The New Republic

It's obviously significant that Karzai has not only agreed to a run-off, but has acquiesced to holding that run-off on November 7, rather than pushing it back until after the Afghan winter, as some thought he might try to do. And it does give the Obama administration some more room to operate. But how much? READ MORE >>

Is There Really a Middle Way? The Problem with Half-Measures in Afghanistan, by Stephen Biddle The Return of TNR's Truman Scale: Grading the Important HELP Bill by Jonathan Cohn READ MORE >>

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In a piece largely about next month's congressional election in New York's 23rd district, The Wall Street Journal's Naftali Bendavid echoes and enlarges upon some of the points I made in a blog post about the electoral dangers the tea-party movement could present for the GOP: READ MORE >>

In our last issue, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig made the provocative case outlining the perils of what he called the “naked transparency movement,” which seeks to make massive amounts of data about the government readily available for public consumption. In a TNR debate last week, six writers weighed in on his essay. Check them out: READ MORE >>

Ben Smith flags an N&O squib about some kind words Richard Burr and Erskine Bowles had for one another at a recent event in Durham, North Carolina. Burr, of course, defeated Bowles in the race to succeed John Edwards back in 2004: READ MORE >>

David Frum, trying harder than usual to alienate himself from the derangement of his party, suggests a thought experiment to determine which conservative "entertainers" actually believe the lunacy they peddle: READ MORE >>

Even as Neil Patrick Harris's star continues to ascend--and polls capture the ongoing sea-change in public acceptance of homosexuality--putatively pro-gay Hollywood continues to maintain the celluloid closet. In a fascinating piece on the subject, LA Weekly reports: READ MORE >>

One further thought on the weekend revelation--thoroughly hashed out here by Gabe--that WaPo editor Marcus Brauchli did in fact know that the paper's marketing department was promoting its salons as off-the-record affairs. READ MORE >>

How the Taliban and Al Qaeda Are Merging--And Why We Should Be Very Worried, by Peter Bergen Can R. Crumb Do Justice to the First Book of the Bible? by Robert Alter READ MORE >>