HAPPY 2010!
UP-FRONT PUNDIT NUGGET!!
Man, does David Brooks hit it out of the park today!!
The God that Fails (David Brooks) from the New York Times
"[Before], there was a realistic sense that human institutions are necessarily flawed. History is not knowable or controllable. People should be grateful for whatever assistance that government can provide and had better do what they can to be responsible for their own fates. That mature attitude seems to have largely vanished. Now we seem to expect perfection from government and then throw temper tantrums when it is not achieved. We seem to be in the position of young adolescents — who believe mommy and daddy can take care of everything, and then grow angry and cynical when it becomes clear they can’t."
Inch by Inch, Barack Obama is Moving Mountains (Andrew Sullivan) from the Times [of London]
Sullivan is becoming one of my favorite pundits. He actually has a two-fer today. See below.
"Despite deep resistance, the president is gradually shaping America"
The Decade When the US Lost Its Way (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"The 1960s were definitely such a decade. The 1930s qualify, as do the 1980s. But as important as all these periods have been, their significance may be dwarfed by the reckless and squandered decade that is, mercifully, ending."
As Threats Multiply and Power Fragments, the Coming Decade Cries Out for Realistic Idealism (Timothy Garton Ash) from the [Manchester] Guardian
"A foiled terrorist attack must not lure us back to simplistic illusions. Strategic co-operation between old and new powers is the order of the next decade if we are to tackle the big issues."
A New Kind of War (Andrew Sullivan) from the Atlantic
Sullivan says what almost nobody is willing to say concerning Iran and nuclear weapons.
"I see few ways, alas, in which the US and its allies can prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon capacity in the near future. Maybe there was a chance earlier this decade, but it seems pretty hopeless to me now. A military attack would be a catastrophe; it would re-ignite Jihadism on a scale not yet seen with repercussions so unpredictable and results so insecure no prudent statesman would contemplate it."
The World Seems More Dangerous -- But Is It? (Editorial) from the Times [of London]
We've developed such a hyper-ventilating news culture, this certainly needed to be said.
"It will remain one of the defining moments of the 21st century but September 11, 2001, remains too immediate to be wholly comprehensible and there is no end in sight to the mayhem that it has engendered.... But away from the glare of these eruptions, much of the rest of the world seems to have been quietly putting itself back together"
No-Commoner Obama (Matt Bai) from the Sunday New York Times Magazine
"What so many liberal critics really want in a Democratic president now is someone who will denounce the wealthy and punish the barons of industry (and insurance). Exasperated by the old notion of a rising tide that lifts all boats, something that turned out not to be true in the era of globalization, the left demands confrontation and contrast, and, at almost every juncture, Obama gives them compromise and complexity instead."
Meeting of the Diplomats from Newsweek
A REALLY interesting joint interview with Hillary and Henry Kissinger!
"Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger talk about presidents, priorities--and the difficulty of winding down wars."
Mousavi: Iran in a Serious Crisis from Reuters News Service
"Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi defied the hardline authorities' crackdown on his supporters on Friday, demanding the release of political prisoners and saying that killing him would not end the unrest."
Change Iran at the Top (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"Nowhere else today in the Middle East does anything resembling the people power of Iran’s Green movement exist. This is at once a tribute to the revolution and the death knell of an ossified post-revolutionary order."
Iranian Protest is Grassroots and Unstoppable, Say Activists from the Times [of London]
"Iran’s panicking regime is once again seeking to suppress the Green Movement by decapitating it. ... The tactic will prove as futile now as it did in June. Decapitation will not work because the opposition is a bottom-up movement run not by Mr Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi, its nominal leaders, but by its grassroots members. It is a massive campaign of civil disobedience."
A Jet Put on Standby to Fly Iranian Officials to Russia from the Shahrzad News Service via the Canada Free Press
If true, it strikes me that these folks are seriously over-reacting. Make of it what you will.
"Iranian Supreme National Security Council has ordered a complete check-up of the jet which is on standby to fly Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family to Russia should the situation in Iran spiral out of control."
Democracy's Demolition Derby (Robert Samuelson) from Newsweek
It is indeed RARE that Mr. Samuelson makes a 'nugget' worth posting -- but his observation here about journalism and democracy is interesting.
"Journalism is a jumble. Just who is a reporter and who is an advocate is often blurred. Some journalism is openly partisan. Hardly anyone values anonymity. Reporters and editors have become multimedia self-promoters. They blog and tweet; they do TV and radio. Although career advancement and political bias have always influenced journalism, their impact has increased. The "marketplace of ideas" often resembles a demolition derby—victory goes to the most aggressive.."
Why Republican Leaders Will Have Trouble Speaking to the Rest of America from Democracy Corps
A very telling survey about conservative Republican values!
"The self-identifying conservative Republicans who make up the base of the Republican Party stand a world apart from the rest of America, according to focus groups conducted by Democracy Corps."
The Elusive Presidency of Barack Obama (Walter Shapiro) from Politics Daily
I found this analysis to be one of the most telling items to cross my screen in a long time. Shapiro is an OUTSTANDING WH reporter -- and yet this article clearly (and unintentionally I suspect) reveals where the press corps's attention is most of the time.
"For the most part, Obama is either presiding over the most boring White House in human history or else he has been adroit in keeping internal doubts and divisions out of the headlines."
Did it ever occur to you, Walter, that these folks are committed to the same things Obama is committed to -- and that they know that talking to you won't further those commitments? I think your latter point is the case.
A Way Forward for Republicans (Andrew Romano) from Newsweek
"Right now, congressional Republicans seem to have only one guiding principle: everything Obama does on domestic policy is wrong, even if it's something they believe in. But reactionary obstructionism isn't a philosophy of governance. It's a myopic political tactic. ... Instead, the party needs to recognize that the moment is right for a more empirical kind of politics. Call it Reality-Based Republicanism."
A reality-based republicanism? Fat chance in this political climate.
ELEPHANT NUGGET!!
The Secret Language of Elephants (Bob Simon) from 60 Minutes via the Daily Beast
"We know they never forget—but can they talk? 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon goes deep into the rainforest, where scientists have discovered elephants who speak in voices humans can’t even hear."
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