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Well, this is becoming quite the year for obituaries. Jody Powell was one of the first political pros I met when I began covering my first presidential campaign for Rolling Stone in 1975. We were introduced by Hunter Thompson–who was, untypically, seduced by the fact that Jimmy Carter’s top two aides were people…sorta like us. Jody …

Here’s a fascinating and revealing anecdote from a soon-to-be-released memoir by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, as reported in a Byron York column today. Latimer had drafted a 2008 speech for Bush to deliver at CPAC and included the obligatory praise for the “conservative movement,” which seemed to confuse Bush:

“What is this

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…everywhere, to everyone, it seems–to Iran, in the context of the P5+1 talks, and to North Korea, outside the context of the six party talks.

It turns out that Iran’s letter to the P5+1 (the UN security council’s permanent members plus Germany) isn’t a flat stonewall of nuclear talks, but a gauzy invitation for negotiations about, well, almost anything…except Iran’s nucelar program. And while I’ve been very much in favor of such talks in the past, we are dealing with a very …

In advance of his new album, Jay-Z has been making the rounds. Earlier this week, in an appearance on New York City’s Hot 97, he described a phone call he had with Obama during the campaign, in which Obama evoked Michael Jordan and dissed the basketball team Jay-Z partially owns, the New Jersey Nets. Worth the listen, even if you don’t …

A simple question for this horrific anniversary: If we’ve had so much success picking off Al Qaeda leaders with our Predator drones (and we have), and if we’ve been able to locate elusive sociopaths like Baitullah Mehsud and today’s announced snatch of Muslim Khan by the Pakistanis…

Listen here. Read here. Watch here.

Ah, John Boehner couldn’t wait a day before retailing a whopper about the President’s health care plan: