News Nuggets 909

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Snake River in Wyoming.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT ON-THE-MONEY FOREIGN POLICY NUGGET!!
In Obama Versus the Warmongers, Obama is the Better Bet (Kelly McParland) from the National Post [of Canada]
Lots of excerpts here.  Read the whole thing in full!!  It should also be noted that the National Post tends to be a right-wing paper.
" “Leading” to McCain means bombing the crap out of dictators, like in Iraq and Libya, and maybe Afghanistan too, though that was more about terrorism. It doesn’t mean pussyfooting around with diplomacy. ... How easy it is to throw around lives when you’re not actually in power (as McCain, remember, might have been if he’d beaten Obama in 2008). Just rain down some bombs on the bad guys. It will all work out, the U.S. knows how to handle military matters. Just look at the record. ... The lesson in every recent military venture the U.S. has engaged in has been to know your enemy, plan beyond the initial attack, establish a clear and achievable goal, designate an exit strategy beforehand, and co-ordinate as much as possible with allies to ensure there is broad international political and military support.  ... None of these lessons appear to have imprinted themselves on Republican thinking."

UP-FRONT GOOD NEWS ECONOMICS NUGGET!!
When was the last time we had a "good news" economics nugget?
This Is a Recovery Worth Getting Excited About (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic
"Hey everyone? This is what a real recovery looks like. The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%, even as more people joined the work force. The day's news is good. The trend line is even better. "

UP-FRONT WOMEN & POLITICS NUGGET!!
Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With G.O.P. from the New York Times  
A big excerpt here.  Read the whole thing!
"“We all agreed that this seemed like a throwback to 40 years ago,” said Ms. Russell, 57, a retired teacher from Iowa City who describes herself as an evangelical Christian and “old school” Republican of the moderate mold. Until the baby shower, just two weeks ago, she had favored Mitt Romney for president. Not anymore. She said she might vote for President Obama now. ... In Iowa, one of the crucial battlegrounds in the coming presidential election, and in other states, dozens of interviews in recent weeks have found that moderate Republican and independent women — one of the most important electoral swing groups — are disenchanted by the Republican focus on social issues like contraception and abortion in an election that, until recently, had been mostly dominated by the economy. And in what appears to be an abrupt shift, some Republican-leaning women like Ms. Russell said they might switch sides and vote for Mr. Obama — if they turn out to vote at all."

And, of course, Obama is no dummy:
Obama Plans Big Effort to Build Support Among Women (Jackie Calmes) from the New York Times
"President Obama’s re-election campaign is beginning an intensified effort this week to build support among women, using the debate over the new health care law to amplify an appeal that already appears to be benefiting from partisan clashes over birth control and abortion."

U.N. Won’t Back Down on Iran Nuclear Inspections (Michael Adler) from the Daily Beast
"In an exclusive interview, the head of the U.N.’s nuclear agency says it will demand Iran allow access to a key military site—even if it escalates tensions. Michael Adler reports."

The Islamic World's Quiet Revolution (Nicholas Eberstadt) from Foreign Policy Magazine
Forget politics. Muslim countries are poised to experience a new wave of change -- but this time it's all about demographics."

How India Became America (Akash Kapur) from the New York Times
 "The Americanization of India brings prosperity and the collapse of social structures — and young men calling their colleagues “dude.”"

The Go-Nowhere Generation (Todd Buchholz & Victoria Buchholz) from the New York Times
"... sometime in the past 30 years, someone has hit the brakes and Americans — particularly young Americans — have become risk-averse and sedentary. The timing is terrible. With an 8.3 percent unemployment rate and a foreclosure rate that would grab the attention of the Joads, young Americans are less inclined to pack up and move to sunnier economic climes.  The likelihood of 20-somethings moving to another state has dropped well over 40 percent since the 1980s..."

Major Victory in Anoka-Hennepin School District Bullying Lawsuit (Scott Wooledge) from Daily Kos
A very well-done summation concerning where the gay-students/bullying-in-schools conversation is these days.  It covers both breakthroughs and setbacks.  An excellent long-form piece!!
"A major battle was won this week in the war on school bullying. The 38,000-student Anoka-Hennepin school district outside Minneapolis, Minnesota settled a pending civil rights lawsuit filed last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) on behalf of students that alleged the school district failed to adequately provide for their safety and address their educational needs."
Some of you may remember this case from the excellent Mother Jones story about it which we posted here some weeks ago.

Romney’s Hispanic Problem is Serious (Andres Oppenheimer) from the Miami Herald
"Two new polls of Latino voters confirm what I have been writing for several months: Republican front-runner Mitt Romney is so unpopular among Hispanic voters that he would have a hard time winning the November elections. A nationwide poll of likely Hispanic voters released last week by Fox News Latino shows that if the election were held today, 70 percent of Hispanics would vote for President Barack Obama, while 14 percent would vote for Romney."

GOP Leaders Move to Protect their Own Reelection Prospects (Paul Kane and Rosalind S. Helderman) from the Washington Post
"As the presidential nomination fight promises to stretch into the spring, House and Senate Republican leaders are increasingly convinced that they must move ahead with an agenda of their own."
Rats ... jumping from a sinking ship?

More evidence for this here:
Tea Party Cold to U.S. Presidential Race Sets Sights on Congress from the Bloomberg News Service
"Republican U.S. Representative Roscoe Bartlett boasts that he voted against all of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plans and was an early member of the House Tea Party Caucus. That’s not good enough for other anti-spending Republicans back home."

Catholicism is Not the Tea Party at Prayer (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops will make an important decision this week: Do they want to defend the church’s legitimate interest in religious autonomy, or do they want to wage an election-year war against President Obama? And do the most conservative bishops want to junk the Roman Catholic Church as we have known it, with its deep commitment to both life and social justice, and turn it into the Tea Party at prayer?"

Top Democrats Raise Expectations For Holding The Senate from Talking Points Memo
"Their Senate majority widely believed to be in peril this November, top Democrats are invoking favorable events of late to raise expectations for holding on to the chamber, expressing a bullishness about the prospect that has been previously unforeseen."

Republican Turnout Lags Behind 2008 and 2000 White House Races from the Bloomberg News Service
"Dissatisfaction with the Republican presidential candidates contributed to lower voter turnout in this year’s early primary contests, compared with participation in 2008 and 2000, a new study suggests."

The Right’s Delusions About the Derrick Bell Video (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"The radical right hopes that a two-decade-old videotape of Barack Obama embracing radical professor Derrick Bell will sink the president. Don’t bet on it."

Celinda Lake: No Democratic Conspiracy With Sandra Fluke (UPDATE) from the Huffington Post
""I'm flabbergasted. I think it's bizarre," she said of the conspiracy claims. "All I can say is they're trying to deflect because they won't condemn Rush Limbaugh. They can't cut their losses and so they're trying to deflect, but they sound like raving maniacs. ... I don't think it's going to even remotely work.""

Signs of Stress in Newt's Campaign from Politico
"Repeatedly, Newt Gingrich’s campaign has approached the precipice. But as the former House speaker struggles to stay relevant after only winning two states, the likelihood that he has passed the point of no return is increasing. There are fleeting moments when it appears the campaign, and perhaps even Gingrich himself, knows that a big decision is looming after Tuesday, when Alabama and Mississippi voters head to the polls."

Terry England, Georgia Republican Lawmaker, Compares Women To Farm Animals from the Huffington Post
"“Life gives us many experiences,” England explained. “I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive — delivering pigs, dead and alive. … It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.”"
Boy, once they get going, they can't stop!  It's almost like they can't help themselves.  Very ODD!

The Sugar Daddy Recession (Laurie Penny) from Salon
"The economic downturn has forced some women into arrangements with unsavory men, and made desperation into a fetish."

Ken Griffin, Billionaire Romney Backer, Says Super Rich Have 'An Insufficient Influence' On Politics from the Huffington Post
"In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel was asked if he thought rich people had too great of an influence on politics. "I think they actually have an insufficient influence," he responded. "Those who have enjoyed the benefits of our system more than ever now owe a duty to protect the system that has created the greatest nation on this planet.""
Oh, I get it.  It's YOUR DUTY to make sure the system is as rigged in your favor as possible!  Well, that's refreshing.

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
Great Depression in the Deep South: Remarkable Colored Photographs Capture Daily Life of African American Laborers (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"These incredible pictures depict the life of black tenant farmers and their families who lived and worked in the rural South as the Great Depression drew to an end. The colour photographs show African American men and women working in cotton plantations and tobacco farms, as well as pictures of them fishing and relaxing."