Obama Speech to Offer Personal Commitment to Muslims from Agence France-Presse
"President Barack Obama will offer a "personal commitment" to bridge US differences with Muslims in his long-awaited speech to the Islamic world next week in Egypt, aides said."
Airlift of 3,000 Secret Servicemen to Cairo to Secure Obama Speech to Muslims from the DEBKAfile [of the Middle East]
GLAD to hear it! This article gives some sense of Obama's itinerary in Cairo.
"US president Barack Obama has not yet decided whether his historic speech reaching out to the Muslim world will be delivered on June 4 from a lecture hall at Al Azhar University in Cairo or its main mosque, DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report."
Change in the Air in Iran (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"As Iran heads toward its presidential election on June 12, there are signs that Iranian voters are embracing their own version of "Change we can believe in.""
Obama Realism May Not Play Well in Cairo Streets from the New York Times
"The president has chosen to deliver this speech in Cairo, and so he must also address the Egyptian people, who live — like the citizens of virtually all Arab countries — in an authoritarian state, and who have grown increasingly restive as President Hosni Mubarak has snuffed out flickering hopes for change. What will President Obama say to them?"
Who is to Blame for the Next Attack? (Frank Rich) from the New York Times
"The Beltway antics that greeted the great Cheney-Obama torture debate were an unsettling return to the post-9/11 dynamic that landed America in Iraq. ... Once again Democrats in Congress were cowed. And once again too much of the so-called liberal news media parroted the right’s scare tactics, putting America’s real security interests at risk by failing to challenge any Washington politician carrying a big stick."
Nobody's Running on Deregulation (Mark Shields) from Creators.com
"That anti-regulation consensus is now officially dead. No 2010 candidate not under indictment or detox will be running on a platform of, "Let's stop government's meddling in the affairs of Wall Street and America's big banks," or, "When it comes to the safety of the food we eat, the free market knows better than any federal inspector or bureaucrat.""
Google’s Global Policy Head Said to Join Obama Administration from the Bloomberg News Service
Interesting to contemplate what this portends.
"McLaughlin’s departure highlights the connections between Google, the most popular Internet search engine, and the Obama administration. Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt is part of the president’s council of advisers on science and technology. Schmidt also campaigned for the government’s economic stimulus package, which was passed earlier this year."
The Waves Judges Always Make from the New York Times
"President’s Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court, where she would be the first Hispanic and the third woman, has raised questions about how her background would affect her decision-making. But there is another question, too: How would she alter the larger dynamic among the justices?"
Obama Wins Round One on Sotomayor, But Shows Caution Going Forward from the Christian Science Monitor
"If the Obama administration was trying to set a trap for the Republican Party in nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, it could not have done a better job."
The Supreme Court Kabuki Dance (Charlie Cook) from National Journal
"Watching conservatives work themselves into a lather on cable TV over Sonia Sotomayor is amusing. Supreme Court nominees are almost always confirmed, particularly if the president's party has a decisive majority in the Senate."
Jeffrey Rosen Vows Never to 'Blog' Again (Glenn Greenwald) from Salon
Over this last week, with typical "flair", Greenwald has been going after Mr. Rosen for his piece on Sotomayor. Good culmination today. For a fairly balanced picture of the controversy, see NPR's story on it.
"The one trait that defines establishment pundits more than any other is a pathological inability ever to accept blame or admit error."
'Sister Sonia' Defies the Politics of Darkness (Al Hunt) from the Bloomberg News Service
"The message was that Clinton wouldn’t be held captive by the cultural left that had done such damage to the Democratic Party’s popularity and image over a generation. Today it’s the Republicans who are subsidiaries of a narrow base. They could start broadening their appeal by rejecting some of the wilder rhetoric over President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic selected for the high court."
Hunt's right -- and I see NO SIGNS of this happening any time soon.
Move Over Oprah? Obama Sells Books from Politico
"Howard Yoon, a literary agent with Gail Ross said, "few people in the world" have the influnce Obama has when it comes to the literary world. "
MIDDLE EAST CULTURE NUGGET!
US Occupation Will End, But Its Cultural Influences Will Live On from the Washington Post
"The far quieter way in which two cultures that often found it difficult to share the same space intersected to reshape Iraq's language, culture and sensibility. From tattoos of Metallica to bellybutton piercings, from posters for a rap concert in Baghdad to stories parents tell their naughty children in Fallujah of the Americans coming to get them, the occupation has already left its mark."
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