News Nuggets 139

Another extraordinary image from National Geographic.

TWO 'TOO-GOOD-TO-MISS-FROM-YESTERDAY' NUGGETS!!

These two postings from yesterday, one from The Nation, and the other from Salon deal with the current problems with the Republican Party.  There's been A LOT of coverage of this topic, much of it overdone, and it would be easy to pass them over.  They are ON-THE-MARK and a HOWL!!

1.  Contam-i-Nation from The Nation

"At some point the vaunted Republican noise machine stopped being about winning elections and became instead a feckless attempt at mass justification, popping out one lame excuse after another for the party's failures."

2.  Keep on Whining, Republicans (Gene Lyons) from Salon

"The average American could no more concisely define "socialism" than explain the infield fly rule in Sanskrit. But if Rush Limbaugh calls Obama a socialist, maybe a socialist's not such a terrible thing to be."

White House Formalizes Supreme Court Short List from ABC News

"The White House has formalized its short list of Supreme Court contenders and asked six prospects to provide personal background information, with an intensive vetting process well underway, according to sources close to the process.

The Torture Debates: The Missing Voices from the Editorial Board of the New York Times

"One missing element is the words of those prisoners subjected to waterboarding and other brutality.  Those voices remain muffled by a combination of Bush-era resistance to a reasonable Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the gag order imposed on lawyers representing Guantánamo detainees. Attorney General Eric Holder needs to promptly repudiate both."

The title of this piece I think is (unintentionally) ironic.  As recent disclosures suggest, some of these voices are muffled because they are dead.

A Fast Look at How Impressions of Barack Obama Have Changed from the Pew Research Center

An interesting glimpse of how the broader public has changed its views of Obama.

Obama Confronts the Solitude of the White House from Izvestia [of Russia in English]

"So, one hundred days have passed. What will Obama be able to boast of on his next “anniversary”- in a half year or a year? Having taken the Oval Office, Obama finds himself in a very different role that that of a senator or presidential candidate. On him depends the future of America. And yes, in fact, the future of the entire world. It is he who must decide. Such is the solitude of the White House."

David Broder: Eyes Wide Shut from The Nation

"The "dean" of the Washington press corps sets a tone for many of his colleagues and represents a goal to which many if not most of them aspire. [On torture] he, too, advises his colleagues to keep walking, eyes wide shut."

Top 10 Most Annoying Republicans (Matt Lewis) from Politics Daily

Another unintentionally ironic title.  The ten he focuses on are, almost to a person, practically the only Republican talking heads I find palatable.  And this guy wants THESE PEOPLE to leave also!  Remarkable. 

"All this talk about Sen. Arlen Specter's defection -- and the instant karma that ensued -- got me fantasizing about other Republicans who ought to follow him out the door."

A Rough Start for the GOP (Chuck Todd et al.,) from MSNBC

"What has to disappoint Republicans right now is that most of their recent problems have been self-inflicted. And to top all of this off, an effort to re-brand the party ends up causing an internal fissure between one of the party's supposed rising stars, Eric Cantor, and many of the leading conservative voices, including Rush Limbaugh."

Joe the Plumber Quitting the GOP from Time Magazine via Huffington Post

HOW PATHETIC!  You know you're in trouble when your own media creature turns on you!  He says here that the GOP spent too much -- I had read elsewhere recently that, despite the substantial money he has received, he regrets his whole involvement with the Republicans and wishes it had never happened.

"Joe the Plumber, also known as Samuel Wurzelbacher, is quitting the GOP. That's big news considering Joe became the new GOP mascot during the McCain campaign and has since advised the party during conferences and in Capitol Hill briefings."