Foreign Policy

"Wow . . . I'm absolutely surprised by that answer . . .  Are you sure? . . . Are we talking about the same person?" That was Mika Brzezinski's stunned response after her attempt to recruit retired General and former CIA Director Michael Hayden into her campaign against Ben Carson blew up in her face on today's Morning Joe.  Referring to Carson, Mika asked Hayden "are you concerned that there's…

Veteran MSNBC watchers have surely noticed the Obama-loving network's extreme hostility to black Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. These attacks and the pressure against Carson, compared to other Republicans in the race, has been intense. As a black conservative, Dr. Carson has taken extreme criticism and scrutiny for his words.

Offering analysis of the first Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate on the 8:00 p.m. Eastern edition of CNN’s AC360, CNN political commentator and Jeb Bush supporter Ana Navarro lamented that Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and his “passionate voice” was excluded from the undercard event.  

Morning Joe Tuesday featured a discussion with Bill Nye, known as the Science Guy from his television days, and his new book, “Unstoppable.” The book is about getting America to lead on fighting Climate Change, particularly in transitioning from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. Scarborough on Climate Change, threw to Nye, about the signficance of China and other developing countries on…

Gag me with a vuvuzela . . . You say, Obama and Mandela. I say, Obama taking flirty selfies at Mandela's memorial service with the Danish PM, much to Michelle's displeasure.  But not Chris Matthews. On this evening's Hardball, Matthews said that Obama's post-presidential goal is to be "the next Mandela." You've got to be [insert unprintable modifier] kidding me.

The political definition of Cronyism is: government policy that favors one or more specific beneficiaries - at the expense of everyone else.  To wit: $80 billion of the 2009 “Stimulus” was wasted on “green energy” companies - 80% of whom were Barack Obama donors.  Amongst the parade of horribles contained therein: the government took money from energy companies - to fund competitors to their…

Friday's CBS Evening News previewed an upcoming 60 Minutes exposé on the "widespread failures in the system that grants top-secret security clearance to federal employees and contractors." Scott Pelley pointed at Bradley Manning as a prime example of "how top-secret clearances fall into dangerous hands." Pelley featured several clips from his interview of Manning's former supervisor in Iraq, who…

The heyday of patent medicine, medicine shows, and related phenomena has been over for more than a century, right? Yes and no, implied Esquire's Pierce in a Thursday post. While it’s true that (for example) Coca-Cola no longer is sold as a cure for impotence, political snake oil, Pierce asserted, has become the chief product of the Republican party. Pierce’s peg was Ben Carson’s involvement with…

Thursday’s Morning Joe featured a discussion on the Iranian deal and hostages in Iran. Late into the segment, Mika Brzezinski inquired of Vali Nasr on whether he was surprised the hostages weren't part of the deal. Nasr, who served as a State Department official in the Obama administration, and Karl Vick, of Time Magazine, both expressed a lack of surprise for getting the hostages. Joe…

On Wednesday’s MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts, Ayman Mohyeldin presented a video of his interviews with two college kids from Jerusalem, one an Israeli, the other a Palestinian. After playing the video, Thomas Roberts and Mohyeldin continued to discuss the video. Mohyeldin lectured, “To try to understand this current cycle of violence, one of the reasons Palestinians will always say is the…

On Wednesday, while discussing Forbes magazine releasing its 2015 Most Powerful list, the hosts of CBS This Morning were perplexed by Russian president Vladimir Putin beating out President Obama for the top spot, with Obama only being number three on the list. Charlie Rose pressed Forbes assistant managing editor Luisa Kroll: “Make the case as to why Vladimir Putin is more powerful than President…

Tuesday’s CBS Evening News provided viewers with a rare look at an issue that’s often been ignored by the media in its coverage of ISIS gaining ground in the Middle East: Christians facing persecution. Fill-in anchor Charlie Rose set the scene by stating the obvious that “Iraq today is a fractured nation” with “[m]uch of the north” now “controlled by ISIS.” Rose then tossed to foreign…

Wednesday is the thirty-sixth anniversary of the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran. Moreover, it is the thirty-fifth anniversary of what D.R. Tucker calls “one of the great tragedies in American history”: the election of Ronald Reagan as president. (The two events are, of course, related.) Tucker asserted in a Sunday post that “Reagan’s election nearly destroyed this country”…

Monday’s Morning Joe featured a discussion with Richard Stengel, the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. What proceeded was a discussion of the administration for securing the Iran Deal, without any effort to release Journalist Jason Rezaian, or the other three hostages of the government in Iran. Stengel would try to defend the lack of action, by highlighting that…