News Nuggets 690

 An arctic fox pup with one brown eye and one blue eye at the Aquarium 

of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA.  From ZooBorns.

President Ahmadinejad Wrestles Supreme Leader for Control in Iran from Le Temps [of Switzerland in English]
"As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quarrel, the guardians of the Islamic Revolution are growing stronger."

Ahmadinejad vs. the Revolutionary Guards (Alireza Nader) from the United States Institute of Peace
"In the past, Ahmadinejad proved he is a survivor. He masterfully manipulated his way into Iran’s second most powerful position. Yet he now faces a challenge he may not be able to overcome. Khamenei has given the Revolutionary Guards the task of reining him in--and perhaps even helping select his replacement as president."

The Drone War Goes Global (AUDIO) from NPR's On Point program
"U.S. airborne drones now striking in half-a-dozen countries. The world and future of drone warfare."

We Are Ready to Take Khartoum, say Militias Allied to South Sudan from the Independent [of the UK]
"A day after losing one-third of its territory to the newly independent South Sudan, the government of Omar al-Bashir is facing a new threat from rebels in the Nuba Mountains who have vowed to "march on Khartoum"."

The European Central Bank Is Heading for Some Hefty Icebergs (Irwin Seltzer) from the Wall Street Journal
"The good ship Eurotitanic might maneuver around the tiny ice cubes that are Greece and Portugal, but it is headed straight toward two huge icebergs: Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest euro-zone economies."

Phone Hacking Scandal Widens: News International Targeted Gordon Brown, BSkyB Bid Delayed (LIVE UPDATES) from the Huffington Post
"Multiple outlets reported that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to claim that several News International papers illegally obtained his personal details.  According to The Guardian, The Independent and the BBC, investigators working for the News of the World, The Sun and The Sunday Times obtained information about Brown's family, his legal, his financial and his medical records. ... His bank, Abbey National, wrote to The Sunday Times charging that "someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception," according to the BBC."
An observation about this scandal: It seems clear that NoW reporters/editors SYSTEMATICALLY gathered information about politicians, royals, celebrities, victims of terrorism, and even those folks charged with investigating the NoW hacking [see story below]!!  [Prediction: the circle will widen to include the police, foreign leaders such as US Congressmen and Obama].  Given Murdoch's hard-balling reputation and his inflated interest in being a global political player, you have to ask yourself: was it all just to get "news" or to "scoop" the competition?  The risks verses payoff equation does not balance off or make real sense to me.  These revelations concerning hacking the actual investigators suggests a very different set of concerns: first, obviously, to short cut the actual criminal investigation (in the US we call this obstruction of justice).  But a second concern quickly follows: the systematic gathering of info may actually have much less to do with Murdoch's interest in "scoops" and a lot more to do with having "intel" to use for *overtly political purposes*, re: blackmail (just as one possible example).  Go back to fundamentals: what is the purpose of a Murdoch property such as, oh, let's say Fox News?  To actually present news? Or to produce certain political outcomes?  In my view, it is obviously to produce certain political outcomes here in the US.  Do Murdoch and company run with everything they find out through their hacking -- or do they selectively withhold certain special "goodies" to make sure certain public officials tow the News Corp "line" or become sources for more "intel"? It would certainly be a historic and revolutionary development to see a global news organization that doubled as its own global spy agency a la a private-sector version of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI!  Charges of wiretapping and bribery are already surfacing. The risks verses payoff equation makes much more sense to me in this light.

UPDATE: The Acting Commissioner for London's Metropolitan Police says this morning that he is 99% certain his own phone was hacked by the NoW.  In addition, the NYTimes reports that NoW editors used GPS "pinging" to locate "people of interest", something only law enforcement are authorized to do and a serious crime in the UK.

Shareholders Sue News Corp. over Hacking Scandal from the Associated Press
"A group of News Corp. shareholders have sued the media conglomerate over a phone-hacking scandal at its now-closed News of the World tabloid in London.
The lawsuit accuses News Corp. of large-scale governance failures surrounding the British hacking case."

British Tabloid Targeted Investigators’ Phone Data from the New York Times
"Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own cellphone messages had "

News International Knew Hacking was Widespread in 2007 from the Independent [of the UK]
"Evidence of cover-up emerges as Murdoch's bid for BSkyB looks doomed."

Brown Sees Hacking by Other Murdoch Titles (Tim Bradshaw) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"Gordon Brown is set to lob a fresh grenade at News International with a statement expected to accuse other Murdoch titles of phone-hacking, as well as claiming the group illegally obtained personal information about his children’s illness, when he was both prime minister and chancellor."

Rupert Murdoch Forced to Back Down Over BSkyB Takeover from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp yesterday sought to delay its proposed takeover of BSkyB in an apparent attempt to wait for public anger over the phone hacking scandal to subside."

Twitter Campaign Calls for News Corp Boycott from the Daily Telegraph
"Rupert Murdoch’s embattled media empire faced a growing threat yesterday as campaigners took to the internet in their droves to call for a complete boycott of News Corporation."

Changing Tone, Obama Pressures Both Parties on Budget Deal from the New York Times
"President Obama challenged Republicans on Monday to live up to their demands to cut the nation’s deficit and address its long-term debt by enacting spending cuts, revenue increases and changes to entitlement programs. “Now is the time to deal with these issues,” Mr. Obama said at the start of a news conference at the White House. “If not now, when?”"

The Federal Debt: Too Little Revenue or Too Much Spending? (Kevin L. Kliesen and Daniel L. Thornton) from the St. Louis Federal Reserve
"The rise in the national debt...is entirely a consequence of the federal government’s increaseof expenditures without anoffsetting increase in revenues."

The Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal (AUDIO) from NPR's On Point program
In case you missed this appalling story out of Georgia, check this out.
"The huge standardized test cheating scandal in Atlanta — and beyond. Teachers cheating to bump up student scores. Why, and what it says about the state of American education."
The excellent reporting done by the Atlanta Journal Constitution on this scandal can be found HERE.

This story out of Atlanta will do nothing to quash dopes like these people:
Pro-Voucher Tea Party Group Admits It Wants To ‘Shut Down Public Schools And Have Private Schools Only’ from Think Progress
"...a tightly-knit group of right-wing Political Action Committees (PACs) and corporate foundations have unleashed an assault on public education, pushing school voucher schemes nationwide that would funnell taxpayer dollars away from public schools and toward private schools instead. In doing so, many of these voucher advocates claim they simply want to expand school choice and improve the quality of education for all. Yet one group that has been influential in the school voucher push — the Independence Hall Tea Party, which has run a major PAC that operates in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — is finally admitting that its true goal is to abolish public education."

Boehner's Saturday Night Massacre (Joshua Green) from the Atlantic
"The collapse over the weekend of the $4 trillion debt deal doesn't spell doom. But it does clarify who's running the show."

The Glum and the Restless (Jim Tankersley) from the National Journal
"Nearly one in five recent grads is out of work. Could that hurt Obama’s reelection bid?"

OBAMA FAMILY NUGGET!!
President Obama's Father: A 'Bold And Reckless Life' from NPR's Fresh Air program
"... what was Barack Obama Sr. really like? Biographer Sally H. Jacobs takes an in-depth look at his life — and his legacy — in The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father."

OVER-THE-TOP MINIATURE HOUSE NUGGET!!
The Fairy Tale Dolls' Castle Worth Half a Million Dollars from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"9ft tall at its highest turret, museum exhibit was built by silent movie star Colleen Moore.  Features 500-year-old jewels and 700 individuals lent their expertise."