Today on the Dish, Goldberg rejected the claim that he wants war with Iran, and incensed Andrew with his conflation of Israel with all Jews, while Andrew remained adamant that Iran remains as dangerous as ever. WaPo leaked the DADT report, and Andrew breathed a sigh of relief at how sane, fair and extensive the report was. Obama stepped up his support, military families were against DADT, and we rounded up the full web reax. A Dish reader chalked it up to McCain being old and out of touch but Andrew wasn't buying it. Kim Kardashian was going to die on Twitter to stop AIDS, civil unions still don't sound as good as marriages,and Orin Kerr had his doubts about Judge Stephen Reinhardt's place on the Prop 8 panel.
We kept on top of the Wikileaks story with Andrew's take on the Forbes cover story, Will Wilkinson's defense of the substance of the leaks here, and a rebuke to Assange here. Simon Jenkins opened the floodgates on what's wrong with American foreign policy, and George Packer and Greenwald debated whether governments have a right to secrecy. Bill Keller tried to justify Wikileaks to a former British diplomat, Fred Kaplan showed us the bright side of Obama's diplomacy from the leaks, and Sarkozy chased a dog chasing a rabbit.
Andrew weighed in on the federal pay freeze and his longview on Obama and the debt, and joined the Douthat/ Fallows debate on our ability to hold principles to account, no matter the president. Adam Serwer shut down Marc Thiessen on torture, Iraq got scammed, and Stan Collender argued fiscal hawks should praise TSA's body scanners. Fox News amped up its GOP presidential candidate production with the Fox Five, Mason Herron threw cold water on Christie in 2012, and we tallied probabilities on Palin. McCain's former advisor begged Palin not to run, as did Pravda and four "educated Jews." David Sessions honored Alex Pareene with the hackiest religious pundits, a Harvard illegal immigrant mourned the DREAM Act, and Anderson Cooper was on fire.
Dan Ariely wrote your Christmas shopping lists, Reihan predicted Microsoft will rise again, and alcoholic whipped cream comforted us. Some readers don't like to take dates on bikes, while other readers were happy to bike their kids and spouses around. Readers photographed their own pictures of America, and Alexis Madrigal summed up Nick Denton's vision for the future of the internet. "Imagine" made the Shut Up And Sing contest, and readers added their two cents on Disney's cartoon omissions.
Voyeurs' doornob here, Yglesias award here, Hewitt award here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here, poseur alert here, chart of the day here, and VFYW contest winner #26 here.
--Z.P.