This post has been pulled up by MvdG: please take the time to read Marc’s post and comment on it. (more…)

If you had walked into last night’s GOP YouTube Debate without any preconceived notions or exposure to the campaign so far, you might well have thought that Mike Huckabee was the clear GOP frontrunner. He tuned down some of his harder Christianist positions and played the inclusive card while confidentially displaying the executive style he developed as Arkansas governor.| MORE ›

Using data acquired from the International House of Pancakes, scientists have documented that Kansas is not, in fact, as flat as a pancake. It is, in fact, a great deal flatter. (more…)

While of minor importance to most Turks in comparison to their national football team’s efficient victory over a weak Bosnia-Herzegovina side and the team’s resulting accession to the Euro 2008 tournament, this past week also featured the Turkish government culminating an impressive flurry of foreign affairs activity.| MORE ›

The following article appears today in the Dutch daily Friesch Dagblad.

Next week the umpteenth conference for peace in the Middle East will take place, this time in Annapolis. By coincidence this week Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jeruzalem – 30 years ago, the first official visit to Israel by an Arab leader – was commemorated.| MORE ›

As the facts on the ground in Iraq change, the words of MSM’s pundits follow suit:

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius

The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman

For more on what’s happening on the ground, see this article in The Times of London.

As the situation in Iraq gets better, media coverage gets worse. Says the Pew Research Center:

News coverage of Iraq, like public interest in the situation there, is now significantly less than it was at the start of the year. In January, roughly a quarter of the overall newshole (26%) in newspapers, TV newscasts, websites and radio was devoted to news about Iraq.| MORE ›

New York Times editorial, November 17:

It has been two long months since Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, cowed Congressional Democrats into silence, championing President Bush’s misguided course on the war.

New York Times article, November 20:

The security improvements in most neighborhoods [in Baghdad] are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February.| MORE ›

Further to the Gazette’s earlier posting on John McCain, I think everyone who would value a return to integrity, honesty and decency in a GOP candidate should re-evaluate the obviousness of the Arizona Senator as the nominee. Andrew Sullivan makes the case, convincingly.

The following makes me wonder whether some kind of quid pro quo has been reached between the U.S. and Iran. If so, is it in any way related to the U.S. position on the Iranian nuclear program and is it a signal that Washington and Tehran may soon be (or already are) negotiating?

From the New York Times:| MORE ›