Richard Holbrooke did today. All part of the public gavotte–Obama issues Nawruz greetings, Supreme Leader scoffs, Larijani fumes, Holbrooke shakes hand of deputy foreign minister, says nothing “substantive” took place. Two points: 1. The handshake is a big deal. In 2000, Madeleine Albright had choreographed a casual handshake between Bill Clinton and Iranian president Khatami [...]

The G20 meeting in London has a topic: Fixing the world economy. It even has a method: Bring together the most powerful men and women in the world to shake hands and talk seriously about the economic catastrophe and what will be done to fix it. Beyond that, it has specific subject matters: Stimulus, trade, [...]

Al Franken won a round (I’d say the 11th round but it has to be something more akin to 3,000) in his quest to be seated as Minnesota’s next senator. A Minnesota court ruled that upwards of 400 absentee ballots could be opened and counted next Tuesday. Franken currently holds a 225-vote lead. The number [...]

Apparently not the watchdog–though not for lack of trying. Politco’s Glenn Thrush and Huffpo’s Ryan Grim are reporting some stinging words from Congress’ oversight czar, Elizabeth Warren, regarding Treasury’s cooperation (or lack of it) in keeping the legislative branch informed about where that $700 billion in bailout money is going. In testimony this morning before [...]

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud–who likely planned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto–has claimed credit for yesterday’s horrific attack at the Pakistani police academy near Lahore, and he is threatening similar attacks in Washington: “Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world,” Mehsud told The Associated [...]

Via the New York Times, a reminder that many Detroiters won’t be able to read about the collapse of their local industry: Maybe once a year, a city has a news day as heavy as the one that just hit Detroit: The White House forced out the chairman of General Motors, word leaked that the administration [...]

Voters in the New York’s Hudson Valley go to the polls today to select a replacement for former Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. On the ballot are a former Wall Street type and a long entrenched Albany populist pol – a guy who has often enjoyed the support of [...]

The detainment of two American journalists by the North Koreans has officially become a full-fledged problem. Meanwhile, North Korea is scheduled to test-launch a long-range ballistic missile next week. Good thing we have a part-time North Korea envoy devoting every other Friday to the situation.

We live in a world of appropriation – to art historians the idea of blurring the line between reality and what’s on the canvas by appropriating common images thereby forcing the audience to reexamine them. Just look at the works of Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman. Advertising is often on the cutting edge of such [...]