One friend of mine told me that this was the best film he had seen all year.

This morning I received this Department of Defense announcement about a young man, William J. Donnelly IV, killed on active duty on Thanksgiving Day in Helmand Province. Politics and views on this war aside, condolences to his family and friends.

On a more serious front, read Dana Milbank’s logic knock on the heads of a few leading allegedly fiscally conservative Republicans who have been pining for the level of security that Israel applies at its airports.

Since the Republican red tide swept across America on November 2nd, President Obama has been threatened by Republicans who want to roll back key provisions of his health care reform, are threatening to derail the START Treaty, and want to pull the plug on as much Obama-crafted policy as possible.

Had a great time in Hakone, Japan where I took this amazing shot of Mt. Fuji. Years ago, I climbed all night to get the top of this volcano and saw the sun rise. High on the memorable list.

A bit of a historical reminder above, and thanks to Andrew Sullivan for surfacing this. Israeli political leaders too often want to brag that they control the US President — and that what they demand, they get.

— Steve Clemons

This Thanksgiving essay was originally written for the Huffington Post.

In Tokyo for a couple of days, and this was a pretty nice way to get acclimated when I arrived. Beautiful gardens here outside my window. North Korea’s leaders need to spend some time in gardens like these — and cool out a bit.

This is a guest post by Anya Landau French, who directs the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative. This post originally appeared at The Havana Note.