UP-FRONT FOREIGN POLICY NUGGET!!
The Real Lessons of Munich (Bruce Thornton) from the Hoover Institution
A spot-on assessment of the "Bush doctrine", may it rest in peace!
"An example of a historical analogy that failed because it neglected important differences was one popular among those supporting the Bush Doctrine during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush Doctrine was embodied in the president's 2005 inaugural speech: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." Promoting democracy and political freedom in the Middle East was believed to be the way to eliminate the political, social, and economic dysfunctions that presumably breed Islamic terrorism. Supporters of this view frequently invoked the transformation of Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union from aggressive tyrannies into peaceful democracies to argue for nation building in the Muslim Middle East."
This Fascinating Chart Shows how Middle Easterners Think Women Should Dress from the Washington Post
"... Veiling can be controversial in the Middle East. Views on it vary widely among and within countries, reflecting both the diversity of opinion in the region on how women should dress and the larger forces driving that debate. The range is really driven home by this chart..."
Forget the Unemployment Rate—People Still Don't Have Jobs (Joshua Green) from Businessweek
"The chart above, from my Bloomberg News colleague Mike Dorning, shows the percentage of 25- to 54-year-olds (prime working-age adults) who have a full- or part-time job. As you can see, it fell off a cliff during the Great Recession. And five years later it has barely budged."
Obama Should Look To Roosevelt In Fight Against Inequality, Right Wing (Harvey Kaye) from the National Memo
"Our own challenges are not those of 1944. But in the wake of the tragedies, crises, painful obstructions, and compromises of the past 15 years, and in the face of continuing right-wing and corporate class war against working people, they are no less daunting – and we are no less eager to start addressing them."
Good News! Health Spending as a Share of the Economy is Shrinking (Sarah Kliff) from the Washington Post
""There are two explanations," says David Cutler, a Harvard economist who served as a health care adviser in President Obama's 2008 campaign. "One is the recession was a big and drunken episode that has a very long hangover. The alternative view is that something big has actually
changed.""
How Millennials Have Already Reshaped Politics (Ronald Brownstein) from National Journal
"Almost every week provides more evidence of the political system bending toward the cultural preferences of the massive millennial generation. But evidence is accumulating just as quickly of the system's failure to respond to its economic needs."
No, Really: It’s Over for Christie in 2016 (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"The bridge scandal lets national media dredge up every instance of pettiness, rage and payback. There are plenty."
Christie’s Bridge Scandal and the Muddled Search for a GOP Nominee from the Washington Post
"The bridge scandal that has engulfed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has also brought more disruption to the already-muddled early stages of the Republican Party’s search for a 2016 presidential nominee. Republicans appear headed for the most wide-open and unpredictable nomination campaign in decades. Their prospective field of candidates is mostly untested on the national stage, and a number of them spent the past year generating questions about their readiness rather than burnishing their credentials. Christie is just the latest."
In New Documents, the Bridgegate Cover Story Unravels (Michael Daley) from the Daily Beast
"New emails and documents show rising internal skepticism at the Port Authority, reckless top Chris Christie aides, and an elaborate fiction to mask political payback."
Why is it over for Christie?
STRIKE ONE: Cover-up.
Elaborate Effort to Hide Political Motive in Lane Closing from the New York Times
"Top officials loyal to Gov. Chris Christie went to great lengths to make it appear that the closing of several toll lanes was part of a traffic study, according to documents released by New Jersey lawmakers on Friday."
New Documents Show Extensive N.J. Coverup from the Washington Post
"New documents related to a traffic jam planned by a member of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) staff show for the first time how furiously Christie’s lieutenants inside the Port Authority worked to orchestrate a coverup after traffic mayhem engulfed Fort Lee last year."
STRIKE TWO: Violations of federal law.
New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team's Lane Closure "Violates Federal Law" (Molly Redden) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye wrote that the decision to shut down access lanes to the bridge violated state and federal laws. "I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both States," Foye noted, explaining his decision to reopen those lanes to traffic."
Port Authority Chief Warned That Bridge Lane Closures Were Illegal from Talking Points Memo
"This hasty and ill-advised decision has resulted in delays to emergency vehicles. I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital- or hospice-bound patient delayed," he wrote. He added: "I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both States."
STRIKE THREE: Obstruction.
Governors Spoke Privately About Bridge Controversy from the Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person. The lane closures occurred without notice to local authorities, officials have said, and snarled traffic for a week in the small borough on the Hudson River bluffs."
AND (IN CASE ONE WAS NEEDED) STRIKE FOUR: Possible grounds for a civil suit.
New Christie Bridge Scandal Email: Cops Forced to Direct Traffic Instead of Responding to Emergencies from Mother Jones Magazine
"New evidence that the bridge scandal bogged down emergency responders."
AND ... the wolves are gathering!
You Know Who Loves the Chris Christie Bridge Scandal? Conservatives (Jon Terbush) from The Week
"... there's another group that is delighted to see Christie sweat in the glare of the national spotlight: Far-right conservatives. Indeed, many conservative members of the media have been more than willing to kick Christie while he's down."
Conservatives on Chris Christie: Diva Getting What He Deserves (Josh Kraushaar) from National Journal
"Rudy Guiliani's adviser: 'You're going to see conservatives returning the favor he gave them over the last year.'"
The 5 Most Damning Revelations In The New Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Documents from Think Progress
"The new documents reveal how Christie aides defended their inexplicable decision to study new traffic patterns on the George Washington Bridge without informing local officials or their New York counterparts, fended off questions from an exasperated Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, and then stayed quiet ..."
Chris Christie Scandal Is An 'Impeachable Offense' If He Knew, Dem Lawmaker Leading Probe Says from the Huffington Post
"New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) told NBC News Saturday that if Christie was at all aware of his aides' actions, impeachment could emerge as a potential issue. "Using the George Washington Bridge, a public resource, to exact a political vendetta, is a crime," Wisniewski said."
George Will Keeps Getting Nuttier (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The single most popular item on a long list does not, by itself, tell you what all customers want. (To explain this concept in terms Will might understand: If the Yankees have the biggest television audience of any baseball team, it would not prove that most baseball fans love the Yankees.) So, are Americans on the whole flocking toward gas-guzzling vehicles? No, just the opposite ...
SUNDAY FUNNIES NUGGET!!
Old Breakfast Buddies, From Tarzan to Snoopy from the New York Times
"Sunday afternoon with the funnies: retro comic strips can make a comeback in a digital world, with new collections published as books."
HISTORY NUGGET!!
'You Have to Know History to Actually Teach It' (David Cutler) from the Atlantic
"An interview with Eric Foner, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery."
WAR TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
U.S. Military Look into Remote Controlled 'Helicopter Truck Transformers' that can be Sent on Rescue Missions WITHOUT a Driver from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"New drone is in development to meet the requirements of the U.S. military for a new evacuation vehicle. Currently being tested by Advanced Tactics, an El Segundo-based firm. Called Black Knight Transformer, it would be capable of both flying and driving and would be operated by a remote."
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