What a Difference a Year Makes: Breathing in Beijing

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(photo credit: Michael McDermott) My friend Michael McDermott runs the largest foreign film production operation in Beijing, Gung Ho Films, and he sent me this photo that he took on August 1st in Beijing. I have to admit that the air ‘looks’ good — which may bode well for the Olympic Games.

Return Fire and Escalation

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John McCain just offered this video called “The One” spoofing the sometimes over the top evangelical-style sizzle of Obama’s oratory: Barack Obama isn’t taking it though and is firing back with a new website, “McCain’s Low Road Express” and his own new video on fabrications and false charges in McCain ads: — Steve Clemons

Signature 12,180 on <em>The Nation</em> Letter to Obama

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Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jane Hamsher, Juan Cole, Gore Vidal, Robert Greenwald, Matt Stoller and others headline a letter to be delivered to Barack Obama before the Democratic National Convention. To some degree, the letter appeals to Obama to be Obama, the one we saw during the primary and not some faded or compromised version.

Four Minutes with Tom Daschle on America’s Health Care Crisis

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Some think former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle may be a dark horse to be Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate. Most of the rest of the DC chattering class thinks that Daschle will be Obama’s White House chief of staff. Both fine jobs.

Obama and the Holbrooke Imperative

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Richard Holbrooke triggers incredible passion, some of it negative, among foreign policy professionals. He’s a Democrat, but many don’t understand why he’s not a Republican. Dems, some argue, are supposed to be about achieving moral goods in the world along purist pathways of good behavior and enlightened intentions.

TERRORISM SALON: Yosri Fouda on Atta’s Embodiment of the Arab/Muslim Street

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(Yosri Fouda is the Chief Investigative Correspondent and Former London Bureau Chief for Al-Jazeera). This is also true. But there is a difference between ‘select’ and ‘invent’. Atta, who in my opinion epitomizes the heart of a very frustrated Arab/Muslim street, was already there for the taking.