The Things You Learn

On the “internets”.  Via a fascinating new site that publishes 100 word summaries of lengthy newspaper stories…

With Costa Rica’s Mail, It’s Address Unknown

A word of advice if you want to mail a letter to Costa Rica: don’t. The country’s postal system takes an average of nine days to deliver a letter, and one in five gets lost completely. There are few addresses or street names in this tiny country, where directions such as “125 meters west of the Pizza Hut” point the way. Poor mailmen can spend hours searching for addresses such as the “old fig tree,” which becomes especially tricky when those landmarks no longer exist. Dickerson demonstrates that “magical realism is alive and well in Latin America” and does a nice job of showing how where we live is [...]

Rosie And Keith- Back to Back?

This is interesting gossip, for those of you who follow media mentions. I wonder what would happen to Abrams?  He dropped his management duties to go back on the air. I’m thinking he might move to Tucker Carlson’s slot, since Tucker’s long been rumored to be on the cusp of a cut.

Rosie O’Donnell in Talks to Join MSNBC

Under one scenario under discussion, Ms. O’Donnell would be given the 9 p.m. slot each weeknight on MSNBC [...]

Doing The Right Thing

He may very well have been “urged” to step down, but it’s the right move at the right time. While you can argue that his mistakes were in his past, the editorial baggage wouldn’t go away.

High-Flying Ex-Con Steps Down From Thompson Campaign

Following revelations that an adviser and top fundraiser to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign had a history as a drug dealer, bookie and reluctant taxpayer, that adviser resigned, according to a statement released by the Thompson campaign. An e-mailed statement from the campaign to reporters quoted Philip Martin as saying he had decided to step down because “the focus of this campaign should be on [...]

Accomplishing Little

Someday we’ll get a Congress that really accomplishes something. I know they have plenty to talk about, but the really big issues just haven’t gone anywhere. Thus producing:

Tales of Mutual Dysfunction

I guess I overlooked it on the calendar, but today is apparently “What Went Wrong Day.” In the NYT, it’s “what went wrong with S-CHIP.” In the WaPo, it’s “what went wrong with No Child Left Behind.” Taken together, these stories illustrate — clearly and painfully — what happens when political debate crosses the [...]

Impressive

What did Ron Paul do to stir up such attention?

Over $2 Million In 12 Hours

The latest in Ron Paul online fundraising. Something is stirring out there. Memo to today’s Republicans: some people still believe in your principles, even if you [...]

Oil Prices And Iran

That’s all it takes.  One analyst.  One conversation. One comment…

Oil traders view war with Iran as ‘inevitable.’

On Friday, oil prices hit a record $95.93 a barrel. One “veteran energy trader at a U.S. hedge fund” told The Washington Post that part of the reason prices are so high is because “traders have become convinced that military conflict between the United States and Iran is inevitable.” He added, “People react to perceptions [...]

Colbert Calls It Quits

Well, that didn’t last long.  I wonder if the Writers’ Strike had anything to do with it?

Colbert Drops Presidential Bid

Stephen Colbert has dropped his bid for the White House. His announcement came after the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council voted last week to keep the host of “The Colbert Report” off the state’s primary ballot. The vote was 13-3. “Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history _ only 10 votes _ I have chosen not to put the country through another [...]

The Impeachment Vote

Hey, it won’t go anywhere, but it’ll be an interesting exercise in politics!

Kucinich moves to impeach Cheney

Circumventing Dem. leadership, Ohio Dem. will take effort to impeach V.P.  to House floor Tuesday [...]

Pushing The Bush White House

Any bets on an affirmative response to this request?

Conyers Pushes Bush On Subpoenas, Threatens Contempt Vote By Thanksgiving

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers exhorted the White House Monday to comply with subpoenas of President Bush’s key confidants in connection with a probe of U.S. attorney firings. In so doing, the Michigan Democrat raised the specter of a House floor vote by Thanksgiving on contempt of Congress citations against chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former legal counsel Harriet Miers. “As we submit the committee’s contempt report to the full House, I am writing [...]

Special Comment

Olbermann had a spectacular Special Comment tonight.  You’ll find a preview here, but I’ll be watching for a clip and full transcript.

UPDATE: Here’s the clip.   Another copy here.

Nuke Plans

Deeper and broader than most would have thought.

U.S. Plan Envisioned Nuking Iran, Syria, Libya

Despite years of denials, a secret planning document issued by the U.S. military’s nuclear-weapons command in 2003 ordered preparations for nuclear strikes on countries seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including Iran, Saddam Hussein-era Iraq, Libya and Syria. A briefing (pdf) on the document obtained by the Federation of American Scientists, showed that [...]

Waterboarding Us

Turnabout, as they say, is fair play.  Tread lightly. No missteps overseas, now.

Waterboarding debate goes down the rabbit hole

The recent discussion of the U.S. tolerance for waterboarding has been dominated by a certain Alice-in-Wonderland quality lately, but when a top U.S. State Department official can’t even comment on Americans being waterboarded by foreign governments, the debate has officially gone down the rabbit hole. (via Talk Left) The top legal adviser within the US state [...]

There is, by the way, a bit of last minute legal maneuvering going on…

Lawyers Want Senate To Hear About Ex-Ghost Detainee Before Mukasey Vote

There isn’t much time before tomorrow’s vote on attorney general-designee and torture agnostic Michael Mukasey. But lawyers from the only former CIA “ghost detainee” still in U.S. custody and with access to legal counsel want the Senate to know what the consequences of a torture regimen are before they give Mukasey their stamp of approval. In a letter written November 1st, they requested a meeting with key Senators, but the letter was [...]

And, more support for the technique.  But support that raises more questions than it answers. Confused, yet?

Senior Active-Duty General Says Positive Things About Waterboarding; Will Media Demand Clarification?…

It’ll be very, very interesting indeed to see if this gets any media play.  A senior active-duty U.S. Army general has just come out and made some positive comments about waterboarding that come pretty close to an endorsement of the technique.  Via Editor and Publisher, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a surprising interview with three-star Army General Russel Honore in which he responds to questions about waterboarding by saying that [...]

UPDATE: From Larry Johnson’s “No Quarter”:

“Do Unto Others…”

The debate about whether “waterboarding” constitutes torture misses the point. Imagine for a moment that you are the chief law enforcement officer investigating the kidnapping of an infant. You have a suspect in custody who is believed to be the only person who knows where the child is being kept. Without food and [...]

The Man Behind The Name

I’m a day late in getting to this, but it’s still a solid story.  60 Minutes on CBS had a fascinating piece last night about the source behind the “weapons of mass destruction” report that got us into the Iraq War.

Faulty Intel Source “Curve Ball” Revealed

CBS News reports on its investigation of the Iraqi informant codenamed “Curve Ball”: “Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction? No, he did not. We’ve known that for some time now. So where did the intelligence come from that he was building up his arsenal? Fantastically, the most compelling part came from one obscure Iraqi defector who came in and out of history like a comet. His code name, ironically, was ‘Curve Ball’ and his information became the pillar of the case Colin Powell made to the United Nations before the war. Who is Curve Ball and how did he fool the world’s elite intelligence agencies? 60 Minutes spent two years, and traveled to nine countries, trying to solve the mystery.” [...]

The Iraq Story

Indeed, it’s been tough to sort through what’s happening in Iraq these days.  On one hand, there are multiple reports that things are looking up.  In fact, the casualty numbers do seem to be dropping.  Why?  That’s the key question.

The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq

As U.S. casualties have continued to drop, many people on the anti-Bush side of the aisle have begun to quietly panic in recent days over this question: “Could George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan have possibly been right about the surge?” Simply put, the answer is no. The surge is not working and George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan were not right. Despite what right-wing blogs are saying, and despite what [...]

UPDATE: A blogger over at the Conservative “Little Green Footballs” site tears into that argument:

Kos Kook: The Honestly Real and Genuine Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate

The military experts at Daily Kos have figured out why there’s been such a dramatic drop in violence in Iraq, and of course it has nothing to do with the surge or with a change in US tactics: Daily Kos: The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq. Long story short (these Kos Kook posts are always incredibly wordy): [...]

Hey, Hey! It’s Monday

Looks like we all survived the weekend and the time change. Today dawned nice and sunny around here, but the forecast is for cloudy, cooler and somewhat rainy weather just ahead.  Let’s begin tonight with some thoughts on the 2008 election..

Bring on the brokered Republican convention!

For the last several decades, the Republican Party’s presidential nominating process has been relatively predictable. At least since the advent of the modern primary system, with the possible exception of 1980, the GOP nominee has either been an incumbent president, incumbent vice president, or the guy embraced early on as the establishment’s choice. Bruising primary [...]

The Mukasey Nomination

The push is on.  Some powerful people are urging Congress to slow down on the Mulkasey nomination to Attorney General.

Urgent: Letter from Intelligence, Military, Diplomatic, and Law Enforcement Professionals

PREFACE: A group of distinguished intelligence and military officers, diplomats, and law enforcement professionals delivered an urgent message this morning to the chairman and the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling on them to hold the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey until he takes a clear position on the legality of waterboarding. Their message [...]