News Nuggets 666

A sailboat off of Jasmund, Germany.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT 'ARAB SPRING' INTERACTIVE MAP NUGGET!!
News Out of the Middle East and North Africa Interactive Map from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"A daily roundup of the stories in a changing region."

Afghanistan's Karzai: US 'in Peace Talks with Taliban' from the BBC
"The US is engaged in talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said, in the first high-level confirmation of US involvement."

Defying Military Crackdown, Protesters Surge Across Syria from the New York Times
"Tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Damascus’s suburbs and three of Syria’s five largest cities on Friday, in a weekly show of defiance against President Bashar al-Assad. Activists said at least 19 people were killed."

Libyan Rebels Battle to Close in Gaddafi (Matt Robinson) from RealClearWorld
"The city, 160 km (100 miles) from Tripoli, is the next major town on the Mediterranean coastal road to the capital from the rebel stronghold of Misrata. Capturing it would greatly advance the rebels' strategy of cutting off the capital from all sides."

The Military's Wearily Familiar Bag of Tricks (Cyril Almeida) from The Dawn [of Pakistan in English]
"ONE set of rules for themselves. Another set for the people they rule over, or who dare cross them. The army has been busy rounding up the OBL support network."

Can We Afford the Military Budget? (Bruce Bartlett) from the New York Times
"An examination of the latest NATO data shows that in 2010, the United States spent 5.4 percent of its gross domestic product on its military — twice as much as spent by Britain and three to four times as much as most of our NATO allies, as shown in the following table."

Who Needs NATO? We All Do (Ivo Daalder) from the New York Times
"The reasons are clear. We live in a world of complex and unpredictable challenges and threats to security. In this world, the local has gone global. ... In such a world, we need strong alliances and partnerships — and none is stronger and more needed than today’s NATO. That is why it is so important that all of the alliance’s members invest in and possess the defense capabilities necessary to meet our collective responsibilities."

Europe’s Great Fear of Another Great War (Will Inboden) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"... much of the European reluctance to make the necessary resource commitments to NATO stems from a decades-long "rational choice" to free ride under the American security umbrella. I think Paul is largely correct, but would add that there is an additional dimension of culture and historical memory that also shapes the European mindset on defense."

U.N. Gay Rights Protection Resolution Passes, Hailed As 'Historic Moment' from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"The United Nations issued its first condemnation of discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people on Friday in a cautiously worded declaration hailed by supporters including the United States as a historic moment."

Country First: After a Turbulent Decade Abroad, the Republican Party Turns Inward (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Neoconservative foreign policy is dead -- or so I infer from the first Republican presidential debate, held June 13 in New Hampshire. None of the seven candidates talked about the moral purposes of American power. Quite the contrary ... How times have changed!"

Joe Biden: Schmoozer-in-chief (Ben Smith) from the Politico
"When a technical glitch allowed a radio reporter to overhear President Barack Obama’s words at a private fundraiser, an eager White House press corps was crestfallen to learn the disciplined president was saying exactly the same thing in private as he does in public. Joe Biden … well, not so much. In a Washington ruled by the regimented precision of the Obama presidency, Biden has emerged as a sort of schmoozer in chief, the gregarious yang to Obama’s remote yin."

Historical Ignorance Warps American Politics (Jonathan Alter) from Bloomberg News Service
"Nowadays we’re past the point where Democrats invoke the 1960s and Republicans the 1980s. On the right, in particular, the time horizons are getting longer. Conservatives openly yearn for a pre-New Deal social contract under which Americans would largely fend for themselves as they did in the 19th century. (Glenn Beck went so far as to call Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Era a “cancer.”) And the Tea Party folks, of course, want to go even further back in time and restore the spirit of the founders. The problem is that spreading a romantic gauze over history distorts our sense of the present."

Tea Party Activists Say Romney Not Much Better Than Obama, Resist Calls For Unity (Jon Ward) from the Huffington Post
"Romney's current status as front-runner in the primary is causing unease for conservatives who think President Obama must be defeated in 2012, but who are also decidedly not excited about Romney."

In this same vein:
Mitt Romney Refuses To Sign Pro-Life Pledge (Jon Ward) from the Huffington Post
"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has refused to sign a pledge being circulated by a pro-life group, citing concerns with the language used in the pact."
It will be interesting to see what his GOP opponents will do with this.  It suggests he is already engaged in the general election and assumes that he has the nomination already in hand.  Hillary Clinton had the same strategy in '07.

Why Huntsman Should Be Taken Seriously (Matt Bai) from the New York Times
"All of this suggests, I think, that a less doctrinaire candidate might have a real shot in New Hampshire, once the campaign really gets underway and voters get a chance to assess the field. That’s when all the polling actually starts to mean something."

E-BOOK PUBLISHING NUGGET!!
Storyseller from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
"If Hocking seems a bit blasé about signing her first deal with a traditional publisher, and a multimillion-dollar one at that, it’s hard to blame her. Since uploading her first book on her own last spring, she has become — along with the likes of Nora Roberts, James Patterson and Stieg Larsson — one of the best-selling e-authors on Amazon."