The grades for the president’s State of the Union are in and the critics have been kind. In fact, it's chilling to see just how few hits the president takes for couching his entire address in unqualified celebration of the US military.

The case against John Kiriakou, who also served as a senior Senate aide, extends the Obama administration’s crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets. Kiriakou, 47, is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, legal experts said.

Israeli officials told visiting USS Chief Joint of Staffs Martin Dempsey that it would give President Barack Obama no more than 12 hours notice if and when it attacks Iran, The London Times reported Sunday.

"Targeted killing" is the killing of certain individuals away from battle zones using military means, including missiles, bombs and commando raids. The missiles and bombs are often delivered by drone aircraft. Given the munitions, it is the rare attack that spares the lives of bystanders – over 2,200 persons are estimated to have been killed in the three years of the Obama administration in Pakistan alone.

 An informative article comparing the Soviet Union's and the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.

Despite the pending troop withdrawals in Iraq and those in Afghanistan between now and 2014, the United States remains a superpower on a scale not seen since the days of the Caesars. With this in mind, the National Post’s Richard Johnson takes a look at the scale of America’s forces.

The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines”—while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally.

Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses.

It’s fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, now that according to some mainstream polls he has become the front-running candidate in the Jan. 3 GOP caucus race in Iowa, and perhaps also in the first primary campaign in New Hampshire.

As evidence of a failed Obama presidency accumulates, criticism of his administration is mounting from liberal Democrats who have too much moral authority to be ignored.

“[W]hat the Iranians have is a pile of wreckage — many small and damaged pieces from which they could glean little in the way of technological insights,” said Loren Thompson, defense policy analyst for the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia, earlier this week.

The Obama Administration has followed the Bush Administration in having the Department of Justice prepare a secret memo reportedly justifying the decision to target al-Awlaki (which it has so far refused to release). The Bush Administration’s secret memo did not deal with targeted killings, but with the interrogation practices of the CIA, which it justified by adopting a narrow definition of torture. It was only after the memo emerged into the public sphere that its legal reasoning could be analyzed and critiqued.

One of Utah's most liberal politicians, Anderson renounced his affiliation with the Democratic Party in August, saying he was fed up with it along with Congress, the Obama administration and Republicans. He reiterated that disgust during the interview.

This is a ten minute video report by "The Real News". An interesting point about the reaction in Israel is made at the minute 3:45 to 4:25 point.

Randall Monroe of xkcd has created an infographic titled "Money: A Chart of Almost All of It, Where It Is and What It Can Do." It's an incredible visualization representing trillions of dollars — what money is spent on (everything from iPads to charity to federal expenditures), and how money is earned (for individuals, corporations, charities, governments, etc.).

I am not endorsing this piece, it may be bs. I don't know anything else that weighs for or against its credibility. I am just throwing it into the conversation. It at least answers my question about the origin of the chancellor's accent.

In April of this year, the PBS show Frontline, responding to an article Knappenberger had published, flew him to Los Angeles on a private jet, and interviewed him for four hours. Knappenberger told Frontline that he, like Manning, had had access to the U.S. government's SIPRNet database when he had been in Iraq. ...........................

 .....Then, the day before he expected the Frontline story to air, he says, the show told him it would not be airing.

Fourteen clips, most less that 3 minutes long, of Glenn Greenwald speaking before students at Claremont McKenna College in California. His discussion of the rule of law, and who in America is bound by it, and the importance of how that has changed, has relevance to almost everything discussed here at Dagblog. I will be interested in reactions to it wherever they may appear, but especially here among those who have expressed a variety of strong opinions about the value of his work.