News Nuggets 967

DAYEE PICTURE: The view from space of San Francisco Bay.  From the Huffington Post.

TEN BEST NUGGETS OF THE WEEK!!

1.  Chen Exposes Communist Goliath (Minxin Pei) from The Diplomat
"The case of Chen Guangcheng has exposed how fragile the Chinese Communist Party’s control may be. The incompetence of its repressive apparatus has been exposed."

2.  Obama’s Foreign Policy: Dealing from a Position of Strength (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"The Obama team seems almost dismissive of the foreign-policy savvy of his likely Republican rival, Mitt Romney. They see Romney as out of his depth on this subject, making gestures to his neoconservative supporters and talking tough, no matter the issue — almost in a caricature of the chest-beating unilateralist."

3.  Melinda Gates' New Crusade: Investing Billions in Women's Health (Michelle Goldberg) from Newsweek
"She plans to use the Gates Foundation's billions to revolutionize contraception worldwide. The Catholic right is pushing back. Is she ready for the political firestorm ahead?"

4.  New Form of Christian Civic Engagement (Jonathan Merritt) from USA Today 
"Christian Millennials are now coming of age and recognizing the flawed strategies and broken agendas embraced by their forebears. They've seen how the religious right (and the religious left, for that matter) has used the Bible as a tool to gain political power and reduced the Christian community to little more than a voting bloc — and they are forging a different path."

5.  Obama Lets Go Of Fear (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"I do not know how orchestrated this was; and I do not know how calculated it is. What I know is that, absorbing the news, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a while, didn't know what to write, and, like many Dish readers, there are tears in my eyes."

6.  President Obama "We Will Finish What We Started" Campaign Rally in Columbus, Ohio (VIDEO) from C-Span
"President Obama launches his official campaign for re-election today with stops in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia. The two states are expected to be swing states in the 2012 election."

7.  Why the Obama Campaign Is So Confident About Beating Romney (Mark Halprin) from Time Magazine
"Because Chicago has expanded its electoral-map targets by exactly one McCain 2008 state – Arizona – and because the popular vote is expected to be closer than it was four years ago, the Obama team is not being coy when it admits this will be a close election. But as of the first week of May, it is not a close election any of the team’s members expects to lose."

8.  Mitt Romney’s Prep School Classmates Recall Pranks, but Also Troubling Incidents (Jason Horowitz) from the Washington Post
"Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors. The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another."

9.  Mystery Mitt: Who Is He Really? (Howard Fineman) from the  Huffington Post 
"Most of the American people don't know who Mitt Romney really is. They don’t know what is good and decent about his life story, his family, his work, his philosophy or his personal ethics. They don't know the bad news either. They don't know much of anything except a few caricatured, cartoonish facts. The former governor of Massachusetts remains largely an empty canvas, onto which the Obama campaign, the Democrats and a voracious media are slapping paint as fast as they can. Romney campaign officials, I know from a visit there this week, seem to think they have plenty of time to tell their story. They don't."

10.  Germany Still Locates 40,000 War Casualties a Year from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"The German War Graves Commission launched a campaign on Tuesday, the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II, to promote its online database as a way for relatives to trace missing soldiers. Some 40,000 are located and reburied each year across Eastern Europe and Russia -- where its teams still encounter hostility from locals who remember the murderous
occupation."

Now, to our regular nuggets for Sunday, May 13th.

How the Arab Spring Beat Al Qaeda (Fawaz A. Gerges) from the Daily Beast 
"In his newly released papers, Osama bin Laden recognized the gravity of the loss of Muslim opinion, though he was powerless and sidelined to halt the decline."

Dismal China, India Data Signal Slowing Growth from ABC News
"Dismal data from China and India on Friday may signal a further weakening of the global recovery, undermining hopes the dynamic emerging economies of Asia can help prop up growth."

Europe’s Man-Made Disaster (Joseph E. Stiglitz) from Slate
"The consequences of the rush to austerity will be long-lasting and possibly severe."

In Fukushima (Rebecca Solnit) from the London Review of Books
"A visit to the epicenter of the tsunami and a society still in turmoil."

Nano Drones, Ethical Algorithms: Inside Israel’s Secret Plan for Its Future Air Force (Amir Mizroch) from Wired Magazine
"Nano drones that an infantryman can pull out of his pocket; helicopters piloted by robots who extract wounded soldiers from the battlefield; micro satellites on demand; large spy balloons in the upper reaches of the stratosphere; virtual training with a helmet from your office; algorithms that resolve pilots’ ethical dilemmas (so they won’t have to deal with those pesky war crimes tribunals); and farming out code to a network of high school kids."

Do Humans Dream of Android Prostitutes? (Sebastian Anthony) from Extreme Tech
"In the next five years or so it will be possible to build lifelike robots. These robots will look, move, and feel like fellow humans — but, unless the technological singularity comes early, these robots won’t be excellent conversationalists. According some recent research, though, they will make fantastic prostitutes."
Very disturbing.

Why Obamacare Rebates Are A Big Deal (Mark Halprin) from Time Magazine 
"From almost the moment the Affordable Care Act (a/k/a "ObamaCare") was signed into law, the administration has been playing defense... But the rebate provision of the law -- the fruits of the so-called '80/20 rule' -- is about to kick in big time, as millions of Americans receive rebate checks or premium reductions from insurance companies who have failed to spend enough on patient care. This cash could be a true game changer in public attitudes about whether the law actually is beneficial and good public policy."

Barack Obama 2012 Takes Multiple Pages From GOP Playbook (Howard Fineman) from the Huffington Post
"As he tries to become only the second Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to win reelection, Barack Obama is adopting much of the strategic playbook Republicans have developed and used for 40 years."

Top GOP Pollster to GOP: Reverse On Gay Issues (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"...the pollster's conclusion is clear: if the GOP keeps up its current rhetoric and positions on gays and lesbians, it is in danger of marginalizing itself to irrelevance or worse. Read the bluntness of this. This is the GOP establishment talking to itself."

Romney Backs Away From Gay Adoptions (Matthew Shelley) from the National Journal
"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday backed away from his support of adoptions by gay couples, saying that he simply “acknowledges” the legality of such adoptions in many states. A day earlier, Romney, in an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, had indicated that while he does not support same-sex marriage, he considers the adoption of children by gay couples a “right.”"
Weak.  Romney is astonishingly weak.

Will Young Mitt Hurt Candidate Mitt (Maggie Haberman) from Politico 
"The details of a Washington Post piece have his campaign worrying."
They are not used to having the Karl Rove playbook being used against them.  Whether it's Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, or even Michelle Obama, Republicans are used to using a candidate's ancient past against Democrats.  In my view, it's pretty rare that you see Democrats effectively using a GOP candidate's "youthful indiscretions" or long-ago missteps against their presidential nominee.  It will be interesting to see how they cope.

What Romney the Teenager Says About Romney the Man (Kevin Drum) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Romney the man has denied, and repeatedly denied yesterday, even remembering this incident. Sure, it was half a century ago, but he led a posse of his friends, tackled John Lauber in a hallway, dragged him into a bathroom, and then chopped off his hair while he struggled in terror. Even if you grant that this kind of extreme behavior was more common in a 1960s prep school than it is today, it's really not the kind of thing you'd forget. At least, you shouldn't."

On Mitt Romney, the Unlikable Presidential Candidate (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"It’s been a long time since the country elected a man as personally unappealing as Mitt Romney. Will Americans overlook their deeply held conviction that he’s a jerk?"
I dislike the tendency among some pundits to name-call -- here I think the key issue is Romney's appeal.  I've made the case here before that it is exceedingly rare that America elects candidates who don't reach a certain level of "likability", and Romney has not even approached the basic level.

WI-Gov: “I’m Not Scott Walker” from Salon
"State Republicans are terrified of pushing anti-union legislation -- and becoming targets like Wisconsin's governor."

MOTHERS DAY OBAMA NUGGET!!
Obama is his Mother’s Son (David Maraniss) from the Washington Post 
"It is harsh to say but nonetheless likely that Barack Obama II was lucky never to have lived with Barack Obama Sr., an abusive alcoholic. By far the most influential figures in Obama’s early life were his mother and grandmother. He has some of the demeanor of his grandmother and the will and much of the outlook of his mother. “Dreams From My Mother” better evokes his life’s story."

WWII NAVAL MUSEUM NUGGET!!
WWII Battleship Sets Sail for History Books as it Prepares to Become a Floating Museum from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The battleship that once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War II summit with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin is getting ready to set sail for its final voyage.  Some 25 years after the U.S.S Iowa ended its active duty in the Iran-Iraq war the 887-foot long ship is travelling hundreds of miles to be turned into an interactive naval museum."

LANDMARK EDUCATION NUGGET!!
Lunch with the FT: Werner Erhard (Lucy Kellaway) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"The self-help guru whose Est seminars in the 1970s attracted followers and controversy has turned his attention to integrity in business."