News Nuggets 683

 The Dirty Devil River in Utah.  From National Geographic.

The Man Who Hunted Osama bin Laden from the Associated Press
"Hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph was a career CIA analyst. In the hunt for the world's most-wanted terrorist, there may have been no one more important. His job for nearly a decade was finding the al-Qaida leader."

The US Surge in Afghanistan Recedes; Puts India on the Spot (David Karl) from the Asia Sentinel [from Hong Kong in English]
"The coming period will witness an intensified regional scramble for influence in a post-withdrawal Afghanistan.  India has compelling strategic interests in ensuring that any government in Kabul is capable enough to serve as a bulwark against Pakistan as well as a gateway to trade and energy links in Central Asia."
A well-stated, nuanced picture of how Indian leaders view US withdrawal from Af-Pak.  The one thing that is missing is the ultimate source of what is putting India "on the spot": it's festering relationship with Pakistan.  The mini-cold war between these two has become so fixed on each's national security landscape, you have to wonder if they will EVER do the rest of the world a favor and deal with it.

In the Brother Leader's Bunker in Libya from the Economist [of London]
"On the surface, life goes on. Beneath it, Libyans nervously watch and wait."

Top Burma Diplomat in US, Defects from the Global Post
"Kyaw Win says senior military officers are consolidating their grip on power and seeking to stamp out democratic voices."

China 'Must Not Be Permitted' to Push Around its Neighbors (Editorial) from the Mainichi Shimbun [of Japan in English]
"China says that problems in the South China Sea should be resolved by the two countries involved - and that the U.S. has no part in these issues. But China is certainly responsible for raising tensions in the region. As the U.S. has maintained, problems in the South China Sea should be tackled within a multilateral framework."

South Sudan Shows What Obama Can Do When He Leads (Jackson Diehl) from the Washington Post
"Starting last summer, when U.S. officials realized that a fragile 2005 peace accord between the north and south was in danger of crumbling, Obama and his top aides have pursued a concerted, coherent and hard-headed campaign to preserve the south’s long-anticipated move toward independence."
Let me just say that, in the main, I have found Jackson Diehl's neo-con war cheer-leading analysis to be pretty worthless for most of the last ten years, and I'm surprised the Post still gives him a forum -- but here I think he gives Obama credit for something that has not received much attention.

DSK Case Keeps Twisting as French Presidential Hopes Are Revived, Then Dashed By New Charges from New York Magazine
"...even if the New York case ends in dismissal, the French legal tangle will likely preclude a presidential run. This new case may influence the French presidential race in yet another way, however, since one probable witness is the currently leading Socialist candidate, François Hollande, to whom Banon claims she told her story shortly after the 2003 incident."

Strauss-Kahn to Face New Sex Charge in France from the New York Times
"A French writer who recently said Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to sexually assault her in 2003 will officially accuse him of attempted rape, her lawyer announced Monday, even as separate sexual assault charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn in New York seemed to be weakening."

For the Gay Rights Movement, It Gets Better (David Remnick) from the New Yorker
"The gay-rights movement has, in many respects, mirrored the black freedom movement, but in hyper-speed."

The People Want Higher Taxes (Froma Harrop) from Real Clear Politics
"Odd that House Speaker John Boehner continues to sail on with nothing in the hold but a vague threat to let America default on its debt if ... if what? If Democrats refuse to make the drastic spending cuts Republicans are afraid to push."

GOP Rigidity on Taxes Threatens Debt Deal from the Editorial Board of USA Today
"The standoff over taxes is the sad culmination of years of increasing GOP fealty to a politically handy economic fantasy: Tax cuts are always good, and tax increases are always bad. As this view has hardened over the last decade, the nation has used trillions of dollars in borrowed money to finance two wars, Medicare's prescription drug program and President George W. Bush's broad tax cuts — all initiated with the GOP controlling both the White House and Congress. Now Republicans have belatedly decided that borrowing is bad, too, but they dogmatically resist even the most sensible and painless tax hikes."

Time in House Could Be Short for Republican Newcomers from the New York Times
"It is miles to go before the 2012 Congressional races begin in earnest, but already some of the 87 freshmen who helped the Republicans win back the House last year are bracing for a challenge from within the party. At least half a dozen potential primary challengers to freshmen are considering a run, and there is heated chatter about more."
It would be too good to be true for the GOP to go through self-annihilating primary battles between two already extreme candidates.  Ah, but we can always hope.

Obama calls the GOP’s Bluff (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"Obama’s in-your-face attitude seems to have thrown Republicans off their stride. They thought all they had to do was convince everyone they were crazy enough to force an unthinkable default on the nation’s financial obligations. Now they have to wonder if Obama is crazy enough to let them."

A Grand Old Cult (Richard Cohen) from the Washington Post
"Someone ought to study the Republican Party. I am not referring to yet another political scientist but to a mental health professional, preferably a specialist in the power of fixations, obsessions and the like. The GOP needs an intervention. It has become a cult."

S-C Sen.DeMint Book Reveals Widening GOP Divide (James Rosen) from McClatchy Newspapers
"The conflicts reveal a widening split within the Republican Party between pragmatic dealmakers trying to help their states and ideological conservatives intent on slashing the federal government even at the expense of needs back home. DeMint writes in almost messianic terms as he repeatedly casts himself as fulfilling a mission assigned to him by God to "save freedom," prevent bankrupting the future and pull the nation back from a moral abyss."

Iowa GOP Splits in Two Camps: Populists and Establishment (Steven Thomma) from McClatchy Newspapers
"Seven months before Iowa starts the voting, it's turning into a battleground among the populist wing of the party for the right to take on the establishment wing in later states."

TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Electronic Skin Gives Robots a Sense of Touch from Discovery News
"In their attempt to create a more sensitive robot, the team has produced small hexagonal plates that, when joined together, form a responsive robot skin."

HIDDEN TREASURE NUGGET!!
Treasure Worth 'Billions' Found In Hindu Temple In Southern India from the Huffinton Post
"Archeologists have reportedly uncovered over $11 billion in treasure at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, according to AFP. The treasure has been found in at least 5 vaults."

CLASSIC FILM NUGGET!!
Remembering "Gone With The Wind" (Hilton Als) from the New Yorker
This week marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of “Gone with the Wind.” Hilton Als remembers his first encounter with Scarlett, Mammy, and the lost Old South."

ODD BUILDING NUGGET!!
World's Narrowest House Which is Crammed into an Alleyway is Just 60 INCHES Wide from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The home - complete with bedroom, lounge, bathroom and kitchen - is just under 60inches wide and is so narrow that the builders have abandoned a traditional staircase in favour of a ladder. Each of the four storeys goes back nearly 40ft with a room on each floor of the apartment, crammed into an alley between an old tenement block and a tower block in Warsaw, Poland."
Check out the diagram -- it is quite interesting!

EUROPEAN MONARCHY NUGGET!!
Son of Austria-Hungary's Last Ever Emperor Otto von Habsburg Dies Aged 98 from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The last heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire has died at the age of 98.
Otto von Habsburg, the eldest son of Austria-Hungary's last emperor, died in his sleep at home in Poecking, southern Germany, with his seven children nearby. Born in 1912, Habsburg was heir to the empire until it collapsed at the end of World War I and his family went into exile."
What a blast from the past!  While it is interesting to contemplate how the Habsburgs or some of the other central or eastern European monarchies might have survived, most of the last generation of rulers and their heirs were (for the most part) a very nutty hard right-wing bunch.  This one was no exception.  In so many ways in my view these folks and their immediate predecessors were key authors' of Europe's catastrophic 20th century history.