IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 331-10 April 25, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Christopher D. Worrell, 35, of Virginia Beach, Va., died April 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a non-combat related incident. He was assigned [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 330-10 April 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Command Sgt. Maj. John K. Laborde, 53, of Waterloo, Iowa, died April 22 at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He [...]

In my ongoing attempt to resurrect the food of my ancestors in the Pale of Settlement, I’m naturally sympathetic to any effort that gets people to eat a latke. But then there are unforgivable trespasses. Like my dinner last night. Read on. In the wake of the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, acrimony and [...]

Now this is something you don’t often see from American and Russian leaders. Presidents Obama and Medvedev have released a joint statement of international partnership in commemoration of the “Spirit of the Elbe,” when the western and eastern allied offensives in Europe converged. That meeting was typically understood through the Cold War as a tragic [...]

So, quick programming note: on Monday very-early-morning, I head to Guantanamo Bay. Current schedule is to be there through May 6, but it’s possible that I’ll leave early. The slow blogging today is attributable to taking care of some stuff before I leave, including a 1700-word preview story for the pre-trial hearing of Omar Khadr [...]

A fellow hardcore sleeper agent in journalism emailed me this write-up of a panel featuring the collected HC recollections of Dan O’Mahony, Kevin Seconds and Sam McPheeters. This observation brought back all the old memories of being frustrated with Dan O and being frustrated by being frustrated by Dan O: “I found the idea of [...]

Matthew Yglesias, following on an L.A. Times piece reporting there are people in Gaza who are more radical than Hamas, observes: I’ll take that as evidence that more efforts should have been made to engage Hamas’ leadership, rather than the pursuit of this isolation strategy. Leaders of movements tend to find it to be in [...]

“Yeah, I got tired of that blogging, ’cause everybody do it.” Too true. Then he goes into “Louis sweatsuit, Jamaica eating breadfruit/the sun rising/is mesmerizing” and I start to feel better about my life choices.

If Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza is going to do a blogger conference call, you know I’m going to ask him. Basics: More Iraqi. Financed through extortion. Active and passive support from between 1500 and 2000 people. al-Qaeda Senior Leadership maaaaaaybe considers it a lost cause.

Asked about the time he told Pat Leahy to go fuck himself, Cheney mused, “Sort of the best thing I ever did.” Who am I to dispute a septuagenarian’s assessment of a lifetime of public service?