We Could Do With a Dose of Barack Obama's Honesty from the Telegraph [of London]
"It is a tale of two cities. I have left behind a London stuck in a wasted year as a tired and embittered government desperately limps towards its electoral fate; and I have come to a Washington DC buzzing with the energy, ideas and enthusiasm of a new administration."
Obama to Deliver Speech to the Muslim World in Cairo from the Guardian [of London]
"On a trip that will be fraught with security concerns, Obama opted to go to Cairo, which the White House described as "the heart of the Arab world" but which is also the birthplace of modern jihadist movements."
Reserved Relations with Israel: Obama's New Middle East Diplomacy from Der Speigel [of Germany in English]
"The Middle East conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the conflict between the West and the Islamic world -- Obama sees an opportunity for an historic breakthrough. It is significant that shortly after his inauguration he chose to signal this change of attitude by giving his first in-depth interview to the Arab network Al-Arabiya."
Alliance of Necessity (Editorial) from the Australian [of, ahem, Australia]
"A WEEK before Barack Obama meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Americans are diplomatically demonstrating that the days when Washington agreed to whatever Israel wanted are over."
Gently Does It from the Economist [of London]
"Cuban-Americans mostly feel that Barack Obama is making the right conciliatory gestures."
Harry, Louise and Barack (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"But on Saturday, excited administration officials called me to say that this time the medical-industrial complex (their term, not mine) is offering to be helpful. ... the letter implicitly endorses much of what administration officials have been saying about health economics. Are there reasons to be suspicious about this gift? You bet — and I’ll get to that in a bit. But first things first: on the face of it, this is tremendously good news."
A New Beginning for Health Care? (Marc Ambinder) from the Atlantic
""This fundamentally allies these groups with the President's goal of getting health care reform this year and that's a game changer, in our opinion," a senior administration official told reporters last night. "And it makes clearer than ever that health care reform is going to happen this year in Congress.""
Torture Defensible? How About Homicide? from Daily Kos
A review of some of the "highlights" investigator Sifton found along with other reports.
White House to Declassify 'Holy Grail' Torture Report that Could Undercut Cheney from whorunsgov.com (a Washington Post blog)
Specifically: The White House has decided to declassify and release a classified 2004 CIA report about the torture program that is reported to have found no proof that torture foiled any terror plots on American soil — directly contradicting Cheney’s claims. The paper cites “allies” of the White House as a source.
Meet Generation O from Newsweek
"As the nation moves further into the Obama presidency, will politically engaged young people continue to support the president and his agenda, or will they gradually drift away? The writers of Generation O want to answer that question. For the next three months, Kremer and 11 other Obama supporters, ages 19 to 34, will blog about life across mainstream America."
Social Conservative Leaders Feel Scapegoated (David Paul Kuhn) from RealClearPolitics
"There is a brooding sense within top social conservative circles that they have become the revolving scapegoat of the Republican Party. Many of the longtime leaders of the Christian right, from Richard Land to Tony Perkins to Gary Bauer, expressed resentment in extended interviews with a singular theme: that the most loyal GOP bloc has been so quickly thrown under many critics' bus."
The POOR dears!
NEW YORK CITY NUGGET!!
Secrets of the Deep from New York Magazine
"What lies beneath the surface of New York Harbor? For starters, a 350-foot steamship, 1,600 bars of silver, a freight train, and four-foot-long cement-eating worms."
AMAZING-IF-TRUE NUGGET!
"'World's oldest woman' dies at 130... After Slipping in Bathroom of New Flat Kazakhstan Gave her to Celebrate her Age" from the Globe and Mail [of London]
"A woman in Kazakhstan who officials said was the oldest in the world at 130 has died after slipping on the bathroom floor of a new flat she was awarded by the state because of her great age."
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