News Nuggets 464

A very revealing chart.  See the analysis in the Mother Jones editorial below.

US Elections: A Tilt to the Right (John Donnelly) from the International Relations and Security Network
"When it comes to security and foreign policy, a 2011 Republican surge in the US Congress - particularly if it involves GOP control of one or both chambers - will mean harder-line rhetoric and several shifts in policy and funding."

The New American Isolationism: The Cost of Turning Away from War’s Horrific Realities (Lt. Col. William Astore) from TomDispatch.com
It is extremely RARE that I post items that are pure products of unknown folks posting to an unknown blog -- but this one warrants an exception.  Scroll down a bit to see Astore's full piece.
"A new isolationism is metastasizing in the American body politic.  At its heart lies not an urge to avoid war, but an urge to avoid contemplating the costs and realities of war.  It sees war as having analgesic qualities -- as lessening a collective feeling of impotence, a collective sense of fear and terror.  Making war in the name of reducing terror serves this state of mind and helps to preserve it."

How Do You Say the N-Word in French? (Jake Lamar) from The Root
"Does the French word nègre translate directly to the epithet Americans refer to as the n-word? The most accurate answer would be "Yes, but ... " "

The Benjamin Button Election (Jennifer Senior) from New York Magazine
"Rage, powerlessness, magical thinking—why is how we think about politics increasingly mirroring the mind-set of a small child?"
What a great question!!

Next for GOP Leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin from Politico
"There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting."
Well, this would be ONE thing to savor after tomorrow.  Michael Tomasky at the Guardian comments on this item HERE.

Are the Tea Partiers Being Taken for a Ride? (Editorial) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Voters beware—the head you're putting on the chopping block may be your own. … the defenders of the überrich pulled off an amazing bit of jujitsu. Just two years after the collapse, a vast percentage of those who got screwed are mad as hell—not at the bankers who did the screwing, but at a government that was left to clean up the mess."

The Party Crashers: Behind the New Republican Revival (David Von Drehle) from Time Magazine
"The date was May 5, 2009. Looking back, that was the day the 2010 election truly began — not just the campaign for a Senate seat from Florida but the broad national campaign for control of Congress and the direction of the country."

HISTORY NUGGET!!
TR and the Tea Party Last Time (Edmund Morris) from the New York Times
"Having ridden, in a sense, on the campaign train of Theodore Roosevelt, as the former president barnstormed in behalf of Congressional candidates in 1910, I am struck by some parallels between then and now."

DAY-AFTER-HALLOWEEN NUGGET!!
The Obamas Do Halloween at the White House (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, handed out Halloween treats to area children and military families at the White House Sunday evening."
The White House looked pretty cool last night -- as did the Obamas!

OBITUARY NUGGET!!
Theodore C. Sorensen, 82, Kennedy Counselor, Dies from the New York Times
"Theodore C. Sorensen, one of the last links to John F. Kennedy’s administration, a writer and counselor who did much to shape the president’s narrative, image and legacy, died Sunday in Manhattan. He was 82."
A wordsmith of the highest order.  James Fallows has a remembrance HERE at the Atlantic.

BIOGRAPHY NUGGET!!
"Cleopatra": Sex and Sovereignty in the Ancient World (Laura Miller) from Salon
"From a master biographer, a shrewd and worldly tribute to history's most notorious queen."
I have been hearing amazing things about this bio.

GERMAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Fuhrer in the Making: A Review of Hitler's First War by Thomas Weber (Norman Stone) from the Wall Street Journal
"Brigitte Hamann's extensive research revealed that Hitler was not really an anti-Semite until after World War I. What had happened in those crucial wartime years is the question that Thomas Weber now answers in "Hitler's First War." Like Ms. Hamann, he has searched out original documents and found new material. Like her, he fundamentally alters our understanding of one of the most studied figures of the 20th century."
I've read quite a bit about Hitler's bio over the years, and his World War I-years have always been an enormous black hole for historians -- so I marvel at the herculean efforts Weber must have gone through to locate NEW revelatory documentation.  Extraordinary.