Generals don’t seem to be able to speak their minds when in uniform. Well, with the exception of Eric Shinseki — and very possibly David Petraeus who seems to be driving his own machinery on Iraq spin.
I really did mean every word in my tribute earlier today to former Vice President Al Gore. Emails from campaigns, Senate and House press operations, the White House, NGOs, and even some in corporate America have been streaming into my email box congratulating him. I can’t imagine what Gore’s own email inbox looks like.
Silvia Wilheim of La Noche Se Mueve, 1210 AM in Miami, scored an interesting radio interview with former State Department Chief of Staff and Pamela Harriman Visiting Scholar at the College of William & Mary Lawrence B. Wilkerson.
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.
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.
