News Nuggets 526

Flathead Valley in Montana in the Fall.  From Huffington Post.

MUST-READ HEALTH CARE HISTORY NUGGET!!
Historian: Thomas Jefferson Supported `Government Run Health Care' (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"I see that the Rick Ungar post I flagged yesterday arguing that John Adams supported a 1798 measure similar to health reform's individual mandate is starting to get some traction on the Web. Good. Now I've got a bit more for you along these lines. It turns out Thomas Jefferson also supported the same measure, meaning it had more support than you might have thought among the founders."
If you missed Rick Ungar's original piece, make sure to check it out.  While one could certainly quibble over the lack of context and historical nuance, the basic point is very timely.

Is China Really No. 1? (Mark Rice) from Forbes Magazine
"…did you know that China is the world's leading economic power? It's not, really, but a recent poll by the Pew Research Center shows that 47% of Americans think it is. Such beliefs are telling. There's a whole lot of misperception and misinformation floating around out there about how China measures up in the world. Consider this a modest effort to put some things into perspective."

China Grows 10 Percent Again: Is This Believable? (Derek Scissors) from the Heritage Foundation
"This greater instability, and the desire to hide it, shows China playing with a weaker hand than it appears. American policymakers should be mindful of periods of Chinese economic vulnerability in considering when to apply pressure and when to offer more cooperation."
Now, let me just say I almost never post items from the Heritage Foundation -- I find that they allow their partisanship to routinely trump their research -- but here they are discussing an issue with less than clear ideological lines and it's a subject that has been getting a lot of under-the-radar attention from analysts across the ideological spectrum.

This Week at War - Whose Chinese Military Is It? from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Hu Jintao's seeming lack of control over the PLA should worry Washington."

Banned in Beijing! (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"The challenge for the authorities is that there is just too much to police by moderators, and automatic filters don’t work terribly well. Chinese routinely use well-known code phrases for terms that will be censored. Likewise, Chinese can usually get around the “great firewall of China” by using widely available software, like Freegate, or by tunneling through a virtual private network. Most Chinese aren’t overtly political — seeking out banned pornography is typically regarded as more rewarding than chasing down tracts about multiparty democracy. Still, Internet controls are widely resented."

President Obama and the New America (Jack White) from The Root
"My guess is that, to future historians, our times won't seem merely like a struggle between liberals and conservatives, or Republicans and Democrats, or advocates of big government and those of limited government, or blacks and whites. Instead they will be seen as something much more fundamental: the birth pangs of a new version of America -- one that not only looked different from the country it displaced but also occupied a different, more mature place in the world."

The Triumph of Hacker Culture: Stuxnet and the Iconic, Pioneering Hacker Captain Crunch (Ron Rosenbaum) from Slate
"It's the best of times and the worst of times for hacker culture. On the one hand, this is a moment of history-making triumph for a cyber-worm, the complex computer virus known and feared as "Stuxnet." A stunning evolutionary leap in development of "malware" (the generic term for the mischief-making software a virus embeds in computers via digital networks). … Stuxnet seized the control panel of the Bushehr reactor and did its Stuxnet thing and shut that huge, $1 billion complex down. Just like that."
A VERY interesting take on the importance of the Stuxnet worm!! A very historic development according to this author!!  I agree.

Our Superficial Scholars (Heather Wilson) from the Washington Post
"…high-achieving students seem less able to grapple with issues that require them to think across disciplines or reflect on difficult questions about what matters and why. … We are looking for students who wonder, students who are reading widely, students of passion who are driven to make a difference in the lives of those around them and in the broader world through enlightened and effective leadership. The undergraduate education they are receiving seems less and less suited to that purpose.  An outstanding biochemistry major wants to be a doctor and supports the president's health-care bill but doesn't really know why."
The reason: most young people (like most adults) don't know squat about current events, basic facts about how our gov't works, or about recent US History -- and the MSM provides NO HELP in bridging that ignorance.

Senate in Long Recess as Leaders Seek to Rein in Democrats' Filibuster Rebellion from the Washington Post
"To the dismay of a younger crop of Democrats and some outside liberal activists, there is no chance that rules surrounding the filibuster will be challenged, senior aides on both sides of the aisle say, because party leaders want to protect the right of the Senate's minority party to sometimes force a supermajority of 60 votes to approve legislation."
WHO CALLED IT! I knew they weren't going to do sh#@ about the filibuster or related reforms.

Keith Olbermann's Departure Means the End of the Wingnuts (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"With Keith Olbermann’s departure, Glenn Beck’s collapsing ratings, and Sarah Palin’s recent missteps, John Avlon says we may be witnessing a national turn away from hard-core partisanship."
I think SOMETHING has shifted -- but it's way too early to write off Beck & company.  Moreover, Olbermann's ratings (as far as I know) were NOT tanking.  He'll be back.  But, as I noted last week, the 2010 election and the Tucson shooting may be a "Have you no shame…" moment for the Tea Party's most vitriolic elements. 

Who Can Win the 2012 GOP Nomination? (Dan Balz) from the Washington Post
"Republicans' confusion about their presidential nomination contest runs deep: They are confused about who may actually run and about who might be their strongest candidate against an incumbent president who looks more formidable today than he did just three months ago.  Excluding a handful of almost certain candidates - including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum - the Republican field is full of question marks."

Newt Gingrich Tells Georgia Republicans He’ll be a Candidate in ‘12 (Jim Galloway) from the Atlanta Journal Constitution
"In the last 24 hours, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich has touched base with several prominent Republicans in his former home state, telling them that he intends to make a run for president in 2012 using Georgia as his base – and that he already has his eye on office space in Buckhead for a campaign headquarters."
Oh GOOD!! He's someone who can inflict A LOT of damage on other contenders but has no chance of really getting the nomination.  I'm sure the Obama folks are cheering.

Michelle Bachmann's Tea Party Agenda Will Disrupt the GOP (Andrew Romano) from the Daily Beast
"The Minnesota congresswoman has never shied from controversy, but her latest efforts to represent Tea Party interests are disrupting Boehner's push for the Republicans to rule effectively—and threatening the party's unity"
DON'T let those beltway boneheads push you around, Michelle!! You just keep bringing it!!  The White House?  Why not!?  You'll show THEM!!

SOUTH-OF-BORDER NUGGET!!
Doing Drug History from a Drug War Zone from the Alcohol and Drugs History Society Blog
"One hot morning last May, the El Paso Times brought news that many of us had been dreading—a student from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) had been murdered in the drug-trade violence that has disrupted our neighbor city, Ciudad Juárez, for three years.  Like many UTEP students, Alejandro Ruiz, 18 years old, lived a binational life.  A dual citizen, he lived mostly in Juárez, but commuted to UTEP.  On that day last May he and a friend were traveling from a boy scout meeting when their vehicle was riddled with machine gun fire…."

ENVIRONMENTAL NUGGET!!
Man-Made Oasis Will Transform the Desert from Discovery News
"An amibitious project to pipe salt water from the Red Sea into the arid coastal city of Aqaba, Jordan, could turn the region into an oasis. A 50-acre demonstration facility, which will combine two technologies -- seawater greenhouses and concentrated solar power -- to grow crops, produce carbon neutral energy and desalinate seawater, has received approval from the government of Jordan and could be operational by 2012, with full-scale commercial use going online in 2015."

US CIVIL WAR NUGGET!!
'No Better Southern Man' (Daniel Crofts) from the New York Times
"The featureless flat plains of West Tennessee seemed an unlikely locale to harbor a “Southern Black Republican.” But his political opponents routinely hung this epithet — and worse — on Rep. Emerson Etheridge. That’s because, unlike many Southern antisecessionists in early 1861, Etheridge continued to proclaim unconditional loyalty to the Union. Even worse, he ridiculed the idea that the Republican Party intended to interfere with slavery."