Here’s the extended Cenk interview… Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Chemical weapon use in Syria ‘could have been an Israeli false flag operation’

In one of his final actions, last month outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta instituted a new award that troops can earn, called the Distinguished Warfare Medal. (Warfare. Not “Peacefare” or “Defense” or some such euphemism. Panetta is not a man to mince words.)

It’s formal criterion is that the act of the recipient “must have a direct impact, through any domain, on combat or other military operations,” take place after September 11 2001, and not itself be an “act of valor.”

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is pointing the finger at America for continued instability in his country. To America’s shock and dismay, Karzai claimed that the America and Taliban were colluding to continue the war beyond 2014 when US forces are set to withdraw by working together in series of recent bombings. His comments came as Chuck Hagel made his first visit to the country as Defense Secretary.

Now, lest you thought the US Military was averse to starting a war with Iran…

After a long, bitter, and at times surreal confirmation process fmr. Senator Chuck Hagel has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. The vote was 58-41 with only four Republicans voting in favor of the nomination despite Hagel previously being a member of the Senate Republican Caucus. Hagel was attacked continually by the right-wing of the Republican Party and conservative media for being soft on Iran and antagonistic towards Israel. The confirmation vote did little to satisfy critics who continue to maintain their opposition to Hagel serving as Defense Secretary.

Republicans have made the already idiotic and unpleasant process of “vetting” an executive appointee even worse and Senate Democrats let them. If you want an effective government you need qualified people to run it. The less appealing the job is made, the harder it will be to get good people to serve.

It seems unlikely that Hagel would take money from a group named “Friends of Hamas” or any group tied to Hamas even if he harbored the deep antisemitic views his other detractors claim he has. But this is surely the ugliest nomination process I have ever seen and seems more a demonstration of the dysfunction of Washington than the failings of Chuck Hagel.

What do you think?

From its anti-democratic design, to its bizarre rules, to the absurd way it is run, the United States Senate is simply a terrible institution. Yet whenever I think my opinion of the chamber can’t get any lower the Senators manage to find a new way to disappoint me. The recent failure of the cloture vote for Chuck Hagel’s nomination for defense secretary brings Senate stupidity to a new low.

Only a few days after North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test the rogue state has told its closest ally it plans one or two more nuclear tests this year in hopes of driving American foreign policy.