HOT DAMN!!!

Man, if you just missed Susan Rice and Rachel Maddow going at it over Afghanistan then you missed perhaps the best debate over Afghanistan that has happened thus far. There was no yelling and no hyperbole but both of them brought the awesome sauce. I'll have it up as soon as its available.

I have to say, for the first time ever, I think somebody got the better of Maddow. Rice had an answer basically for every question and in the end I think Rachel herself damn near tapped out because she had nowhere else to take the interview.

Update: The video as promised.

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I honestly think that Ambassador Rice had Rachel so perplexed that she felt the need to ask her to stay just to try to pin her down again. She did in fact stay, but it didn't in fact work.

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Honestly I am still on the fence over the escalation in Afghanistan, but Susan Rice made a stronger case than anybody else I have heard. And don't get me wrong, Rachel asked all the right questions, questions that you won't hear many other officials or Congress persons asked, but Rice was just incredibly prepared to answer them all. Kudos to both of them for having such a civil yet sharp debate on a very complex issue.

Lies And The Lying Liars That Tell Them

This is an exercise in judgment. Yours. First I want you to read the accounts of Susan Rice's press conference yesterday from a couple different sources. Then I want you to watch the video of the press conference and see if they match up.

From Joe Klein at Time Magazine:

Yesterday, in her first appearance as United Nations Ambassador SusanRice said that the Iranians would have to stop the enrichment of uranium before we began talks with them.

From The AP:

Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are U.S. officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

Cue the video.