ABC’s Terry Moran looks kinda like a, um, donkey this morning, after reporting via Twitter that President Obama had called Kanye West a “jackass” yesterday, after West disrupted the MTV music awards in a typical fit of self-absorption. Obama’s “jackass” utterance came during an off the record exchange with CNBC. ABC News has apologized …
Foreign Policy
The Afghanistan Paradox
This war has come to be inexorably linked to this President. He likes to say that he’s “taking the fight” to the terrorists because it’s “fundamental to the defense of our people.” His strong supporters include Karl Rove, John McCain and Sarah Palin. In Congress, Democratic leaders grate at the idea of granting him more …
Iranamok
It seems an appropriate time to resurrect The New Republic’s clever name for the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal. It seems the Iranians are playing hardball on the nuclear negotiations.
A Story And A Photo: The Death Of One Marine In Afghanistan
Three journalists for the Associated Press present when grenade explosion took off the leg of a Marine, Cpl. Joshua “Bernie” Bernard, in Afghanistan on August 14, in the middle of the deadliest month in that country for U.S. forces since 2001. They wrote a story about it, and published a photo of it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is …
Today in Afghanistan
Dexter Filkins locates the most brazen vote theft so far.
And Pamela Constable raises the possibility of unrest as the evidence of massive fraud mounts. There’s also this:
American officials have expressed rare public dismay at Karzai’s electoral courtship of controversial former warlords. Karzai’s aides, in turn, portrayed his
…
Pentagon Blacklisting?
Stars and Stripes reports that the Pentagon has terminated its contract with the outside firm that was putting together files of journalists seeking to cover the war in Afghanistan and vetting their stories as positive, negative or neutral. However, Jason Motlagh happened to see his own “profile,” and has this account in TIME.com: …
Non Sequitur
Tony Cordesman, the well-known and -regarded military expert, makes the case for more of everything in Afghanistan today. But there is a giant hole in the middle of his argument.
Pentagon Tracks, Rates Reporters “Neutral to Positive”
Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military’s independent newspaper, has a zinger of a scoop today:
WASHINGTON — Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters’ coverage is
…
Khamenei Is A Dictator, Say Clerics
It is wrong to call Iran a monarchy, even though it has a supreme leader who oversees all matters of state. (He is, in turn, overseen by a council of Islamic scholars, the Assembly of Experts, which has the ability to remove, in theory, the supremacy of the supreme.) But it is still striking to have an anonymous letter from unnamed …
Hillary Clinton Can Dance
Never mind the creepy Kenyan guy trying to marry daughter Chelsea, the Secretary of State has some moves. (At 25 sec.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WO4UMMpJTk&hl=en&fs=1&]
Gibbs Retracts On Iran
This from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs via Reuters:
“Let me correct a little bit of what I said yesterday. I denoted that Mr. Ahmadinejad was the elected leader of Iran. I would say that’s not for me to pass judgment on,” Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“He’s been inaugurated. That’s a fact. Whether any
…
Silly Summer News and Iran’s Slow Boil
The news tends to go small in the dog days of summer. At the White House today, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded a half dozen questions (of various formulations) about the kind of beer President Obama would drink when he meets with Skip Gates and the embattled Cambridge Police Officer. (No clear answer. POTUS, who is not much of a …
We hear you
Via Andrew’s blog. Allahu Akhbar!