DOWNLOADS: (156)

PLAYS: (1480)

Embed

From Tuesday's Rachel Maddow Show, it turns out that Mitt Romney, during a fundraiser in Montana on July 11th, told supporters of a conversation he had with Ronald Reagan's former Secretary of State James Baker. According to Romney, Baker told him how ... following a National Security Briefing on Latin America... The Gipper told Baker that he wanted "no more national security briefings for his first 100 days so that he could focus entirely on the economy."

Problem is, as the Conservative Weekly Standard and AEI point out, the story isn't true. Worse. Romney tells this story as if ignoring national security for the first three months of his presidency is something desirable (which should come as no surprise following his miserable performance in Debate-3 on National Security).

Not only can a president not "pick-n-choose" what parts of his job he can ignore for months on end, but the fact Romney was reciting this story as if it were something he might do should give us all pause.

Agitprop: Whitewash alert...James Baker on a "fact-finding" mission to Iraq for G-Dub

The Progressive: 15-year-old web animation artist is the recipient of ugly emails from wingnut "patriots."

James Dobson would like to shut the doors of public education...only by not giving a damn about religion can America save itself from damnation...a chaplian's view of torture

We hear a lot from the Bushistas and their Stepford supporters about "supporting the troops." Here's what that really looks like.

Tristram Shandy: Conservobloggers seem determined to marginalize Osama bin Laden. Looks like he won't be "dangerous" again until they catch him.

Brandoland: Another installment of "Big Conservative Babies"

George was on the Alan Colmes radio show and said that he knows from several mutual friends that Bush 41, along with his Secretary of State James Baker and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, were against invading Iraq in 2003.

Download | play -MP3

He also explains the reasons why Bush 41 didn't want to remove Saddam from power after Iraqi troops were forced out of Kuwait in the first Gulf War.

DEBKAfile Special Military Report

Last Sunday, January 2, US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage performed his last major mission before stepping down in favor of Robert B. Zoellick, whom incoming secretary Condoleezza Rice has picked as her deputy. (Zoellick, currently trade representative in charge US world trade, served as deputy to secretary of state James Baker in the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. read on

There were 9 demands made by the U.S.

But the punchline was in the last demand.

9. Syria had better make sure that none of the Kornet AT-14 anti-tank missiles which it recently purchased in large quantities from East Europe turn up in Iraq. US intelligence has recorded their serial numbers to identify their source. DEBKAfile’s military sources add: Because he cannot afford to buy advanced fighter planes and tanks, Assad purchased massive quantities of the “third generation” Kornet AT-14 anti-tank weapons. Just in case any are found in Iraq, General Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq has already received orders from the commander-in-chief in the White House to pursue military action inside Syria according to his best military judgment.

Number 9 therefore incorporates a tangible threat. The American general has the authority to launch military action against Syria as he sees fit and without delay if Damascus continues to meddle in Iraq’s affairs.