Clinton became the first secretary of state in two decades to visit Yemen. Here women at a town-hall meeting ask for her help in abolishing child marriage. See the Political Profile Nugget below. From Newsweek.
Lots of contradictory stories coming out of Libya:
Libyan Loyalists Celebrate Muammar Gaddafi's Phoney Triumphs from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Gunshots in Tripoli as Gaddafi's regime claims to have taken back several cities that are still under opposition control."
Sources seem evenly split as to how much progress pro-regime forces have actually made.
Saudi Arabia Bans Public Protest from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Ruling by senior clerical council follows two weeks of Shia demonstrations and 22 arrests."
Arabs Rise, Tehran Trembles (Karim Sadjadpour) from the New York Times
"Tehran’s ruling elite continue to cling to the antiquated ideology of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose worldview was formed by decades of imperial transgressions in Iran. The demographic boom in the Middle East, however, has brought a wave of young Arabs and Iranians who associate subjugation and injustice not with colonial or imperial powers, but with their own governments."
The Arab Uprising Spreads to Iraq from the Editorial Board of the Washington Post
"THE ARAB uprising has spread to Iraq, and in many ways the turmoil there resembles that of Egypt or Tunisia or Yemen. Thousands are taking to the streets on Fridays, only to be met by water cannon, tear gas and sometimes live ammunition. Dozens have been killed, and the government has taken repressive measures to stop the demonstrations, including arresting and beating journalists and intellectuals. Yet Iraq is also a rudimentary democracy, and so some of what is happening is unique in the region."
Libya and the Iraq Syndrome: Does their Caution in Libya Show that Americans Will Make War No More? from the Economist [of the UK]
"Against a backdrop of two wars and a surly economy, Mars is no longer ascendant in Mr Obama’s Washington. His drones may be zapping Taliban encampments in Pakistan, but Mr Obama always opposed the “dumb” war in Iraq, and much of his own party hates the war he calls necessary in Afghanistan. Having been elected as the anti-Bush, he needs another entanglement in the Middle East like he needs a hole in the head."
Pak on Tinderbox Poised to Explode: Zardari from the Times of India [in English]
""The religious fanaticism behind our assassinations is a tinderbox poised to explode across Pakistan. The embers are fanned by the opportunism of those who seek advantages in domestic politics by violently polarizing society," Zardari said."
I will be amazed if Pakistan makes it to 2012 with anything like the government they have now.
China Paper Blasts Middle East Protest Movements from the Associated Press
"Such movements have brought nothing but chaos and misery to their countries' citizens and are engineered by a small number of people using the Internet to organize illegal meetings, the Beijing Daily, published by the city's party committee, said in a front-page editorial. "The vast majority of the people are strongly dissatisfied (with the protests), so the performance by the minority becomes a self-delusional ruckus," the newspaper said."
China's politburo has SPOKEN: Dictators of the world - UNITE!! A clear nod that China is prepared to move in anywhere in the Middle East where the US doesn't buck up our coterie of sclerotic bullies. You have to ask yourself -- what are China's leaders thinking? They're going to take the US's place with these authoritarian regimes -- just as those regimes are crumbling in the face of democratic revolutions? It seems that they are banking on these revolutions failing.
Saving Our Young from Ourselves (James Carroll) from the Boston Globe
"The speech was extraordinary, also, for its frank acknowledgment that America’s elders have consistently failed the nation’s sons and daughters in sending them off to war. “Since Vietnam, our record has been perfect. We have never once gotten it right — from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq, and more.’’ Gates was faulting failures to anticipate the true nature of those engagements, but their outcomes arguably establish that all of them were unjustified. Young lives wasted."
Some breath-taking statements from SecDef Gates.
Terror Bots Being Designed to Hunt You Down from Discovery News
"A headless metal warrior stomps towards you, shooting. Fortunately, you've been training for a marathon and easily jet off to safety down an alleyway. But wait -– now a metal cheeta-bot is after you, racing faster than your puny legs can go. As the space between you and the galloping beast closes, you round a corner, see a door and dive through. It slams behind you. As you freeze, holding your breath, the robotic cat passes by outside with a wake of metallic echoes. Relieved, you exhale into the dark. A fatal mistake -– outside, another robot has detected your breath and alerted the enemy to your location … Waking up from this nightmare is a way to save yourself, for now, but in fact all three 'terror' bots it featured are based on actual prototypes being developed in California and Boston (though not with directly malicious intentions). Here's an introduction to the motley three."
Didn't we already see this in The Terminator!? Check out the links in this article. You could see this coming -- but…
Boehner Moves To Defend DOMA In Court from TalkingPointsMemo
"House Speaker John Boehner announced plans Friday afternoon to defend the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of Congress, filling the legal void left by the White House's decision to drop its support for portions of the law."
Oh, this should be good! Whoever defends DOMA for Boehner will have to be quite the legal contortionist! In case you missed it, the legal hurdles for defending DOMA are QUITE formidable. Walter Dellinger had an excellent analysis at the New Republic the other day on why this is so and why Obama's DOJ declined to defend the law.
House Dem: EPA Not Doing Good Enough Job Monitoring 'Fracking' from The Hill
"“So far, EPA has not caught up with the scale of the problem and in fact no one has. I think the drilling is getting ahead of itself,” said Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), a fracking opponent, in a pre-taped interview that aired on the energy-policy program energyNOW! Sunday."
Gee. Ya think?
The Decline of Glenn Beck: What Caused It? (James Downie) from the New Republic
"His ratings and reputation are in steep decline: His show has lost more than one million viewers over the course of the past year, falling from an average of 2.9 million in January 2010 to 1.8 million in January 2011."
He is getting 'Winchelled'. As with that old red-baiter extraordinaire, that 'OH-SO-GREAT-AMERICAN,' Walter Winchell, there reached a point where even his nuts-completely-out-of-the-bag followers began tiring of his BS. So with Beck. Ann Coulter is already on the road to has-beensville. Look for Rushbo and others to follow sooner or later. As Charles Blow of the Times said the other day -- you can't sustain raw anger forever.
The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms (David Carr) from the New York Times
"He still has numbers that just about any cable news host would envy and, with about two million viewers a night, outdraws all his competition combined. But the erosion is significant enough that Fox News officials are willing to say — anonymously, of course; they don’t want to be identified as criticizing the talent — that they are looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck."
God, please make it so.
POLITICAL PROFILE NUGGET!!
Hillary Clinton's War for Women's Rights from the Daily Beast
"The secretary of state is on a mission: putting women’s rights at the forefront of a rapidly emerging new world order. In this week’s Newsweek, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon talks to Clinton about the greatest role of her lifetime."
The Newsweek item is HERE.
As an aside: this week's Newsweek is Tina Brown's first effort at that publication and the focus is a wide-ranging series of stories on gender and politics that looks quite interesting. Here's the LINK.
ANOTHER SPOILED KID NUGGET!!
Designer Creates Ultimate Pirate Bedroom for Lucky Six-year-old from the Daily Mail
"It looks like every little boy's dream idea of their perfect bedroom. But this is in fact one extremely lucky six-year-old's very own pirate ship room, complete with rope bridge, crow's nest and a two-story hidden slide."
And how much did Dad's little hobby project for his son cost? The article doesn't say -- but I would say five figures at least. Having said that, there's no denying that the father was VERY clever! And as a designer, the publicity he got from this little item will probably more than pay for itself.
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