I think many people read this blog not for my sometimes verbose commentary but also for the scathing criticism that some of my most devout readers direct at me (as well as the TWN NoteTakers Scott Paul and Sameer Lalwani). They are well-meaning folks, most of them.
This piece by David Brooks today, “The Hamiltonian Ground,” should be essential reading for all the campaigns. Brooks has hit on why the Republican Party doesn’t seem too Republican anymore — but it also credits Hillary Clinton from already stealing the middle away from just about all of the contenders.
Mark Goldberg and I had a funny conversation this morning about Ollie North’s rant on the Law of the Sea over at Human Events. I won’t be responding to every ridiculous opposing argument (that would take up far too much time), just the ones that strike the funny bone with special force.
Back and forth political tides in America are part of the once globally envied system of checks and balances in our democracy (though there are days I really don’t feel like we are anywhere near the democratic standards we used to boast in our pre-9/11 history).
A couple of cool things have come our way today. First, I just discovered Ben Lando’s Iraq Oil Report which has at the top of the blog a story about Hunt Oil coordinating with the US State Department before signing an oil exploration and development agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Armand Hammer always wanted a Nobel Peace Prize — and so did Japan shipbuilding and auto racing tycoon Ryoichi Sasakawa. They tried to buy it and brow beat for it.
John Edwards has made a statement denying rumors of an extramarital liaison with any other woman — though not mentioning Rielle Hunter. I’m going to turn off my cynical gene for a moment and fully accept John Edwards statement at face value. We all probably should.
(House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos) When I lived in Los Angeles, I was riding my bike westward on Wilshire Boulevard just past the Los Angeles Country Club when I saw in the distance a car speed up the curb, over the sidewalk, and into a tree.
According to a former senior intelligence official I met with recently, Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, and CIA Director Michael Hayden were all in the intel game when the Jonathan Pollard case came to light. They all felt “gamed by Israeli intelligence” back then, according to my source.