Obama and Xi at Sunnylands: A Good Start from the Brooking Institution
"... the two leaders appear to have genuinely connected in a positive way during their eight hours together. ... On specific issues, Obama and Xi appear to have had the most agreement on North Korea: on the strategic dangers posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, and on the need to fully enforce the resolutions of the UN Security Council to create pressure on the North ..."
Analyst Overstated Claims on NSA Leaks, Experts Say from the Los Angeles Times
"... analysts said that Snowden seems to have greatly exaggerated the amount of information available to him and people like him. Any NSA analyst "at any time can target anyone, any selector, anywhere," Snowden told the Guardian. "I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email." Robert Deitz, a former top lawyer at the NSA and CIA, called the claim a "complete and utter" falsehood.."
On the NSA, “This Is Bullshit” (Andrew Sullivan) from The Dish
"If you read one commentary on the meta-data gathering by the US government, do yourself a favor and read David Simon’s. The creator of “The Wire,” he is not exactly unversed in the intricacies of government power, police work and, er, surveillance. And he, even more than I, is baffled by the tsunami of self-righteous indignation."
The Civil-Liberties Freak-Out (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"Unaccustomed as I am to agreeing with Marc Thiessen, hell has frozen over and he’s on the right track about the National Security Agency–leaks nonscandal. First of all, we pretty much knew everything that has “broken” in the past week. The NSA has been involved in a legal data-mining operation for almost a decade."
Snowden is No Hero (Jeffrey Toobin) from the New Yorker
"These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done."
Edward Snowden’s Grandiosity (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post
"... has the history of abuse of power, and the special danger from such abuses in an age in which privacy seems to be vanishing, leave you hailing any exposure of secret government methods as grounds for sainthood? There are people I respect who say Snowden is a hero. I think they’re dead wrong."
Russia Says It Would Consider Asylum For Edward Snowden from the Huffington Post
Another great civil liberties bastion heard from!
"Russia would consider granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday. ... Snowden has not made any requests for asylum yet, but Peskov told Russian newspaper Kommersant, "If such an appeal is given, it will be
considered.""
Obama's Immigration Dilemma: Leading While Following (Frank James) from NPR's It's All Politics
"His challenge is to show just enough presidential leadership on an issue he campaigned on but not so much that he fires up those opposed to him on general principle, the Senate immigration legislation or both."
Making History: President Obama’s Female Judicial Nominees from the Alliance for Justice
"President Obama has the best record of any President in appointing women to the federal judiciary.
His historic firsts include: * President Obama is the first President to appoint two women to the Supreme Court. Because of those appointments, three women sit on the Supreme Court for the first time in its history. * Forty-two percent of his appointees have been women – a rate almost double that of President George W. Bush (22%) and almost fifty percent greater than that of President Clinton (29%). * President Obama already has appointed more female federal judges that President George W. Bush did in his entire presidency (80 to 71)."
North Carolina Punishes Owners of Gas Efficient Cars (Daniel Gross) from the Daily Beast
"It’s hard to see why else the state would propose a measure to lay a special tax on owners of hybrid and electric cars, writes Daniel Gross."
Breath-taking. It is this kind of in-your-face irrational nihilism that almost guarantees that young people (who as a group are deeply concerned about global warming) will continue to turn away from the GOP.
Michelle Obama Is Reveling in Her Lame-Duck Status as First Lady (Michelle Cottle) from the Daily Beast
"She’s out confronting hecklers, showing off new moves with Jimmy Fallon, skipping Chinese summits—Michelle Obama, ambivalent and buttoned up in her first term, is finally free, says Michelle Cottle."
SAD PUNDIT NUGGET!!
All Good Things... (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"Unfortunately, family and personal matters must claim my attention for some time to come. ... Yet as I dim the lights here at the FrumBlog, I note that the intellectual project of conservative reform remains still at very early days. Here are five essential tasks to commence before conservative reform truly rolls forward."
Just what the world doesn't need right now -- one less highly intelligent, pragmatic THINKING conservative. I will miss his voice for as long as he is away.
MOVIE NUGGET!!
Hannah Arendt On The Big Screen from NPR's On Point program
"Hannah Arendt’s political theory rocked the 20th century with “the banality of evil.” A new movie looks at the life and mind of Hannah Arendt."
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