Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communication normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.” —“Netanyahu’s paranoia extends to ‘self-hating Jews’ Emanuel and Axelrod,” Barak Ravid, Haaretz
“The C.I.A. concealed ‘significant actions’ from Congress”;
Iran covers up death count;
Carville retained by Afganistan
Republicans went for theater as well as rhetoric—complete with props. Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri had an aide pile a stack of paper on the table next to him as he spoke, representing the drafts, amendments, and reports that went into the final House bill, until they towered over his head. And then, the finale: a blown-up diagram of Waxman-Markey, borrowed from House Minority Leader John Boehner’s assault on the legislation, in lurid blue and yellow. “What needles are the majority trying to hide in the haystack?” Bond asked. “What backroom deals were made to buy support?” —“Hot Air Rising: The Senate opens its debate over climate change,” Lydia DePillis, Slate
Whatever else is true, even talking about imprisoning people based on accusations of which they have been exonerated is a truly grotesque perversion of everything that our justice system and Constitution are supposed to guarantee. That’s one of those propositions that ought to be too self-evident to need stating. —“The Obama Justice System,” Glenn Greenwald, Salon