MUST-READ RIGHTWING NUTCASE NUGGET!!
Glenn Beck: Should Fox Toss Him Out of the Coop? (David Corn) from Politics Daily
Now -- let me say, I almost never put much stock in the daily back-and-forth between various right-wing and left-wing TV blabbermouths -- but this was TOO off-the-charts looney to warrant less than front-row status for a day!
"Glenn Beck is walking toward a cliff -- or running, or skipping. The question is, will Fox News go flying over the edge with him, or give him a push? … The Egypt uprising has raised the stakes for Beck -- and Fox."
Protests Swell in Rejection of Egypt’s Limited Reforms from the New York Times
"With a new wave of demonstrations in Tahrir Square on Tuesday — by some measures the largest anti-government protests in the two-week uprising — Egyptians loudly rejected their government’s approach to political change and renewed their demands for the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak."
So much for Mubarak's transparent "all is well, all is normal" stratagem. He had the demonstrators muddled -- for about 48 hours. The snow in his 'snow job' evaporated pretty quick.
Obama's Still Trying for Egyptian Change (Marc Lynch) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The struggle is now shifting to the much messier terrain of negotiations over the terms of Egypt's transition, with public and private jockeying over matters ranging from the esoteric (proposed language for Constitutional reforms) to the symbolic (Mubarak's role). Crucially, as it adapts to this new game, the administration has not in the least backed down on its calls for a meaningful transition"
Up with Egypt (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"The army could stick by Mubarak, whose only strategy seems to be to buy time and hope that the revolt splinters or peters out. Or the army could realize that what is happening in Tahrir Square is the wave of the future. ... For that to unfold, both the Egyptian Army and the Obama team will have to read what is happening in Tahrir Square through a new lens. Mubarak wants everyone to believe this is Iran 1979 all over, but it just does not feel that way. This uprising feels post-ideological."
The Lessons From Tunisia’s Fallen Autocracy (Joseph Stiglitz) from the Moscow Times [in English]
"All over the world, countries are struggling to create enough jobs for new entrants into the labor force. High unemployment and pervasive corruption, however, create a combustible combination. What matters is a sense of equity and fair play. … there is more to true democracy than periodic elections, even when they are conducted fairly. Democracy in the United States, for example, has been accompanied by increasing inequality, so much so that the upper 1 percent now receives about one-quarter of national income with wealth being even more inequitably distributed. Indeed, most Americans today are worse off than they were a decade ago, with almost all the gains from economic growth going to the very top of the income and wealth distribution."
Nation's First Drone Test Pilot Trainee has the Right-Click Stuff from the Los Angeles Times
"Unlike his brethren who risked their lives in experimental aircraft, Air Force Capt. Nicholas Helms will push the limits of what unmanned planes can do from the comfort of a computer workstation on the ground."
Still Nearly 5 Unemployed Workers for Every Opening (Catherin Rampell) from the New York Times
"In July 2009, right after the recession officially ended, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings peaked at 6.3. It has fallen since, to about 4.7 in both November and December of 2010. That’s better, of course, but it’s still historically high and doesn’t provide much hope that the labor market can quickly absorb the nation’s millions of idle workers."
The table with this article is interesting. Ah, to be in a job market where I'd be competing against only five! In the humanities in academe, less than a hundred applicants per job posting is usually considered low. Two hundred plus applicants per position is pretty routine.
Most New York Students Are Not College-Ready from the New York Times
"The new statistics, part of a push to realign state standards with college performance, show that only 23 percent of students in New York City graduated ready for college or careers in 2009, not counting special-education students. That is well under half the current graduation rate of 64 percent, a number often promoted by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as evidence that his education policies are working. But New York City is still doing better than the state’s other large urban districts. In Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, less than 17 percent of students met the proposed standards, including just 5 percent in Rochester."
Seventeen percent! SEVENTEEN PERCENT!! This is such breathtakingly bad news, I'm surprised it isn't getting more attention. Make no mistake, New York state schools are better than MANY other state school systems -- and yet this is what's happening even here. Incredible.
House GOP Fumbles on Patriot Act Renewal from the Los Angeles Times
"Conservative and 'tea party' Republicans join many Democrats to vote against renewal of the terrorist surveillance law, key provisions of which are to expire Feb. 28."
Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, there is a level at which this does not bode well for the future -- it indicates that the House GOP leadership does not have firm grip on their caucus. For such a signature GOP national security initiative, that they allowed this much free-lancing to occur and were basically taken by surprise suggests that Boehner, Cantor et al., could be easily railroaded on key up-coming issues such as the debt ceiling, the budget etc. A Vanity Fair profile of Boehner done a month ago asserted that he was quite lazy and often failed to produce votes he had promised. If that IS how his Speakership is going to go, this current Congressional session could be marked by legislative chaos and ineptitude when it comes to MUST-PASS items.
Are Democrats Better Off Than They Were 25 Years Ago? (Nate Silver) from the New York Times
"Reactions to the D.L.C.’s demise range from those that describe the group as a “victim of its own success” to those that regard the group’s decline as proof that the Democratic Party has lost its ability to appeal to moderates once and for all. I don’t think either reaction is exactly on the mark."
I think the Dems in a much stronger place than they were 25 years ago. At that time, they were a head that had allowed its body to wither away. Almost nothing was happening at the grass-roots level. Not so now.
Dems To Watch: A Rising Crop of Democrats Looks to the Middle (Tim Fernholz) from the American Prospect
"With so many veterans culled in November--63 in the House and six in the Senate--a new generation of leaders needs to step up inside the Democratic Caucus to regain electoral ground and continue pushing their party's priorities in the face of an increasingly conservative Republican Party."
All you hear about these days is the up-and-coming Tea Party lawmakers. Good to see that there are some up-and-coming Dems worth watching.
Michelle Obama's Unfolding Legacy (Nia-Malika Henderson) from the Washington Post
"The personnel moves reflect a first lady grappling with inevitable departures from jobs that require long hours and political steel. The moves also reveal a first lady who is upgrading and tweaking her role, and making moot that perennial question - is she more like Hillary or Laura?"
HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD NUGGET!!
Silent Films Recovered: These New Releases are Oldest in a Long Time from the Washington Post
"The box, a gift from the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library to the Library of Congress, contained digital copies of 10 silent films that had been thought to be lost to history. … The movies were delivered late last year through a Russian-American working group on library cooperation, and they represent the first installment in a cache of up to 194 early American films that will eventually be repatriated. There are classics by directors who include Cecil B. De Mille and Sam Wood and gems starring such actors as Mary Pickford and Sessue Hayakawa."
HOW GREAT!! As a historian, I love stories like this.
AUTOMOBILE NUGGET!!
Can Air Hybrid Cars Make It on the Mean Streets? from SmartPlanet
"Researchers at Lund University in Sweden announced today that they have developed a compressed air hybrid engine that would allow buses to cut fuel consumption by 60 percent. … Pneumatic or “compressed air” engines has been a concept that researchers have toyed around with for about a couple centuries."
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