Out with General McKiernan, In with Lt. Gen.
McChrystal

post from MyDD on 11 May 2009 10:29:52 PM. © MyDD

What to make of this Afghan puzzle we have before us. Last week according to the Navy Times,the Air Force reported that in April of 2009 the US Air Force, Navy and other coalition warplanes dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan. During 2,110[...]

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Rush Limbaugh repays the favor, salutes Dick
Cheney

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2009 10:20:06 PM. © Daily Kos

How sweet, two chickenhawks in love. On Sunday, Dick Cheney says he'd choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell, and on Monday, Rush sends Dick a big wet kiss.

Also on Daily Kos TV

Via Media Matters. Diaried by The Erratic Synapse.

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Graham Corroborates Pelosi: Bush, CIA Did Not
Give Required Torture Briefing

post from Firedoglake on 11 May 2009 10:15:39 PM. © Firedoglake

Bob Graham appears to go even further than Pelosi denying he was briefed on torture. There may be reasons for that. But the big point remains: the Bush Administration and the CIA did not fulfill legal obligations to brief Congress on torture.[...]

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/11/graham-corroborates-pelosi/

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Indie Retailer of the Day: Cameo Mix Bag

post from Moue Magazine on 11 May 2009 10:09:56 PM. © Moue Magazine

The cameo tea cups from Plasticland inspired me to do this Cameo Mix Bag. There's something very versatile about the style of cameos that can meld with Victorian, steampunk, punk or modern sensibilities.[...]

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Evening update

post from DemConWatch on 11 May 2009 10:04:22 PM. © DemConWatch

Sen-Elect Al Franken filed his brief with the Minnesota Supreme Court, basically saying Coleman's arguments are worthless, and also, asking the court to "direct" Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and Sec/State Mark Ritchie (D) "to issue Al Franken a certificate of election" once the case has made its way through the state courts.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a Web-only video attacking Sen. David Vitter's (R-LA) continued opposition to Craig Fugate, President Obama's nominee to serve as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

video details and more

RNC Chairman Michael Steele insults both the GOP base and Mitt Romney.

First Read has a shortlist: Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Merrick Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. But is it THE shortlist?

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http://www.Demconwatchblog.com/diary/1523/evening-update

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Obama's Secret Plot To Destroy Capitalism
Revealed By Pete Sessions

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2009 09:50:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Apparently realizing that the "socialist" label wasn't going to get any traction, Pete Sessions (R-TX) has a new line of attack on President Obama's economic policies:

In an interview published this morning in The New York Times, Sessions pointed to rising unemployment and said that the Obama administration was deliberately trying to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices."

Sessions told the paper that this was part of an agenda on Obama’s part that is "intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it."

And an NRCC spokesman backs him up:

The Chairman was simply reiterating what many members of the Democratic Party have echoed over the past several weeks, which is that one-party dominance in Washington has further damaged our economy and undercut our country’s free enterprise system.

Naturally, the response didn't offer any examples of what Sessions' was "reiterating."

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Steele: ‘Hell no’ Coleman won’t
go.

post from Think Progress on 11 May 2009 09:50:00 PM. © Think Progress

In an interview with Hotline On Call following Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele was emphatic that Norm Coleman should not concede his electoral loss to Al Franken, saying the case will “get bumped” to the federal courts:

Asked if Coleman should concede if entertainer Al Franken (D) is deemed the winner, Steele said, “No, hell no. Whatever the outcome, it’s going to get bumped to the next level. This does not end until there’s a final ruling that speaks to whether or not those votes that have not been counted should be counted. And Norm Coleman will not, will not jump out of this race before that.”

Steele is echoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman, who said the GOP is prepared to fight “World War III” to prevent Franken from being seated. This despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of Minnesotans think Coleman should concede and end his court battles for the seat.

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Buy Bonds! Chinese Rock Meets Economic Hard Place

Paul Krugman recently told an audience in Beijing that the US risks having a "lost decade" of Japanese-style economic stagnation because of the Obama Administration's "half-measures", most notably a stimulus that was too small and will, in his opinion,[...]

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Roxana Saberi freed from Iranian jail

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? A lawyer for a U.S. journalist jailed in Iran says she has been freed from prison after an appeals court suspended her eight-year jail sentence. Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-American citizen, was convicted last month of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to eight years in prison. An appeals court reduced her jail term on Monday to a two-year suspended sentence.

Nicole: It remains to be seen what is motivating the Iranian government to release Saberi. Trita Parsi has been covering Saberi's case at Huffington Post and reports that Saberi's arrest and sentencing have always been politically motivated:

According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), the Iranian authorities didn't even disclose the laws she allegedly violated, nor did they announce under what article of the law she was indicted.
Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist who has been living in Iran since 2003, was first arrested in January. She was accused of buying wine. The allegation was later changed to engaging in illegal activities by continuing to report after her press credentials were revoked in 2006. Then, during her closed-door trail on April 13, 2009, the authorities changed the charge once again. Now she was accused of spying for the US government.[..]
Most analysts agree that she has become a pawn in the political games between the US and Iran, though the explanations for Tehran's actions differ.
One theory reads that both Saberi and Esha Momeni, another Iranian American who was arrested in 2008, will be used as leverage with the US in a future negotiation, possibly to exchange for two Iranian nationals taken by US forces in a 2007 raid of the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraq. Tehran maintains that the two Iranians are diplomats. The Bush administration said that they were Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps agents. (US forces arrested five Iranians - three of them have been released, but two of them remain in US custody.) Some have speculated that the case is an effort by hardliners in the Iranian Judiciary who seek to undermine US-Iran negotiations. This would fit an old pattern in which Iranian hardliners often used their influence in the Judiciary or the Intelligence ministry to create roadblocks for any US-Iran diplomacy.

Interestingly, WaPo subscribes to the theory that they may be seeking the release of their diplomats. But Joe Klein at Time (of whom foreign policy experts I trust have said has been reading tea leaves of diplomacy well of late) thinks it's an attempt by the really hardcore mullahs to soften up, anticipating their upcoming election and hoping to perhaps keep Ahmadinejad in power.

There is a real chance that the internal Iranian faction that favors rejoining the world will succeed and negotiations will begin.

At this point, there's just no way to know what kind of discussions are/were going on, and it is just wonderful to know that she has been freed, though I am reminded that we still have another journalist/blogger in an Iranian jail, charged with spying, not to mention Americans Laura Ling and Euna Lee detained in North Korea.

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McKiernan Surged Out of Command

From the WSJ ...Mr. Gates's decision to ask for Gen. McKiernan's resignation came after a behind-the-scenes campaign by an influential group of current and former military officers, many of whom played key roles developing and backing the Bush[...]

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