[Note to readers: the New York Times is putting up a subscribers wall today. For those (like me) who LOVE the New York Times -- but are too strapped financially to afford their full subscription, you can get full access to their web content simply by subscribing to their Sunday paper. They have a pretty decent discounted rate going right now.]
Libyan Rebels Advance on Muammar Gaddafi's Home Town from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Revolutionary forces move more west along Libya's coastal road, seizing several towns without resistance, as they get closer to Sirte."
Obama's Moral Case For War (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"In the President's Libya speech tonight, he'll have to deflect critics who ask why we're taking on Gaddafi--but not other murderous regimes. Peter Beinart on Why Consistency in Foreign Policy is Overrated."
I'll be curious to see if Obama bases his case on moral issues. I'm actually skeptical that most Americans really care about the morality of our conflict with Qaddafi. They're way too caught up in how much it costs, how long it will last, "why do we have to be the world's police?" types of concerns. But then, I think Obama can be VERY persuasive!
Road to Damascus from the Economist [of London]
"AS RECENTLY as Thursday, few were willing to predict whether protests in Deraa would spread across the rest of Syria. ...but the protesters' demands have since grown to calls for freedom—though not, at this point, for an end to the presidency of Bashar Assad. Yesterday their calls were joined."
Is this 1848? What History Can Teach Us About the Arab Revolutions (Leon Neyfakh) from the Boston Globe
"Since the start of the so-called Arab Spring, a chorus of historians and commentators has been arguing that the most fitting historical analogy to what’s happening in the region right now may be significantly less giddy-making. For them, the period we should be thinking about is not 1989, but rather 1848, when a cascade of revolutions engulfed Europe only to be extinguished by forces of the old order. While the 1848 analogy is a long way from perfect, the past several weeks have made it abundantly clear that the situation at hand cannot be seen as a triumphant repeat of 1989."
I agree with this author to the extent that I think happy or satisfying outcomes in ANY of the Arab states are unlikely.
Then you have items like this:
Great Leaps Forward in Syria and Jordan (Rami G. Khouri) from the Daily Star [of Lebanon in English]
"Events in Jordan and Syria last week marked perhaps the most significant leap forward in the continuing Arab citizens’ revolt against the modern Arab security state since the overthrow of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes."
Now, I have to say -- I like Rami Khouri a lot. He is based in Lebanon and works VERY HARD to keep up with the public mood in many Arab countries -- but I have to say I am much more skeptical about how things will work out.
China’s Repression Undoes its Charm Offensive (Joseph Nye) from the Washington Post
"Over the past decade, China’s economic and military might have grown impressively. But that has frightened its neighbors into looking for allies to balance rising Chinese hard power. The key is that if a country can also increase its power of attraction, its neighbors feel less need to balance its power. Canada and Mexico, for example, do not seek alliances with China to balance American power the way Asian countries seek an American presence to balance China. The result of this regional wariness is that China is spending billions on a charm offensive to increase its soft power."
The Return of Anarchism (Abe Greenwald) from Commentary Magazine
"What accounts for the new appeal of anarchism? There is one explanation for those attempting to blow up buildings and kill people and another one for those trying to muck about with the Internet. For the bricks-and-mortar anarchists, the 2008 financial collapse gave surprising currency to the idea that their seemingly anachronistic philosophy was actually the only left-wing alternative to an overweening European corporate statism that had failed so spectacularly."
SOURCE ALERT: Commentary is one of the leading neo-con magazines out there. The author raises a very interesting question -- and one needs to be aware of this potential bias.
The Modern Presidency:‘Drinking From a Fire Hose’ (Dickey and Barry) from Newsweek
"In times of trouble, Obama often looks to his predecessors for guidance. But amid such a pileup of disasters, crises, and wars, who’s the best model?"
Give TARP a Break (Robert Samuelson) from the Washington Post
"Created in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, it helped stabilize the economy, used only $410 billion of its authorized $700 billion and will be repaid most of that. The Congressional Budget Office, which once projected TARP's ultimate cost at $356 billion, now says $19 billion. This could go lower. You would hardly know. Almost everyone loves to hate TARP."
How to Get Smart Again (Niall Ferguson) from Newsweek
"The way we teach our children history has undermined our chances for success. A leading Harvard historian and NEWSWEEK columnist offers three ways to make it fun."
While I agree VERY MUCH with Ferguson's concern about the teaching of US history and that it should be more interesting, I think he's off base with some of his solutions (a problem I often have with Ferguson's analysis). Students have been forced to read textbooks for generations -- and those textbooks are no better or worse now than they were 20-30 years ago. While I'm still very much in an inquiry about it, I think most schools don't give it any priority (especially in the face of annual testing, no-child-left-behind, etc.), teacher training about US history is perfunctory, and parents (many of whom were badly taught themselves) don't care whether their kids know it or not. Rarely will it make any difference as to whether little Johnny gets a job or gets into MIT.
The Midwest’s New Class Politics (E.J.Dionne) from the Washington Post
"The battle for the Midwest is transforming American politics. Issues of class inequality and union influence, long dormant, have come back to life. And a part of the country that was integral to the Republican surge of 2010 is shifting away from the GOP just a few months later."
I have been observing this myself. There's a counter-intuitive dimension to it: during a major economic downturn, at a time you would think that workers' desperation for a job would completely undercut organized labor's position, the exact opposite emerges when the downturn is pro-longed and severe-- as the current one is. After years of uncertainty, unemployment, stagnant or declining wages, no mobility, pervasive bankruptcy, home foreclosure, and precipitously declining standards of living (see yesterday's CNN money item), Americans EXPECT the government to (at minimum) do no further harm. Instead, in ways that are NOT SUBTLE and carry the hint of almost vindictiveness, the GOP is pushing workers off a cliff -- even as their governors are cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. For people with traditions of working class activism (such as the industrial Midwest), people don't just get mad -- rage begins to set in.
In WI, Walker’s 'Legacy' Off to a Sad, Small Start (Editorial) from the Wisconsin State Journal
"For all the trickery, the verbal venom and Square-clogging protests, the signage, the prank call, the white-hot national spotlight and the throaty promises of retribution, one emotion that is settling in as I recall Gaylord Nelson is just a profound sense of sadness.When, if ever, can Wisconsin recover from being an epicenter of politics as blood sport to return to something that Gaylord Nelson would recognize?"
He Dreamed He Saw Kim Jong-il from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"Mr. LePage has ordered that a 36-foot-wide mural depicting workers’ history in Maine be removed from the lobby of the state’s Labor Department. The reason? His office cited some complaints from offended business leaders and an anonymous fax declaring that the mural smacked of official brainwashing by North Korea’s dictator. This is what’s passing for democratic governance in a state with a noble workers’ history."
The Starting Line: Vice Presidential Speculation (Joel K. Goldstein) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"Without a Republican nominee, or even an absolutely clear frontrunner, it is pointless to come up with a list of likely possibilities. But it is never too early to call on the nation’s premiere scholar of vice presidents, Prof. Joel K. Goldstein, to give us a sense of what will shape this critical selection by the eventual GOP presidential candidate."
The Republicans’ Hispanic Problem (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"If demographics is destiny, then Republicans may have a major political problem on their hands. Why? Because numbers released by the Census Bureau late last week showed massive growth in the nation’s Hispanic population, a community that Republicans have struggled mightily to reach in recent years. The numbers are eye-opening."
Well, clearly the answer is to SHIP'EM ALL BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM -- even the legal ones and the naturalized ones! Make no mistake -- for most GOP voters, this IS their solution. Anything that isn't this gets labeled "amnesty."
Who'll Be the FBI's Next Director? (Tara McKelvey) from the Daily Beast
"With Robert Mueller finishing up as FBI director, President Obama needs to announce a successor to fill the crucial post soon for a seamless handover. From Raymond Kelly to Jane Harman, Tara McKelvey reports on the candidates."
WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL NUGGET!!
Laid to Rest at Last: Eleven Servicemen Buried with Full Military Honors 68 Years After Their Plane Crashed in Papua New Guinea from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Eleven airmen who died after their plane crashed over Papua New Guinea during the Second World War have finally been buried with full military honours."
CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR NUGGET!!
Not Nice: Maurice Sendak and the Perils of Childhood from the New Yorker
"Sendak published his first work in 1947, an illustration for “Atomics for the Millions,” which was written by his high-school physics teacher. He drew molecules doing the Lindy Hop, and made a hundred dollars. Since then, he has illustrated more than a hundred books."
URBAN NUGGET!!
Detroit: A Dream Still Deferred (Thomas Sugrue) from the New York Times
"AT first glance, the numbers released by the Census Bureau last week showing a precipitous drop in Detroit’s population — 25 percent over the last decade — seem to bear a silver lining: most of those leaving the city are blacks headed to the suburbs, once the refuge of mid-century white flight. But a closer analysis of the data suggests that the story of housing discrimination that has dominated American urban life since the early 20th century is far from over."
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