A sunrise at Sanur Beach in Bali. From National Geographic.
France Recognises Libyan Rebels from the BBC
"France has become the first country to recognise the Libyan rebel leadership, the National Libyan Council (NLC), as the country's legitimate government."
On Libya, Obama Willing to Let Allies Take the Lead from the Washington Post
"President Obama is content to let other nations publicly lead the search for solutions to the Libyan conflict, his advisers say, a stance that reflects the more humble tone he has sought to bring to U.S. foreign policy but one that also opens him to criticism that he is a weak leader."
The Europeans have way more at stake in Libya than the US. Moreover, the US is already fully engaged in wars elsewhere. We don't need a hat-trick in this department. I silly don't see the demand from the LIBYANS themselves for us to become involved.
Libya Calling (Hisham Matar) from the New York Times
"WATCHING events unfold in Tunisia and Egypt last month, the Libyan dictatorship became nervous. Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime promised no-interest loans and free housing, and released several political prisoners, including my two uncles and two cousins, who had been held for 21 years."
No-Rush Zone: Why Obama is taking his time deciding what to do about Libya (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
"Is President Obama dithering over Libya? In the past week or so, a diverse array of commentators—Republican hawks, the usual neocons, and some normally gun-shy Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry—has called on Obama to take action now. Some have charged Obama with queasiness or lack of principles for not charging the ramparts from the get-go. But one can imagine several very good reasons for the president's … let's call it caution."
Obama Gets It Right (Ian Buruma) from Project Syndicate
"Actually, he has not handled them very much, at least not in public. That is precisely the problem for armchair warriors watching events unfold on their computer and television screens in Washington and New York. They want Obama to handle things more. Instead of taking a cautious approach, and letting the demonstrators in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and other places do the shouting, they want him to talk tough, or, better yet, to send in the US Air Force and blast Qaddafi’s jet fighters and helicopter gunships out of the sky. They want Obama to tell those dictators to quit right now, or else… Or else what, exactly?"
At 150, Italy Gives the Lie to the Stories We Tell the World about Europe (Timothy Garton Ash) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"There are eight uncomfortable truths that Berlusconi's kingdom reveals about an ancient and modern European project."
Slowing China (Barry Eichengreen) from Project Syndicate
"Chinese officials warn that their economy is poised to slow. In late February, Premier Wen Jiabao announced that the target for annual GDP growth over the next five years is 7%. This represents a significant deceleration from the 11% rate averaged over the five years through 2010. Should we take this 7% target seriously?"
Stuxnet: A Declaration of Cyber-War (Michael Gross) from Vanity Fair
"Last summer, the world’s top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they’d seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it. As the world now knows, the Stuxnet worm appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. And, as Michael Joseph Gross reports, while its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating."
What Wisconsin Can Teach Washington (E.J.Dionne) from the Washington Post via RealClearPolitics
"Consider the contrast between two groups of Democrats, in Wisconsin and in the nation's capital. The Washington Democrats, including President Obama, have allowed conservative Republicans to dominate the budget debate so far. As long as the argument is over who will cut more from federal spending, conservatives win. Voters may think the GOP is going too far, but when it comes to dollar amounts, they know Republicans will always cut more. In Wisconsin, by contrast, 14 Democrats in the state Senate defined the political argument on their own terms -- and they are winning it."
The next item belies some of this assessment -- but in terms of the broader political outcomes he may be right.
Wisconsin GOP Bypasses Democrats On Vote from NPR
"The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats."
GOP's Shenanigans in Wisconsin Ensure the Fight Will Only Escalate (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Here's what Wisconsin Republicans accomplished tonight: In a situation where they had repeated opportunities to resolve this standoff and plausibly declare victory for themselves, they have now ensured that this battle is only going to escalate."
Anti-Public Employee Bill Passes Senate in Wisconsin; What Now? from Firedoglake
"So what happens now? There are a host of potential implications:"
Wisconsin Recall Bid Picks Up Support from the Wall Street Journal
"Efforts to recall 14 Republican and Democratic senators in Wisconsin picked up momentum Tuesday while Gov. Scott Walker released emails suggesting the two sides discussed compromises in the three-week standoff over the governor's "budget-repair" bill."
Do Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck Hire Fake Callers from The Week
"Premiere Networks, which syndicates many of the biggest talk-radio shows, sometimes pays "angry" actors to call in to their programs. Are Limbaugh and Beck involved?"
An Early Look at 2012 ‘Elite Eight’ Battleground (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"Presidential and Senate Playing Fields Overlap in Handful of Targeted States in South, Midwest and West."
Is the GOP Charisma-Meter Upside Down in Iowa? (Scott Conroy) from RealClearPolitics
"What might be different in the 2012 field is that there seems to be an almost inverse correlation between stature and charisma. The candidates with the experience, heft, and fundraising chops - Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich - do not generate much passion"
Three Fatal Republican Mistakes That Could Spell Their Defeat Next November (Robert Creamer) from the Huffington Post
"The weatherman on TV describes it every day. "A cold front will pass through our area tomorrow afternoon and with it, a major wind shift." Historians may one day pinpoint the last several weeks as the time when the front passed -- and the political winds shifted decisively."
Some analysis of this column is HERE from the Democratic Strategist.
The Crystal Ball’s Senate Ratings: March Update (Larry Sabato) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"It’s time for a quick update on the 2012 Senate and Governor contests. Even though only two months have passed since our January roll-out, a surprisingly large number of shifts have occurred."
Why Conservatives Turned on Sarah Palin: The Inside Story (Noreen Malone) from the New Republic
"It’s never easy to extricate yourself from a fling that got way too serious. But that’s exactly what many conservatives are trying to do after a few heady years of Sarah Palin infatuation. In the wake of Palin’s deeply unserious reality TV show and her embarrassing “blood libel” video, the bloom’s worn off the rose, rather definitively. In fact, those incidents may have provided just the convenient excuses the GOP establishment was looking for."
MOVIE CLASSIC NUGGET!!
David Thomson on Films: ‘From Here to Eternity’ from the New Republic
"How the beloved movie offered a bleak glimpse into America’s uneasy future."
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