News Nuggets 1107

DAYLEE PICTURE: Wild flowers on a mountainside in Abruzzo, Italy.  From National Geographic.

U.S. the New Saudi Arabia? Peak Oilers Scoff (Peter Coy) from Businessweek 
"The U.S. is set to increase oil production so much that it will overtake Saudi Arabia and become the world’s biggest producer by around 2017, the International Energy Agency said today. The reaction from “peak oil” theorists? Not a chance. "

Energy Independence in the United States? Don’t Pop the Cork Yet from the New York Times
"At first look, the changing energy panorama seems implausibly fortuitous, and it is no doubt a strategic game-changer. But the report also warns that the global energy future is still full of challenges, and many energy experts say any celebrations should remain muted."

Greece's Economy Shrinks Further from the BBC
"... it has become increasingly clear that even after this debt write-off, the Greek government's borrowing remains at an unsustainably high level. The more time that Greece is given to get its deficit under control, the more debt it will rack up in the meantime."

U.K. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise as Labor Market Slows from the Bloomberg News Service
"U.K. jobless claims rose at the fastest pace in more than a year and job creation slowed, suggesting the labor market is succumbing to a fragile economic outlook."

German Investor Confidence Unexpectedly Fell in November (Stefan Riecher) from Bloomberg News Service
"German investor confidence unexpectedly declined in November as the sovereign debt crisis curbs growth in Europe’s largest economy."

General Confusion of the Patraeus Scandal (David Weigel) from Slate
"Why the Petraeus scandal isn’t the national security scandal Republicans wanted."

Now for more on the recent election.  I think todays assemblage might rightly be called the special "sour grapes" edition!
Romney Blames Loss on Obama’s ‘Gifts’ to Minorities and Young Voters from the New York Times
"A week after losing the election to President Obama, Mitt Romney blamed his overwhelming electoral loss on what he said were big “gifts” that the president had bestowed on loyal Democratic constituencies, including young voters, African-Americans and Hispanics."
In my view as long as the talking heads of the GOP self-indulge themselves with this kind of off-the-mark rhetoric, there's no chance that they'll be dealing with new ideas or strategies that might actually make a difference.

Mitt: Obama Bribed Voters (Alex Halperin) from Salon
"The failed candidate says the president's base was motivated by "gifts" from the government."

OUR PUNDIT-OF-THE-DAY!!
The Confederacy of Takers (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"President Obama’s opponents have unwittingly come up with a brilliant plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” They want to secede from the union. If Obama were serious about being a good steward of the nation’s finances, he’d let them."

White House ‘Secede’ Petitions Reach 675,000 Signatures, 50-State Participation from the Daily Caller
"Less than a week after a New Orleans suburbanite petitioned the White House to allow Louisiana to secede from the United States, petitions from seven states have collected enough signatures to trigger a promised review from the Obama administration."

New Senate Breed: Liberal and Proud of It from Politico
"The Senate is about to become a liberal lion’s den. There’s a new gang of senators who ran their campaigns as unabashed progressives and won. Several of them will replace more moderate predecessors, led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a hero of the left who reclaimed the seat of the original liberal lion: Sen. Ted Kennedy."

Why Nancy Pelosi Stayed from Politico
"..now, with President Barack Obama firmly ensconced for another four years, you thought this mayor’s daughter from Baltimore would just walk away? Not likely. ... Wednesday’s announcement that she will stay on as House Democratic leader in the new Congress came as no great surprise ..."

The Six Most Bizarre Freakouts Over Obama’s Re-Election from Talking Points Memo
"The re-election of President Obama last week was just too much for some conservatives to handle. Although the doomsday pronouncements of the past four years have yet to materialize, some Americans couldn’t help themselves from freaking out over the news that the president will be here for one more term. TPM has compiled the six most bizarre reactions to Obama’s victory."

Death of Key West Man Linked to Obama's Reelection  from the Miami Herald 
"A Key West man who told his partner that "if Barack gets re-elected, I'm not going to be around" was found dead on Nov. 8, with the words "F--- Obama!" scrawled on his will and two empty prescription bottles nearby. Henry Hamilton, 64, owner of Tropical Tan off Duval Street, was "very upset about the election results," his partner Michael Cossey told Police Officer Anna Dykes."

Misreading Election 2012 (Andrew Kohut) from the Wall Street Journal 
"The GOP might be out of step with some voters, but Mitt Romney was an
unusually unpopular party standard-bearer."

Partisan Journalists Are Following the Money All Too Literally (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"The right-wing media’s disconnect from reality in the 2012 election was fed by its financial dependence on the growing partisan economy, writes John Avlon."

GOP Grapples With Embarrassing Polling Failures; It Hurts to Lose. It Hurts Even More When You Don't See It Coming from the National Journal 
"Deep down, I wrote at the time, both parties secretly worried that their side was missing the boat. Now we know which side needed its polls unskewed. Before Election Day, Republicans confidently predicted they would pick up seats in both chambers of Congress, and that Mitt Romney would win the White House. The results shattered those predictions, and with them any sense of security in the numbers coming out of some of the best-regarded polling firms on the right."

More Accurate Than Nate Silver (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"According to the Atlantic's Rebecca Greenfield, there were only three pundits, out of 74 she tracked, who called the 2012 Electoral College correctly—Nate Silver, Drew Linzer, and me. I was happy enough to be in that rarified air, but then I read this: ..."

The Obama Haters Book Club: The Canon Swells (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"John Avlon runs through the overheated, often unhinged obsessively anti-Obama canon. PLUS: An interactive stroll through the hate."

Notes for Next Time (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"There won't be an incumbent on the ballot in 2016. But Obama does have a debt to the Clintons to pay off, and bequeathing Hillary his campaign operation might settle it. That possibility alone should inspire any Republican who hopes to improve on Romney's showing to internalize the lessons of this campaign as early as possible, leaving plenty of time to get ready for whatever surprises await."

Angus King to Caucus with Senate Democrats (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos 
"Sen.-elect Angus King has made it official, announcing that he will caucus with Senate Democrats, brining the majority to 55 votes. This, as the Roll Call headline reads, is "No shocker.""

Obama Calls Out Bullies From the Bully Pulpit (James Kitfield) from National Journal
"Freed from the restraints of a reelection campaign, President Obama responded defiantly to some of the foreign-policy and national-security controversies that have dominated headlines in recent days."