On her blog, Katie Couric questions Vlady…

Investigators from around the world are now involved in trying to crack one of the biggest spy scandals in recent memory: the death–by poisoning–of a former KGB agent, living in London, who was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Alexander Litvinenko was killed by what one expert called a “tiny nuclear bomb” in the form of the rare radioactive substance Polonium 210…and, on his deathbed, he said Putin did it.

And then last week, more bombshells: the former Russian prime minister was also poisoned. An Italian security expert, who told Litvinenko that they were targets, tested positive for radiation poisoning…and so did Litvinenko’s wife.

While Russia denies that Putin is behind it, all these coincidences raise serious questions about an important American ally.

President Bush once said he looked into Putin’s soul and saw a good man.

But maybe it’s time for a second look.

…I have to say that I actually like this stance from Katie. More please…

You must check out the photo over at SlashGear…

If you’re anything like me you’re currently wearing a jumper, drinking strong coffee and harbouring a love-hate relationship with squirrels. On good days, I think they’re cute little fellas with their bright eyes and capable claws; on bad days, I think they’re disgusting rats with show-off tails. Either way, I know that they cause havoc in gardens eating all the food people put out for the birds (don’t get me started on birds!) and becoming fat little barons. Well, look out squirrels, because you’re going down!

The Rollerfeeder is a precariously-balanced drum of bird-food which, when a squirrel sets foot on it, tumbles round and dumps the rodent unceremoniously to the ground. A carefully weighted bottom (just like my third wife) then rightens the drum so that small birds can again feast. Large birds are probably unable to eat from this, due to being too heavy, but then they should lose some weight anyway unless they want to be cat food.

…PETA is going to be all over this.

If you have $80 to shell out for one of these, you can buy one at Solutions.

Yet again…

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) _ The lights are back on after a squirrel jumping on power equipment knocked out power to 6,500 Twin Falls residents yesterday.

The squirrel landed on equipment at a substation causing an electrical short and killing the animal.

Power went out at about 11 a-m and didn’t come on until an hour later.

[via KIDK-TV]

More good stuff out of Edinburgh, Scotland…

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Dec. 8 (UPI) — Scottish officials hope contraception can bring the numbers of a U.S. import, the gray squirrel, under control, allowing the native red squirrel to survive.

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive Council told The Scotsman that experiments with a “fertility control agent” are being done on a number of species. He said the method has been used successfully in the United States.

The gray squirrels would be captured in humane traps and injected with a contraceptive.

The newspaper joked that the gray squirrels, like the U.S. soldiers stationed in Britain during World War II, are “over here, over-cute and over-sexed.” They have been so fertile that in Scotland there are estimated to be 3 million grays and only 160,000 reds.

[via United Press International]

Squirrels are damaging houses and running rampant in Pennsylvania…

We have a large hole in the side of our house. Damn squirrels!

We have a real squirrel venturing periodically into the attic. I’m reminded, in fact, of the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when the squirrel jumps out of the tree. Someone yells “squirrel!” Panic ensues and destruction follows. Geeky Girl freaks out when she hears the squirrel. It is primarily underneath her room and so she believes the squirrel can get to her. She, like the people in Christmas Vacation, has a tendency to panic.

[via Geeky Mom]

I suddenly have the urge to voluntarily hurl…

Check out NewsBusters “Weekend Captionfest II” featuring Katie Couric and Michael Richards (photo circa March 25, 1998). Funny stuff.

The Humane Society of the United States has posted their recommendations for solving problems with squirrels.

Squirrels generally rank as the top problem-makers among all species of urban wildlife. Paradoxically, these charming, bushy-tailed creatures are also consistently judged “Most Popular” among our wild neighbors. It seems we want them and we don’t want them–depending on what they’re up to at any given moment. Either way, squirrels are undisputedly one of the most successful mammals in human-altered environments.

The first approach to dealing with squirrels is to establish limits of tolerance. If they need to be excluded from an attic or prevented from stealing bird food, make sure it is done in a manner that does them and their young no harm.

They also offer advice on removing squirrels from your chimney…

Hang a long, 3/4-inch diameter rope down the chimney, and drape it over the side of the house to allow them to climb out. Afterwards, install a chimney cap.

Read the full article here.

Nice work from Katie and the rest of the evening news world…

Keeping her charm in check, Katie Couric made her first foray overseas yesterday as anchor of the CBS Evening News, hosting the show from Amman, Jordan.

President Bush was to have held a summit there with Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, but the meeting was unexpectedly postponed for a day, leaving Couric and her competitors at NBC and ABC scrambling to fill their broadcasts and Bush cooling his heels. The CBS anchor was plainly primed to deflate criticism that her performance has been overly chatty since she assumed the anchor position at CBS on Sept. 5.

With a backdrop of Amman minarets that was almost identical to those of NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Charles Gibson, Couric whipped through several earnest interviews with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, and three of the network’s correspondents. During her interview with Khalilzad, she awkwardly jabbed her notebook, her head tilted to one side as she asked a question.

All three evening news shows covered the same story as the main feature — the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have fled the violence in their homeland and have settled, at least temporarily, in neighboring Jordan.

Read the rest of the article in The Baltimore Sun.

You have got to be kidding me…

In a recent interview with an Iraqi leader, CBS News Anchor Katie Couric asked an Iraqi woman if she missed Saddam Hussein.

In all seriousness, at the end of her two minute interview with Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress Zainab Al-Suwaij Couric asked Zainab, “Do you ever long for the days of Saddam Hussein?”

Zainab immediately said “No.”

Couric paused, waiting for Zainab to explain. After taking a breath Zainab emphasized “no” again and “we hope for a better Iraq.”

The other two questions in the brief spot Couric asked were “As an Iraqi woman, do you feel hopeful or hopeless?” and “from your experience do they [Iraqis] want US troops to leave that country?”

Zainab said she was hopeful that Iraq would have a better future and said Iraqis do want to Americans leave the region, but not anytime soon. She said if U.S. troops were to leave Iraq today, it would be “disaster”

[via Human Events]