Obama and Clinton's Iran strategy: More There Than Meets the Eye? (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"From its start, I have viewed the Iran sanctions regime the Obama administration has helped devise with great skepticism. However, if recent reports are to be believed, the sanctions may someday be seen in retrospect as a vital element of an effective strategy to curtail the Iranian nuclear program. In fact, the possibility is beginning to emerge that they could be seen as part of what may someday be seen as one of the signal triumphs of Obama-Clinton foreign policy."
I am not surprised. I've had a pretty high level of confidence that Obama's approach here would ultimately win. I think the biggest difference between me and so many "skeptics" like Rothkopf (who is not a nut job by any means) is that I'm clear (just like the Joint Chiefs) that the US is in NO WAY WHATSOEVER ready to go to war against Iran. Folks like Rothkopf (for a range of reasons) wrongly continue to view war with Iran as an option, that somehow it is still on the table. Under Obama, it is not and never has been. Faced with having to make sanctions work, Obama was meticulous almost to a fault in constructing the web of sanctions that now ensnares Iran's leaders. The bigger question at this point is -- what now?
Rising Wages Will Burst China's Bubble (Peter Tasker) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"Who has survived the global credit crisis in the best shape? As Zhou Enlai is reputed to have said about the impact of the French Revolution, it is still too early to judge. The snap verdict that China is the big winner and the US and rest of the old Group of Seven big losers is already looking questionable."
Has anyone been following the unlikely stories coming out of the north African Arab states? See the following two items:
Amid Rioting, Tunisia Closes Universities from the New York Times
"The Tunisian government ordered the closing of all schools and universities in the country on Monday until further notice in an attempt to quell escalating riots over poverty and unemployment."
Algeria's National 'Protesta' (Hugh Roberts) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The massive wave of protests that have engulfed Algeria and the recent unrest in Tunisia are both premised on a fundamental political deficit -- the absence of credible political institutions capable of ensuring adequate representation of the society and so keeping the executive branch of the state under the kind of critical observation and pressure necessary to good government."
Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"…it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge. Many on the right have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing immigrants, or welfare recipients, or bureaucrats. They seem to have persuaded many Americans that the government is not just misguided, but the enemy of the people."
After Arizona Shooting, Obama Should Fight Fringe Extremism Like Clinton Did (Ari Berman) from the Nation
"On May 6, 1995, two weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing, Bill Clinton gave the commencement speech at Michigan State University and used the opportunity to assail the rise of antigovernment, pro-militia sentiment among America‘s far right. "There is nothing patriotic about hating your government," Clinton said, "or pretending you can hate your government but love your country." In the wake of Saturday‘s horrific shooting in Arizona, those words are as true today as they were fifteen years ago."
Why Gun Control is Dead in America (Justin Elliott) from Salon
"As the immediate shock of the mass shooting in Arizona subsides and the conversation turns to gun control, it's becoming increasingly clear that there is little chance that new anti-gun measures will pass the Republican-dominated Congress. But a picture is also coming into focus of a gun control movement that has been on the retreat for at least a decade, facing setbacks not only in Congress, but also in the courts and in public opinion polls, and of a Democratic Party that, from President Obama on down, has all but ceded the issue to the National Rifle Association."
The gun control ISSUE was and remains a TOTAL LOSER for Democrats and they were right to take a hike on it -- they had (and still have) bigger fish to fry.
For Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, a McKinley Moment? (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"If any good can come of the horror in Tucson, it will be that this becomes a McKinley moment for Sarah Palin and her chief spokesman, Glenn Beck."
Obama Soundly Beats Christie and All Other Republicans from Public Policy Polling
"The president would easily retain New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes against any comer,…"
PUBLIC TELEVISION NUGGET!!
Masterpiece Theater, Icon of PBS, Turns 40 (Jace Lacob) from the Daily Beast
"PBS' venerable anthology series Masterpiece celebrates its 40th birthday today. Jace Lacob talks with executive producer Rebecca Eaton and picks 12 of the best shows from the last four decades."
A related article on the upcoming hit series from Britain, Downton Abbey is HERE.
BUILDING MATERIALS NUGGET!!
New Glass Tops Steel in Strength and Toughness from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
"Glass stronger and tougher than steel? A new type of damage-tolerant metallic glass, demonstrating a strength and toughness beyond that of any known material, has been developed and tested by a collaboration of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)and the California Institute of Technology. What’s more, even better versions of this new glass may be on the way."
AUSTRALIAN BAT NUGGET!!
It's Not Only the Humans Who Have Lost Their Homes in the Australian Floods from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Torrential rain has brought chaos to Australia, and not just to the humans who live there. Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks."
REVOLUTIONARY ERA BOOK NUGGET!!
No Thanks for the Memories: A Review of The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle Over American History by Jill Lepore (Gordon Wood) from the New York Review of Books
"The Tea Partiers are certainly not scholars, but their emotional instincts about the Revolution they are trying to remember on behalf of their cause may be more accurate than Lepore is willing to grant. Popular memory is not history, and that important distinction seems to be the source of the problem with Lepore’s book."
A very interesting critique!
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