The New Republic

If you want to make sense of the latest confusing news out of North Korea--in this case, Pyongyang's claim to have mastered the difficult process of uranium enrichment, giving them a complement to their plutonium program as a means to developing nuclear weapons--then you should read the story I wrote recently about this prospect and how it could complicate the Obama team's dealings with the Hermit Kingdom. READ MORE >>

My new print story this week looks in part at the tensions between the Obama administration and the military over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan this fall. Central to that debate, of course, is Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who in the past has fretted that the American military footprint could reach a counterproductive size if it alienates the local population with its sheer intrusiveness. Yesterday, Gates hedged that point, saying he might accept a larger force size so long as the U.S. READ MORE >>

Harry Reid's polling numbers continue to sink, with the latest survey from the Daily Kos/Research 2000 finding that 52 percent of Nevadans view him unfavorably. He's also trailing two of his GOP contenders. What will that mean for the Senate majority leader? Eve Fairbanks wrote a piece last December arguing that despite Reid's disapproval rating, his seat may be a hard win for Republicans: READ MORE >>

Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow: No, We Can’t All Get Along on Health Care, by Jonathan Cohn From Afghanistan to Guantanamo--How the U.S. Betrayed the Uighurs, by Nathan Thrall READ MORE >>

With the Afghan elections over, accusations of voter fraud are being made by President Hamid Karzai's top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. The alleged abuses range from reporting higher turnout, to ballot stuffing, to sympathetic generals using their own houses as polling stations. Of course, such shenanigans are hardly new in the history of voting. READ MORE >>

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The WaPo has a piece today about some jerkwad local DJ who punk'd the public by having an intern pose as an unfaithful husband and stand for several days on a busy thoroughfare wearing a homemade sandwich board reading, "I cheated. READ MORE >>

Matt Yglesias and Michael Cohen, both of whom have been asking very tough and smart questions about the U.S. READ MORE >>

Money quotes from a Pentagon presser this afternoon with the Defense Secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman: “The notion that you can conduct a purely kind of counterterrorist campaign and do it from a distance simply does not accord with reality,” Mr. Gates said, adding that successful methods required cooperation with local law enforcement, the use of internal security and intelligence. READ MORE >>