Federal judge in California declares ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ unconstitutional.
Trendline for President Obama’s approval rating over the last 12 months:
Pentagon planning to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of an Afghan war memoir by a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer because it supposedly contains classified information: Read More
Eli Lake, on the remarkable continuity between Bush and Obama on counterterrorism, wartime exigencies, and the breadth of executive power.
Pastor Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh were high school classmates: Central High School Class of 1969, Cape Girardeau, MO.
Justin Elliott reports on how much play the Koran-burning story has been getting in the Muslim world for weeks, before it became the dominant news story in the States. This is an important point, and it makes the hand-wringing over the U.S. cable nets’ saturation coverage seem a bit quaint.
The only caveat I would offer is that I’m not sure the Koran burning has been as damaging to U.S. interests in the Muslim world as the American backlash against the Park51 project (nee “Ground Zero Mosque”). I was visiting with an Arab journalist at a dinner this week, and she told me that Arab elites understand that, as she put it, “You can do anything in America.” So the Koran-burning stunt is seen for what it is. But the reaction to Park51, especially considering how much of it was driven by conservative elites in the U.S., has been far more troubling to Arab observers abroad. That’s anecdotal, but it rings true to me.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) tweets: “No tv today. I’m so sick and tired of looking at the nut job in Florida.”
E.J. Dionne asks: Should Obama agree to face to face debate with John Boehner.
No Charts, no spray on tans, no teleprompters. Mano a mano.
Across the country you’ve had various insurgent Republicans who’ve pissed off their state party establishments, come out with various positions that would normally make them unelectable and gotten caught in various embarrassments. But in most cases, the institutional GOP has stuck with them. And in many cases they’re still competitive or even beating the Democratic incumbent. But there’s one case that breaks the mold: The Republican candidate for Governor in Colorado: Dan Maes.