Sunrise at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. From National Geographic.
Libya Action in U.S. National Interest (Shibley Telhami) from Politico
"U.S. foreign military intervention shouldn’t be taken lightly, and the current one in Libya deserves a full debate. But Libya’s case is exceptional — in more ways than one. Both U.S. national interests and its values come together here, and Arab support is unprecedented. In addition, the interests at stake extend far beyond Libya’s borders."
A Late but Lucky Obama Speech (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"The president refused to be rushed into giving a speech on Libya, though the country needed to hear from him earlier. But Monday night was a fortuitous moment for such an address, says Eleanor Clift."
Obama on Libya: Watch Out, Saudi Arabia (Thomas E. Ricks) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"It reminded me that about three years ago, when I read a transcript of an interview Fareed Zakaria did about foreign affairs with Barack Obama, then running for the Democratic presidential nomination. The message I took away from that exchange was that if this guy is elected, he will have little time for dictators, despots and the like."
Obama and American Power (John B. Judis) from the New Republic
"In justifying America’s armed intervention in Libya, President Barack Obama left some loose ends and unspoken subtexts on the teleprompter, but all in all, he came pretty close to giving an argument for intervention that had a lot to do with why he decided to send American warships and planes."
The Timeliness Paradox: Why Isn’t Obama Getting Credit for Stopping an Atrocity? (Tom Malinowski) from the New Republic
"Here is one lesson we can draw from the mostly negative media commentary about the Obama administration’s actions in Libya: Presidents get more credit for stopping atrocities after they begin than for preventing them before they get out of hand."
Lone, Brave Woman Exposes Truth of Libya (Charles Clover) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"For most foreign journalists the price of working from Tripoli is staying at the Rixos, tended by government minders and fed a steady diet of propaganda. ... On Saturday morning, however, a little piece of the real world, named Eman el-Obeidi, came crashing into our surreal existence."
Syria Unrest 'Cannot Be Contained' (Kate Seelye) from the Daily Beast
"Syrian dissidents tell Kate Seelye that even if the anti-government demonstrations fail to topple the Assad regime, things will never be the same in the country—and the no-fly zone over Libya is helping their cause."
Arabs Will Be Free (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"Three Middle Eastern countries have been conspicuous for their stability in the storm. They are Turkey, Lebanon and Israel. An odd mix, you might say, but they have in common that they are places where people vote. Democracy is a messy all-or-nothing business."
Venezuela's Chávez 'Near the Breaking Point' Over Libya (Editorial) from El Mundo [of El Salvador in English]
"The most nervous of the left-wing Latin American leaders since the North African uprisings began is, without a doubt, Hugo Chávez, who sees his end on the horizon and has begun to launch wild accusations about how the United States aims to steal Libyan and Venezuelan oil."
The latest twist in the "Dictators of the World UNITE!" movement.
Rising Concern about China's Increasing Power: Global Poll from World Public Opinion
"The poll conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA among 28,619 people in 27 countries reveals that the numbers who say that China becoming more powerful economically is a bad thing have increased substantially across a number of China's key trading partners--and especially in G7 countries."
Worse is Better (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Wow. The GOP prescription for higher employment is actually quite spectacular — it’s a thing of many levels, an ignorance wrapped in a fallacy. The idea is this: we’ll lay off government workers; this will raise unemployment, putting downward pressure on wages; and lower wages will lead to higher employment."
States Broke? Maybe They Cut Taxes Too Much from the McClatchy News Service
"The tax cuts were supposed to stimulate Ohio's economy and create jobs. But that never happened once the economy tanked. Instead, the changes ended up costing Ohio more than $2 billion a year in lost tax revenue; money that would go a long way toward closing the state's $8 billion budget gap for fiscal year 2012."
An Opportunity to Defend 'Government" Schools (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"The belief that public education is an illegitimate exercise was until recently a rare fringe phenomenon mainly confined to the more tedious of libertarians, to home-schoolers angry at having to pay school taxes, and to occasional outbursts from Jim DeMint. Now hostility to public schools is breaking out all over:"
Are Tea Party Conservatives Different from Other Conservatives? from the University of Washington's Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality
"Asked if they subscribed to the proposition that "Barack Obama is destroying the country," 71% of Tea Party Conservatives said "yes" while only 6% of other conservatives agreed."
Ed Kilgore of the Democratic Strategist has a comment on this research here.
Radio Chain Dropping Beck Because His Rants Hurt Ratings (Joe Strupp) from Media Matters for America
""He bounces around pretty radically, I think he confuses people, they're not sure where he is coming from," said Rick Buckley, president of Buckley Radio of Greenwich, Conn., who spoke with Media Matters."
Obama a Socialist? Fox News Exec Said So, but Didn't Believe It (Howard Kurtz) from the Daily Beast
"Bill Sammon, who’s responsible for the network’s Washington coverage, linked Obama to socialism many times during the 2008 campaign, but didn’t believe the allegation, he acknowledged."
This kind of sh-- just drives me nuts! The BS gets on the TV equivalent of page 1. The confessions of the equivalent of journalistic malpractice get stuck away in some remote media corner.
ANCIENT ROME NUGGET!!
Where the Ancient Past Is Palpably Present from the Wall Street Journal
"I read: "The body of Julius Caesar was brought to the Forum after the Ides of March in 44 B.C., and here his body was probably cremated." I doubt that the low, dirt-covered mound in front of me, the supposed remains of Caesar's cremation altar, could have thrilled me more had I been the first to unearth it since antiquity. All of a sudden, an event of colossal importance both historic and mythic—which I knew about from boyhood stories, movies, Latin lessons, Plutarch and Shakespeare—acquired a new reality."
BICYCLE NUGGET!!
Wheels of Change: How the Bicycle Empowered Women from the Atlantic
"Speed for escaping chaperones. Less burdensome clothes for riding. The bicycle's little-known role in equal rights."
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