News Nuggets 597

Livestock roaming the Scottish highlands.  From the National Geographic.

UP-FRONT OBAMA NUGGET!!
The Great Barack Obama Conundrum (Mark Morford) from the San Francisco Chronicle
"Obama has a sense of the long view like no president in our lifetime. He seems to understand that his true positive impact will be felt cumulatively, over time, way down the road (your kids will love him). He thinks not egomaniacally, not insta-gratifyingly, but historically. This alone makes him one of the most remarkable politicians of any stripe, now or ever. And this is precisely the problem."
A wonderful, pointed (and funny) rejoinder to liberals who find themselves questioning whether they will do much to get him re-elected next year.

GOOD ECONOMIC NEWS NUGGET!!
Job Boom in Michigan, as Clean Energy Manufacturing Drives Economic Recovery from Reuters News Service
"Michigan's "green" economy is growing fast, data shows, with thousands of clean energy jobs on the horizon as a new manufacturing base is being built on the expertise of its battered auto industry. The change raises the prospect that Michigan might one day be a global hub for electric vehicles and advanced battery development, along with biofuel technologies, wind power parts and solar panels"

Syrian Protests Are Said to Be Largest and Bloodiest to Date from the New York Times
"Dozens of communities across Syria erupted in protest on Friday in what activists said were by far the largest and bloodiest demonstrations against the iron rule of President Bashar al-Assad."

Hard-ball Politics of Budget Battle Could Foreshadow Obama's Re-election Challenge (Ben Feller) from the Associated Press
"It was Obama's veto threat that made clear he would not accept the scope of spending cuts Republicans wanted. It was Obama who said he would accept no more short-term bills to keep the government afloat for a couple weeks at a time unless there was a broader deal in hand. And it was Obama who kept saying it was time for leaders to act like grown-ups."

Government Shutdown: How Obama Rose Above (Howard Kurtz) from the Daily Beast
"While Boehner and the Democrats squabbled over relatively meaningless cuts, the president sat back and played referee. Howard Kurtz on how White House escaped most of the blame—for now. "
Who won on the substance though? 

Budget Deal: Good News, Bad News (David Frum and other contributors) from CNN
"Good news: The dealmakers in both parties have prevailed over the confrontationalists in both parties. Speaker John Boehner persuaded his Republican Congress to accept "yes" for an answer. President Obama resisted the temptation to entrap the Republicans in a shutdown that would almost certainly have hurt the GOP more than it would have hurt him.  Bad news: The debate dramatizes how completely budget policy has displaced economic policy in Washington debate."

Shutdown Theatrics (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"Even in a town known for its kabuki theater, this one takes the kimono. “We want to avoid a shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “No one wants the government to shut down,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “There’s no reason why we should have a government shutdown,” said President Obama. If that were so, a government shutdown would have been averted weeks before it was. If negotiators were driven by logic, the possibility of a shutdown never would have arisen. Instead, they decided to go to DefCon 1 over a skirmish involving a fraction of 1 percent of the federal budget."
I TOTALLY agree with Milbank here (someone whose analysis I often find annoyingly clubby).  It was apparent to me Wednesday that the three principles had reached an agreement (even if by necessity not fully stated).  What followed was two days of providing Boehner political cover to cut the deal -- basically stringing it out so that he could go to his caucus and tell the Tea Party crowd that "Damn! I tried my best -- and this is the best we can get."  How do you know?  According to reports, last night, before they cut the deal, Boehner had to meet with the House GOP caucus.  NOTICE: Reid did not need to meet with HIS caucus.  No mention of Obama needing to huddle with other Dems, groups or special interests.  What was in the way was Boehner's caucus -- and the kabuki was for their benefit.  That I spotted this by mid-week makes me wonder if that caucus will actually buy the transparent theatrics.  SOMETHING TO WATCH FOR: how are GOP House lawmakers received back in their districts?  My prediction: the Tea Party grassroots will NOT be satisfied with this deal!

Words That Make Me Weep (Mark Shields) from Creators Syndicate
"The next time you hear some swaggering think-tank commando or some talk-show tough guy bloviating about why the U.S. needs — in yet one more Middle Eastern country — "more boots on the ground," please think of nurse Jackie and ask yourself what kind of a world it is with no birds."

Prostitutes’ Disappearances Were Noticed Only When the First Bodies Were Found from the New York Times
Now, let me say that this site virtually never traffics in brutal crime stories -- there's rarely anything "new" said in them.  This one is exceptional in several ways.  The following is just one of the items that leaped out.  The story is quite well-done.
"The oldest profession is also one of the most deadly. The bodies of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of murdered prostitutes — women, men and transgender people — have been found in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut since 1990. “It really feels like there’s just an open war against this population,” said Sienna Baskin, a lawyer and co-director of the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project."

Florida Pastor Terry Jones and the Far Reach of Free Speech (Tim Rutten) from the Los Angeles Times
"Others have raised the question of whether our conception of constitutionally protected speech needs to adjust itself to an age in which words spoken in Gainesville can have deadly impact in Mazar-i-Sharif. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for example, wants Congress to explore ways to limit now-protected expressions, such as Jones'. "Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war," he said Sunday.

Axis of Fundamentalism: Gainesville to Mazar-i-Sharif (Patricia J. Williams) from the Nation
"Jones—like the Westboro Baptist Church, with which the Dove Center sometimes joins league—presses on unhindered either by compassion or the courts. Such are the complexities of free speech in a socially networked world."

The Fragile Success of School Reform in the Bronx from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
"Ramón González, an ambitious young principal in the South Bronx, is struggling to engage parents, improve teachers, and rescue students to create a thriving public school. González's mission is different from the increasingly trendy charter schools taking over New York City, and his experience shows how the school-reform movement both inspires and hinders efforts to improve public education."

Boehner and Cantor: The GOP's Top Frenemies (Patricia Murphy) from the Daily Beast
"Driving the GOP’s budget battles is the tense relationship between Speaker Boehner and his deputy, Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Patricia Murphy on the rumblings of a coup in the ranks."
The same relationship exists near the top of the Dems House leadership between Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.

LOCAL ENVIRONMENT NUGGET!!
Pennsylvania Calls for More Water Tests from the New York Times
"Pennsylvania environmental regulators said Wednesday that they were calling for waste treatment plants and drinking water facilities to increase testing for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants, to see whether they are ending up in rivers because of the growth of natural gas drilling in the state."

The Beck of Revelation (Mark Lilla) from the New York Review of Books
"As Glenn Beck announces he’s leaving his Fox News show, Lilla examines the conservative rabble-rouser’s long list of bestsellers. Searching for the real Beck is a waste of time, he concludes, because “the truth is, demagogues don’t have cores.” Beck allows himself to be a blank slate onto which his surprisingly diverse band of followers project their own anxieties."

RESCUED DOG NUGGET!!
Dog Adrift in Pacific Reunited with Owner from BBC Asia-Pacific
"The dog that was adrift in the Pacific Ocean for 3 weeks following the deadly Japan tsunami was reunited with his owner. "
More footage is HERE.

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY BOOK [FOLLOW-UP] NUGGET!!
Authorities Confident Old Christian Manuscript Smuggled to Israel from the Jordan Times [in English]
"The Jordanian government on Sunday reasserted its claims to 2,000-year-old manuscripts it believes may represent the greatest discovery on the eastern banks of the River Jordan."
A very squirrelly version of this story came out the other day from the Daily Mail.  This article from Archeology News Network has an article that looks even more authoritative HERE.

DR. SEUSS NUGGET!!
Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss to Be Published in September from AOL News
"Fans of iconic children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, have reason to celebrate. In September, Random House will release "The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories," a collection of seven virtually unknown stories that the author wrote in the 1950s."

SPORTS NUGGET!!
Red Sox-Yankees Series Highlights Globalization of Baseball from the Christian Science Monitor
"When the Red Sox and Yankees kicked off a three-game series today at Fenway Park in Boston, 14 of the 50 players were foreign-born, representing a game that is rapidly globalizing."

HISTORICAL MOVIES NUGGET!!
15 Historical Sites from the Movies from AOL News
"Everyone knows their celebrity casts, their most memorable lines and how they fared at the box office, but for a real behind-the-scenes look, there's no substitute for visiting the places that truly inspired them. With the list of historical feature films seemingly epic itself, historical travel website Historvius.com has picked out just a selection of places where history has turned into Hollywood."