Europe Needs a 'Bazooka' Like the U.S. Federal Reserve (Editorial) from Die Tageszeitung [of Germany in English]
""The Americans have been stunned that Europeans would abandon their strongest weapon. For months now, U.S. President Barack Obamaz and his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithnerz have called on Europeans to unpack their greatest weapon … investors hope beyond hope that Europeans finally learn from the U.S. and start firing that ECB 'Bazooka.'""
Major Cause of Downturn: Failure to Help Homeowners from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"For a country that fell into a recession primarily because of a collapse in the housing market, the two experts say, America has done a lousy job of coming up with a plan to revitalize home ownership. National statistics show how persistent the slump is."
Las Vegas is Ground Zero for America's Housing Collapse: Nevada Families Bet on a Bubble that Burst from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"... the asking prices have plummeted with skydiver speed. At 9537 Bella Di Mora, a two-story, four-bedroom home, the price has dropped from $726,990 to $429,900; 7671 Windy Meadow Ave. has fallen from $519,975 to $213,400 in five years. And over at 9280 Moose Country Place, Jim Tierney is asking $214,000 in a short sale for the five-bedroom home he bought for $425,000 in October 2007."
Oil's Growing Thirst for Water from the Wall Street Journal
"North Dakota, another big source of oil from fracked wells, is concerned about the industry depleting aquifers and has threatened to sue the federal government to free up water held by an Army Corps of Engineers dam. Oklahoma, too, is struggling to cope with the industry's thirst. Last year, Louisiana passed a law to regulate what it called the industry's "unprecedented use of enormous amounts of water" that, if unchecked, has the "potential for chaos and conflicts.""
Obama is Giving Republicans More of a Battle than Expected (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
"In a season of curious political phenomena — Michele Bachmann’s unnerving stare, Herman Cain’s last-minute launch of “Women for Cain,” ... — one development is curiouser than most: the buoyancy of Barack Obama."
This column reminds me of one of the most long-running tendencies in the GOP dating back to the 1970s: Republican contempt for Democrats has routinely lulled them into a false sense of security about their chances of beating a Democratic incumbent in the White House. We saw with Bill Clinton and we're seeing it again I think with Barack Obama. The GOP and conservative critics invest SO MUCH energy and emotion into voicing their contempt for the Dems, they come to profoundly underestimate who they're up against. Clinton cleaned their clocks in '96 and with the impeachment proceedings. I see this as potentially the biggest gift they will give to the Obama next year: a predisposition to thinking it will somehow be easy to knock him off.
For Republicans, It’s a Matter of Head or Heart (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"For the Republican grass roots, the current GOP race is about finding a consistent conservative who favors smaller government and lower taxes and believes that President Barack Obama and the national media represent the forces of darkness. For them, that is not Mitt Romney. But most GOP insiders whom I talk with have a very different perspective on their party’s presidential race."
Up He Rises: Newt Ascendant in Iowa and N.H. from the Atlantic
"Gingrich has shot up by 20 percentage points in polls of New Hampshire voters, new NBC News-Marist polls say."
If you're in the Romney camp, you have to be in a panic right now. NH was supposed to be Romney's "firewall" -- and with only 4+ weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, they have to move FAST to stop Mitt's hemorrhaging in the polls.
George Will: ‘You Can Associate Many Things with Mr. Gingrich, but Wisdom Isn’t One of Them’ from the Daily Caller
"Will said that he thought Gingrich actually believed it when he said he was going to be the Republican nominee, particularly because the stage in Gingrich’s mind “is lit by the fires of crisis and grandeur. ... Ask yourself this: Suppose Gingrich or Romney become president and gets re-elected – suppose you had eight years of this,” Will said. “What would the conservative movement be? How would it understand itself after eight years? I think what would have gone away..."
I think Will is right about one thing here: that the conservative movement is at a defining moment; indeed it may already have passed. Traditional conservatism is dying everywhere; it is being replaced by a radical, reactionary revanchism that worships corporate power and, yes, state power ... when it is in service to the "new conservatism." The new conservatism is deeply anti-intellectual and anti-science. It's benchmarks are drawn from an almost mythic hyper-patriotic, hyper-Christian past that existed before Brown v. Board of Ed, FDR and increasingly even Teddy Roosevelt. In many ways, it is this aspect that makes the new conservatism so disturbing: rather than embracing change and embracing the future slowly and carefully (traditional conservatism) the new conservatism has no use whatsoever for the future. Instead, with each passing day, it embraces more firmly the past -- and an ever-receding one at that. Is there really a "future" for a GOP whose only vision for America is the past? I doubt it.
This tension is reflected in this analysis:
The Insider-Outsider Divide Over Newt Gingrich (Byron York) from the Washington Examiner
"There's a deep and growing divide in the Republican world between those who are able to reconcile themselves with -- to wrap their heads around -- the possibility of Newt Gingrich becoming the GOP presidential nominee, and those who are not. It's becoming increasingly clear that it is Washington insiders who are having the most trouble imagining a Gingrich nomination, while Republicans outside Washington aren't having a problem."
The reality-based GOP verses the parallel universe Republicans.
In Gingrich, Romney Now Sees a Grave Threat (John Harwood) from the New York Times
"Mr. Gingrich, shredding campaign textbooks that prize preparation and discipline, has leads in polls in Florida, Iowa and South Carolina, and is drawing closer in New Hampshire, Mr. Romney’s redoubt. The timing of Mr. Gingrich’s rise, just a month before the nomination voting starts, and his track record in national Republican politics make his a graver threat than earlier surges by Representative Michele Bachmann, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Herman Cain. "
Gloria Cain, the Human Political Prop (Ruth Marcus) from the Washington Post
"Most cads in Cain’s position at least have the decency to apologize to their spouses for exposing them to humiliation. Cain used his as insulation, a testimonial to the glories of his favorite subject, Herman Cain. “I am at peace with my God,” he intoned. “I am at peace with my wife,” turning to bask in her approving claps. “She is at peace with me.” Pause for Gloria Cain to smile and point supportively at her supposedly victimized spouse, as the crowd chants, “Gloria. Gloria. Gloria.” It made me wince."
I COMPLETELY share Marcus's reaction to the Cain campaign "suspension." I suppose there are legions of reasons I wife might be willing to subject herself to this type of humiliating spectacle. Such events have become SO ritualized, one has to ask what the Hermanator thought he was gaining by having her there? Behind it, I see the stunning egoism of a deeply committed narcissist. The way these things play out, it often occurs to me that, somewhere in Cain's mind, HIS INFIDELITY was (at some level) partly his wife's fault -- and thus perhaps it seems perfectly logical and/or appropriate that she be out on the stage with him. She seems like a fairly intelligent women -- so the possibility that she REALLY thinks he's innocent never quite crossed my mind.
AUTO ACCIDENT NUGGET [of a sort]!!
The £2.5 Million Motorway Smash Involving 8 Ferraris, 3 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Skyline and a Humble Toyota Prius from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Thirteen high-end sports car owners - and one driver of a Toyota Prius - were probably close to tears last night after a £2.5million motorway pile-up."
SCIENCE FICTION NUGGET!!
Star Trek Holodecks Are Here Sort Of from Discover News
"The Holodeck on Star Trek produces a completely immersive environment, complete with solid objects and changing landscapes. We’re not there yet, but a couple of companies in Britain have made a stab at building something like it using a bunch of relatively simple projectors, Sony Move controllers, and some creative visual tricks."
AGING NUGGET!!
How to Slow the Effects of Aging from the New York Times
"New studies indicate that a person may be able to slow, stop or even reverse some effects of aging."
WORLD WAR I BOOK NUGGET!!
The Road to Slaughter: A Review of The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin (Richard J. Evans) from the New Republic
"Study of the July Crisis from the Russian standpoint indeed confirms the now generally accepted view that the major immediate responsibility for the outbreak of the war rested unequivocally on the German government.” In this brief new study, however, Sean McMeekin seeks to overturn this consensus. He wishes to do for Russia what Fischer and his assistants did for Germany. Has he succeeded?"
INDIA ART NUGGET!!
In India, a Secret Garden that Rocks from the Los Angeles Times
"The Nek Chand Rock Garden in Chandigarh is populated by mosaic animals, Indian gods and other figures. What was one man's illicit fantasy is now an attraction."
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