News Nuggets 535

The Serengeti plain at sunset in Tanzania.  From National Geographic.

The Economics of Egypt's Revolt (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic
"It would be overstating things to call the Cairo uprising an economic revolution. But it would be understating things to say that economics has nothing to do with Egypt's revolt. Slow economic development helped build the Egyptian tinderbox that has been set ablaze in the last week. "

Mubarak Offers to Negotiate: Foes Spurn Feeler; U.S. Seeks Formula For Regime's Exit from the Wall Street Journal
"Participants in a private meeting Monday morning at the White House's Roosevelt Room said a long discussion of Mr. Mubarak's future left them with the understanding that the White House sees no scenario in which Mr. Mubarak remains in power for long."

Egypt Pits American Values Versus U.S. Interest (Albert Hunt) from Bloomberg News Service
"Obama follows in a long line of presidents with ambivalent positions on promoting democracy in Egypt. "

The New Arab Revolt from the New Statesman [of the UK]
"What if democracy brings an Islamist government? And other key questions."

How the US Will Lose Egypt (Geoffrey Wawro) from the Daily Beast
"So far the Obama administration seems to be getting it right on Egypt. The president has called for an “orderly transition,” and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned there must not be “a takeover that would lead to oppression,” a clear reference to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. More than just the right words will be needed. The Obama team should be looking closely at Washington’s awful mismanagement of the Iranian revolution of 1978-79 to make sure they do not repeat the errors of the Carter administration."

Egypt's Revolt: Which Country is the Next 'Domino'? from The Week
"The spirit of revolution that's swept through Tunisia and Egypt may still spread to other parts of the Arab world. Here, 9 governments that could fall next"

As Sudan Makes Split Official, Popular Anger Sweeps North from the McClatchy News Service
"The wave of student-led demonstrations against Omar al Bashir's regime in Sudan's northern capital, Khartoum, is the latest in a series of protests against authoritarian governments which began with Tunisia and has since spread to Egypt and Yemen."

Iran Cracks Down While Egypt Cracks Up (Barbara Slavin) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Tehran is claiming that the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt reflect the heady days of 1979. Not so fast says the Green Movement -- it's 2009 that's a better parallel."

Jordan's King Abdullah Sacks Cabinet in Wake of Street Protests from Al Haaretz [of Israel in English]
"King Abdullah appoints new PM after thousands of Jordanians take to the streets protesting rise in fuel, food prices, slowed political reforms."

Why a Nervous China Aims to Shield Citizens from Egypt News from the Christian Science Monitor
"China has limited coverage of the Egypt protest to its Xinhua news service and warned last week that websites that did not censor comments about Egypt would be 'shut down by force.'"

Progressive Anxiety on Egypt (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"To put it simply, a "bad" outcome in Egypt--whether it's Mubarak surviving by savage repression, a civil war, or some sort of inherently unviable Kerensky-like successor government likely to give way to something worse--would blow up the Middle East in unpredictable ways, and could well plunge much of the entire planet into a second phase of global recession."

Arab World on the Brink: An Interactive Guide from the Guardian [of the UK]
What is the likelihood of the current unrest in Egypt spreading to other countries in the region? Ian Black looks at the evidence …"
This interactive site is interesting if incomplete.

America's Other Most Embarrassing Allies: Hosni Mubarak Has Plenty of Company (Joshua Keating) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Maintaining good relations with autocrats is an unfortunate but often necessary component of the delicate balancing act that is U.S. foreign policy. But as Washington learned once again this week, supporting an strongman for the sake of stability can present risks of its own. Here are eight more alliances that could prove embarrassing. "

Al Jazeera English Blacked Out Across Most of the US (Ryan Grimm) from the Huffington Post
"Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. - including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. - cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats harshly criticize the Egyptian government for blocking Internet communication inside the country and as Egypt attempts to block Al Jazeera from broadcasting.  The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet's website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States."
The irony here is SO multi-dimensional!  As I have noted many times, those Americans who rely largely or exclusively on television for their news WILL be misinformed (almost systematically so) about what's going on in the US and in the world.  American television and cable news is too compromised by its commercial demands to present a truly fair and balanced picture of the news that Americans NEED to know (instead of the steady diet of dumbed-down news candy that makes up 99% of their coverage).  The contrast with the BBC is becoming more glaring with each passing year.  The US cable news channels' coverage of the protests in Egypt is only the latest example.  I look at my own behavior: it never even occurred to me that any of my local cable/satellite services would have even offered Al Jazeera English --  I just immediately went o their on-line stream.  Sad.

To further make the point:
America's Narcissism Taints Egypt Coverage (Alex Pareene) from Salon
"America doesn't really understand how to respond to a revolution. The demonstrations in Egypt have nothing to do with Tea Parties or Neo-Conservatives or Twitter or Facebook or Fox News. But don't tell Americans!"

The High Deficit, Low Tax Trap (Jeffrey Sachs) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"resident Barack Obama painted a convincing picture of modern, 21st-century government. His Republican party opponents complained that Obama's proposals would bust the budget. But the truth is that both parties are hiding from the reality: without more taxes, a modern, competitive US economy is not possible."
Our on-the-money pundit of the day!!  Where I diverge from this author is in my sense that the "tax consensus" is beginning to break down, that the time is coming when voters will accept tax increases as the cost for dealing with the deficit and doing the essential things a 21st century economy requires.  We're not there yet -- but the time is coming.

Boehner: Blocking Debt Limit Increase Not on Table from Daily Kos
"That would be a financial disaster not only for our country, but for the worldwide economy. Remember, the American people on Election Day said we want to cut spending and we want to create jobs. You can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."
Not so fast, Mr. Speaker.  We'll see what the Tea Party has to say about this apostasy. 

Democrats Force Votes with Eye on Campaigns from Roll Call
"House Democrats have launched a floor strategy aimed at forcing freshman Republicans to take tough votes on politically sensitive topics, mirroring a tactic that the GOP deployed when it was in the minority."
Yeah -- I'll believe it when I see it.

Jon Huntsman Resigns as Ambassador to China: His 2012 Conundrum (McKay Coppins) from the Daily Beast
"Does moderate Jon Huntsman, who’s resigning as Obama’s ambassador to China to mount a bid to take on his boss in 2012, really believe he can win the GOP nomination? McKay Coppins on why the answer appears to be yes."
This is such a WIN-WIN proposition for Huntsman.  EVEN IF HE FAILS TO GET THE NOMINATION for 2012, he will get the kind of exposure that will either land him as a VP in 2012 or put him in the front of the line for 2016.  Brilliant.  Equally brilliant: he seems to be positioning himself for a post-Tea Party GOP future.

2012-Pres: The Hunt is On … from Politico
"Over the holidays, the ex-governor met with Sen. John McCain, whose 2008 presidential run Huntsman backed early on. … Huntsman made plain that he was eyeing a White House campaign in the near term, according to a source close to the senator."

2012-Pres: The Latest Huntsman 2012 News (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"To me as armchair strategist, staying out of the 2012 fray would seem to save him a lot of heartache. Avoiding a primary fight in this bitter season, when he's fresh off Team Obama; and, if he survived that, avoiding a general election battle when  -- one assumes -- the economic cycle should be improving."
Daily Kos has some comments HERE about Huntsman.

For those of you who have not seen Huntsman in action, see this VIDEO CLIP where he shows off his Chinese language skills and talks about language as a big to the future.  Huntsman appears around the 3 minute point. 

Rasmussen: Third Party Problem with Palin Voters from FOX News
"Nearly half of the Republican Primary voters who support Sarah Palin say they are at least somewhat likely to vote for a third-party candidate if she does not win the GOP presidential nomination."
You betcha'!!  Those crazy Palin voters!  Daily Kos has some further discussion of this poll HERE.

KITTY NUGGET!!
Can You Train Your Pet Cat? Yes, But It Won't Be Easy (Elizabeth Weingarten) from Slate
"Cats were domesticated about 9,000 years ago, and were originally used to hunt mice. It's likely they were selected for their solitary hunting abilities, not for any particular social acuity or inclination to follow instructions. (Dogs, on the other hand, were selected for those very traits.) That doesn't mean you can't train a cat; it just means they won't always respond to the same rewards as dogs."