This was an interesting story that gave information not widely reported in other media. However, the story did not provide evidence in two important assertions: First, the source for the details of Assange's alleged crimes (perhaps this journalist gave them in an earlier piece, but the source should be mentioned here to substantiate the assertions. Second, the journalist asserts that "The long arm of the US is hard to miss here" with no support whatsoever. He then gives background on other malfeasance in the past by the US, which is a serious topic by itself, but he does not provide any link to the Assange case. This turns what could be a good story on how Assange is being hounded on bogus charges into an anti-US rant.

While the quantitative facts of the story are laid out straightforwardly, the authors make some unsupported jumps in the qualitative conclusions they draw. For example, "the rebellion represented essentially a "no confidence" vote in the White House." That may or may not be true (it probably is), but this conclusion is certainly not justified by information given or cited in the article. Another unsupported conclusion: "The rebellion among House Democrats reflected ... the frustrations of a party bruised by heavy midterm election losses." Again, this may be a true statement, but it is not justified in the article. In general, the story seemed mostly of an examination (and celebration?) of disarray among Democrats. That ... More »

While an overall good story, the adjective "breathtaking" in the quote from Trevor Potter and the description as "'breathtakingly' large" by U.S. ChamberWatch is a bit suspicious. It seems a bit planted. If this is entirely coincidental, that should have been pointed out.