hedda_foil
hedda_foil's JournalNeocon Kagans were top Patreus advisors in Afghanistan.
I can't believe there aren't several threads on this huge WaPo story today. The neocons rolled Obama on Afghanistan and controlled Petraeuss thinking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/civilian-analysts-gained-petraeuss-ear-while-he-was-commander-in-afghanistan/2012/12/18/290c0b50-446a-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Published: December 18
Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently.
Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits? Zero dollars.
Although Fred Kagan said he and his wife wanted no pay in part to remain completely independent, the extraordinary arrangement raises new questions about the access and influence Petraeus accorded to civilian friends while he was running the Afghan war.
Petraeus allowed his biographer-turned-paramour, Paula Broadwell, to read sensitive documents and accompany him on trips. But the entree granted the Kagans, whose think-tank work has been embraced by Republican politicians, went even further. The four-star general made the Kagans de facto senior advisers, a status that afforded them numerous private meetings in his office, priority travel across the war zone and the ability to read highly secretive transcripts of intercepted Taliban communications, according to current and former senior U.S. military and civilian officials who served in the headquarters at the time.
Snip ... much more.
Listening to McCain, does it seem to anyone else..
McC's speech struck my ear as the script either he or Romney had planned to give right after he " (R) pinned Obama to the wall on Benghazi in the third debate. Of course, O turned the tables on Rmoney with his "please proceed" response. I think I just heard the plan that was originally intended to take O down in a real October Surprise that he deftly averted. It's back now but way less potently in its potential to damage the president very badly. And I have very little doubt that the whole dangerous housewives piece was part of the plan ... tho maybe not in the way they intended.
WOW!!! Nobody likes what R is saying about education or econ.
O is getting big peaks as he contradicts the twit. And people are with O.
The CNN lines are going heavily for PBO.
Rmoney has been close to flat as he parrots our President. PBO is also doing especially well with women.
Is that the tenor section of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir over on the side?
Who are those glum white men and why are there no women in that group?
CNN is doing fact checking!
And they're doing it straight. They actually may be less depressing than MSNBC. I think I'll try it for a bit and see if it continues.
OMFG!! The stage is an almost exact copy of an Aztec step pyramid.
It just hit me when the cameras pulled back to a wide shot of the whole edifice. They've either rolled in a new step pyramidal rostrum in front of the main stage for the high priest's speech or that view hasn't been shown before (that I've noticed.) Did anybody else notice this or am I losing it?
Hedda
Must see! Fantastic adaptation of Les Miz theme
Cross-posted from Video and Multimedia forum because it's too good to miss!
Please watch this. It's SO great and not from the campaign -- but driven by the fantastic talent. There's also a captioned/subtitled version at http://www.onetermmore.com/video_subtitles.html that explains why the video was produced and more. It's vimeo, though, and I don't know how to post that here.
"One Term More" (Re-elect Prez O) Amazing Les Miz adaptation by Hollywood & B'way pros
Please watch this. It's SO great and not from the campaign -- but driven by the fantastic talent. There's also a captioned/subtitled version at http://www.onetermmore.com/video_subtitles.html that explains why the video was produced and more. It's vimeo, though, and I don't know how to post that here.
Is anybody watching Frank Luntz "special" on Faux?
I can't deal with him now but if anybody has the stomach to watch and report back, DUers should (I hope) find out what he's up to. This could be one of his focus groups where he tests the memes that move Indies thoughts about Obama.
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