News Nuggets 882

DAYLEE PICTURE: Hamsters giving a team effort on 

Valentine's Day.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Arguing for Obama, Justice Antonin Scalia (Jay Bookman) from the Atlanta Journal Constitution
"The most relevent to the current controversy is a a 1982 case that closely parallels the current discussion over contraception. In United States v. Lee, the Supreme Court found that there was nothing
unconstitutional in requiring an Amish employer to withhold and pay Social Security taxes for his workers even though “the Amish faith prohibited participation in governmental support programs.”"

Birth Control Debate: Why Catholic Bishops Have Lost Their Grip on U.S. Politics—and Their Flock (Tim Padgett) from Time Magazine
"Although major Catholic groups like Catholic Charities and Catholic Health Services accepted that revision, the bishops are holding out for more. But their crusade to be exempted from the mandate is likely to fall short of its grail. If so, it’s because Obama read the Catholic flock better than its shepherds did."

The Bishops Go Off the Deep End (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Rejecting the Obama contraception compromise, they display their irrelevance to moral and political dialogue."

Family Ties, Without Tying the Knot from the New York Times
"More and more states are considering same-sex marriage, and yet fewer Americans are choosing to marry. What are the legal implications for relationships that are based on something other than marriage?"

Replacing History With Fiction in Arizona (Gary Younge) from the Nation 
"The authors of Arizona’s new law want to collapse Latino identity into white American mythology."

Conservatives At CPAC Search For The Right's Woodward And Bernstein (Michael Calderone) from the Huffington Post
'Several conservatives, in interviews and on CPAC panels, said that young, right-leaning journalists have the chance to influence the establishment -- or as they say, "liberal" -- media, as well as the ability to launch new sites to broaden the media landscape. They talked about harnessing the potential of the Internet and social media to offer a counter-narrative to the national press, while arguing that the Obama administration and Democratic-aligned organizations aren't being covered aggressively enough."
Finally, it's being said openly what's been happening for decades behind the scenes: the creation of a conservative "counter-narrative" as a central element in long-term GOP planning.  What's the purpose of the narrative? To pursue Democrats and their Elected officials.  It has nothing to do with creating fairness or "balance".  It is a purely partisan exercise -- and it showcases patently false underlying
assumptions: that the so-called mainstream media is engaged in largely partisan exercises with their reporting -- as if editors at the WaPo or NYT get up each day wondering how they can stick it to this or that GOP candidate, lawmaker or president.  Don't get me wrong: I accept (as studies have shown) that the MSM has a modest liberal bias in their reporting of many (not all) topics.  BUT there is a difference between having a bias in your reporting (every reporter is biased) on the one hand, and doing reporting as a LARGELY PARTISAN EXERCISE on the other, which is what FOX news does -- and it's what is being advocated here.  Read this whole item, and you will see several examples of conservatives coming from the false premise. 

Winning the Future? (John Heilemann) from New York Magazine
"Obama’s reelection chances are looking good right now, but the next nine months are full of storm clouds."

How Obama’s Budget Throws A Big Punch At The GOP from Talking Points Memo 
"It calls out Republicans nearly a dozen times for their adamant refusal to take a penny in new revenue from wealthy Americans, dooming recent administration efforts to reduce deficits or stimulate the economy with new spending."

Obama’s Tactic Could Yield Political Results (Norman Ornstein) from Roll Call
"As Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain is fond of saying, Congress, with an approval rating of 9 percent to 13 percent, is down to “blood relatives and paid staff.” It is no wonder that President Barack Obama is running against the “do-nothing” 112th Congress and that the pitch is resonating with lots of voters."

The Front-Runner’s Missing Magic (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times 
"Almost all of the presidents elected over recent decades have been propelled by pockets of intense enthusiasm, which can paper over so many specific political predicaments and eclipse tensions with the base. ... "It's hard to find a single Republican, including those most solidly behind him, who demonstrates true passion for him or can do even a persuasive pantomime of it. They call him effective, not inspirational. They praise his competence, not his charisma. He doesn't exert any sort of gravitational pull on his party."

PPP: Santorum Surges 15 Points Ahead of Romney Among Republicans Nationally from Americablog
For some reason the PPP link isn't working.
"Santorum is now completely dominating with several key segments of the electorate, especially the most right leaning parts of the party. With those describing themselves as 'very conservative,' he's now winning a majority of voters at 53% to 20% for Gingrich and 15% for Romney. Santorum gets a majority with Tea Party voters as well at 51% to 24% for Gingrich and 12% for Romney. And with Evangelicals he falls just short of a majority with 45% to 21% for Gingrich and 18% for Romney."

Santorum Catches Romney in GOP Race: Obama Leads Both in General Election Matchups from the Pew Research Center
"Barack Obama now holds an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney in a general election matchup, and he has gained significant ground among independent voters. A month ago, 40% of independents said they would back Obama over Romney – today 51% say they would, while the number expressing support for Romney has slipped from 50% to 42%. Over the course of the campaign, Romney’s image among independent voters has suffered substantially."

How Rough it’s Gotten for Mitt (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"When not completely melting down is considered good news, you’ve got a problem."

Dead-End Kids (Todd S. Purdum) from Vanity Fair
"The longer the Republican contest goes on, the greater the task of diplomacy facing the eventual victor. Some of the losers will command significant constituencies. They will demand respect—and something more."

Grover Norquist on the GOP Candidates: All We Need is Someone Who Can 'Handle a Pen' from Daily Kos
"We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stuff. ... Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States."
Oh, Romney and his team must be so reassured!  "Damning with faint praise" doesn't do justice to Norquist's hilarious back-handed Romney take-down.  Read Norquist's comment and the associated commentary on the comment.

Here's more on Norquist's CPAC speech:
Norquist: Romney Will Do As He's Told (David Frum) from the Daily Beast 
"In his charmingly blunt way, Norquist articulated out loud a case for Mitt Romney that you hear only whispered by other major conservative leaders. They have reconciled themselves to a Romney candidacy because they see Romney as essentially a weak and passive president who will concede leadership to congressional conservatives ... To date, sad to say, Romney has worked hard to confirm this image of weakness."
And these are Romney's SUPPORTERS saying these things!!  How pathetic!

Romney Backers in Congress Second-Guessing Campaign from The Hill
"Supporters of Mitt Romney on Capitol Hill are second-guessing his campaign strategy after he got beaten soundly in thee contests this past week. They say the setback in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado put more pressure on Romney to win decisively in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28 to avert a messy and prolonged fight for the nomination."

WORLD WAR II PHOTO NUGGET!!
Life on the Front Lines: Extremely Rare Color Photos of U.S. Troops Before and After D-Day from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Extremely rare and striking photos of the days leading up to and after the historic D-Day invasion have been put on display, nearly 70 years after World War II's dramatic turning point. The full-colour images, taken by photographer Frank Scherschel, display anxious American soldiers as they prepared for Operation Overlord, the code name for the Battle of Normandy."

MEDICAL NUGGET!!
Alzheimer's Brain Plaques 'Rapidly Cleared' in Mice from the BBC
"Destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been rapidly cleared by researchers testing a cancer drug on mice."