Pages

Monday, September 6, 2010

News Nuggets 430

An amazing scene of the wildfires in the hills overlooking Los Angeles.  From National Geographic.

Watching from the Sidelines (D.L.) from the Economist [of London]
"THE Obama magic has waned and Washington, to a visitor, is full of people sadly theorising about why it waned so fast and whether it might be retrievable. ... Nevertheless, for this still-unjaundiced admirer from afar, there was a flash of that former throat-constricting poignancy when he opened the renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks on Wednesday evening."

Blair Reveals Syria's Fears were Well-Founded from the National [of the United Arab Emirates in English]
"Syria always feared that the White House of George W Bush and Dick Cheney would invade Damascus once it had dispatched with Baghdad in 2003 and, in his newly released memoirs, the former British prime minister Tony Blair confirmed those fears were well founded. "
INcredible!!

Superbroke, Superfrugal, Superpower? (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"In recent years, I have often said to European friends: So, you didn’t like a world of too much American power? See how you like a world of too little American power — because it is coming to a geopolitical theater near you."

"All in all, the president's party holds some pretty bad cards -- but even so, this year needn't be like 1994. If Democrats take a close look at what happened that year, they can avoid repeating it. And if they look to another election year, 1982, they might even find inspiration in an unlikely place: President Ronald Reagan's leadership."

The GOP's New Fake Racial History (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"Barbour has invented his own sanitized, suburb-friendly version of history -- an account that paints the South's shift to the GOP as the product of young, racially inclusive conservatives who had reasons completely separate and apart from racial politics for abandoning their forebears' partisan allegiances."

Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury (Joseph Gross) from Vanity Fair
"Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake."

GOP Candidates' Zeal at Odds With Senate's Traditions (Jonathan Weisman) from the Wall Street Journal
"With Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's concession late Tuesday, more than a half-dozen tea party outsiders have won GOP Senate primaries, in part on promises to transform the way a Senate designed for collegiality operates.  That has raised the prospect that the Senate could grind to a halt as an alliance of outsiders forms to change the deal-making culture of the upper body."

"The battle in Delaware is just the latest reminder that as much as the Tea Party fervor is expected to help Republicans in November, it may also create problems for them — and opportunities for the Democrats."

AK-Sen: Feud With Palin in Background of Alaska Upset (William Yardley) from the New York Times
"It took Sarah Palin just four years to help dismantle the political empire the Murkowski family took three decades to build"

COLD WAR NUGGET!!
"Nitze’s grandson has written a dual biography of Kennan ('the dove') and Nitze ('the hawk'), which aims to illustrate how the United States achieved a rough continuity in its policies, despite vicious disagreements over what course to pursue, through the generation-long challenge of the Cold War."

OTTER NUGGET!!
The Many Faces of a Cute Mammal from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Highly-intelligent mammals, this series of photographs show that when otters are annoyed, they have a lot more in common with humans than we might think."

No comments: