Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review.

Breaking News
Vladimir Putin’s nomination for the Russian Presidency, Dmitry Medvedev, is in return planning to install Putin as Prime Minister in any new government. A move that will ensure Putins’s grip on power holds, and constitutional limits on Presidential terms are not breached. [NYT]

Russia watchers wondered how Putin would protect his power-structure after elections next March, now we know.

Did you shoot anybody? Did you kill anybody? How many people?
Michael J. Totten [Wiki bio] is a journo/blogger based in the Middle East and is noted for his coverage of Iraq. He has recently returned to Fallujah to see a city rebuilding itself after one of the most controversial and violent battles of the current conflict. This is a very interesting article and one definitely worth reading - regardless of your position on the invasion itself.

US Marine: “…These people are working hard. They have good family values. Their religious faith is incredible compared to how people are in the States. Even people who think they’re religious in the States, they’re nothing compared to the people here. They have city-wide prayers every day, you know? Honestly, I have a lot of respect for the people here.”

Totten: “In my experience, though, contempt for Iraqi culture specifically, and Arabs and Islam more generally, is far more prevalent in the American civilian population, even in liberal coastal cities, than it is among American soldiers and Marines who interact with Iraqis every day, forge sometimes intense personal bonds with Iraqis, eat Iraqi food, and speak at least a little Arabic. Stereotypes about racist and psychotic Marines, as well as fanatical and psychotic Iraqis, can’t survive a lengthy trip to Fallujah, at least not to the Fallujah of late 2007.” [more]

In balance::
Patrick Cockburn - Only one thing unites Iraq: hatred of the US
The Americans are still the problem and not the solution, warns Cockburn.

Highlights
theyorkshergob - Republicanism and the SB
A LibDem’r asks what would be the point of removing the Monarchy? Executives are never elected on merit anyway.

Paul Linford - Is it time for a Ken Clarke comeback?
The Tories lack frontbench “gravitas”, something the Rushcliffe MP has in spades.

Obsolete - The witch hunt over Manhunt is over. For now.
It may have been overturned, but the BBFC’s decision to ban Manhunt was evidence of an organisation terrified of faux-outrage from politicians and The Daily Mail. It doesn’t matter though, the game’s crap.

Michael Meacher/CiF - Business as usual
The government’s proposed Planning Bill is undemocratic and demonstrative of this administration’s slavish attitude to business.

Elsewhere
Sunny Hundal/CiF - A festive gathering to avoid
Charlotte Gore - The Pitiful Reality of Labour’s Attitude To Children
John McDonnell - Dodgy Donors Scandal Masks Business as Usual for Brown’s New Labour
Liberal Burblings - Guiliani: “imploding“ - Clinton: “losing support“ - Obama and Huckabee: “surging“
Philip Stephens/FT - A poser for Lib Dems: what are you for?
Mohammed Omer/New Statesman - The grim reality in Gaza

Finally, Tim invites you to a festive sing-song.

There will be no Casting the net tomorrow. I’m away.

If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.