News Nuggets 786

A lemon shark swimming through a mangrove swamp in the Bahamas.  From National Geographic.

U.S. Iraq Withdrawal a Gift to Iran? No, the U.S. Iraq Invasion Was the Gift to Iran (Tony Karon) from Time Magazine
"Outlandish posturing on foreign policy matters is par for the course in a U.S. electoral season, but the claim that President Barack Obama will deliver Iraq on a plate to Iran by honoring the U.S. treaty obligation to withdraw American troops by New Year's Day is worth closer scrutiny. ... Bringing down the Taliban and Saddam Hussein had been Iranian objectives long before the Bush Administration adopted them. And Tehran prospered, geopolitically, in the years that followed, even as the U.S. ability to influence events in the Middle East began to decline."
A powerful rejoinder to the Iraq war dead-enders out there who have been slamming Obama for honoring Bush's agreement with the Iraqi gov't (that we set up in the first place) to leave at the end of 2011.  Malaki et al aren't being the good puppets neo-cons want them to be.

Barack Obama Gets No Credit for Protecting Nation (Roger Simon) from Politico
“Domestic policy can only defeat us,” John F. Kennedy used to say. “Foreign policy can kill us.” Times change. Barack Obama is having a lot more success at foreign policy than domestic policy, but few seem willing to give him credit for this."

As Tunisia Counts its Votes, Can the West Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Islamists? (Tony Karon) from Time Magazine
"Democratically elected governments in the Arab world — most of which are likely to include a strong Islamist component, particularly when emerging from years of secular dictatorship -- are highly unlikely to follow U.S. policy on Israel or Iran, but that doesn't preclude them establishing pragmatic, cooperative relationships with the West."

Islamism Fills the Vacuum Left by Socialism (David Warren) from the Ottawa Citizen [of Canada]
A very clear-eyed assessment of what we might expect from the anticipated elections that are coming with the 'Arab Spring'. 
"At the crudest level, this reflects the situation throughout the Arab world. Islamism presents itself as the only possible future, given political cultures in which secular parties only point toward the "Nasserite" and economically disastrous past. Opposition to Islamism comes from the ideological leavings of past dictatorships, and there has never been an opportunity for secular parties to develop except under this unfruitful shade. Islamism now fills the ideological vacuum left by socialist failures."

Papers From Iraqi Archive Reveal Conspiratorial Mind-Set of Hussein from the New York Times
"The deliberations within Mr. Hussein’s inner sanctum are chronicled in a voluminous archive of documents and recorded meetings that American forces captured after they invaded Iraq in 2003."

Crisis of 2012 May Be Harder on China Than U.S. (William Pesek) from the Bloomberg News Service
"If the last few years taught us anything, it’s that the unthinkable has an uncanny knack of happening. From Arab Spring protests to China bailing out Europe’s markets to a U.S. presidential candidate suggesting it’s treasonous for the Federal Reserve to do its job, the world really is upside down."

Obama Bypasses Congress to Offer Lower Student Loan Payments for Millions (Laura Clawson) from Daily Kos
"The Obama administration today announced some actions it can take to bypass Republican obstruction and reduce the burden of student loans for millions of current students and recent graduates, at no new cost to taxpayers."

The Scientific Finding that Settles the Climate-Change Debate (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"“Global warming is real,” Muller wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal. Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the neo-Luddites who are turning the GOP into the anti-science party should pay attention."
Too late.  As I've mentioned here before, climate scientists have basically lost the PR battle in the US.  While they were off doing the field work etc. to prove the existence of global warming for the last twenty+ years, conservatives think tanks and ideologues have focused most of their efforts on the public arena -- where they have been very successful in poisoning any possibility of the US taking any meaningful action on global warming.  Our current generation of leaders will not act in the face of enormous public skepticism that is now rampant.  It's up to the next generation now.  

Poll Shows 6 of 10 Ohio Voters Want Repeal of Anti-union Law from Reuters
"Ohio voters by 57 percent to 32 percent support the repeal of the law, which forbids government workers from going on strike, according to the poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University. In a late September Quinnipiac poll, the margin was 51 percent to 38 percent."

The Right's Failed Protest Smear (Michelle Goldberg) from the Daily Beast
"Right-wing figures like Bill Kristol are pushing the idea that Occupy Wall Street is anti-Semitic to scare Jews and embarrass politicians like Obama, but the tactic is not gaining traction."

Obama Would Be Crazy to Drop Biden From Ticket: Margaret Carlson (Margaret Carlson) from the Bloomberg News Service
" Joe Biden is about as good as vice presidents get. Born into a working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he has the bouncing personality of a Saint Bernard; he’s lovable enough to cast a warm glow even on Barack Obama’s cool restraint. A bearhugging veteran of 36 years in the Senate, he knows how to reach across the aisle, and he passed a raft of legislation during his career."
I really don't have a strong position one way or the other on Obama's VP for next year.  But I will say that if he is still sinking in the late spring of next year, he will need to do something to shake things up -- and a new VP should certainly be considered if that's what it will take to win.

Conservatives Slam Mitt Romney for Going Weak-kneed in War on Public Employees (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"The fight is a hugely important one to conservatives, with right wing money flowing into the state, and conservative bloggers erupted in fury at Romney, asking how it is that he can be running for president when he isn’t willing to take a firm stand against the scourge of public employees."

POLITICAL SATIRE NUGGET!!
How to Speak Republican (Jonathan Bines) from the Huffington Post
"...in the hopes of facilitating cross-party dialogue and mutual understanding, I have compiled what I believe to be the first comprehensive Republican-to-English dictionary, featuring words commonly used by Republicans, and their English translations, alphabetized for your convenience:"