Former spokesman for the State Department, P.J. Crowley appeared with Shepard Smith today and briefly discussed the Obama administration’s policy in Libya before addressing his own recent controversy. Crowley resigned from his position after criticizing how Bradley Manning, the Army private suspected of leaking cables to Wikileaks, was being treated while in custody. Shep revealed here that he was not happy with the result.

P.J. Crowley, the State Department’s spokesman, resigned in connection with controversial comments he made regarding how Bradley Manning, the Army private suspected of leaking cables to Wikileaks, was being treated while in custody. When asked recently about allegations that Manning is being held under abusive conditions, Crowley called Manning’s treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”

Despite White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs hinting there would not be a major shakeup to the President’s cabinet next year, it’s still fun to speculate about potential big names changes. And given that Governor Bill Richardson‘s term as Governor ends in just a few days, he will be completely available to serve at the pleasure of the President if asked, but in what capacity?

Fareed Zakaria, who occasionally throws fairly well-disguised bombs from his perches at CNN and Time in a manner so serene many fail to notice– is taking on his cable news stylistic opposite, Glenn Beck– or at the very least, his math skills. In his trademark soothing tones, Zakaria gave Beck a math lesson on those 10%, or 157 million, “Muslim terrorists” Beck claimed were plotting to attack America– namely, that that figure is “1000% wrong.”

Earlier today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to these allegations, becoming the first official senior member of Obama’s cabinet to officially comment on the Wikileaks release. “So let’s be clear,” Madame Secretary explained “this disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests, it is an attack on the international community.”

Just after 4pm yesterday Gawker published an enormously disturbing slide show of photos depicting the “animal house” antics. When I saw the post an hour or so later it had already clocked over 12, 000 views. As of this morning 95,000 plus people have seen it. Yesterday evening a State Dept. spokesperson announced an investigation had been ordered. Was the quick response due to Gawker’s involvement?

  “It’s humbling to think that our 2-year old company could be playing such a globally meaningful role that state officials find their way toward highlighting our significance,” a post on the Twitter blog by co-founder Biz Stone read. Therein lies the uneasy truth: In a major international crisis, one of the prime channels of [...]