Pages

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

News Nuggets 149

A close look at a Blue Whale, a species that got some GOOD NEWS today!  See the Nature Nugget below.


Obama Lays Down the Law... (Editorial) from the Jerusalem Post

"The reality of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's first White House meeting with President Barack Obama was immediately plain for all to see and hear at their joint mini-press conference. This was a meeting of unequals, a meeting in which the head of the world's most powerful nation, however battered of late, firmly asserted its primacy in the face of a supplicant ally, however feisty."


China and US Held Secret Talks on Climate Change Deal from the Guardian [of London]

There is SO MUCH about this little story that is surprising and leaves me almost incredulous.  WHY would Republicans be so engaged on an issue where the unofficial position of the party and the administration was that global warming was a crock?!  Indeed the former administration maintained a system of soviet-style "monitors" on gov't scientists who openly supported global warming.  And YET behind the scenes, they are working with China's communist regime to deal directly with the issue!  I'm glad for it -- AND I don't get it.

"A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change, the Guardian has learned."


Obama Ignores the 'Rules,' Stirs the Pot (Gloria Borger) from CNN

An on-the-money assessment of Obama's approach to hot-button issues!

"When President Obama went to Notre Dame to deliver the commencement address over the weekend, he threw the conventional rules away, or at least ignored them. ... He doesn't shy away from this kind of controversy, but chooses to confront it civilly. He makes decisions (eliminating military tribunals), then decides to change his mind (he'll have another version of them) when he's wrong."


Spy vs. Speaker: The Panetta-Pelosi Snipefest from Politics Daily

An interesting look at the recent dustup between Pelosi and Panetta!

"It's not symmetrical, but the Democratic Party is split into three camps."


How Obama Plays the Middle Against Both Sides from Politics Daily

Another insightful look at Obama's handling of controversial issues.

"Ever since Obama became nationally known with his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, his rhetoric has been countercultural. While other politicians and pundits speak with raised voices and razor-wire phrases, his words seem measured and intended to produce light rather than heat. That was the case, again, at Notre Dame."


The Day the Bloggers Won from Salon

"With no traditional-media allies or lobbying money, the netroots was able to alter the debate about wiretapping in the 2008 campaign. Leading the charge: Salon's Glenn Greenwald."


GOP Losses Span Nearly All Demographic Groups from the Gallup Organization

"The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup."


The GOP's Paranoid Foreign Policy (Editorial) from Newsweek

"To the Republicans, everything Barack Obama does is a sign of weakness and a threat to American sovereignty."


NATURE NUGGET!!

This is SO GREAT!

Blue Whales Returning to Former Alaska Waters from the Associated Press

"Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say."


No comments: