News Nuggets 929

DAYLEE PICTURE: A horned owl in Saskatchewan, Canada.  From National Geographic.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Woos Washington (Vivian Salama) from the Daily Beast
"In a milestone for the Islamist Egyptian group, delegates from its affiliated Freedom and Justice Party are meeting with lawmakers in Washington, talking up “Sharia principles, not Sharia rulings” and the upcoming presidential election."
This COULD be a very important development.  It has long been argued by Obama's critics that support for the Arab Spring uprisings would inevitably lead to Islamist governments (like Iran's), government's deeply hostile to America's interests.  These meetings, however suggest that, while those governments may be Islamist, they may be more amenable and pragmatic.  I view this as a function of having been democratically elected: they are now ON THE HOOK for producing results; they can't just continue to lay all the blame on the US and its allies.  

Job Market Looking Up for New College Graduates: Study from CNBC
"This year's college graduates will find a more active, and potentially lucrative, hiring market, new data show. Employers expect to hire 10 percent more college graduates from the Class of 2012 than they did from last year's crop of grads, according to a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers."

University of Pittsburgh Bathroom Policy Surprises, Outrages Transgender Faculty, Students from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"On March 20, a university official informed Pitt's Anti-Discriminatory Policies Committee that transgender students and faculty must use bathroom facilities that match the gender on their birth certificate rather than the gender with which they identify. Since news of the controversial policy broke in the Pitt News student newspaper, critics have condemned it as a potentially harmful move that violates the university's anti-discrimination policy, which prohibits discrimination "on the basis of … gender identity and expression.""

How the Supreme Court Ended Up on the Ropes (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"The Supreme Court once enjoyed respect and commanded authority, but now it’s a fully political (and politicized) body. And the justices have no one to blame but themselves."

Conservatives Bristle At Federal Court’s Retaliatory Move At Obama from the Talking Points Memo
"...federal judges are supposed to stay above the political fray. And even conservatives are concerned that the circuit court judges stepped out of bounds Tuesday — and made Obama’s point about judicial overreach for him."

A Kinder Mix of Religion and Politics During Holy Week (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"... even in the Easter season, it’s hard not to notice that Christianity hasn’t been presented in its own best light during this election year because Christians have not exactly been putting forward their best selves. ... because Christians have a realistic and non-utopian view of human nature, they should be especially alive to the ambiguities and ambivalences of politics."

Rahm Emanuel Has a Problem With Democracy (Rick Perlstein) from Rolling Stone Magazine
"I’d argue that his humbling has been good for the city, and not just because the event would have been a riotous disaster. It’s also good because it’s been clarifying, having flushed out for the public something that reporters covering City Hall have known all along: Rahm Emanuel is no friend of democracy."

Anti-Evolution ‘Monkey Bill’ Poised To Become Law In Tennessee from Think Progress
"Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) announced yesterday that he will “probably” sign a bill that attacks the teaching of “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” by giving broad new legal immunities to teachers who question evolution and other widely accepted scientific theories."

Mitt’s ‘Marvelous’ Misjudgment (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post 
"The idea that Republicans were sticking their heads in the noose again had to seem like an unbelievable stroke of political luck. Luck that was only compounded by Mitt Romney’s full-throated endorsement of Ryan’s plan on the campaign trail."

Scarborough: 'No One' In GOP Establishment Thinks Romney Will Beat Obama from Newsbusters
"I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican congress, that worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election."

Independents are Abandoning Romney (or Not) (Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake) from the Washington Post
"New numbers from a USA Today/Gallup poll of 12 swing states suggests that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is quickly losing support among independent voters — a voting bloc considered the crown jewel of the 2012 election."

Why Conservative GOP Voters Aren’t Giving Up on Rick Santorum (Michelle Goldberg) from the Daily Beast
"The more the Republican establishment pushes Mitt Romney, the more alienated the religious right becomes. Why the party’s hard-core base isn’t coming around."