News Nuggets 451

A tornado moving across Utah.  From National Geographic.

Iran, the Paper Tiger (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"What do all his words amount to? I’d say not a whole lot beyond unnecessary misery for 71 million isolated Iranians. This guy is all hat and no cattle. Ahmadinejad is odious but I don’t think he’s dangerous."
I suspect Cohen is correct here.

In Afghanistan, the First Hints of Success (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
"Success in Afghanistan is beginning to come in the first muddy trickles after a long drought."
As much as I would like to think that the administration may end up with some successes in Afghanistan, I think Gerson's statements here stem more from the looming battle between Obama and the Pentagon over continuing this mission than through any objective assessment of conditions on the ground.  The military brass are looking for any means to leverage more time and more resources out of the WH for this conflict -- and I think that is what's driving Gerson's "timely" squib.

Plotting Hillary's Future (Robert Shrum) from The Week
"Hillary for president? For vice president? Here's how to read the sudden profusion of tea leaves."

Disputes May Affect 9 Million Foreclosures, Morgan Stanley Says from Bloomberg News Service
"As many as 9 million U.S. mortgages in the foreclosure pipeline or already through the process may face legal challenges because of questions about the validity of documents, according to Morgan Stanley."
Jesus -- what a nightmare!

America's Foreclosure Crisis: What It Means for Your Mortgage from The Week
"Bank of America has frozen foreclosures, sparking calls for a nationwide ban on repossessions. Is that move likely, and how would it affect the average homeowner?"

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Must Stop Now, Federal Judge Rules from Time Magazine
"The federal judge who ruled the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional last month ordered the U.S. military to stop kicking openly gay men and women out of uniform Tuesday."

Hot Mess: Why Are Conservatives So Radical About the Climate? (Bill McKibben) from the New Republic
"I don’t have any expectation that conservatives will mute their tune between now and November—but it is worth thinking in some depth about what lies beneath this newly overwhelming sentiment. One crude answer is money."

Tea Party Supporters Want to 'Take Their Country Back'. To Where? (Gary Younge) from the Guardian [of the UK]
The party they are voting for and the candidates they back have actively worked to undermine what they really want.

NV-Sen: Harry Reid-Sharron Angle Race Fractures Nevada GOP from Politico
"Harry Reid is tearing the Nevada Republican Party apart. You’d think the party would be united in its efforts to oust the Senate majority leader, a top objective for both the state and the national parties. But in the months since tea-party-backed GOP nominee Sharron Angle staged an upset win in the contentious Senate primary, the pillars of the Silver State’s Republican establishment haven’t exactly kissed and made up."

BUSH ADMINISTRATION NUGGET!!
General Shelton: Rumsfeld was the Devil in the Shape of a Defense Secretary from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The McNamara-Rumsfeld model," as Shelton calls it, was "based on deception, deceit, working political agendas, and trying to get the Joint Chiefs to support an action that might not be the right thing to do for the country but would work well for the President from a political standpoint."
Very much confirms my impression of what was going on at the time.

STATE ECONOMIES NUGGET!!
The Best- and Worst-Performing State Economies in America from the Atlantic
"How well run are each of the 50 states?"

POLITICAL HISTORY NUGGET!!
Cofounding Fathers (Sean Wilentz) from the New Yorker
"Glenn Beck’s view of American history stems from the paranoid politics of the fifties.."