News Nuggets 679

 The coastline off of Haleakala on Maui in Hawaii. From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT PUBLIC RADIO NUGGET!!
WDUQ Lineup to Feature More NPR from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Essential Public Media has unveiled the new programming lineup for the all-news public radio station launching Friday on WDUQ-FM (90.5)."
Here is the FULL SCHEDULE.  It is really packed with NPR and related programing -- as well as some potentially interesting LOCAL NEWS shows!!

Libya's Western Front Joins the Battle from the Los Angeles Times
"Fighting is flaring in the rugged mountain region, where the minority Berber community sees its own chance to throw off Kadafi's yoke. Leaders are increasingly in contact with rebels in the east."

Ahmadinejad on the Ropes (M. Mahtab Alam Rizvi) from The Diplomat
"Tensions between the president and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been bubbling to the surface. Ahmadinejad is running out of options."

In Greece, Relief Abroad, Riots in Athens from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"Foreign governments have reacted with relief to the Greek parliament's vote in favor of a far-reaching austerity package. But demonstrators in Athens responded to the news with rage amid brutal clashes with police. Prime Minister George Papandreou can expect further resistance to his reforms."

The Wageless, Profitable Recovery (Steven Greenhouse) from the New York Times
VERY important findings!
"Economists at Northeastern University have found that the current economic recovery in the United States has been unusually skewed in favor of corporate profits and against increased wages for workers.  In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, “corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent” of that growth. The study, “The ‘Jobless and Wageless Recovery’ From the Great Recession of 2007-2009,” said it was “unprecedented” for American workers to receive such a tiny share of national income growth during a recovery."
INCREDIBLE.  This report describes a really bad condition, one I would not even remotely call a recovery.  And yet, this describes clearly the jobs reality that I have been seeing.  This should be front-page news across the country.

The Pessimism Index (Mark Penn) from Time Magazine
"The poll confirms that the country is going through one of its longest sustained periods of unhappiness and pessimism ever. Today's teenagers hardly remember a time before 9/11, the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq and constant economic upheaval. Baby boomers, the generation known for continuous reinvention, are filled with worry and doubt about their future and the future of their children."

Defense Cuts Appear Likely as Pressure Grows on Debt Deal from The Hill
"Defense cuts proposed by the White House are unlikely to keep a debt-ceiling deal from passing Congress, sources say. As few as 30 House Republicans would likely consider voting against a debt-ceiling deal that cuts $300 billion from security spending, according to a GOP aide."

Strauss-Kahn Case Seen as in Jeopardy from the New York Times
"Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself. Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said."
Very interesting.  I have not taken a public position on Strauss-Kahn's guilt or innocence -- but it definitely looks like he will walk.  One unfortunate lesson for women that may come from this: unless you have a stellar background and reputation, don't get raped. The French reaction is HERE and HERE. 

The Debt Debacle and The Freshman Class from the National Journal
"A GOP lobbyist with close ties to the financial industry said that fears are growing that some kind of drama—a stock-market drop, a downgraded bond rating, a failed vote—may have to happen for the freshmen to understand the stakes: “They may need something terrible to happen to prove a point.”"

Obamacare Won’t Die in the Courts (Eli Lehrer) from the FrumForum
"The Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding the constitutionality of President Obama’s massive health reform bill is a death knell for the current Republican strategy of bloviating against the bill and hoping that it will, somehow, go away.... Quite simply, the law should be a wake-up call for conservatives to start formulating “plan B” on health care–a legitimate replacement for most of Obamacare’s bad features."

For the first time in quite a while, I think this conservative pundit may be right -- although for slightly different reasons than he lays out here.  As Nina Tottenberg pointed out this morning on NPR, the current court has two clear biases: one against consumer lawsuits directed at big business and another in favor of free speech.  Surprisingly, there is no clear bias against federal authority or in favor of states' rights.  This, along side the Sixth Circuit's ruling yesterday, should give supporters hope.  It looks like the Supreme Court will be ruling on the health care law next year.

Tuition-Hiking Colleges Have Some Explaining to Do from USA Today
"These are rankings no college wants to top. The Education Department today unveils a website on which it is publishing for the first time lists identifying the nation's most expensive colleges."
HERE's the site with the full list. 

US Prisoners Sentenced Under Strict Crack Cocaine Laws Get Relief from the Christian Science Monitor
"At least 12,000 federal prisoners can seek reductions in their sentences for crack cocaine offenses, after a ruling Thursday by the US Sentencing Commission. The stiff sentences, meted out between 1984 and 2010, hit the black community hard." 
This is long overdue -- but twelve thousand?  For some reason, that number seems small to me.  I thought it would have been more.

Obama’s Ace: No Challenge From the Left (So Far) (Rhodes Cook) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"For some time now there has been a political rule of thumb: Presidents with little or no opposition in their party’s presidential primaries go on to win reelection, while those who must weather a significant primary challenge are defeated in the fall election. At this point, there are no signs of a Democratic primary challenge to Obama."

In NY, Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing from the New York Times
"Administration officials are discussing maintaining a ban on the process inside New York City’s sprawling upstate watershed, as well as a watershed used by the city of Syracuse, according to people briefed on the plan. But by allowing the process in other parts of the state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo would open up New York to one of the fastest-growing — critics would say reckless — areas of the energy industry."

Wisconsin: GOP Fight in Recall Election Against Democratic Senator from Americablog
"In a pair of stories, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells one tale. ... A GOP candidate from Green Bay running in a Senate recall race has been convicted of two misdemeanor counts, arrested on other occasions, and now faces another probe by the Oconto County Sheriff's Department. The incidents involving David VanderLeest, which were brought forward by Democrats on Wednesday, stem from domestic violence allegations. VanderLeest, 34, helped organize the recall against Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and is the only Republican on the ballot challenging Hansen in the July 19 election."

Minnesota Shutdown 2011: State Government Shuts Down from the Huffington Post
"Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (D) and top Republican state lawmakers failed to reach a budget deal to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight (CST) deadline."

Counter-Punching On Taxes in CA (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"t's a safe bet that most voters don't truly understand, or even know about, the full extent to which corporations and other commercial property owners for three decades have systematically shifted California's property tax burden onto residential homeowners - and away from themselves. What regular folks do know, however, is that they don't like the idea when they learn a little about it"
PRETTY savvy observation!  Hope they can move on it.

The GOP's Dixie Dilemma (Ronald Brownstein) from National Journal
"A Rick Perry presidential candidacy would compel the GOP to confront its ambiguous relationship with the South."

The Changing Face of the GOP (Reid Wilson) from National Journal
"Thanks to the rising conservative movement fueled by tea party activists, this is not your father’s Republican Party."

Who Would Have Thought That 'Dick' Would Put Mark Halperin In The Box? (Jason Linkins) from Huffington Post
"there's never been any consequences meted out for all those times he's been hysterically bad at his job. It matters to no one in the media that he is a misogynist hypocrite, a Matt Drudge tongue-bather -- or that the clearest evidence of his bankruptcy is the fact that ABC's "The Note" was never better than when Halperin took his obsequious, insidery wink-nudgery elsewhere."
I think Halperin deserved to be suspended from MSNBC -- as did Ed Schultz.  But then I have thought for years that Glenn Beck and any number of other conservative talkers on FOX have deserved to be suspended -- and they weren't.  But the fact that those folks weren't doesn't mean Halperin's suspension wasn't warranted.  It seems like the only response to the poison-filled political discourse in this country has been to make it even more hate-filled.  There has to be some push-back somewhere.

Even more to the point:
The Real Dickishness Problem (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"...the laziest and ultimately most destructive form of political coverage came when journalists seemed to imagine that they were theater critics or figure-skating judges. The what of public affairs didn't interest them. All they cared about was the how. In this case, the "what" of Obama's press conference -- the unbelievable recklessness of mainly House Republicans in inviting the largest self-inflicted economic wound in American history -- deserves every bit of frustration Obama showed, and lots more."

WOMEN'S HISTORY BOOK NUGGET!!
Books as Bombs: Why the women’s movement needed “The Feminine Mystique." (Louis Menand) from the New Yorker [from January]
"... no matter how much she wanted, how hard she tried, or how qualified she was, Betty’s life could never be Carl’s—but it was not so easy to explain it when Friedan was writing her book."

CIVIL WAR BOOK NUGGET!!
What Drove the Terrible War? (James M. McPherson) from the New York Review of Books
"As we begin to move through four years of commemorating the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the outpouring of new books will add to that conflict’s status as the most-written-about event in our history."