They might as well just chant "G.O.P." instead of "U.S.A."

Stern rhetoric at the joint Pittsburgh announcement from Obama, Brown and Sarkozy on Iran's undisclosed nuclear facility.

Haaretz published a long piece by Aluf Benn today arguing that the nuclear proliferation is "the basis for understanding the diplomatic processes in today's Middle East." I think that's a nice way to frame regional peace primarily around the Iranian nuclear issue. But the article unintentionally raises an excellent question: What the hell does 'nuclear ambiguity' even mean?

In the spring and summer of 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld busied himself putting together a detailed briefing for Congressional leaders and national security officials that would outline where he saw threats in the post Cold War world. In many respects, he was on the money, focusing his presentation on terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyberwarfare, and rogue nations. The plan was to alarm Congress enough to give Rumsfeld the political backing he needed to undertake a massive overhaul of how the Pentagon did business, and to drag the American military out of its Cold War mindset and into the realm of complex 21st century threats.

Michael Calderone is bitching that Nico Pitney asked what the White House correctly anticipated was going to be a question on Iran. Since when is it a scandal that the reporter doing the best job on a subject gets asked about that subject?

Certainly seems to be taking a harder line, but undoubtedly, won't be hard enough for the neocon anklebiters.

For Richard Cohen, it's always something.

Based on a true story, The Stoning of Soraya M. paints with horrifying clarity how women are disposable chattel in certain societies. Soraya’s husband wishes to divorce to her, she refuses, so he and the local mullah hatch a plot to accuse her of adultery. In the aftermath of the accusation, Soraya’s brutal murder by stoning, and the conspiracy surrounding it, the truth is revealed. It is painfully coincidental to be discussing this moving feature within days of the shooting of Neda in Tehran, a young woman who was watching demonstrations next her father when a Basiji militiaman shot her through the heart.