News Nuggets 891

DAYLEE PICTURE: Galapagos sharks swimming through slivers of light from

 a research boat in the Mozambique Channel.  From National Geographic.

Do-Over Season (Linda Greenhouse) from the New York Times
"Is there really a chance that the Supreme Court might reconsider Citizens United? A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought so, and I still think it’s an extreme long shot. But a provocative statement last Friday by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer makes this crazy idea worth pondering – which is undoubtedly what the two justices intended."
Greenhouse is one of the most knowledgeable SCOTUS watchers out there.  Her perception of this topic is worth noting.

Another Court Finds Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional from the Politico
"Another federal judge has found unconstitutional a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law which forbids providing federal government benefits to same-sex spouses."

Did Crafty Dems Make Contraception a Campaign Issue? from the Salon 
"First Rush Limbaugh, now the Washington Post women's blog, claim the GOP was set up by its enemies on birth control."

Contraception Coverage Fights Spread to States from Politico
"The contraception fight is expanding far beyond Washington, with several states eyeing ways of blocking the new Obama administration rule requiring most insurers cover contraception, or considering rolling back rules that the states themselves already had on the books. The combination of a hot-button social issue and the calendar for state implementation of the health care reform law’s fine print virtually guarantees the fight will continue for months."

If Latinos Really Do Decide 2012, GOP is in Serious Trouble from Daily Kos 
"Neither Romney nor Santorum get those benefits of the doubt, and their rhetoric is far more overtly hostile and extreme than McCain's ever was. And ..., it means that Nevada will be out of reach for them, Colorado will be an uphill climb, Florida will be tougher nuts to crack, Arizona will be in play, and even states like Virginia and North Carolina—which should be reverting Red this year—will remain competitive because of explosive Latinos growth. And that's just talking about 2012. The GOP's long-term prospects will look even worse. Because no matter how much they wish it was still 1950, that America no longer exists."

Our PUNDIT-OF-THE-DAY!!
President Obama as an Alien (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post 
"They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion. On some days he’s a Nazi, but on most others he’s merely a socialist. His especially creative opponents see him as having a “Kenyan anti-colonial worldview,” while the less
adventurous say that he’s an elitist who spent too much time in Cambridge, Hyde Park and other excessively academic precincts. Whatever our president is, he is never allowed to be a garden-variety American who plays basketball and golf, has a remarkably old-fashioned family life and, in the manner we regularly recommend to our kids, got ahead by getting a good education. Please forgive this outburst. It’s simply astonishing that a man in his fourth year as our president continues to be the object of the most extraordinary paranoid fantasies. A significant part of his opposition still cannot accept that Obama is a rather moderate politician quite conventional in his tastes and his interests. And now that the economy is improving, short-circuiting easy criticisms, Obama’s adversaries are reheating all the old tropes and cliches and slanders."

Will GOP Perp Walk Lead to White House? (Roger Simon) from Politico
"I am sick to death of the media’s scare tactics. Which is why I nearly jumped out of my skin when CNN’s John King said during Wednesday night’s Republican debate, “One of these men could be president 11 months from now.” It was enough to give one chills."

Real-World Issues, Fantasy-Land Solutions (Fred Hiatt) from the Washington Post
"Run to the extreme in the primary, move to the center in the fall: That’s expected. But moving from the cartoon world the Republican presidential candidates have constructed back into three dimensions might prove more difficult. In their debate Wednesday night, the remaining candidates seemed to be continuing their drift from reality — the reality of a center-right electorate they propose to woo and govern, and of the complexities of the problems they promise to solve."

No 'Romney Rebound' in the Polls (at Least Not Yet) from Daily Kos  
"... the general trends continue to hold: (1) if there is a Mitt Romney polling rebound yet, it really isn't showing up in any substantial way, and (2) the president may still suffer from middling job approval, but he still looks better than one would expect when paired with his even less popular Republican opposition. ... President Obama's numbers, however, look pretty good in this heavy midweek sampling of polls. Which makes one wonder if those softer numbers earlier in the week were just a blip on the radar. There is something to be said, however, for the fact that Obama's numbers in Wisconsin and Michigan now look better than they did against John McCain in 2008."

Live-Blogging the Mesa Debate (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast 
"Maybe I've lost my mind after all these debates, or maybe I secretly want him to win (because he would finally expose all the insanity that has been building in this party and needs venting). But I thought Santorum was on form tonight. My sense is that he will not lose his current momentum after tonight. I didn't feel Newt tonight. Romney doesn't wear well. Paul was great and funny and human. But there was a winner, it seems to me. He's in the White House."

And the Winner Is: Barack Obama (Jamelle Bouie) from the American Prospect 
"Without question, the winner of Wednesday’s Republican debate was Barack Obama. ... by the end of the event, the candidates had revealed their hostility toward women and Latinos, and further ensured that they would stay on Obama’s side into the fall."

Nine Takeaways From the Arizona Debate (Carl M. Cannon) from Real Clear Politics
"If the much-hyped debate didn’t live up to its billing, and didn’t do anything to change the pecking order, it did leave impressions of each candidate that were not always flattering, and not always “on-message,” as political handlers might say. Here are nine examples:"

Republican Voters Lose in Arizona GOP Debate (Jonathan Bernstein) from the Washington Post
"Republican voters and conservatives are losers because there are certainly strong arguments — mainstream conservative arguments — against President Obama’s policies, whether it’s on national security or the budget or health care or any other issue. But they’re not hearing any of it; they’re hearing third-rate slogans, misleading rhetoric and outright mistruths that would fit right in among the cheaper booths at a conservative convention."

The Moral Scandal Of Rick Santorum And "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"It seems to me that no politician who has aggressively defended these core violations of human dignity can be described as someone for whom human dignity is a "touchstone" of his worldview. The effrontery is not that of the media; the effrontery is from Santorum when he lectured John McCain..."

Santorum’s Martyr Complex (John Dickerson) from Slate
"His camp says he is being attacked because of his faith. Forgive me, but that’s downright sinful."

ANTHROPOLOGY NUGGET!!
The Real Caveman Diet from Slate
"Did people eat fruits and vegetables in prehistoric times?"

LIFE-SAVING KITTY NUGGET!!
Cat Saves Owner's Life Just Hours After Being Adopted from the Huffington Post
" Soon after going to bed, Amy Jung, who has had diabetes since childhood, started having a diabetic seizure in her sleep. That's when Pudding sprang into action."