I’ve written at length about my opinions of extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, etc., but the idea that people will vigorously defend policies that put a completely innocent man through 6 years of hell still leaves me completely baffled.
Seriously. This is one of those issues for me where there’s absolutely zero common ground because I simply [...]

I’ve been pretty harsh on philosophical neo-conservatism over the last year or so. In fact, it’s safe to say that of all the various (actual) political philosophies that form a significant portion of our governing political coalitions, I have consistently held neo-conservatism in by far the most contempt.
And without a doubt, the basic tenets of [...]

The International Herald Tribune has an opinion piece in it highly critical of the CIA. It makes one wonder if the guys in that agency have a mindset that much different from the automakers in Detroit. All have plenty of money to throw at a problem, but they seem to fail wherever they turn.
First, let’s [...]

This is Lagan from ANP,
We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories, to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit.
Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, but Obama [...]

10:40 a.m. ET to be exact.
We all know the names by now.
Gen. Jim Jones for National Security Adviser. Robert Gates for Defense Secretary. And Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.
CNN has the other names…
Also, two sources close to the transition said Obama will nominate Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as [...]

Nicholas Kristof shares his findings from the troubled country, and it’s not pretty.
In short, Obama better keep his eye on this nuclear power…or else.

After watching this I can’t help but think that, regardless of what this panel says, the incoming administration realizes the unique position Pakistan has on the world stage. After all, they’re really [...]

According to current reports, this could be Barack Obama’s national security/foreign affairs team:
Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano
National Security Advisor: Gen. Jim Jones, a retired 4-star Marine Corps general who actually supported John McCain but is considered pragmatic and very well-qualified.
Director of National Intelligence: [...]

I still can’t believe we justified holding people indefinitely without access to council or hope for trial. And the following case shows just how egregious that practice was since 4 out of the 5 men ordered released weren’t even “enemy combatants.”
From Wash Post:
For the first time, a federal judge ordered the release yesterday of detainees [...]

The Arizona Governor came out early for Obama, and she’s certainly known as a “no bull” type of politician, so this could be a good fit.
Still, taking over the troubled DHS is not an enviable position and she’s definitely got her work cut out for her.
From Politico:
Napolitano brings law-and-order experience from her stint as [...]

And no, it wasn’t a mistake.
From AP:
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as “serious aggression.”
A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the foreign fighter [...]

No sooner did I write this post about the two memes I think will be the Republicans’ bread and butter for the next four years, than I see this editorial from UK’s The Spectator.
Melanie Phillips attempts to make the “America Is Losing Its Superpower Status” argument against Obama…
The impact of the financial crisis on the [...]

The fundamental question is whether American’s preference for divided government will be sufficient to overcome their anger and desire to punish Republicans for the disaster of the Bush administration.

I agree with everything Chris has to say here. If Afghanistan has any hope of recovering, it’ll have to be via standard of living improvements, and nobody can make a living if we destroy their only cash crop. Especially when we could be buying it to produce legal pain killers.

In other news, it sounds like [...]

This is not good news…

Surprisingly enough, Christopher Hitchens thinks Obama has the right plan when it comes to Pakistan…
Sen. Barack Obama has, if anything, been the more militant of the two presidential candidates in stressing the danger here and the need to act without too much sentiment about our so-called Islamabad ally. He began [...]

Andrew Sullivan pens one of the more level headed walks through the post Cold War era and details where we find ourselves now and where we must go…

The end of the Cold War was an opportunity to create a new one. For some, we now realize, the Cold War was not about democratic values versus [...]

Provided in full by MSNBC…

Ultimately I think this speech was a worldwide call to unite in the War on Terrorism, and in that respect I think it could help him.
What did you think?

Do we really think that this many people could be a threat to our national security?
From AFP:
A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
The ACLU said it derived that figure from a Justice Department [...]

In this podcast we discuss (1) the shake up in the McCain Campaign, (2) Obama’s statement on revising his Iraq strategy, (3) Obama and his history with low income housing subsidies for private developers and (4) rumors about McCain’s VP announcement timetable…
[Listen Online] or [Download]
[Subscribe to 2008Central.net's Presidential Election Podcast]
Feel free to email us questions/suggestions [...]

I covered this back on June 27th, and at that time the group had around 550 members. What a difference a week makes, eh?
Not only that, this group is now the biggest on his website now.
TPM points to a story from USA Today about the group…
In recent days, Obama has criticized the Supreme Court [...]

In a Rose Garden news conference today, President Bush said he hopes to be able to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan by the end of this year. While there’s nowhere near a guarantee that Iraq will be stable enough for this kind of redeployment, the move would likely cause some tension amongst Democrats running [...]