DAYBOOK for Tuesday: Michael Steele Right on Afghan War? And Much More | The Nation

WELCOME TO DAYBOOK, our daily collection of media and politics hits/misses from a wide variety of sources plus fun videos and (and at the bottom) musical picks. Return for updates all day. Keep up with fresh items via tweets. E-mail: epic1934@aol.com. To increase type size hit the middle "A" above right.

AFTERNOON UPDATES

Amazing L.A. Times story on the little-publicized isses surrounding our drone aircraft in war zones, including costly glitches, crashes.     Money quote from manager of the program:    ‘It was never designed to go to war when it did.  We didn't have the luxury of ironing out some of the problems." 

Paui Krugman, in rare inside-NYT public spat, takes on  DAvid Brooks' latest weak column: "I have no idea what he's talking about." ... PLUS:  My new piece here on when cowardly Brooks failed "the Palin test" when it really counted -- during the 2008 campaign.

Mediaite:   Women from "The Daily Show" respond to "sexism" charges from Jezebel.

Ruth Rosen at Alternet:  Why women dominate the tea parties--make the "white Christian" movement seem less scary.

The great Hannah Allam -- Middle East bureau chief for McClatchy (I put her on the cover of E&P six  years ago) -- is five months pregmant and still working in war zone.   Just had a baby shower attended by other long-timers.

--TUESDAY ON THE LINKS

Rachel Maddow doing show from Kabul this week....  Steve Carell visits Colbert on Wednesday--hoping for a Steven vs. Stephen rematch? 

New NY Magazine profile of David Brooks just posted, calling him both "irrelevant" and "essential."  Well, they are half right.   They also call him "the voice of reason."   You get the picture. Writer Christopher Beam apparently born yesterday, or thereabouts.  Best excerpt:  One of his first political acts came "in third grade at the Grace Church School, when he scrawled 'Julie Nixon is a Nazi' on the board. He received a paddling as punishment."  

David Corn:  Was Michael Steele mainly RIGHT about Afghanistan war and Obama? .... Latest on House Dems revolting over Afghan war, and divisions ...

Harry Shearer for his radio show produced funny Larry King impersonation and a kind of farewell song, "Who Can I Talk to Tonight?" to the CNN host.... But Tom Shales mourns the end of  TV "civility" with Larry's exiit.

Glenn Greenwald on latest detention of a journalist  and "BP / Government police state" tactics:  "The very idea that government officials are acting as agents of BP (of all companies) in what clearly seem to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media is infuriating.  Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest -- preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts -- but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable."

GAZA IMPORTS EASED   McClatchy: In advance of big meeting with Obama today, Israel yesterday moved to  allow more goods to come into Gaza, but still blocking some of key construction materials and other necessities.... MIke Allen on the ground with Joe and Jill Biden in Iraq, as Veep's plane springs a leak.  .  

STILL IN A HUFF   Arianna Huffington is miffed about PolitiFact finding one of her Liz Cheney-related statements "half-true," comes out swinging -- and piece  rides top of Huff Post Monday. . 

KICKING TO THE RIGHT  Rick Herztberg in The New Yorker probes  why rightwingers hate football… er,  soccer.

HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN PERMIT  Who knew?  You want a concealed gun permit from lax Utah? Just take an online course and you can get one even if, say, you've never been to Utah and never plan to visit.

NAKED  CAPITALISM:   That's the name of Yves Smith's excellent econ blog that we cite from time to time.  Today she has co-authored a NYT op-ed,  urging owners to re-invest profits, plus she's posted the unedited version at the blog with a headline she much prefers:  “It’s the Corporate Savings Glut, Stupid! The Hysteria of Marching to Austeria.” 

WEATHER OR NOT?  Waiting for the rigthwingers and Fox personalities to now claim that weather in D.C. -- 100 degrees -- proves global warming is real since they charged it wasn't following winter storms.

BITS & PIECES  Andrew Sullivan:  Key question remains in wake of Dave Weigel exit -- was that JournoList  list-serv leaked  (Breitbart) or hacked (Weigel) ? ....  The Onion has new parody news show online--for 20 cents a minute? ....  Despite partial cave-in to Wall St., Dems find campaign donations from them down 65%....

TODAY's LAFF

We missed it for the holiday but still not  too late to catch up with the latest JibJab:  George Washington and friends rap about kicking some "British A--."

TODAY's MUSIC

For some reason, every time I hear the great  Richard Thompson doing his "Persuasion" (below with son Teddy) I think of Obama foolishly  trying to work with GOPers.  "After all the foolish things you put me through /   I could always make a start on something new / I'll always be a man open to persuasion....We need to rebuild / What was never there .... Don't know what to do / Because I still believe."