Does Romney Know Anything About Nukes?

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Joe Cirincione, one of the nation’s sharpest minds on nuclear weapons policy, just highlighted in Foreign Policy yet another big gulp moment in the viral video of Mitt Romney triggering shock and awe (wrong kind of awe though) across the political world.

Better Off than Four Years Ago?

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Reuters Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan has accomplished something quite important. At both conventions, in the corner rooms of Charlotte and Tampa organized by media groups and political activist outfits, serious discussions unfolded about the real state of the economy and the different policy approaches Americans needed to consider.

No Way Out? Fear of Dying Among Afghanistan’s Professional Class

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Reuters I thought President Obama’s decision to surge troop levels in Afghanistan was a strategic mistake and only deepened the black hole of costs in blood and treasure that the US had already invested and raised expectations in Afghanistan of an equilibrium in their lives that that would tilt more toward jobs and hope than…

Syrian Conflict Not Just Battle Against Assad

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Reuters/Benoit Tessier The New Yorker has just published a gripping, must read piece for those following the horrible convulsions inside Syria titled “The War Within” by Jon Lee Anderson on the diverse array of bosses, ideologues, thugs and strategists animating the Syrian opposition today.

Romney’s Horse Ballet Losses, Caviar and Spam

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Margaret Carlson gets the quote of the week for her Bloomberg commentary on Mitt Romney’s wealth blind spots and not getting that dressage may not be the kind of business tax deduction he wants a lot of economically-strapped political independents to read about.

Gore Vidal: A Salute to Self-Absorbed yet Selfless Genius

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Gore Vidal has departed the stage given news today that he has died of complications from pneumonia at age 86. I shook Vidal’s hand once — and when he took mine, his smirk pretty much sheared off several layers of identity protection I had cloaked around myself.