First of all, Oakley the Amazing Weimaraner has turned 10 and is in fantastic shape.

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.

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…

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.

I don’t speak Arabic — though I recently ordered the beginner module from Rosetta Stone which still sits in its wrapper on my desk shelf. (I am in the Arab world a lot however and learning more each trip.) Perhaps after the conventions.

Reuters Mitt Romney has just made the same mistake John McCain made in picking a vice presidential candidate that folks will talk more about than they will talk about the top of the ticket.

AP On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs and long-time Hillary Clinton foreign policy advisor Andrew Shapiro will give a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies titled:  “Ushering in a New Era in State-Defense Cooperation.

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 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.

Wall Street Journal economics correspondent David Wessel published a roster of what he calls “digestible morsels” to help Americans better understand what is at play in the federal budget. Among the realities he notes are that “two-thirds of annual federal spending goes out the door without any vote by Congress” and that “the U.S.