News Nuggets 852

DAYEE PICTURE:  The countryside of Tweedale in Scotland in 2011.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

TEN BEST NUGGETS OF THE WEEK!!

1.  Beijing and Tehran's Coming Divorce (Ilan Berman) from the Wall Street Journal via Real Clear World
"Is China finally coming around on Iran? For years, Beijing's steady backing has helped the Iranian regime frustrate international efforts to isolate and penalize it for its nuclear ambitions. This month, however, there are heartening signs that China is reassessing its longstanding strategic partnership with the Islamic Republic."

2.  America Abroad (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"U.S.-based global corporations added 683,000 workers in China during the 1999-2009 decade, a 172 percent increase, and 392,000 workers in India, a 542 percent increase. In all they added 1.5 million workers to payrolls in the Asia and Pacific region, while cutting 864,600 workers at home, according to figures from the Commerce Department. ... On one level this shift poses problems for the United States: Cash-rich companies are creating jobs elsewhere rather than at home. On another, however, the global American corporation expands U.S. power in ways that are hard to quantify but significant. They tend to propagate cultures of openness, connectedness and transparency."

3.  Daley’s Demotion: How Washington Elites Got Obama Wrong (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"...the interesting legacy of Daley’s tenure is not his mechanical performance. It’s that he conducted an experiment based on the Washington elite view of the Obama presidency. That view, shared by business leaders, centrist pundits, and other elites, holds that Obama’s main problem has been excessive partisanship, liberalism in general, and hostility to business in particular. ... The effort failed because Daley’s analysis — which is also the analysis of David Brooks and Michael Bloomberg — was fatally incorrect."

4.  Should The New York Times Be a Truth Vigilante? (Arthur Brisbane) from the New York Times
"I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about."
Here are some of the more thoughtful responses to this column HERE, HERE and HERE. 

5.  The Economy: Still a Millstone for Obama? (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"The economy may not be as big a liability for President Obama on Election Day as many Republicans had assumed."

6.  The GOP's Blatant Racism (Gary Younge) from the Nation
"In the British original of The Office the main protagonist, David Brent (US reincarnation: Michael Scott), wistfully recalls a tender moment during his favorite war film, The Dam Busters, involving the hero pilot, Wing Commander Guy Gibson. “Before he goes into battle, he’s playin’ with his dog,” says Brent. “Nigger,” says his sidekick, Gareth (Dwight in the States), recalling with glee the name of the dog. Brent flinches, eager to mitigate the slur. “Yeah!… it was the ’40s,” he says, “before racism was bad.”"

7.  The Meaning of Mitt (Michael Kranish and Scott Helman) from Vanity Fair 
"Mitt Romney has long been a front-runner for the G.O.P. nomination—even if no one really knows who he is. Digging into the candidate’s record as a Mormon leader, his business deals at Bain Capital, and that infamous car trip with the family dog strapped to the roof, Michael Kranish and Scott Helman pierce the Mitt bubble in an adaptation from their new book, The Real Romney, to find that the contradictions, question marks, and ambivalence go deeper than his politics."

8.  Will Mitt Romney Follow Candidates Who Failed to Connect (and Failed to Win)? (Michael Leahy) from the Washington Post
"“But there is something missing,” Giuliani said of Romney’s social and political skills, adding, “There’s some kind of personal connection that doesn’t get made that the other candidates probably do a better job at.” Events this week revealed just how dangerous that apparent disconnect could be to Romney’s bid for the presidency."

9.  The Tea Party’s Not-So-Civil War (Matt Bai) from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
"Then our conversation turned to Mitt Romney, and Martin’s sunny countenance darkened. “I don’t know a single Tea Party person,” she said, slowly drawing out her words, “who does not despise Mitt Romney to the very core of their being.” I searched her face for levity or compassion, but found neither. ... After months of confusion and bickering over whom to support, a kind of unraveling has occurred at the upper reaches of the movement, in some cases causing friendships to fray and giving rise to charges and countercharges on Facebook. Officers have resigned. Angry statements have been issued. Reputations have been damaged."

10.  New Book Recounts Children's Forgotten Russian Civil War Odyssey from the St. Petersburg Times [of Russia in English]
"For 800 children sent on summer vacation to the Urals in 1918, it was meant to be a three-month escape from war-torn St. Petersburg. Known as Petrograd at the time, the city was suffering chronic food shortages. But as the Russian Civil War raged, it became impossible for the children to return. They began an incredible three-year-long Odyssey around the globe — eventually returning to St. Petersburg the long way around the world via the Russian Far East, Asia, the U.S. and Europe."
Another article on this story is HERE.

Back to our regular nuggets for Sunday!!

UP-FRONT MICHELLE OBAMA NUGGET!!
Denigrating Michelle Obama with the ‘Angry Black Woman’ Slur (Kathleen Parker) from the Washington Post
"Despite the pain these critiques cause Mrs. Obama and other African American women who identify with her, I do believe that these feelings are not particularly widespread. Most see the first lady as she is: a beautiful, gracious, intelligent, elegant, devoted wife and mother of whom we can be proud. Those who insult her insult us all, and, yes, we should be angry."

Iran Lashes Out at West Over Slain Scientist, but Hints at Diplomatic Opening from the Washington Post
"Iran on Friday hurled new threats of retaliation against the West for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists but also signaled a readiness to negotiate on at least one of the nuclear disputes behind the country’s worsening feud with the United States."

Burma's Tightrope (Aung Zaw) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Burma's mysterious president insists that he wants democracy. But can he deliver?"

A Long Bleak Winter from the Editorial Board of the New York Times  
"After a few weeks of calm, austerity measures are freezing the weakened European economies. It is time to shift course."

European Exodus in Search of Jobs from the Wall Street Journal [Subscription wall]
"Economic distress is driving tens of thousands of skilled professionals from Europe, and many are being lured to thriving former European colonies in Latin America and Africa, reversing well-worn migration patterns."

Project Dreamcatcher (Sasha Issenberg) from Slate
"Obama’s campaign has boasted that one of their priorities this year is something they’ve described only as “microlistening,” but would officially not discuss how they intend to deploy insights gleaned from their new research into text analytics. ... Yet those familiar with Dreamcatcher describe it as a bet on text analytics to make sense of a whole genre of personal information that no one has ever systematically collected or put to use in politics."

Mitt Romney: The GOP’s Own John Kerry, or Is He More an Al Gore? (Michelle Cottle) from the Daily Beast
"It looks as though, for the second time in three presidential cycles, one of the major parties is about to bestow its nomination on a rich, patrician, out-of-touch, socially awkward, politically tone-deaf hair model from Massachusetts."

Mitt Romney’s Al Gore Problem (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"Following Mitt Romney on the campaign trail is a painful yet familiar experience. Painful, because of the wince-inducing moments when you realize that, for all of Romney’s success in imitating human attributes, there remain glitches in the matrix that reveal him to be different from the rest of us."

Romney and the Right (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal 
"Why is a party that leans so far to the right poised to nominate a candidate whom many conservatives deeply distrust?"

Why Romney is Weak vs. Obama (Quin Hillyer) from the American Spectator 
"...all sorts of people are suddenly realizing that Mitt Romney is hardly the candidate with the best chance to beat Barack Obama. ... here's what I see. I see, first, a candidate who "fails to inspire." This is hugely important. ... Romney still has never won an electorally significant victory that wasn't in his native state (Michigan) or in a state that is his backyard and site of his vacation home (New Hampshire)."

Bitter Politics of Envy? (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"Romney responded, “I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like.” In quiet rooms? That’s the problem. Too many have been too quiet for too long. And, on this point, we must applaud the efforts of the Occupy Wall Street
movement. It took income inequality and corporate responsibility out of the shadows and into the streets."

Evangelicals at the Crossroads in South Carolina (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"Catholics Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are vying for the evangelical vote in the Palmetto State, a hotbed of social conservatism. The fact that this has been greeted with little more than a shrug shows how far the nation has come on religion in politics."

IRAQ TOURISM NUGGET!!
My Mesopotamian Getaway (Emma Sky) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"A Syrian man pointed at me and shouted at the man at the desk: "She is pregnant and sick -- she urgently needs a hotel room." Another Syrian, standing behind me, piped up: "Yes! And I am the father of the baby!" The Iranian and the Turk beside me burst out laughing, bonding over the outrageous ruse of the Syrians."
Her 'vacation' photos are HERE.

TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Amazing Digital Rug Design (VIDEO) from YouTube
"You'll really hope to have one like this digital rug"

ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
The Best Of CES 2012: 9 New Products That Made Us Say 'Wow' from the Huffington Post
Many of these items are really interesting and captivating!
"There were some things that happened here in Vegas that we hope don't stay here: new technologies and gadgets and devices that deserve an audience larger than the reported 150,000 industry folk who swarmed the Las Vegas Convention Center this week hoping to see the next big thing at the Consumer Electronics Show."