UP-FRONT DOCUMENTARY REVIEW NUGGET!!
'Bully': Getting Past 'Boys Will Be Boys' (Laura Clawson) from Daily Kos
A very moving review of what sounds like a deeply impactful film.
"The warning the new documentary Bully deserves is not the R rating it fought over its depiction of kids saying "fuck" a few too many times. The warning it deserves is that you will cry. You will cry because every time you are tempted to think that what Alex, the boy the movie follows through a year of being bullied, endures is just the routine stuff of adolescence, you will be reminded that those experiences kill."
NATO Sees Flaws in Air Campaign Against Qaddafi from the New York Times
"The findings undercut the idea that NATO could effectively carry out a more complicated campaign in Syria without relying disproportionately on the United States military."
Al-Shabaab Executes al-Amriki from the Somaliland Sun [of Somalia in English]
"The al-Qaeda-allied group al-Shabaab executed US-born jihadist Omar Hammami on April 5th, according to unconfirmed Somali media reports. Hammami, known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, said he feared for his life from other al-Shabaab leaders because of strategic and ideological differences in a statement released last month."
THIS is interesting. One of the big fears American intelligence folks have had is of native-born Americans getting trained abroad and committing terrorist acts in the US. In many ways, Al-Shabaab has been leading the efforts in this area. Now, the question is: what happened here? Al-Amriki could have been a double agent working for US intelligence and his cover was blown. That's one possibility. Another possibility, the one I favor in the moment, is that this guy was a "for-real" terrorist-in-training and that false information was disseminated about him, killing Al-Shabaab's trust in him. Why do I favor the latter? It's quite elegant. It not only eliminates this dangerous potential terrorist -- but sends a clear message to other Americans who might think they could go and be Al-Shabaab-trained terrorists and make a big name for themselves doing some big terrorist act. These Americans will have to now think VERY CAREFULLY if they want to pursue that track. This is very elegant. It very much reminds me of what seems to be going on around Iran's nuclear program: sew so much distrust among the participants that the program gets completely bogged down. While I, of course, have no way of knowing, but this Somalia episode just reeks of this kind of Obama stealth "knife-from-nowhere" tactic.
Beyond the Scandal Lies a Crisis at the Heart of China's Legitimacy (Will Hutton) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"A Chinese Spring is inevitable if the party leadership doesn't reform itself."
A Fine Revolutionary Week it has Been in the Middle East (Rami G. Khouri) from the Daily Star [of Lebanon in English]
"In the last six months, it appeared to many that the military rulers of the Arab world would seamlessly be replaced by Islamists who enjoyed the electoral legitimacy the generals and colonels had lacked. We now see that in just a few months various sectors of Arab society are regrouping and challenging the power of both the Islamists and the military. "
PETMAN Robot Climbs Stairs In New VIDEO From DARPA, Boston Dynamics from the Huffington Post
"PETMAN, a humanoid robot built in 2011 for the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), has been modified to climb stairs, as shown in this unsettling video."
VERY unsettling! The second video of the emoting robot is also creepy.
The Obama Oil Boom (CHART) from Talking Points Memo
"Until gas prices begin to come down, Republicans will continue to blame the spike on President Obama — whose policies, they claim, have squelched U.S. energy production broadly. ... The argument has a tenuous connection to fuel and energy prices. But if Obama’s held a heavy hand over American oil, surely it would be reflected in the labor market for extraction jobs, right? Quite the opposite."
On Obama Lessons in Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
The latest volume of Robert A. Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson charts his transformation from an isolated and belittled vice president into a leader who wielded power with unmatched ruthlessness."
I think there is a lot of truth to what Frum says here -- both about the book and about what Obama needs to do. Fortunately, the Caro book is EXACTLY the kind of book Obama will put on his must-read nightstand.
Swing States: Obama Still has Electoral Advantages Despite a Much-changed Map (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"...the 2012 map is more likely to resemble the 2004 map. That year, President George W. Bush eked out a 286-electoral-vote win over Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.). And yet, according to a detailed Fix analysis of the electoral playing field, President Obama retains major advantages over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the likely GOP nominee, when it comes to winning the 270 votes he needs for a second term."
Romney’s Real Problem with Women (Joan Vennochi) from the Boston Globe
"MITT ROMNEY’S real battle for female support is proving that his word is good. Based on his Bay State record, it’s hard to trust him. Massachusetts is where Romney first showed his appetite for running over any candidate who stands between him and political office. Here, it happened to be women."
Mitt Romney: Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside Home Or Lose Benefits (Ryan Grim) from the Huffington Post
"Women who stay at home to raise their children should be given federal assistance for child care so that they can enter the job market and "have the dignity of work," Mitt Romney said in January, undercutting the sense of extreme umbrage he showed when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen quipped last week that Ann Romney had not "worked a day in her life.""
This item showcases the problem Romney will face in the general election: between what liberal Massachusetts Romney said in the 1990s, what he said four years ago running against McCain, what he's said running as a faux conservative in the GOP primaries, and what he'll feel compelled to say now to have a chance with moderates and independents, I think that there is (quite literally) no issue of import that he has not taken diametrically opposed positions. The Obama team has already tipped their hand earlier this year with a long devastating ad showing that they intend to mine this territory quite a bit.
Rep. West's Claims are as Absurd as it Gets (Tony Norman) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Channeling the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy this week, Mr. West said in response to a question about the percentage of "card-carrying Marxists" and "neo-Castro Socialists" in Congress that "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party." ... What comes across most in the exchange is the congressman's lack of seriousness. He's a joker. He's content to entertain his constituents with paranoid lies they want to hear, relieving him of the responsibility of explaining his lack of legislative achievement."
STUNNING LAWMAKER NUGGET!!
On Republican Senator Johnson: 'Like Watching a Temper Tantrum by a 2-year-old' (Steve Benen) from MSNBC's Maddow Blog
"Johnson chatted with the Green Bay Press Gazette's editorial board, which pressed the Republican on economic policy. Johnson talked about "cutting spending," and "getting the economy moving," but simply couldn't answer any questions with any substance at all. It was painful to watch. Two years later, Roll Call reports that Johnson is poised to "purge nearly his entire Washington, D.C.-based legislative team," in large part because they expect the senator to work on legislation -- and he doesn't want to."
THIS is what the Palin-ization of GOP politics produces. Michele Bachmann is another one whose staff spends virtually all their time doing P.R. for the candidate rather than doing any legislative work whatsoever.
TRANSPORTATION NUGGET!!
Motorways in the Sky Set to Become Science Fact as Aerospace Engineers Map Out Possible Routes (VIDEO) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Regular sky travel could only be 20-30 years away. New design can fly 300 miles on one fuel tank."
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