It has been a while since we heard from the chief editor of Wikileaks and profoundly bizarre Australian “hacktivist” Julian Assange, currently on house arrest in the UK. As it turns out, he is working on a gig in 24-hour news– at the network formerly known as Russia Today, RT Television. He will be “hosting a series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries” starting this March. A talk show hosted by Julian Assange? What could possibly go wrong?

With a national debt default teetering dangerously near, the spirit of compromise seems to elude both parties, both within and without Congress. On The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann this week, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher joined host Thom Hartmann and his panel to debate how the President was handling the debt crisis, whether News Corporation will survive the hacking scandal, and what’s going on with those “porno” scanners the TSA uses at airports.

Obama impersonator Reggie Brown‘s appearance at the Republican Leadership Conference reignited concerns about what constitutes appropriate racial humor and whether there is a double standard over what cannot be said on the left and the right. On last night’s The Big Picture on RT America, Mediaite Political Editor Tommy Christopher chatted with host Thom Hartmann about Brown’s performance, racial humor, and the difference between Eric Bolling and Bill Maher.

Paul Craig Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for the Reagan Administration and an outspoken journalist and author since, appeared on RT America this past weekend to discuss the legal struggles of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. While there, he had some pretty unsettling things to say, casually dropping his belief that the CIA would kill Assange and that this would be a “common practice” event.

Russia Today, a government-financed satellite news network, has aired a report linking the suicide bomb attack on the Domdedovo Airport in Moscow Monday with an American video game. According to the report, the airport attack “mirrors” a scenario found in the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which includes a dramatized commando raid on a Moscow airport.

Renaissance man Vladimir Putin is at it again. Inspired by the illustrious musical repertoire of Venezuelan TV show host/crooner Hugo Chavez (or perhaps feeling the ’90s vibes after watching acclaimed saxophonist Bill Clinton recreate his presidency yesterday, the Russian president took to a lonely piano to play a heartfelt rendition, then sing a heartfelt rendition, of “Blueberry Hill.” In English. On television.

Wow. Online strategy gamers who wish to lead militias against Obama (?) can finally do so in “2011: Obama’s Coup Fails,” an “action-packed, satire-filled” multiplayer strategy game. Of course, the game is not very violent. No one in the Obama administration is killed or assassinated, the game’s creator explains; they are merely “captured” by patriotic citizen armies.

• NYTimes.com designer Khoi Vinh discusses his ‘90s design education. (ZT) • My roommate started singing this SNL Digital Short song last night, and I went to listen on Hulu only to find it not there. Strange. But it’s amazing. (SK) • “Moldovan accused of murdering 1800-year-old.” Oh, Russia Today, you never fail to impress. (RQ) • Why [...]