News Nuggets 274

A Smith's Green-eyed Gecko - from National Geographic

Cheer Up America: You're Still On Top of the World from Foreign Policy Magazine

"The United States remains the world's indispensable nation, even if President Obama has cast off the bracing language of American primacy in favor of a more subtle and understated poetry about American purpose. Washington's security commitments continue to order Asia, deter aggression in the Middle East, and make possible Europe's historic experiment in regionalism."

Think Again on Iran's Green Movement. It's Winning - But Over Time from Foreign Policy Magazine

"It's a civil rights movement, not a revolution."

Obama on Track in Asia from the Japan Times

"With one exception, U.S. relations with East Asian countries are better today than when the Obama administration took office. This is no small accomplishment since the Bush administration left Asia in good shape."

States Compete for Obama School Reform Funds from US News and World Report

"The Obama administration is offering potentially huge grants to states and schools that implement rigorous reforms. For students, his proposals could mean longer school days and years, dedicated to learning information required to meet national standards for each grade level."

If you have not been following Obama's agenda in this area, it's been getting VERY HIGH MARKS from those who follow education reform closely. David Brooks has described it as "Obama's biggest domestic policy success."

EPA Announces Strict New Health Standard for Smog from the New York Times

I suspect this is the Obama administration's response to the breakdown at Copenhagen. This is a big deal -- and may force the Congress towards some version of cap-and-trade or some substantive alternative.

"The EPA proposed a stricter new standard for smog-causing pollutants on Thursday that, if adopted, will impose large costs on industry and local governments but will also bring substantial health benefits to millions of Americans."

A White House Political Operation Kicks Into Gear (Marc Ambinder) from the Atlantic

"The sudden career-changing decisions of at least four Democrats -- and rapid responses by national Democratic political officials -- speaks to a revived and fairly robust White House political operation."

Boisterous Bushies (Morton Abramowitz) from the National Interest

Our PUNDIT-OF-THE-DAY!!

"Many of Obama’s conservative critics are responsible for the foreign-policy problems he faces. They need to lay off and let the president clean up their mess."

Um, Pathetic (Hendrik Hertzberg) from the New Yorker

"When Congress reconvenes a few days from now, it will be on the cusp of enacting a sweeping reform of American health insurance and health care that could be, as the President put it on Christmas Eve, just after the Senate passed its version of the bill, “the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the nineteen-thirties and the most important reform of our health-care system since Medicare passed in the nineteen-sixties.”"

14 Terror Suspects Mistakenly Kill Themselves from CNN

Who knows -- maybe this was the CIA's "revenge" for what happened the other day.

"Fourteen suspected terrorists died Tuesday night when the bus they rigged with explosives blew up prematurely, police said. The explosion occurred as the suspects were riding the bus in the province of Kunduz, said police chief Abdul Raziq Yaqobi."

Who's Dropping Like Flies? (Michael Tomasky) from the [Mancheste] Guardian

"More Republicans are retiring (so far) at every meaningful level. And still, the media meme is that the Democrats are abandoning ship. And Benen's findings, alas, will likely not interfere with this meme."

What Liberal Revolt? (Mark Blumenthal) from National journal

"Encapsulating the theme, Doonesbury's Mark Slackmeyer -- the comic strip's most "unreconstructed" liberal -- vented his frustration with Obama during a week in which the fictional NPR talk show host pronounced Obama a "complete disappointment" and declared that Obama had "totally lost me." Now of course, Doonesbury is a work of fiction, but you still have to assume that if a pollster asked, Slackmeyer would have answered "disapprove" when asked to rate the president's performance. How many real-world liberal Democrats share that sentiment. According to the daily tracking poll conducted all year by the Gallup organization, very few."

Secret Service Targeting the Birthers? from Mother Jones

If it's true, it's exactly what they SHOULD be doing!

"Why agents investigating threats to the president have been paying visits to the right-wing activists questioning his citizenship."

Worst GOP Cash Flow in Decades Blamed on Tea Baggers and Waste from Raw Story

"In recent months pollsters have been pointing to softening support for Democrats as a sign that the GOP may make a big comeback in the 2010 elections. But the party's historically poor financial position means it has more of an uphill battle than many political observers realize."

Lieberman's Approval Ratings Tank in Connecticut (Sam Stein) from the Huffington post

Too bad he's not up for re-election until 2012.

"A new poll by Public Policy Polling has the Independent senator losing support in his home state, not just among Democrats but among independents and even Republicans as well."

Just Call Him Senator from Slate

"An assessment of Richard Blumenthal, the man most likely to replace Connecticut's Christopher Dodd."

Dick Morris Sees Two Parties, I See Four (Charles Lane) from the Washington Post

"You might even say that the four parties I'm talking about correspond roughly to the four political cultures first identified by historian David Hackett Fischer in his classic book Albion's Seed. That book traced the main currents in American political ideology to the folkways and notions of liberty imported from four British regions that provided the population of early America."

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: Whaling Ship Deliberately 'Plowed Into Our Boat' from Huffington Post

I've been following these folks for a couple of years -- this was inevitable. I'll be curious to see if there is any fallout from this. Sea Shepherd's leader, Paul Watson, has excellent PR instincts and will do whatever he can, I suspect, to make as much noise as possible.

"A conservation group's boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water Wednesday after it was struck by a Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica, the group said."

DOLPHIN NUGGET!!

I'm sure the dolphins will be thrilled to catch this one. For myself, I'm not ready to go here yet.

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons' from the Times [of London]

"Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence."

OBAMA FAMILY NUGGET!!

Being Obama's Brother (George Obama) from Newsweek

"If there was a leading light in the Obama clan, he was it; and if there was a shadowed place that no one liked to talk about, then that, I guess, was me."

This guy needs to "transform" his conversation.

MOVIE NUGGET!!

Conservatives vs. 'Avatar' from The Week

"Right-wing columnists and bloggers are ripping the film—about a soldier-cum-corporate-spy who infiltrates a spectacularly peaceful planet with base intentions but ends up turning on his bosses—as a pantheistic work of leftist "anti-American, anti-human" propaganda."

This makes me want to see it more!

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY NUGGET!!

New Center Will Highlight History of White House from USA Today

"A new national center for White House history and education will be open next year to schoolchildren, scholars and anyone else who wants to learn more about the history of the fabled house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."

ARCHEOLOGY NUGGET!!

Hail, Britain's Indiana Jones of the Amazon from the Times [of London]

"The latest discovery, reported in the journal Antiquity, has found more than 200 earthworks in the upper Amazon basin, some built in the 13th century but others dating back two centuries before Christ."