A newly discovered planet with a tail like a comet. From Discovery News. See the Outer Space Nugget below.
A Quiet Axis Forms Against Iran in the Middle East from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"Israel and the Arab states near the Persian Gulf recognize a common threat: the regime in Tehran. A regional diplomat has not even ruled out support by the Arab states for a military strike to end Iran's nuclear ambitions."
The Iranian Regime's Numbered Days from Forbes Magazine
"The cleanest option for liberating Iran lies within Iran itself. The various other scenarios--the U.S. military option, the Israeli military option, international sanctions--have been exhaustively debated and found, if not impossible, imperfect owing to the collateral costs, and perhaps ineffectual. ... But if Iran's nuclear plans can be delayed, time is against the regime because of building domestic pressure."
Iranian Scientist was a CIA Mole from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"The scientist claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by the United States was a CIA mole who spied on Iran's nuclear programme for several years, American officials have said."
Bzzzt. The judges give a thumbs down. If this were true, why was he in such a flaming hurry to get back to Iran? So that he can endure several blissful months of the Revolutionary Guard toruring his ass?
Gulf Oil Test, Bill Passage Give Obama a Day to Savor (Michael Shear) from the Washington Post
"Thursday was, arguably, the best day of Barack Obama's presidency in many, many months. For the first time in more than 12 weeks, oil stopped gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. And in a less-than-dramatic ending, the U.S. Senate gave final passage to Wall Street reform that had been proclaimed dead more times than health-care legislation"
Where Has All the Greatness Gone? from the Editorial Board of the Economist [of London]
"THIS column wishes respectfully to propose a temporary ban on references in political debate to both American greatness and American exceptionalism. This is not because Lexington denies that America is great and exceptional. It is. The case for the ban is that both terms have been emptied of serious meaning, converted into slogans and pressed into service, especially by the right, as a club with which to bludgeon political opponents."
HERE, HERE!!
Obama Legacy, You Choose (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"In an atmosphere with little precedent in American history, in which the US Senate is essentially dysfunctional and one of our two major political parties isn't even pretending to try to govern, these are achievements, especially for a guy who supposedly has no backbone and lets himself get kicked around."
Dog Days of Obama (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"The president has yet to jolt the economy into recovery, he’s made some unpopular decisions and circumstances have not always favored him. But a presidency is a never-ending series of choices. Seasons change, winds switch directions, bad times don’t last always."
End of the Establishment: Where Have All the Serious Republicans Gone? from Foreign Policy Magazine
"When Mitt Romney denounced the new START treaty in the Washington Post last week, he didn't simply demonstrate that he's determined not to allow Sarah Palin to outflank him on the right. He also affirmed something else -- the decline and fall of the Republican foreign-policy establishment."
Only Republicans Like Palin (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Okay, that headline is an exaggeration, but not by much. The new Gallup poll shows a striking disconnect in public opinion about Sarah Palin: While her favorability ratings are significantly higher among Republicans than all the other 2012 GOP hopefuls, her negative ratings among Americans overall are also significantly higher than those of her GOP rivals."
Not for a second will this stop GOP voters from nominating her in 2012.
Beyond Palin: Assessing the Rest of the GOP Presidential Field (Mark Halprin) from Time Magazine
"Sarah Palin's recent Web video making a pitch to conservative women may have again shifted the political spotlight to the former governor of Alaska, but more than a half-dozen other GOP hopefuls are toying seriously this summer with a presidential run."
GOP Lawmaker: Republican Agenda Should be Kept Hidden from Raw Story
"Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told a radio show Thursday that the GOP should focus on its strategy of being against President Barack Obama's policies, but shouldn't give too many specifics on its own policies -- or those policies could be used against them."
Are Democrats Chuckling about Michele Bachmann's Tea Party? (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"I don’t think Rep. Michele Bachmann, the very right-wing Republican from Minnesota, is doing her party any favors by creating a Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. In fact, I imagine that this is the first thing Bachmann has done in a long time that will make Democrats happy."
CO-Gov: Implosion in Colorado (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"There's been a saga unfolding this week in Colorado which illustrates the fundamental fact that polls, political trends, money, and all the advantages in the world can't guarantee an electoral victory for any given candidate, if he or she has a skeleton in the old closet that suddenly emerges and starts clanking in front of the cameras."
WV-Sen: Joe Manchin to Pick Carte Goodwin to Replace Byrd from the Washington Post
"West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) has selected his former general counsel, Carte Goodwin, as a temporary appointee to the Senate, according to two knowledgeable Democratic sources."
NUCLEAR NUGGET!!
Nuclear fusion – What is it Worth? (Steven Cowley) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Experiments in fusion power have at last started to prove its viability. It would be foolish not to continue funding research."
BRITISH MONARCHY NUGGET!!
Revealed: How George IV Used a Trick Bookcase to Have Trysts with his Mistress (and Now You Can Buy it for £80,000) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
Ah -- I've always had a soft spot for George IV, one of the biggest excuses for abolishing the British monarchy.
"When the Prince of Wales approached the mahogany bookcase at Devonshire House, reading was usually the last thing on his mind. For the elegant piece of furniture was in fact a secret door which led to an adjoining bedroom where the future George IV would meet his mistress."
OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
Planet Found with Comet-like Tail from Discovery News
"An alien planet orbits so close to its star that its atmosphere is being blasted away, forming a gaseous, comet-like tail, astronomers announced Thursday."
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