The chilly reception that Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly received at this weekend’s G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, could have been predicted a month ago, when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced his plan to “shirtfront” (Australian rules football slang for roughing an opponent up) Putin regarding July’s downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near … Continue reading G-20 leaders have hissy fit while Ukraine keeps burning

He's keenly discerned that the way to help people succeed is to unfetter them from the access to health care that has been stifling their chances for economic success: "Beyond that, I just ask the basic question: Why is more people on Medicaid a good thing?"he said. "I'd rather find a way, particularly for able-bodied … Continue reading Scott Walker’s American Nightmare

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Aaron David Miller speculates that a President Hillary Clinton would be better for the U.S.-Israel relationship than Obama has been. On this I completely agree with him, though I suspect we'd disagree about whether that relationship is working to the benefit of either party at this point. Miller cites Clinton's experience … Continue reading What does “being good on Israel” mean?

Via Jim White at emptywheel, the exciting new national unity government in Afghanistan has already broken down over picking a cabinet: The 45-day period President Ashraf Ghani hoped it would take to form the new cabinet ended on Thursday without an announcement of appointments. The spokesman for Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah said that while … Continue reading The most predictable government shutdown ever

Both Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi at Syria Comment and Scott Lucas at EA WorldView are calling bullshit on this supposed alliance between Nusra and ISIS, for reasons I suggested yesterday. The upshot is that it's pretty clear the stories of an alliance are being fed to the media from people within the "moderate" Syrian Revolutionary Front, … Continue reading About that grand ISIS-Nusra alliance

ISIS still has Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but they apparently don't have the Iraqi city of Baiji anymore: Iraqi officials say their forces have driven out Islamic State (IS) fighters from the oil refinery town of Baiji, 200km (130 miles) north of Baghdad. Gen Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi told Iraqi state TV that the town "had been completely … Continue reading The hits just keep on coming

I'm co-opting Charles Pierce's "Thing in Politico That Make Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze" genre, but I think it's worth the theft. Politico ran a piece yesterday by Akbar Ahmed, the Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, called "What Washington Doesn't Get About ISIS," that would have been better titled "What Akbar Ahmed Couldn't … Continue reading Prestone on the rocks

While they were creating a brand new window dressing leadership position for Elizabeth Warren yesterday, Senate Democrats named Jon Tester of Montana as the new chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where among other things he'll be responsible for recruiting candidates to run for the Senate in 2016. In contrast to Warren, Tester's record … Continue reading Here’s how you know which way Senate Democrats are shifting

Shouldn't there be an "and" or a "but" here somewhere? The Obama administration moved forcefully Thursday to distance itself from Bush administration policies, telling a United Nations panel that the ban on torture enshrined in a 1984 treaty that the U.S. signed applies worldwide and covers all people and places, including detention facilities abroad. “The … Continue reading What am I missing?

Elizabeth Warren has been appointed to the newly-created position of "here's something for you liberals now can you please just be happy with this and ignore our inevitable lurch to the right?" It's only because I have some faith in Warren that I think this job could actually come to mean something, but as a … Continue reading Throwing a bone