Wikileaked: cables reveal Iran plotting, diplo spying
UPDATE: Ooops. Turns out the New York Times got their scoop … from the Guardian …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directing U.S. envoys to spy on allied diplomats … wheeling and dealing over Gitmo detainees, and Gulf states pushing for a military strike on Iran. Those are just some of the embarrassing revelations in the latest Wikileaks dump. Now, a U.S. Congressman wants Wikileaks to be designated a terrorist outfit. Read more
Did Michael Bloomberg really say Congress is full of illiterate hicks?
Will the flotilla attack (further) diminish U.S. influence in the world?
With literally the entire world reacting with outrage over Israel’s deadly military attack on a peaceful convoy bringing desperately needed aid to Gaza, and even the feeble U.N. managing to wring out a painstaking statement condemning unnamed “acts” that led to the deaths of civilians, and calling for the release of prisoners and an impartial investigation into the attack, which took place in international waters, against civilians, doesn’t the U.S. risk draining what influence it still has in the world by seeming to be the only ones to believe Israel’s ludicrous defense that 30 peace activists armed with piping and slingshots put its trained military commandos in mortal peril, or even worse, this morning’s ridiculous paintball defense? After all, why should anyone listen to a United States that cannot be bothered with the deaths of innocent civilians, including citizens of an allied country (Turkey) and the detention of its own citizens following a legally dubious, violent raid at sea? Read more
Morning clicks: Tavis=hater? Iran nuke sci defects, Baduism, and drill baby, drill?
Tavis Smiley is known in the Black community as a longtime Obama hater. Well, he doesn’t hate the guy, but I was in the room during the campaign when he gave one of his “how much do you love Black people, Obama?” speeches, and never have I seen such hostility from a man who claims NOT to hate someone. So when Politico did one of it’s “Answer this” segments with Tavis (who recently sparred with the Rev. Al Sharpton over Obama and lost … badly …) why did this answer strike me as fresh Obama hate?
Think of one of your least favorite people in Washington and, without naming them, describe what makes that person so unappealing.
I admire the person greatly but wonder about their courage, conviction and commitment to the causes they say they truly believe in.
Hm …
Meanwhile, on the pop culture front, have you seen the new Erykah Badu video for “Window Seat”? It’s definitely the buzz (along with this very nice cover version by a rising Youtube star) … but could Badu get slapped with indecency charges for getting naked in Deeley Plaza? Signs point to no. Meanwhile, get a bit of back-story (no pun intended) on the video here.
Will she stay or will she go? KayBay Hutchison announces her plans today, after taking a beating from the Confederate. UPDATE: she’ll stay.
In nat security news, the U.S. has scored a serious intelligence coup with the defection of a young Iranian nuclear scientist. Apparently, the new intel out of the get is that Iran is “keeping its nuclear weapons options open,” though they may not be pursuing them right now.
Staying with security, the president apparently is undecided on how to try KSM.
Back home, why is President Obama expanding offshore drilling? Weird use of his newly won political capital … but a possible way to confuse Newt Gingrich …
More healthcare reform lawsuits could be on the way, this time over the exchanges. It seems Republicans have found their new political strategy: get to the right wing Supreme Court!
How much longer can Michael Steele hang on, especially with no friends on the Hill?
You’re welcome, Connecticut
Not content to have pushed for preemptive military action in Iraq, Iran and Syria, now, your “Independent” Senator would like the U.S. to “act” in Yemen.
“Somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war,” Lieberman said, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday”. “That’s the danger we face.” Read more
Remainders: Sarah Palin: like Reagan, only dumber, Rudy won’t be ‘America’s governor,’ and more
Missed this one yesterday in the blizzard of co-dependent, obsessive media coverage of Sarah Palin: she now says “death panels” aren’t really “panels of death,” just like the Soviet Union wasn’t really an evil empire … see how that works?
Marco Rubio (otherwise known as the “Florida Sarah Palin”) has some thoughts on Reagan, too, only his weren’t so flattering to the Gipper when it comes to immigration. Andrew Sullivan, however, agrees with a point Rubio surely would have run, screaming, from the room, had he known he was making it: much of Reagan’s legacy must be repudiated in order to get to today’s GOP.
Meanwhile, as a new DKos poll shows him ahead of Rubio by a mere 10 points, Charlie Crist will next try to get right with the jihadis by announcing that he now believes the earth is 6,000 years old, and man lived side-by-side with the dinosaurs. Okay, I made that last part up, but the poll is real. (Apparently, it contains no good news for Kendrick Meek, however, who barely registers unless it’s a three-way race.) Well, if Charlie needs some advice, here’s some from a veteran political reporter at the St. Pete Times.
Over to Newsweek, where Michael Isikoff reports that Judge Jay Bybee, author of the infamous “torture memo,” is lawyering up, in anticipation of a possible impeachment. An interesting tidbit in the piece: Isikoff reports that when the initial draft report from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility emerged during the waning days of the Bush administration, then-Attorney General Mukasey not only killed it, he ordered it to be sent to the targets, including Bybee and John Yoo. Talk about not knowing which team you’re supposed to be playing for, Mr. then-”attorney for the people of the United States …”
Also at Newsweek: have we seen the last of the Ayatollahs of Iran? If so, it will apparently be the fault of the current one, Mr. Khameini.
Over to ABC News, which reports that finally, Rudy Giuliani has figured out that New Yorkers can’t stand him, and wouldn’t want him as their governor… or something like that. Bottom line: he would have had the floor mopped with his balding head by Andrew Cuomo, so he’s eyeing a race against the less flashy Kirsten Gillibrand instead. Good luck with that, ya jerk.
Now that’s interesting … Ahmadine… Jewish?
With a healthy hat tip to Americablog and attributed to London’s Daily Telegarph: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a self-hating Jew! No, seriously…
A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.
A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.
The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth. Read more
Iran caught red handed on nuke development
The president, along with the leaders of France and the UK, called out Tehran today, after revealing what each have known for weeks: that Iran is cheating on its nuclear commitments by hiding a concealed nuke facility. The news further pushes Russia in America’s direction on sanctions, and has put the Ayatollahs on the defensive, big time. Read President Obama’s statement from earlier today here.
Mahmoud and Dick, together at last
Apparently, the government of Iran is waterboarding detainees. From the Huffpo’s Jason Linkins comes the sad irony:
[h/t; The Daily Dish] From ABC News’ Lara Setrakian, comes this tweet:
Tehrani source close to those detained says some have been beaten heavily and waterboarded with hot water #iranelection
In my younger years, I would simply expect this news to be greeted with universal outrage, knowing that the techniques being described had long been deemed to be well across the Bridge Too Far. Now that I’ve lived through the Bush administration, however, I am forced to contemplate the possibility that Iran is merely taking legitimate steps to obtain critical information in their nations’ vital national security interests. One mustn’t preclude the possibility that many of those being waterboarded are privy to information about “time bombs” that may, at this moment, be “ticking.” …
Thanks, Dick.
Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan tries for balance (I’ll leave it to you to decide if he succeeds.)
More on Ayatollah Khameini’s application of The Cheney Method here.
Meanwhile, in another corner of neocon crazyland…
John Bolton sees the Iran uprising as a chance to “explain” to our little brown friends how wonderful an Israeli airstrike would be! It wouldn’t be the first time … this month even … that Bombs Away Bolton has tried to turn the Green Revolution into a turkey shoot. I think the appropriate response is laughter… or an intervention at the Washington Post.
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WTF Has Barack Obama Done So Far?
