Reading Recommendations: 2007-01-22

Some darker ones to start:

• Smearing Barack Obama

  And so it begins …
  
  Christopher Hayes documents the first trickles of what will undoubtedly be a tsunami of right-wing poison. I don't know how we'll all be able to stand the next two years.
  
  

• Beyond Sophistry

  Kevin Drum describes Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales's recent dismissal before the Senate Judiciary Committee of the right of habeas corpus.
  
  

• The Iraq Gamble: At the pundits' table, the losing bet still takes the pot

  Jebediah Reed profiles "the four pundits who were in our judgment the most influentially and disturbingly misguided in their pro-war arguments and the four who were most prescient and forceful in their opposition."
  
  You'll note a trend: the boneheads continue to make the big bucks, the others, not so much. This is a topic that's getting a fair amount of buzz lately, and rightfully so. Reed's effort is one of the best I've seen.
  
  This is a multi-page article. Note the "next page" links at the bottom of each.
  
  

• Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for peak oil than the US

  Dmitry Orlov predicts the eventual collapse of the United States, and argues that it is even less prepared for this than was the USSR. Unlike most slide shows that get posted on the Web, this one has the nice touch of including the transcript of his talk, weaved among the slides.
  
  The premise may sound a little over the top, but Orlov makes many points that bear serious consideration. Trust me, you're not an America-hater if you read this one.
  
  

And now, on the lighter side:

• The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2006

  Snark at its finest.
  
  

• Zeitgeist Checklist [for Jan. 20, 2007]

  This weekly feature on Slate is always a howl.
  
  

• Doonesbury [2007-01-14 edition]

  Introducing "the White House Situational Science Adviser."