Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The GOP and the Bush Legacy: Part Two. By Walter Russell Mead.

The GOP and the Bush Legacy: Part Two. By Walter Russell Mead. Via Meadia, April 16, 2013.

Walter Russell Mead’s Shallow and Misleading Attack on the Bush Legacy. By Peter Wehner. Commentary, April 16, 2013.

Walter Russell Mead and the Bush Legacy. By Will Inboden. Foreign Policy, April 15, 2013.

The Outsized Role of Britain in the Modern World. By Michael J. Lotus.

The Outsized Role of Britain in the Modern World. By Michael J. Lotus (Lexington Green). America 3.0, March 13, 2013. Also at Chicago Boyz.

Walter Russell Mead: Channeling America 3.0??? By Michael J. Lotus.

Walter Russell Mead: Channeling America 3.0??? By Michael J. Lotus (Lexington Green). Chicago Boyz, February 23, 2013. Also at America 3.0.

America 3.0 website.

The Age of Hamilton. By Walter Russell Mead.

The Age of Hamilton. By Walter Russell Mead. Via Meadia, December 6, 2011.

Game of Thrones’s Problem With Quests. By Ross Douthat et al.

Game of Thrones’s Problem With Quests. By Ross Douthat, Spencer Kornhaber, and Christopher Orr. The Atlantic, April 14, 2013.

More on Game of Thrones here and here.

Game of Thrones S3E03: Jamie and Brienne Held Captive and Head Toward Harrenhall. Video. GameOfThrones2013, April 17, 2013. YouTube.




Game of Thrones S3E03: Jamie Loses His Hand. Video. Vengrence, April 15, 2013. YouTube.



Game of Thrones S3E03: Jamie and Brienne. Video. danceonceilings77, April 15, 2013. YouTube.


The Enemy-Industrial Complex. By Tom Engelhardt.

The Enemy-Industrial Complex. By Tom Engelhardt. TomDispatch, April 14, 2013. Also at The Nation.

Iraq Ten Years Later: A Different Country in a Different Region. By Marina Ottaway.

Iraq Ten Years Later: A Different Country in a Different Region. By Marina Ottaway. Wilson Center, Spring 2013. PDF.

Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition. By Emily Esfahani Smith.

Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition. By Emily Esfahani Smith. The Atlantic, April 16, 2013.

Al Jazeera America – The Newsroom We’ve Been Waiting For. By Nida Khan.

Al Jazeera America – The Newsroom We’ve Been Waiting For. By Nida Khan. The Huffington Post, January 23, 2013.

Fayyad’s Exit Signals Oslo’s Bankruptcy. By Jonathan S. Tobin.

Fayyad’s Exit Signals Oslo’s Bankruptcy. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, April 14, 2013. Also at New York Post.

Tobin:

The resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is a pivotal moment in the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. His exit lays bare the collapse of what The New York Times called “Fayyadism” — the hope that Palestinian nationalism would be refocused on development and coexistence rather than violence. Without the fig leaf of responsibility that Fayyad provided, the idea that the PA is anything but a corrupt regime fatally compromised by connections with terror rings false.

Fayyad’s inability to either generate much public support among the people of the West Bank or to use his credentials as a respected international figure to outmaneuver PA President Mahmoud Abbas is a tragedy for the Palestinian people. His failure dooms them to a choice between the venal and incompetent cadres of Fatah or the bloody Islamist tyranny of Hamas.

Fayyad has always had the strong support of both the United States and of Israel, which despite its suspicions about the PA has seen him as an essential interlocutor and partner. His problem is that Abbas’ Fatah Party viewed him as an obstacle to both its drive for political hegemony in the West Bank as well as to the continuation of its crooked patronage schemes that diverted foreign-aid money into its leaders’ pockets.

Without a Fayyad (or someone like him), there is no pretense that what the peace processers seek to create in the West Bank is a state living in peace with Israel or its other Arab neighbors, rather than a kleptocracy run by terrorists. That is not only bad news for the Palestinian people, but also a guarantee that the terms of any peace deal signed with them will not be observed.

This conundrum goes to the heart of the original motivations behind the Oslo process that created the PA in 1993.

Shimon Peres conceived the Oslo process as a path to a “New Middle East” in which Israel and a Palestinian state led by Fayyads would create a Benelux-like enclave in the Middle East. The late Yitzhak Rabin, though, thought handing the territories over to Yasser Arafat would work because the old terrorist would be willing to settle for statehood in only part of the country and would then be free to quash Hamas and any other terrorists without the interference of a Supreme Court or gadfly groups that inhibited Israeli counterterror measures.

As it turns out, both were wrong. Peres’ hopes about what the PA would become were delusional. But the hard-boiled Rabin was just as wrong to think a Palestinian state led by corrupt terrorists isn’t antithetical to the entire concept of two states for two peoples living alongside each other in peace. This has already been amply demonstrated, first by Arafat’s use of terrorism and then by what has happened in Gaza where an independent Palestinian state in all but name already exists.

Fayyad’s tragedy was not just that both Fatah and Hamas wanted to be rid of him, but that he had virtually no support among ordinary Palestinians. So long as shedding Jewish blood is the main factor that gives a Palestinian political party credibility, men like Fayyad will have no chance no matter how much they are applauded by Americans or Israelis.

The collapse of his effort to change Palestinian politics is therefore a key moment that should signal to the world that it must dispense with the theories of both Peres and Rabin and cease ignoring reality in favor of illusions.

Boston: The Spirit of 1775 and the Spirit of 2013.

Boston: The Spirit of 1775.

The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. John Trumbull, 1786.

Boston: The Spirit of 2013.

Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon after the twin blasts. Charles Krupa / AP, April 15, 2013.


Sydney Corcoran, 18, is tended to at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, John Tlumacki).


Boston Marathon Bombing Kills Three, Injures Over 140. By Jimmy Golen. Real Clear Politics, April 15, 2013.

Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 140. AP. KTVU, April 15, 2013.

Boston Marathon terror blast kills 3, injures over 144 including 8 kids. By Bev Ford, Sasha Goldstein, Ginger Adams Otis, and Wayne Coffey. New York Daily News, April 15, 2013.

An Explosion at the Boston Marathon. By Nicholas Thompson. The New Yorker, April 15, 2013.

CNN: Ball Bearings Used In Explosive Devices, Multiple Amputations Being Performed, Wounded 132+. By Noah Rothman. Mediaite, April 15, 2013.

Sports writer Mike Lupica: People were “running in terror.” Video. NBC Nightly News, April 15, 2013.


Marathon bombings bear similarities to IED attacks. By Bryan Bender. Boston Globe, April 16, 2013. Also find it here.

Boston attack underscores growing threat of IEDs in America. By Barnini Chakraborty. FoxNews.com, April 16, 2013.

Al Qaeda’s Recipe for Pressure-Cooker Bombs. By Eli Lake. The Daily Beast, April 16, 2013.

Who’s Behind the Boston Bombings? Some Initial Clues. By Jessica Stern. Time, April 16, 2013.

Boston Marathon bombs: al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine taught pressure cooker bomb-making techniques. By Richard Spencer. The Telegraph, April 16, 2013.

A perfect day, then the unimaginable. By Kevin Cullen. Boston Globe, April 16, 2013. Also find it here.

We must confront, defeat acts of evil. By Joe Fitzgerald. Boston Herald, April 16, 2013.

Boston columnist Mike Barnicle: “This was an attack on family.” By Scott Stump. Today, April 16, 2013.

Bombing of Boston Marathon, where three are killed and hundreds injured, latest example of how none of us are truly safe. By Mike Lupica. New York Daily News, April 15, 2013.

Whoever is behind the Boston Marathon bombings brought war to the American homeland and hit us all. By Mike Lupica. New York Daily News, April 16, 2013.

Boston Marathon massacre reveals portraits in courage. By Deborah Hastings. New York Daily News, April 16, 2013.

Photos of the Boston Marathon Bombing. The Atlantic, April 15, 2013. Photos at the Boston Globe.

Martin Richard Dead: Boy, 8, Dies In Explosion At Boston Marathon (VIDEO). The Huffington Post, April 16, 2013.

Krystle Campbell, Second Boston Marathon Bombing Victim, Reportedly Identified. The Huffington Post, April 16, 2013.

Second Boston Marathon victim identified: Krystle Campbell. By Liz Goodwin. Yahoo News, April 16, 2013.

Second Boston bombing victim identified as Krystle Campbell, 29. By Scott Malone and Dan Burns. Reuters. Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2013.

Krystle Campbell of Arlington “was always right there if you needed her.” By Bryan Marquard. Boston Globe, April 16, 2013. Also find it here.

Boston Marathon bombs: parents of victim Krystle Campbell “thought she had survived.” By Jon Swaine and Nick Allen. The Telegraph, April 16, 2013.

Memorial to Krystle Campbell. Hordon Health Facebook, April 16, 2013.

Lu Lingzi, Boston Marathon Bombing Victim, Was “Particularly Smart,” Loved Cooking. By Didi Tang. AP. The Huffington Post, April 17, 2013.

Corcoran family has lives “ripped apart” by tragic bombing of Boston Marathon. Kevin Corcoran’s wife, Celeste, lost both of her legs below the knee. His daughter was badly wounded by shrapnel. By Jennifer Fermino and Daniel Beekman. New York Daily News, April 16, 2013.

Sydney Corcoran survived being mowed down by a car in June 2011, but has now suffered arterial injuries as a result of the bombings that occurred at the Boston Marathon. Her mother, Celeste, lost both of her legs below the knees as a result of the blasts. By Stephen Rex Brown. New York Daily News, April 17, 2013.

Lowell mom, daughter seriously injured in Boston blast. By Christopher Scott. Lowell Sun, April 16, 2013.

Tragedy of woman, 18, in iconic Boston blast image being comforted by man in red t-shirt: Student had her limbs shredded and her mom’s legs were amputated. Daily Mail, April 17, 2013.

Photo of female casualty becomes touchstone in Boston’s trauma. By Christine Mai-Duc. Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2013.

Patriots’ Day Defiled. By E.J. Dionne. Real Clear Politics, April 16, 2013.

Boston and the American Spirit. By David Callaway. USA Today, April 16, 2013.

Boston and a History Borne on the Night Wind of the Past. By John Nichols. The Nation, April 16, 2013.

Boston and Cowardice and America the Blind. By Barry Lando. The Huffington Post, April 16, 2013.

Why Boston Bombings Might Be Scarier Than 9/11. By Ron Fournier. National Journal, April 16, 2013.

Schrödinger’s Bombs. By Walter Russell Mead. Via Meadia, April 16, 2013.

The pursuit of liberty is a marathon. By Dr. Keith Ablow. FoxNews.com, April 16, 2013.

Call it Terror? Of Course. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, April 16, 2013.

Scott Brown Talks To Fox About Boston Bombings: “I’m Mad,” “We Need To Fight Back.” By Andrew Kirell. Mediaite, April 15, 2013.

Response to Boston bombings must be cautious and calculated. By Tony Karon. The National, April 16, 2013.

Boston Reporters Share Chilling Accounts of Marathon Bombing. By Jack Mirkinson. The Huffington Post, April 16, 2013.

CNN Analyst Suggests “Right-Wing Extremists” Could Be Behind Boston Bombing. By Matt Hadro. NewsBusters, April 15, 2013. John Nolte at Breitbart. Noah Rothman at Mediaite.

Matthews Speculates About “Far Right,” Anti-Tax, Anti-Kennedy Terrorism Behind Boston Marathon Attacks. By Andrew Kirell. Mediaite, April 16, 2013.

Wolf Blitzer Did Not Blame Right For Boston Bombing And Doesn’t Have To Apologize To Anyone. By Noah Rothman. Mediaite, April 16, 2013.

Al Sharpton’s Radio Producer Tweets Speculation That “Anti-Gov” Group Behind Boston Marathon Bombings. By Ken Shepherd. NewsBusters, April 15, 2013.

Cenk Uygur: If Bomber Is A “Right-Wing White Guy” He Will Be Excused. Real Clear Politics, April 16, 2013.

Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American. By David Sirota. Salon, April 16, 2013.

The Left Politicizes the Boston Bombing. By Rush Limbaugh. RushLimbaugh.com, April 16, 2013.

Muslim Brotherhood leader points to conspiracy behind Boston bombing. By David Kenner. Foreign Policy, April 16, 2013.

Timeline: From Boston Marathon to Chicago Haymarket riots – bombings in U.S. history. By Craig Newman. Chicago Sun-Times, April 15, 2013.

Latest Updates on Aftermath of Boston Marathon Explosions. The Lede blog. New York Times, April 16, 2013.

Raw Video: Boston Marathon Blast As It Happened. Real Clear Politics, April 15, 2013. YouTube. Find more video here.


Erotic Obsession on Wall Street.

Wall Street analyst David Gray crossed Atlantic to harass former gal pal Daniela Rausnitz. By Nancy Dillon. New York Daily News, December 6, 2011.

Stalked all the way across the Atlantic: Terror of ex-lover at hands of Wall Street banker who chased her to London. By Chris Greenwood and Daniel Bates. Daily Mail, December 6, 2011.


The Problem With the Press, Part 1: Religion. By Carl M. Cannon.

The Problem With the Press, Part 1: Religion. By Carl M. Cannon. Real Clear Politics, April 15, 2013.