Our political Quote of the Day comes from The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes who answers the question: how badly has soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hurt her 2012 Presidential chances by her abrupt announcement that she’ll resign? Given that this is coming from Barnes, this is bad: Forget about Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and probably ever. She may have no...

by Walter Brasch Sarah Palin said she had a “higher calling” that required her to resign 17 months before her term ended as governor of Alaska, and not to seek a second term. I have no idea where this “higher calling” came from, but I suspect it could only have come from two sources. The first one is God. I don’t know what God said to Sarah Palin, but I suspect it might have been...

Will President Obama’s first summit meeting with Dmitry Medvedev actually manage to ‘reset’ relations between the former Cold War foes? Columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta newspaper warns not to expect more than atmospherics from the two-day summit that begins today, and outlines why when it comes to the mistakes of the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin...

Britain’s top judge has expressed concern about the use of pilot-less drones as weapons of war. His comments come at a time when there is a growing international concern about the danger these pose to the civilians. Drones have become an important weapon against the Taliban in the remote mountainous borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports The Independent. “Last month the US admitted to...

Continuing my series of interviews with people “who wrote the book,” I bring you my interview with BBC Reporter David Loyn, who has written the definitive book on the subject of Afghanistan and the history of foreign-power involvement there over the last 200 years. The interview follows in full after the jump, and is cross-posted on my blog, “the talking dog.” David Loyn has been...

The “authentic representatives of the people” of Honduras (h/t The Confluence) used tear gas and bullets against thousands of their constituents today at the airport at Tegucigalpa. The crowds were supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya; they were at the airport to greet Zelaya, who tried to return to his country in spite of threats from the coup government to arrest him if he stepped foot...

Excitement over President Obama’s impending visit to Africa - particularly in Ghana - is reaching a fever pitch. According to columnist Christian Agubretu of Ghana’s My Joy newspaper, one reason for hope is that the president has requested a tour of Ghana’s infamous Cape Coast Castle, a major embarkation point for Africans who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. For My Joy, Christian Agubretuwrites...

After I updated my previous post on Honduras exiled president Manuel Zelaya’s attempted return to Honduras with the news that he has landed in El Salvador, Fausta’s Blog has reported that shots have been fired at the Tegucigalpa airport and that Noticias 24 confirms “at least two dead, according to a police source talking to AFP, in a clash between demonstrators and the armed forces at the...

As Honduras’ exiled president Manuel Zelaya is reportedly flying from Washington’s Dulles Airport to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, reports and rumors are flying wildly as to what Zelaya may expect when and if his aircraft attempts to land there. Headlines such as “Honduran military told to turn back Zelaya’s jet,” and “Zelaya nears Honduras, asks soldiers for loyalty.” And...

It doesn’t matter how much you study American politics, it still manages to spring a surprise on you when you least expect it. Anyway you try and analyze Sarah Palin’s decision to stand down as Governor of Alaska during her FIRST TERM, it still boggles the mind. I have been reserving judgment about Sarah Palin ever since her debut onto the national American stage in 2008, but I have made up my mind. This...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from this acid column on soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd: Why not? Palin/Sanford in 2012, with the slogan: “Save time — we’re already in Crazy Town.” On Palin’s surprise resignation announcement Dowd writes: What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued:...

Did anyone really think soon-to-be resigned and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin intended to go quietly into the political night? She never said that — and now some new legal news related event attests to that. First, the FBI quickly shot down reports suggesting that Palin is being investigated on corruption charges. Meanwhile, Palin’s lawyer issued a stern warning to the news media that Palin...

But I’ll recommend one thing - before digging in to the avalanche of commentary, read all of Palin’s own explanation of why she’s stepping down. Cross-posted at Conventional Folly

(Part one is here.) Michael Goldfarb has an interesting suggestion: Why not allow gay servicemembers to serve openly in roles that wouldn’t threaten unit cohesion? After all, women are allowed to serve in some roles but not in others. Why not extend that logic to gays and lesbians? Michael writes: It’s madness for the service to discharge gay translators and the like. But the military leadership...

Courtesy of The Weekly Standard: The MSM has one standard for covering captured American journalists and another for captured American soliders. The New York Times has one standard for covering the current president’s town-hall meetings and another standard for his predecessor’s “town hall” meetings. But what you really wanted to know is that Gwyneth Paltrow has one standard for loving...

In my “Gail Collins Interprets Palin’s Resignation Speech,” we discussed how “disjointed and garbled” Palin’s prepared text remarks are, and, referring to her resignation speech, how incoherent even her prepared remarks are. Well, Politico.com has just published the text of a message Palin posted on Facebook just a few hours ago that is just as incoherent. According to Politico,...

I’m beyond expecting any kind of self-awareness from major news organizations like the New York Times, but that does not mean I cannot still marvel that reporters can write, and newpaper editors can publish, descriptions like this, in an article about confessions obtained by the Iranian government in connection with the recent post-election street demonstrations (emphasis is mine):

There have been hundreds, probably thousands, of instant analyses—including some great psychoanalyses—of Sarah Palin’s Independence-Day-Weekend Drama. As I don’t understand half the time what Palin is talking about (I know, it’s my fault), I won’t even attempt to analyze her introductory remarks of : “Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, the people I...

I think Sarah Palin quit her job as governor because she knew this would happen. Keep in mind that she made her announcement on a Friday, mid-afternoon, at the start of a holiday weekend. There is no such thing as the news dump in PalinWorld.

Conservative talker Mark Levin was breaking the news yesterday about Sarah Palin’s resignation as Governor of Alaska to his listeners, many of whom would likely be among her staunchest fans. He talked about the slew of failed ethics violations charges brought against her by opponents in Alaska and said she was under constant fire because the liberal media and the Democrats feared her. Journalists, Democrats,...