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Friday, July 16, 2010

News Nuggets 403




Our Pet Photo Friday two-fer!  As usual, these are from Americablog.

Allies May Fret But Obama Understands America's Role (Editorial) from the Financial Times [of London]
"Mr Obama’s administration has a more coherent theory of the world than any of its recent predecessors. Behind the scenes, there are signs it is being executed with some diligence. The risk is of it being lost to the political din at home and the array of intractable problems abroad."

In From the Cold? US-Russian Relations (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"The new face (and you have to decide whether it's sincere) came in a speech Monday in Moscow by President Dmitry Medvedev to a conference of Russian ambassadors. It amounts to a comprehensive Kremlin endorsement of the reset that the Obama administration has been trying to achieve with Moscow."

"Decades of repression have ensured that the opposition is quiescent in Egypt and virtually inaudible in Saudi Arabia. But they have also made these countries vulnerable to violent disruption. Transition in autocracies often means instability."

"Is a priest who sexually abuses a child as sinful as one who ordains a female cleric? Some say a new set of laws issued by the Vatican implies one is just as bad as the other. "

"Argentina has become the first country in Latin America to legalise gay marriage today. After a marathon debate that lasted more than 16 hours, senators voted 33 in favour, 27 against with three abstentions."

Bombing Iran (Andrew Sullivan) from the Atlantic
"Iran is a proud country with an ancient history; trying to bend it to America's will through force alone is unlikely to succeed. It sees itself as an equal, as a superpower – or at least a regional superpower – in the making. However far-fetched that may seem to Americans, treating the nation like a donkey, to be controlled with carrots and sticks, is insulting to many Iranians and politically strengthens anti-American forces inside the Iranian government."

How the Oil Spill Changed the Country (Alexis Madrigal) from the Atlantic
"Now that BP has at least temporarily stopped oil from flowing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April 20, we want to take a step back and take stock of the situation."

"The American public still doesn’t really miss Bush. From a new Time poll: – 71 percent blame the Bush for the “balky economy,” while 27 percent blame Obama."


Obama's Next Act (Charles Krauthammer) from the Washington Post
"The right is already dancing on his political grave, salivating about November when, his own press secretary admitted Sunday, Democrats might lose the House.  I have a warning for Republicans: Don't underestimate Barack Obama."
YES, INDEED!  Mr. Krauthammer, that most predictable of right-wing, partisan hacks, makes his first appearance among the nuggets today!!  And, minus his views on Obama policies, his advise to the right is SPOT-ON.  Unfortunately, the right wing will NOT hear him I suspect.  In their world, they are normal.  Their contempt for Dems and for Obama specifically is at such a level that the GOP (and Tea Partiers especially) WILL underestimate the Dems.  They CAN'T help themselves.  It took six+ years and the impeachment hearings before the Republicans even started to fully take Bill Clinton's measure as a political operator.  The same will be true for Obama.

"A quick look at three of the most important factors in any midterm election show why 2010 may be for Democrats what 1982 was for Republicans: not great, certainly, but not nearly as bad as it could have been."

Redo the Voodoo (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Republicans are feeling good about the midterms — so good that they’ve started saying what they really think. This week the party’s Senate leadership stopped pretending that it cares about deficits, stating explicitly that while we can’t afford to aid the unemployed or prevent mass layoffs of schoolteachers, cost is literally no object when it comes to tax cuts for the affluent."

A Glimmer of Hope for Democrats (Charlie Cook) from National Journal
"A new poll is filtering through Washington with many of the same grisly findings for Democrats as other recent surveys. But it also suggests a message that shows some potential for the party to ameliorate the growing wave benefiting Republicans."

Captures My Mood Many Days Pretty Well (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Dear Red States.
If you manage to steal this election too, we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. ... We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get
Alabama."
Definitely captures my mood often enough.

Most Candidates Anonymous for Now from Public Policy Polling
"One aspect of this fall's elections that perhaps has not received as much play as it should with all the focus on national trends is that most of the actual human bodies running for Governor and Senate across the country are largely unknown within their states so far."
When considering the bad polling numbers for Dems, PPP makes a good set of points here -- Daily kos looks at those numbers further HERE.

"U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has opened a strong lead over Republican opponent Sharron Angle after pummeling her in a ubiquitous TV and radio ad campaign that portrays the Tea Party favorite as "too extreme," according to a new poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal."

She Is Running! (mark McKinnon) from the Daily Beast
"The fundraising, the Mama Grizzlies, Bristol's reunion with Levi—it all points to a Palin presidential run in 2012. But she isn't ready—and a loss could be disastrous for the GOP."
INDEED!  It would be the best gift GOP voters could possibly hand Obama and the Dems in 2012!

ANTHROPOLOGY NUGGET!!
"Our lineage might have diverged from our monkey relatives later than previously thought, a new primate fossil from Saudi Arabia now suggests."

DEEP SEA CREATURES NUGGET!!
"Australian scientists using high-tech cameras at record depths have captured photos of never-before-seen deep-sea creatures under the Great Barrier Reef that are believed to have existed there since prehistoric times. "
Bizarre is definitely the word.  Check'em out!

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