A group of Samburu elephants in Kenya. From National Geographic.
UP-FRONT WHALE NUGGET!!
"Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Michihiko Kano told reporters Friday that the country's government halted whaling because of actions taken by the animal rights group, Sea Shepherd. He stressed that Japan did not want to do so, but felt its hand was forced."
An amazing victory for the Sea Shepherd and for opponents of whaling everywhere!
Morning Brief: Demonstrations Met with Violence Throughout Middle East from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Throughout the Middle East and North Africa, regimes are increasingly using force to respond to the wave of anti-government protests that have erupted in the wake of recent events in Tunisia and Egypt. "
The West Looks to Fan Flames as Iran and Libya Feel the Heat from Within from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"The mullahs scarcely imagined that the protests would appear on their doorstep, too, says Con Coughlin."
Blood Runs Through the Streets of Bahrain (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"As a reporter, you sometimes become numbed to sadness. But it is heartbreaking to be in modern, moderate Bahrain right now and watch as a critical American ally uses tanks, troops, guns and clubs to crush a peaceful democracy movement and then lie about it."
Rage, Rap and Revolution: Inside the Arab Youth Quake (Bobby Ghosh) from Time Magazine
"The most important things 2011's protests have in common don't come from copying — they come naturally. All of the revolts are led by young men and women, many of whom are novices at political activism. All use modern tools, like social-networking sites on the Internet and texting over mobile phones, to organize and amplify their protests. And all have the same demands: a right to choose and change their leaders, an end to rampant corruption, the opportunity for employment and improvement."
Guru of the Revolution (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"When the history of the Egyptian Revolution gets written, a large place must be reserved in it for Pierre Sioufi, the bearded, twinkly-eyed, chain-smoking, larger-than-life guru of liberation who threw open his sprawling apartment overlooking Cairo’s Tahrir Square to the “kids” who demanded the right to connect."
This is Being Caught Off Guard? (Paul Pillar) from the National Interest
"Now Mark Landler reports in the New York Times that last August President Obama ordered a secret study on the very topic of the likelihood of unrest in Arab countries, and what the United States could do to shape policies that would juggle the competing interests the United States has in reform in those countries and cooperation with those governments. … Given how much at variance this report is with all that earlier public commentary, it is remarkable that news of the study did not leak out earlier."
Obama Threaded the Needle in Egypt (Robert Shrum) from The Week
"Judge the president's diplomacy by the results — not by the critics."
Fate of Two Iranian Warships Headed for Syria Still Unclear from Al Haaretz [of Israel in English]
"According to Egyptian authorities, Cairo refused to allow the Iranian vessels passage, but Iranian state television has insisted that permission was granted."
So … what's up?
House Spending Impasse Raises Risk of Shutdown from the New York Times
"The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, said Thursday that Republicans would not agree to a short-term extension of the spending measure now financing the federal government without additional cuts, sharply raising the stakes in a war of wills with Democrats that officials say could lead to a government shutdown early next month."
I find it fascinating how the GOP has increasingly become the party of Johnny one-note. They seem to think that budget issues are the only issues that matter to voters: HUGE MISTAKE. Gov't shutdown - go for it! Obama has been no-so-quietly cultivating his "I feel your pain" persona with average voters hit by the recession. I'm betting Obama will come out ahead in this confrontation. The problem the GOP increasingly faces is being left owning (not very firmly) the budget issue -- and nothing else of concern to moderate/independent voters. Unemployment is EXTREMELY important right now -- and the GOP seems to really not get it.
Tea Party Clashes with GOP Establishment Over Defense from the Washington Examiner
"The tension between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party insurgents erupted on the House floor for the first time Wednesday when 110 GOP representatives -- mostly freshmen and some longtime conservative gadflies -- broke from their leadership and most of their caucus in order to kill a defense contract."
On the Wisconsin state workers protests:
Assembly to Convene as Protesters Return to Capitol from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"The showdown in Madison is now reverberating across the state. Public schools in Wisconsins' two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, are shutdown Friday because of a ''sick out'' by teachers, leaving tens of thousands of parents and students scrambling to make other plans. Organized labor is also gearing up a national effort to back the Wisconsin unions. At a noon rally in front of the Capitol, national AFL-CIO Prsident Richard Trumka is expected to join thousands of demonstrators. His appearance, and behind-the-scenes organizing help from unions with national reach, shows just how great the stakes are in Wisconsin for the national labor movement."
Obama Joins Wisconsin's Budget Battle, Opposing Republican Anti-union Bill from the Washington Post
"President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits while planning similar action in other state capitals."
Like WI Dems, I think Obama sees this issue as a TOTAL winner. In their blind rush to LOOK convincing as budget hawks to their Tea Party extremists, the WI GOP is using state budget battles as stalking horses for their long-held desire to destroy public-sector unions. Everyone knows state workers and/or teachers; and the heavy-handed "ram it through" strategy they have adopted in Wisconsin will backfire. Not only will it mobilize those groups to pull out all the stops next year to take down the GOP, it puts Dems and Obama on the side of workers, people facing unemployment, and those hard-hit by the recession, exactly the group Dems want to lock in for next year.
United We Flee (David Weigel) from Slate
"Can a bunch of Wisconsin Democratic senators stop a bill by refusing to show up for the vote?"
DNC Expands Role In Labor Protests To Ohio, Indiana from the Huffington Post
"Building on the momentum in Wisconsin, where tens of thousands of protesters have turned out to oppose Republican Gov. Scott Walker's effort to strip collective-bargaining rights from the state's public-employee unions, President Barack Obama's campaign organization is mobilizing its followers in Ohio and Indiana, where similar measures are being considered."
The GOP's Race Backslide (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"Haley Barbour’s refusal to denounce Confederate license plates is just the latest example of a Republican Party that is regressing on race—and damaging its electoral future."
For GOP Hopefuls, Meet Their Backyard Backstabbers from Politico
"Like scorned ex-wives, they are hell-bent on telling the world that the man they know intimately is not, deep down, what his public persona suggests."
Haley Barbour's Silence Speaks Volumes (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"Does Haley Barbour really have a warped and offensive view of America's racial history? Or is he just playing a dangerous game?Perhaps both."
TELEVISION NUGGET!!
IBM's Watson Supercomputer Crowned Jeopardy King from the BBC
"After a three night marathon on the quiz show Jeopardy, Watson emerged victorious to win a $1million (£622,000) prize. The computer's competitors were two of the most successful players ever to have taken part in Jeopardy."
RENAISSANCE ARTIST NUGGET!!
Caravaggio's Crimes Exposed in Rome's Police Files from BBC
"Four hundred years after his death, Caravaggio is a 21st Century superstar among old master painters. His stark, dramatically lit, super-realistic paintings strike a modern chord - but his police record is more shocking than any modern bad boy rock star's."
OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
Why Humans Will Never Colonize Space from The Week
"Our dream of life beyond the stars may be thwarted by fertility-sapping cosmic rays, says a NASA biophysicist."
We can go there -- just not reproduce there.
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