SATURDAY NEWS:
* "An empire at risk: We won the cold war and weathered 9/11. But now economic weakness is endangering our global power."
* 'White House OKs expanding CIA drone program in Pakistan.'
* Wow, the head of Blackwater is a real character.
* Pastor offers a haven for recovering sex offenders.
* Trying to break in to the global seaweed industry.
* The fifty best protest signs of 2009.
* Another Achewood flowchart winner: going online.
* Oh, man. Chris Sims takes on the new WWE comic books.

"The Obama doctrine is the bad-economy version of the Powell doctrine. The latter called for using overwhelming force to achieve clear but limited objectives. Obama doesn't think he can afford (politically or budgetarily) the overwhelming part (and Afghanistan offers nothing comparable to the mission of throwing Saddam out of Kuwait), but he has embraced the idea of setting a limited objective and keeping the end in mind. Contrast that with Bush's second inaugural address, with its lofty rhetoric of igniting a wildfire of freedom across Asia."

MORE NEWS:
* More speech coverage: the NYTimes saw more of a challenge for the Afghani government. Glen Greenwald was pleased with what he didn't hear. Politico discusses what we learned from the speech. And Marc Lynch is undecided. Full text here.
* Calling for a new women's health movement.
* What you can do to help fight hunger in America.
* Looking for details on the latest Metro crash.
* Andrew Cohen moves on from CBSNews.com.
* Glen Weldon presents more graphic novel gift ideas, and more. Good read for comic book fans and non-fans alike.

THE LATE NEWS:
* "...Many Indians still live with a sense of permanent crisis, of a world out of joint, where violence can be contained but never fully prevented, and where human action quickly reveals its tragic limits."
* Training for war in Afghanistan by way of Louisiana.
* Seeking federal oversight of mass transit in the wake of the Metro crash.
* The Republican party, but united and divided.
* Bonus: man, are they really saying Senator Graham isn't conservative enough?
* What Oprah's departure will mean for daytime TV.
* A critical eye on our modern lust for celebrity status.
* The NYTimes presents a holiday gift guide for graphic novels.

"I'm just gonna pause for a second here because it's worth reflecting upon how few Big Two books are good as opposed to merely being competent. For DC there's Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, and Secret Six. For Marvel there's Incredible Hercules, Invincible Iron Man, the 'cosmic' books, and whatever comic fills the Iron Fist slot for any given month. That is it at present. (Daredevil's new direction is uneven, Captain America is in a boring lull period, and Amazing Spider-Man is inconsistent on a week-to-week basis.) Eight books between the Big Two that are genuinely good comics and not just placefillers.

"I'll go further than that, though, and say that there are exactly two ongoing runs right now that aren’t just good but indeed excellent, and those are Invincible Iron Man and Detective Comics (which I have seriously come around on after a rereading plus the effect of the two most recent issues). And my simple definition of 'excellent' is this: if the run came to an end with the next issue, would I be disappointed that it was over?"

SATURDAY NEWS:
* Good read: "Postindustrial cities, even relatively successful ones such as Pittsburgh, are trying to manage, rather than just reverse, population loss."
* The past, present and possible future of climate change.
* Why we should stop subsidizing ethanol.
* Who knew: the tea party movement turns out to be a good money-making opportunity.
* Wow. Guess who is complaining about the White House's deficit spending?
* Behind the bidding for MGM.
* Bob Mondello previews upcoming movies of 2009.
* Principle filming on the Tintin film is done.
* Release date for Crisis on Two Earth announced.

SATURDAY LATE NEWS:
* "The basic principle of evidence based medicine is that clinical decisions that are made between doctors and patients should be driven by data."
* Why Pakistan won't fight the Taliban.
* Is Islamic radicalization in America on the rise? And, is Homeland Security downplaying the thread of right-wing extremists?
* Is there such a thing as agro-imperialism?
* Police health woes linked to late shifts and overtime.
* FiveThirtyEight.com on why Palin might run for president, and how she might win the Republican nomination.
* Another winning shot from BAGnewsNotes.
* Interesting. Direct-to-DVD equel to 30 Days of Night.

"By refusing to embrace and defend the core principle of justice at stake here - that a distinguishing feature of our political system is that we don't imprison or kill people without charging them with a crime and proving their guilt in a real court - the Obama administration has made it for more difficult for it to defend what it is doing, as well as for those who want to defend their decision to give trials to 9/11 defendants."

THURSDAY NEWS RODEO:
* Good read: excerpt from a new book on Justice Scalia.
* Interesting read: an interview with Charles Johnson, who runs the controversial website Little Green Footballs, on no longer being the darling of the right wing.
* "...The incident has sparked a renewed focus on how Islamic extremists and al-Qaida sympathizers become radicalized in the first place."
* Hypocrisy in action: they were against the filibuster before they were for it.
* I didn't realize VA governor-elect Bob McDonnell was associated with Pat Robertson. Fantastic.
* "They just can't help themselves. Journalists are addicted to Sarah Palin. Some love to hate her, some love to love her, all love to dissect or defend her." (Bonus: fact-checking the book.)
* Disney decides against a Captain Nemo movie/franchise.
* Dan Abnett picked as the writer for the Warhammer 40k Ultramarines movie.
* See, my concern is a Global Frequency TV show would be seen as another Fringe/X-Files copycat.

Quick, what would be a great way to ruin a movie about DC Comics hero, Sgt. Rock? That's right, remove it from the classic WW2 setting, and have it be Sgt. Rock in the future.

Why Wonder Woman needs a secret identity.
(Courtesy shadorunr.)

"If you take a quick look the New York Times Best Sellers list for October 2nd you should see something interesting and it is easy to figure out - Batman occupies almost half of the comic book listings! Nine out of a possibly twenty in fact and a third of those comics are almost two decades old at this point... This, of course, tells us two very obvious things: 1) Batman is arguably the most popular superhero in print right now. Even on other NYT lists, he almost always charts multiple books and, in the Direct Market, has the highest selling book that isn't an event book. And 2) the Internet is wrong, again."

Onion headline hits close to home:
Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge Of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree

"The auto industry is on its knees and we've got school buildings in sorry shape and we can't even rebuild a public hospital in New Orleans. But the Dallas Cowboys have a brand new billion-dollar-plus domed stadium that looks like something out of Star Wars."
-Bob Herbert

SATURDAY NEWS:
* New development in the torture case of Binyam Mohamed.
* Scientists call for a limit to offshore drilling plans.
* Four scenarios surround the Afghan elections.
* "The amount of energy that had been exerted by the Twitterati to save the now infamous 'balloon boy' would probably be enough to prevent at least a few dozen African genocides."
* Will Snowe face any fallout from crossing party lines?
* Whoah. "The repaired Large Hadron Collider experiment has reached its operating temperature, colder even than deep space."
* Science comes up with new reasons to have sex.
* WeeklyCrisis.com on the demise of comic book anthologies.

Exhuming McCarthy: Congressional Republicans call for a witch hunt on Muslims on the Hill.

THURSDAY NEWS:
* "Education reform is the central front in the war on poverty, the civil rights issue of our time."
* Good read: the effects of the recession on prison life.
* Neat! Joel Achenbach on George Washington, the accountant.
* Examining rules on how we handle data storage worldwide.
* The controversy over Michele Bachmann.
* The best signs from the National Equality March. (Courtesy thewronghands.)
* Ferchrissakes: "The pollutants that coal plants are scrubbing from their smokestacks are finding their way into water instead."
* Marvel plans new graphic novels of Stephen King's Gunslinger series.
* Solid gold: Chris Sims reviews Scream Blacula Scream.

SOME NEWS:
* Bush-era EPA document on climate change released.
* Nisoor Square follow-up: judge bars public from Blackwater hearing.
* "It's just isn't 1993 any longer. If Democrats can't deliver on basic issues with control of the White House, huge majorities in Congress and popular support, what can they do?"
* FiveThirtyEight.com on the price of party unity for the Republicans.
* Nice. BAGnewsNotes on the heroes listed on the new Republican party website.
* NFL players oppose Rush Limbaugh's move to purchase the Rams.
* LATimes photogallery: SCA fashion.
* The untold tale of Jack Kirby and Frank Zappa.

Four major film franchises are working on a fourth movie. Should they?

SOME NEWS:
* Good read: "The Supreme Court's 2009-2010 term is already shaping up to be an odd one."
* "Should prosecutors who manufacture evidence be susceptible to lawsuits?"
* Jay Newton-Small, on what to expect next on Afghanistan strategy.
* Good read: the problem with mainstream economists.
* New fears over Al Qaeda recruiting in America.
* "New studies of suicide bombers say that most have three important qualities in common."
* Interweb news: loosening ties between Icann and the government.
* Classy: the Bush White House decided against recognizing JK Rowling because some members thought she was promoting witchcraft.
* Top NPR headline: "Who is HOBODARKSEID? And Why Should You Care?"

EW.com presents their list of the top 25 Whedonverse episodes. Not necessarily the ones I'd pick, and not in that order, but there's a lot of quality stuff there.

(Note: one of the ones they picked is Dollhouse's "Epitaph", so, if you haven't seen it yet and care about spoilers, it's there.)

And while I'm here, Mr. Whedon has confirmed he is working on Buffy: Season 9. I fell behind on season 8, but I wager I'll pick the rest up sooner or later..

SATURDAY NEWS:
* Three key questions about the Zazi terror case.
* How climate change could hurt food production.
* New praise for a new FEMA.
* The Explainer on why the Russians are so good at chess.
* Oh, right, and there's water on Mars also.
* Why I love the BBC: eel migration and butterfly migration.
* Unexpected benefits: global recession causes a drop in carbon emissions
* Gallery: yesterday's action stars in their old age.
* Downside of the Marvel purchase: a glut of Marvel movies coming. And with that volume, I doubt they'll all be top quality.