
  

• Putin is now tied at one award each with Adolf Hitler (1938) and former Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev (1957) and Yuri Andropov (1983, co-winner with Ronald Reagan). He is still behind notables Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Deng Xiaoping (1978 and 1985), and Mikhail Gorbachev (1987 and 1989), but at only 55 years of age and with an absolute iron grip on Russia, I think Putin has a shot at a repeat performance.
  

• On the other hand, at least they didn't give the award to runner-up J.K. Rowling, who should finally just go away already. How does she even meet Time's "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year" criteria? The ghosts of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Madeline L'Engle should be all come back and haunt Rowling for the next fifty years. I'm sure she'll write a book worth reading after that experience.
  

• According to the NYT, it looks like the Bush Administration's lawyers were significantly more involved in the CIA tapes scandal than the administration was previously willing to acknowledge. I wonder if any of those lawyers were over at Dick Cheney's office in the Old Executive Office Building today... Supposedly it wasn't a terrorist attack, but shouldn't we all be checking with Rudy Giuliani before we decide for sure?

• Congressional Democrats are once again flexing their collective spine.

• The Pentagon (with an assist from The WaPo) spins even better than Kool Herc:

• According to the WaPo, the Pentagon has concluded that "Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of 'occupying forces' as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month."

• Also according to the WaPo, this is "good news, according to a military analysis of the results. At the very least, analysts optimistically concluded, the findings indicate that Iraqis hold some "shared beliefs" that may eventually allow them to surmount the divisions that have led to a civil war.

• Sounds like Tom Tancredo's presidential aspirations have crashed to earth before they ever even took off. One would hope/imagine a similar announcement from Duncan Hunter isn't too far off. If this country collectively loses its mind and Rudy Giuliani is somehow elected I'm sure both of these fanatics would find jobs within his regime - Hunter as Rudy's SecDef, and Tancredo as head of the INS. Talk about the inmates running the asylum...
  

• Finally, on a sad note, Dennis Kucinich's youngest brother, Perry, was found dead today. I'm sure I speak for Tim as well when I offer condolences to the Kucinich family.