Top 10 reasons Letterman came clean now 1.) He didn't want the scandal to end up on Page Six.2.) Why should Paul Shaffer get all the action?3.) To steal the thunder from Sarah Palin's new book.4.) Ratings, ratings, ratings.5.) With Leno out of the way, figures his only competition is skin-emax.6.) He's updating a popular show segment: Stupid Petting Tricks.7.) He caught his wife watching Conan O'Brien.8.) He's trying to pick a fight with Newark's mayor.9.) Needed to fill the time because John McCain blew off the show.10.) Is thinking of changing his production company name to 'Worldwide Drop-Your-Pants.'   

Christopher Hitchens on Beirut attack: 'they kept coming. Six or seven at first' James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 February 2009 17.49 GMT Article history Christopher Hitchens. Photograph: Felix Clay As a professional provocateur and vocal supporter of the war in Iraq, Christopher Hitchens has been engaged in countless verbal punch-ups with his ideological opponents, most of them conducted from the safety of a TV studio.However, when the controversial author, journalist and broadcaster defaced a political poster on a visit to Beirut last week, he found himself at the wrong end of a bruising encounter that has left him walking with a limp and nursing cuts and bruises.Hitchens had been drinking on Beirut's main boulevard, Hamra Street, on Saturday afternoon with two other western journalists after attending a rally to commemorate the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. They spotted a poster for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a far-right group whose logo bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nazi swastika, and Hitchens decided to act."They would be better off calling themselves the Syrian National Socialist party, and that's what they are", he said, speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk today after arriving in the UK by plane. "I couldn't tear it down but I got my marker out and wrote on it, effectively telling them to 'fuck off'."Hitchens' political statement was witnessed by a group of SSNP activists, who have a strong presence in Beirut. "With amazing speed, in broad daylight on this fashionable street, these guys appeared from nowhere, grabbed me by the collar and said: 'You're coming with us'. I said: 'No I'm not'. They kept on coming. About six or seven at first with more on the way," he said.He described how he was knocked to the…

 Reforms put Wall Street in its placePassage of Obama's financial reform bill restores Wall Street to its proper role as the economy's servant – and not its master Thomas Noyes guardian.co.uk, Friday 21 May 2010 Article history Barack Obama described passage of the financial reform bill as a victory over Wall Street's blocking tactics. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Senate last night passed a comprehensive financial reform bill by a vote of 59 to 39 after weeks of amendments and a series of cloture votes failed to derail the measure.Passage of S.3127, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, represents a clear victory for Barack Obama, who made this his next big legislative priority after healthcare. Obama hailed the bill's passage, noting "The recession we're emerging from was primarily caused by a lack of responsibility and accountability from Wall Street to Washington." Legislation usually becomes watered down as it winds its way through the maze of committee markups and amendments. But this bill got stronger as the process unfolded, particularly after the Goldman Sachs scandal involving mortgage-backed securities came to light. The firm's abysmal performance in front of a Senate committee reminded people why Wall Street needs adult supervision.The most important provision in the bill may be the Volcker Rule, which restricts the ability of banks to trade on their own account. Goldman Sachs became the poster child for this kind of trading when it was revealed that the firm was selling mortgage-backed securities designed by an investment partner who was shorting mortgages. These trades led to charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and prompted a federal criminal investigation into the firm's dubious practices.

Last year, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker…

  Aipac's hidden persuaders The Israel lobby is aiming to soften up US public opinion for an attack on Iran. Americans should resist its propaganda Comments (138)  Richard Silverstein guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 May 2009 14.00 BST Article history Despite the ballyhoo of the recent Aipac national policy conference in Washington, when Israel-US bonds were feted, relations between the two countries are currently more strained than at any time since 1991. That was when the elder George Bush, as US president, fiercely lobbied Yitzchak Shamir to join in the Madrid peace conference. Relations then reached their nadir when James Baker uttered his infamous remark about Israel's American-Jewish supporters: "Fuck the Jews, they don't even vote for us."If relations continue to deteriorate in coming months, we might have to go back in time to the Suez crisis of 1956 to find a time when relations were this fraught.A case in point is Iran. That bogey-nation was everywhere at last week's Aipac conference. Every keynote speech – if they weren't directly written by that group's staff – seemed unmistakably scripted and "on message" over the existential threat that Iran poses not just to Israel, but the entire world.A glossy brochure distributed at the Aipac meeting showed a map (pictured below) centred on Iran and beyond, with a dark ominous ring around Iran's neighbours and as far away as India, Russia, Africa and eastern Europe. The message: these are the countries under imminent threat of Iranian ballistic missiles.   A map contained in a brochure distributed at an Aipac meeting The brochure copy even intimates that the next step for Iran is "building a missile with range to reach US territory". (Never mind…

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