News Nuggets 819

DAYLEE PICTURE: Storm chasing in Saskatchewan.  From National Geographic. 

BEST NEWS NUGGETS OF THE WEEK!!

These include some from before the holiday!

1.  The Future of Al Qaeda (Fawaz Gerges) from the Democracy Journal
"... like bin Laden himself, Al Qaeda—the very embodiment of what “terrorist organization” has come to mean in the minds of Americans—no longer exists. It has all but vanished, or at least dwindled to the palest shadow of its former self."

2.  Euro Crisis Turns Germany into Europe's United States (Editorial) from Die Welt [of Germany in English]
"For decades, Germans have been freeloaders under the American security umbrella that spans Europe and the world. For decades now, like many other European countries, Germany has not been contributing and participating enough in the deployment of this security zone. And yet the desire to say what we like and interfere with the Americans continues. No matter what the Americans do, it’s never exactly what Germans would like."

3.  The US Navy Fostered Globalisation: We Still Need It (Robert Kaplan) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"There is a big difference between a 346-ship US navy and a 250-ship navy – the difference between one kind of world order and another."

4.  Not Just One Pivot: Time to Acknowledge Obama’s Broad Redefinition of U.S. National Security Policy (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"While most of the U.S. government and frankly, most major governments worldwide, are mired in a swamp of political paralysis, victims of their own inaction, the president and his national security team are engineering a profound, forward-looking, and rather remarkable change."

5.  On Education Reform ... How About Better Parents? (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"...here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement."

6.  New Public Study: Watching Fox News Makes You Dumber from Daily Kos
"A new Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll finds that the Sunday morning political shows on television "do the most to help people learn about current events, while some outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who they don't watch any news at all.""

7.  The Republicans' Farcical Candidates: A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses (Editorial) from Der Speigel [of Germany in English]
"The US Republican race is dominated by ignorance, lies and scandals. The current crop of candidates have shown such a basic lack of knowledge that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein. The Grand Old Party is ruining the entire country's reputation."

8.  Democrats Unveil Devastating Video on Mitt Romney's Flip-flops from Daily Kos
"Mitt Romney's campaign is holding 12 different conference calls today to respond to this ad."

9.  Herman Cain's Campaign a Study in Ineptitude (Jonathan Martin) from Politico
"His campaign will go down as one of the most hapless and bumbling operations in modern presidential politics, setting a new standard for how to turn damaging press coverage into something far worse."

10.  Rubio, Republican Dream VP, Won’t Fix Party Woes (Jonathan Alter) from the Bloomberg News Service
"Rubio sits atop the short list. This should have Republicans worried, and not just because Rubio arrived in the Senate less than a year ago and carries the risks of any rookie. He’s been scuffed up in two flaps this year that highlight the complexities of being a minority of an ethnic minority in a party that’s shooting itself in the foot with minorities."

NOW -- back to our regularly scheduled nuggets on today's hot topics!!
Cities Beyond the Law (Steve Inskeep) from the New York Times
"NOTHING clarifies your thoughts on the role of government quite so much as visiting a place that isn’t governed. I once visited such a place under construction in Karachi, Pakistan."

Ready for Their Close-Up (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The votes are in, and Islamist parties are ascendant throughout the Arab world. But can they rule?"
My bet: the answer is no -- and we shall see.

China's Hard Landing: The State-led Growth Model is Leading the Country into Trouble from the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal
"Now comes the hangover. The public works projects are winding down, unleashing a wave of unemployment and an uptick in social unrest. The banks' nonperforming loans are rising, and local governments are insolvent. The country is littered with luxurious county government offices, ghost cities of empty apartment blocks, unsafe high-speed rail lines and crumbling highways to nowhere."

Obama Looks to Channel Teddy Roosevelt in Kansas from The Hill
"Obama will travel to Osawatomie, Kansas and a White House press release indicates the site was chosen in part because Roosevelt once spoke there. “Just over one hundred years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt came to Osawatomie, Kansas and called for a New Nationalism, where everyone gets a fair chance, a square deal, and an equal opportunity to succeed,” the White House release states."

Romney and Gingrich, from Bad to Worse (George Will) from the Washington Post
A very good conservative critique of the GOP field at this moment!
"Romney’s main objection to contemporary Washington seems to be that he is not administering it. ... Gingrich, however, embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."

Why Republicans like Newt Gingrich (Kathleen Parker) from the Washington Post
"Indeed, a man who has fallen from grace and arisen from the political ash heap is more than an ecumenical metaphor. To many Republican voters, Gingrich is “one of us,” a familiar face, a known quantity. Most important, he has done the single thing that transcends sin. He has confessed and repented."

Iowa Poll: Newt Gingrich Leads Field, Mitt Romney Falls to Third Place from Daily Kos
"Obviously, the first thing these numbers show is Newt Gingrich's incredible comeback. But Mitt Romney has also taken a tumble over the past month—he's not only run into a polling ceiling, he's starting to lose ground ... and he's losing it just as he's gearing up to try to win the state."

And Now ... Professor Gingrich (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
"It’s Gingrich’s braininess — or at least his preening assertion of such — that doesn’t quite fit, breaking the Republican pattern of late. How does an ostentatious know-it-all fare so well in a party supposedly hostile to intellectuals and intellectualism?"

How the Cain Train Changed the Route to the White House: Unorthodox Presidential Campaign Taught Political Veterans New Lessons (Alex Roarty and Beth Reinhard) from the National Journal
"Defying all the traditional models,  Cain rose to the top of the polls with minimal time on the ground. He built a national identity with charismatic appearances in televised debates and cable television interviews, proving that media saturation could overpower personal contact."

RENAISSANCE ART NUGGET!!
In Search of Leonardo’s Lost Painting from National Geographic
"Every night this week, a kind of slow-motion, yet fevered search unfolds, the culmination of a years-long effort to determine if Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Battle of Anghiari,” last seen some 450 years ago, is hidden behind the Vasari fresco."