News Nuggets 978

DAYLEE PICTURE: It's Fleet Week in New York City with the 

big ships and the big sail on parade!  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Shakil Afridi, Pakistan Doctor Who Helped Find Osama Bin Laden, Sentenced To Prison from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was sentenced to 33 years in prison on Wednesday for conspiring against the state, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington."
The Pakistanis seem to be going out of their way to put a stick in the eye of the US.  All this will do is hasten the end of US engagement with them and, for them, a quicker descent into political and social chaos and recrimination.

The Revenge of the Rust Belt: How the Midwest Got Its Groove Back (Jordan Weissmann) from the Atlantic
"By becoming more cost competitive, the Midwest is luring back manufacturers, creating signs of hope in a troubled region."

After President Obama’s Announcement, Opposition to Same-sex Marriage Hits Record Low from the Washington Post
"Public opinion continues to shift in favor of same-sex marriage, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which also finds initial signs that President Obama’s support for the idea may have changed a few minds."

Obama Spending Binge Never Happened: Government Outlays Rising at Slowest Pace Since 1950s (Rex Nutting) from the Wall Street Journal
"Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree. ... Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s."
Check out the chart that accompanies this article!

Harry Reid to Republicans: Give in on Bush Tax Cuts, Gutting Medicare and Maybe We Can Talk (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"Democrats do have a trump card in this upcoming battle—two, actually, if they'll play them."

Is Justice Ginsburg Risking the Future of the Supreme Court? (Chris Greider) from the Daily Beast
"The calls for her retirement started last year—she’s nearly 80 and a two-time cancer survivor—but Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn’t going anywhere. Chris Geidner looks into the tricky world of politicking and the court."

Survey: NPR’s Listeners Best-informed, Fox Viewers Worst-Informed from Fairleigh Dickinson University and Poynter
"NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative news outlets, while exposure to partisan sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC, has a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge."
The study lumps together all the major cable news sources -- and finds that folks who rely on them as their primary source of news to be the least informed.  As a few of you know, I cancelled cable ten years ago because, on some level, I perceived that this was true.  Now the evidence.  You want to be better informed about what's really happening?  Stop (like cold turkey!) looking there for news.  Just STOP.  Does it take more discipline to read newspapers (or their websites) or to listen to NPR? Only initially.  When I visit my parents, I will sometimes watch CNN with them, and it is my experience that I will get more and better information from reading the NY Times or the Wash Post for 30 minutes than watching CNN for four hours -- no exaggeration!

Obama Prospects Improve As Swing State Economies Improve (Mike Dorning) from Bloomberg News Service
"From extra shifts at auto and steel plants in Ohio to office buildings rising in Northern Virginia, the geography of the U.S. economic rebound is providing an edge to President Barack Obama’s re-election. The unemployment rates in a majority of the 2012 battleground states are lower than the national average as those economies improve. Coupled with the growth of adult minority populations in those states, the trends create a higher bar for presumed Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his quest to unseat Obama."
It is really interesting to see the two diametrically opposed narratives that are emerging for Democrats and Republicans (or at least their base voters).  Both sides seem to think their presidential candidate is gaining on the other.  "Obama's prospects are improving..." or "GOP discovers that Romney could win..."  To me, it further demonstrates that the two parties are operating within two dramatically divergent media universes wherein they (and especially the GOP) draw from a very select set of partisan sources. Who's right?  Guess we'll find out in November, won't we?

Obama's Region of Doom from Politico
"The region in question is the Upland or Upper South: its borders range roughly from eastern Oklahoma to western North Carolina and northward to include Appalachia. It’s similar in many ways to the Deep South but still culturally, politically and economically distinct. The heart of the Obama resistance is located in the coal country of Kentucky and West Virginia,"

Mitt, We Hardly Know You (Walter Russell Mead) from the American Interest 
"...the piece exposes the dilemma at the heart of the Romney campaign: the former governor can only be understood and appreciated as a human being in the light of the deep faith that informs and guides his approach to life, but few Americans understand what that faith is and how it works. Worse, while a tolerant society no longer persecutes Mormons or drives them out of town, many Americans view Mormonism as a cult and as an aggressive competitor against orthodox Christianity rather than as just one more stripe in the coat of many colors that makes up the American Christian world."

Romney's Bain Playbook Unclear as Attacks Grow from the Associated Press via Yahoo News
"The core of his presidential candidacy under attack, Mitt Romney has yet to shape a playbook to defend a quarter-century in the business world that created great riches for himself and great hardship, at times, for some American workers."

Romney Silent On Immigration As Latino Vote Slips Away from Talking Points Memo
Josh Marshall: "The Romney campaign seems to have decided that it can’t repair the damage to his chances with Hispanics post-primary and he’ll focus on getting votes elsewhere."
I suspect Marshall is over extrapolating here.  Romney can't afford to walk away from this demographic this early in the election cycle.

Colin Powell Trashes Mitt Romney's Team Of Foreign Policy Advisers (Jennifer Bendery) from the Huffington Post
"He gave the example of Romney recently saying that Russia is the "number one geopolitical foe" to the United States. "Come on Mitt, think," Powell said. "That isn't the case.""

Sir Mitt’s Very Thin Skin (Gene Lyons) from the National Memo
"When Romney’s not running around boasting about his enormous success running Bain Capital and accusing others of envying the vast wealth he’s got stashed in numbered accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, his tender sensibilities are constantly being offended by peasants whining about lost jobs and stolen pensions. Why do they hate America? Anyway, his thin skin is how you know Romney’s an aristocrat. "

Sisters' Woes Jolt Pittsburgh: Probes Entangle Supreme Court Justice, State Senator, Both of Prominent Family from the Wall Street Journal 
""There is no precedent that I know of in modern Pennsylvania history for three people in the same family, three sisters in this case, to face these kinds of allegations," said Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. The sisters, all Republicans, say their legal troubles reflect bad blood with the Allegheny County district attorney, who is a Democrat."

Green Roofs in Big Cities Bring Relief From Above from the New York Times 
"Turning the black tar roofs that cover our cities into green spaces is not cheap or easy, but its environmental benefits would be great."

CRAZY INDOOR PETS NUGGET!!
We've seen moose, then hippos, ... now buffalo ... as in TWO of them living as indoor pets.  Crazy.  Never mind these two enormous animals, though, the interior decorating of this home would be enough to scare me away!
Couple Share Their House with TWO Giant Beasts from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Have you herd the one about the couple who live with two buffaloes? Here are the pictures to prove it.
RC Bridges, nicknamed 'The Buffalo Whisperer' and his wife Sherron, share their Texas home with 2,400lbs Wildthing and recent 900lbs arrival Bullet. Both are still growing, and could reach up to 11ft tall and weigh as much as 2,500lbs."