++The New York Times was widely criticized for not publishing the cartoons from Hebdo but the Post praised. Except I noticed that the Post had a disclaimer for their "Christian" readers saying it doesn't intend to offend them. Now getting the cover slightly wrong is offensive.
++Dana Millbank has an excellent column on the Republican flap over Obama not going to Paris. It seems that Secretary Kerry addressed the entire French nation on national television with such moving words that Americanophile Bernard Henri-Levy called it "one of the most moving statements of solidarity". Francois Hollande had cryptically said that Obama himself was very present in Paris. He was referring to personal phone calls and assistance American counter-terrorism was providing. Millbank recalls how abusive Republicans were during George W's administration calling the French "weasels", "cowards" and the like.
++Donald Rumsfeld managed to creep out of his hole to blast Obama's anti-terrorism record that he lost the Iraq War and couldn't even get a Status of Forces agreement with Karzai. Of course, he did with his successor.
++Michael Brennen at Huffington Post has an excellent piece on "Paris and the War on Terror". He says we have been living in "anticipatory fear since 9/11" but that these events have basically changed nothing. He rightfully says that it is not clear whether these attacks were organized or ordered by Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula or ISIS. It is not credible that these were sleeper cells since they didn't even have a getaway car and left their IDs behind. Ahmed Coulibaly, the Kosher grocery killer,didn't even seem to know anyone at AQAP or ISIS during his video but blithely pledged his allegiance. The same seems to be true about the Hebdo killers and their connection to Awalki. They seemed to have been in Yemen at the time he was there and he was the coordinator of foreign cadres but he soon was killed. Brennen basically says these attacks change nothing.
++Meanwhile Eugene Robinson captures this era of dread in his column about the prospects of a Romney, Bush fight in the GOP primaries. He also warns Democrats that no one is jumping up and down about having another "Clinton" presidency either.
++The Canadians who also were not at the Paris Rally are hosting a conference that is pertinent to the Paris events on how to prevent radicalization in prison. Our culprits were thoroughly radicalized by their time in French prisons by hanging out with the GIA bombers and the Tunisian member of Al Qaeda. It would be useful to know how one prevents this as a social phenomenon.
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