Russia

Wrapping up a report on Friday's NBC Today about CIA Director John Brennan reacting to the Senate Democrats' "torture report" during a Thursday press conference, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell highlighted: "The unveiling of the brutal tactics gave American adversaries a chance to accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy – on International Human Rights Day, no less."

Liberal filmmaker Oliver Stone, who has previously made sympathetic documentaries on dictators Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, now plans to promote Russia's Vladimir Putin, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The director asserted he "would love to do an interview with [Putin] because he represents a different point of view that Americans don't hear." 

A search at the Associated Press's national site tonight on "Berlin Wall" (not in quotes) returns 14 stories. Changing that search to "Berlin Wall Reagan" reduces that number to one. That single story is a short, seven-paragraph item about sections of the wall which are on display in different parts of the world. Reagan's name gets mentioned as follows:

National Journal’s Ron Fournier was apparently among those who endured President Obama's appearance on "60 Minutes" this evening. Fournier was able to succinctly summarize the contents of Obama's interview with Steve Kroft, the network's designated softball pitcher, in a tweet appearing shortly after its conclusion (HT Twitchy):

Joe Scarborough scoffs at Thomas Friedman's suggestion that the way to confront ISIS is for the US to adopt a carbon tax and permit oil exports.

Rachel Maddow frets about all President Obama has on his plate and concludes: "aren't you glad you're not President?"

Plenty of commentators have predicted that Republicans will pick up seats in this fall’s midterm elections, but haven’t opined whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Then there’s Esquire’s political blogger Charles Pierce, whose gloomy forecast for the midterms is that “the power of the insane party will likely be enhanced.” In a Tuesday post, Pierce lamented the impact of Republican…

On Tuesday's Morning Joe, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski felt sorry for President Obama and all the crises overseas that he is currently facing: "You look at just the President, and the incoming on foreign policy crises, I think it's possibly unprecedented, except for extreme times of war." Moments earlier, the morning newscast played a montage of video clips looking back at all the tumultuous…

On Friday morning, the major broadcast networks were out in full force to defend President Obama after his remarks at a press conference Thursday afternoon in which he said that “we don’t have a strategy yet” in how to militarily address the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Syria. Leading the way was NBC’s Today, where co-host Matt Lauer told NBC News political director and moderator of Meet…

On Thursday, an impatient Terry Moran at ABC News tweeted the following (HT Twitchy): "Say it: Russia has invaded Ukraine. Any other description is just weasel words." Clearly, both President Obama and the folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, haven't been sympathetic to Moran's plea, instead opting for "weasel words." Obama, when directly asked if he "considered…

Today's New York Times op-ed page includes a wide-ranging interview on foreign policy that Thomas Friedman conducted with President Obama.  Let's break down some of the low-lights.  Excerpts from interview in italics, with my comments following. And sure, when President Obama said "I don't worry about Israel's survival," he explained his insouciance in terms of Israel's military might.  But was…

Don't mess with Charles Krauthammer. After President Obama’s lackluster speech on August 6 from the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in which Obama did not address any pressing foreign policy issues such as the building tensions in Ukraine or the multitude of conflicts in the Middle East unless specifically asked by reporters, Bret Baier of Fox News’ Special Report asked panelist Krauthammer to…

Edward Snowden's one-year grant of temporary asylum by the Russian Federation ran out today, and Vladimir Putin's administration came through for the American turncoat, granting him permission to stay in the country indefinitely. Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News reported the development about ten minutes into the July 31 edition of the evening newscast. You can read the relevant…

Actor David Boreanaz caused an uproar on Twitter Wednesday night by getting political with a tweet critical of President Obama, insisting the nation’s chief executive needs to stand up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and “grow some.” The co-star of FOX’s crime drama Bones took a break from promoting his show at Comic-Con in San Diego to write, “so here we are in a Cold War now with Russia.…