News Nuggets 369

Amazing tile mural from York, England. Part of an extensive collection of relics from an ancient Roman gladiatorial site in Britain. See the Ancient Roman Empire Nugget below.

Obama's Tempter and Temperance (Lenny Mcallister) from The Root

"The latest criticism of President Barack Obama stems from complaints about his laid-back persona ... to the BP tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. Often, this critique from the political right is presented as Obama's fatal presidential flaw. However, his coolness may actually be a trait that will help him navigate the treacherous waters in two of the three crises he's currently facing."

BP Directors Call for Chairman to be Sacked Over Deepwater Leak from the Independent [of the UK]

"Senior BP directors want their chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, sacked because they claim his mishandling of the Gulf of Mexico disaster has turned a crisis into a catastrophe."

America Tells Obama to Take Control of Deepwater - and Seize BP from the Guardian [of the UK]

"Nobody in the US seems in doubt that BP is to blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And many are calling for dramatic action. The Answer Coalition, a campaign group that grew out of opposition to the Iraq war, has organised a week of demonstrations in 29 US cities demanding a seizure of BP's assets."

This seems a highly dubious plan. I think the only thing it will insure is that the government will simply take on a huge amount of the liability which is currently in BP's lap. Doesn't sound like a good or useful proposition to me.

BP Could Face Massive Fines Under Clean Water Act from the McClatchy News Service

"Though other laws could come into play, the Clean Water Act may provide the best avenue for legal action. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, the law was beefed up to include harsh civil and criminal penalties for oil spills."

Useful Dialogue with India (Editorial) from the Times of India [in English]

"There were apprehensions in New Delhi that the India-US bilateral relationship had lost its zest. That the dynamism in ties during the Bush era was slowly ebbing away with the Obama administration more focused on China and Pakistan. But the recently concluded India-US strategic dialogue has reversed that perception."

The Only Politics Article You'll Ever Have to Read (Christopher Beam) from Slate

"A new article in the Columbia Journalism Review discusses the differences between political journalism and political science. What if academics started writing the news?"

This item has been getting a lot of attention from punits.

Losing Incumbent, Maybe Not the Seat (Carl Hulse) from the New York Times

"Given the intense battle under way for control of the House and the Senate, where results in just a few races could mean the difference between majority and minority, bidding an early goodbye to a longtime colleague might be a small price to pay"

Bitching and Scandal Bedevil Republicans (Tony Allen-Mills) from the Times [of London]

"The absence of an obvious frontrunner for the 2012 presidential nomination, and the emergence of the disruptive right-wing Tea Party movement, is beginning to unnerve senior Republicans, acutely aware that a lack of unity may quickly unhinge their hopes of exploiting mounting disenchantment with Obama."

NV-Sen: Reid Just May Eke Out Victory in Nevada from Congressional Quarterly

"If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wins re-election this fall, it will likely be because a lot of Nevada voters held their noses while pulling the lever."

CT-Sen: Richard Blumenthal Escapes the News (Chris Good) from the Atlantic

I guess it's official now.

"On Thursday, Rasmussen showed him up 23%, while Quinnipiac had found that 61% didn't think the Vietnam story would affect their votes. How did he do it? His method offers some guidance for how politicians can avert the hazards of a nasty news cycle, and here are the ways Blumenthal pulled off his escape:"

As I've noted -- evidence of a very SAVVY pol!

Backward Into the Future (Timothy Egan) from the New York Times

"Gutting the 17th Amendment is not the only object of this constitutional wrecking crew [the Tea Party]. Rand Paul, the Republican Senate nominee from Kentucky, recently attacked the 14th Amendment. That’s the one that called for full citizenship rights to ex-slaves, and contains a pair of very muscular clauses on equal protection and due process."

ENVIRONMENTAL NUGGET!!

A Very English Ark: New Homes for Wildlife from the Independent [of the UK]

"In what is described by many as the largest wildlife relocation programme in the world, tens of thousands of animals are being removed from a major development in the Thames estuary to new homes in nature reserves throughout the UK."

PLANET NUGGET!!

Scientists Find a 'Hint of Life' on Saturn's Moon Titan from the Daily Mail [of the UK]

"They have discovered clues that primitive aliens are breathing in Titan's atmosphere and feeding on fuel at the surface. The startling discoveries, made using an orbiting spacecraft, are revealed in two separate reports."

ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE NUGGET!!

World's Best-Preserved Gladiatorial Relics are Discovered in the Suburbs of York from the Independent [of the UK]

"Eighty skeletons – including one apparently killed by a large carnivore – found close to city centre."

SOVIET UNION NUGGET!!

Mikhail Gorbachev: Russia's Elder Statesman Still at Home With Power from the Independent [of the UK]

"Almost a generation after leaving the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev blames himself – for reforming the Soviet Union so fast that it couldn't survive. Mary Dejevsky meets him."