News Nuggets 698

 A forest road in Autumn in Hamlen, Gemrany.  From National Geographic. 

UP-FRONT WISCONSIN NUGGET!!
Democratic State Sen. Dave Hansen Wins First Wisconsin Recall Election from the Huffington Post
"Wisconsin state Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) handily won Tuesday's recall election, giving Democrats a victory in the first of nine contests being held this summer."

Why U.S. Terrorists Reject the Al Qaeda Playbook (J.M. Berger) from the Atlantic
"The problem with homegrown terrorists? They just don't listen."

News International 'Deliberately' Blocked Investigation from the Guardian [of the UK]
"It finds the company "deliberately" tried to "thwart" the 2005-2006 Metropolitan police investigation into phone hacking carried out by the News of the World."

The Great Murdoch Conspiracy (Peter Oborne) from the Daily Telegraph
"In the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown years, Rupert Murdoch's empire exploited an alternative and corrupt system of government."
Tina Brown of the Daily Beast showcased this article this morning on NPR. She said of this article: "Osborne, who was a reporter at the time but did not work for Murdoch, recalls in his article how News International executives would be seated behind the Cabinet during the Blair regime, as though they were their own branch of government."

Two other items Brown mentioned (noted I suspect for comic relief):
(1) Murdoch, like Napoleon, is a Great Bad Man (Conrad Black) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"No one should begrudge The Guardian, the BBC, CNN, The New York Times and others their fun at his expense, nor take it too seriously."
How comforting it must be for the Murdochs to have Mr. Black coming to their defense so gallantly!  Of course, Black is a convicted felon.

But I guess it's better than being tut-tuted ... by a world-renowned peddler of porn:
(2) Rupert Murdoch Went Too Far (Larry Flint) from the Washington Post
"I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to step forward and expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch’s minions, on the other hand, pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity: phone hacking, bribery, coercing criminal behavior and betraying the trust of their readership."
Oh please, tell us Larry: what could you possibly have done to "betray the trust" of the readers of Hustler Magazine!?

U.S. Could Prosecute Murdoch (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"With Rupert Murdoch in deep legal trouble in the U.K., Michael Tomasky looks at the American law that could be used to bring the mogul up on civil charges in the U.S."
For those who pine for prosecution, we are NOT there yet!

DSK’s Shocking New Accuser (Christopher Dickey) from the Daily Beast
"The mother of the writer accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape says she had “brutal” sex with the former IMF chief. Christopher Dickey on the saga’s sordid new twist."
More on this story HERE from Slate.

The Ground is Shifting on Debt Ceiling (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Maybe this is premature. But it’s hard to avoid a sense that there’s a major shift underway on the debt ceiling — one that is going to leave the hard-core anti-debt-limit-hike dead enders more marginalized than ever."

Poll: Best Way to Fight Deficits: Raise Taxes on the Rich from the McClatchy News Service
"Alarmed by rising national debt and increasingly downbeat about their country's course, Americans are clear about how they want to attack the government's runway budget deficits: raise taxes on the wealthy and keep hands off of Medicare and Medicaid."

The Road Not Taken (David Brooks) from the New York Times
"The combined effect would have been to reduce the size of government by $3 trillion over a decade. That’s a number roughly three times larger than the cost of the Obama health care law. It also would have brutally fractured the Democratic Party. But the Republican Party decided not to pursue this deal, or even seriously consider it. Instead what happened was this: Conservatives told themselves how steadfast they were being for a few weeks. Then morale crumbled."
Definitely our PUNDIT-OF-THE-DAY!

Debt Ceiling Attack By U.S. Republicans 'Backfires' (Thomas Spang) from the Salzburger Nachrichten [of Austria in English]
"In the face of looming defeat, the Republican's foot soldiers are threatening to mutiny against their leadership. The only open question is whether in their fervor, they will risk political suicide and drag the global economy into the abyss with them. They haven't much time left to see sense."

Where the GOP Went Wrong on Deficits and Debt (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"As the deadline to avoid a government default nears, John Avlon retraces how the Republican Party abandoned fiscal responsibility in favor of reckless tax cuts and “deficits don’t matter” policies."

The GOP’s Problem: There’s No Bridging the Gap Between Tea Party and Reality (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"McConnell and other GOP leaders know full well the debt ceiling must be hiked. But they also know full well that this is entirely unacceptable to large swaths of the base who now see this as their number one ideological cause celebre, on a par with the now-forgotten drive to repeal Obamacare."

Many continue to pine for Obama to resort to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to do away with the debt ceiling.  Two weeks ago, Harvard law professor (and noted liberal jurist) Lawrence Tribe scotched that approach with the following op-ed:
A Ceiling We Can’t Wish Away (Lawrence Tribe) from the New York Times
"The Constitution grants only Congress — not the president — the power “to borrow money on the credit of the United States.” Nothing in the 14th Amendment or in any other constitutional provision suggests that the president may usurp legislative power to prevent a violation of the Constitution. Moreover, it is well established that the president’s power drops to what Justice Robert H. Jackson called its “lowest ebb” when exercised against the express will of Congress."
In addition, invoking the 14th amendment in the fashion advocated would precipitate a constitutional crisis of indeterminant length, something neither Obama nor the economy need right now.  Moreover, as some commentators have noted, such a move would invariably wind up in front of the Supreme Court.  If you were a betting person, would you bet that Obama was going to win that decision?  Not with this court.

For the GOP, Why a Balanced-Budget Amendment is Too Risky (Norman J. Ornstein) from the Washington Post
"... a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget would be disastrous."

Poll: Advantage on Aiding the Middle Class Helps Keep Obama’s Approval Afloat from ABC News
"Most Americans think the Republicans in Congress have got Wall Street and large corporations’ backs, while President Obama prevails on protecting the middle class and small businesses: an edge that helps explain his better-than-dismal job approval in the teeth of a terrible economy."

Obama Supports Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act from the National Journal
"President Obama is throwing his support behind the Respect for Marriage Act - the bill to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage even for couples married under state law."

The Scramble for South Carolina from Politico
"The first-in-the-South primary couldn’t be any more unsettled."

PPP Poll: Michele Bachmann Takes 1-point National Lead from Politico
"The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling delivers a new set of national numbers that show Michele Bachmann is not just an early-state phenomenon, and she hasn't yet hit her ceiling:"

Stress-Related Condition ‘Incapacitates’ Bachmann; Heavy Pill Use Alleged from the Daily Caller
"The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result."
As with the Bachmann-husband story line from two days ago, this story leaves me with two minds.  On the one hand, this is the FIRST story I've read about Michelle Bachmann that actually stimulates any empathy in me at all.  My mother suffered from persistent severe migraines -- and having seen the effect they had on her, I'm AMAZED that Bachmann could even think about conducting a full-out presidential campaign with such a condition.  *On the other hand,* as with yesterday, I think the emergence of this story now is NO ACCIDENT -- especially the "pills" part.  As with the "gay Mr. Bachmann" story-line, this one stinks of internal GOP maneuvering and the "kill-Bachmann's-campaign" strategy that many in the Republican establishment are pursuing behind the scenes.

UPDATE: I was not far off with my sense of where the "Bachmann on meds" story was coming from:
Did Team Pawlenty Drop the "Bachmann is Unstable and on Meds" Story? from Americablog
"Her headaches and her medication for headaches told to Daily Caller by former staffers seems like a low blow from a desperate candidate, Tim Pawlenty, who is getting trounced in the polls in Iowa and needed to smear Bachmann as unstable."

Bachmann’s Political Headache (Lawrence & Schwartz) from the Daily Beast
"A report that the 2012 candidate suffers from crippling migraines creates a special challenge for a woman. Jill Lawrence and Casey Schwartz on the fallout—and whether Bachmann should release her medical records."

CRIME & GENDER NUGGET!!
The John Next Door (Leslie Bennetts) from Newsweek
"The men who buy sex are your neighbors and colleagues. A new study reveals how the burgeoning demand for porn and prostitutes is warping personal relationships and endangering women and girls."
A very interesting examination -- but I have real issues with the methodology of the study and am skeptical of some of its sweeping generalizations.

HISTORY OF FASHION NUGGET!!
How to Undress a Victorian Lady in Your Next Historical Romance (VIDEO) from the Wall Street Journal
"Authors Who Crave Verisimilitude Learn to Unlace a Corset in a Good Bodice Ripper."
The video is quite interesting ... and incredible on several levels!  With the average number of undergarments (and NOT including hair & make-up), it took AN HOUR just to get dressed!

DOG & CULTURE NUGGET!!
A Craze for Pooches in Iran Dogs the Morality Police from the Wall Street Journal
"Western TV Makes Owning Pups Fashionable, Despite Ayatollah's Fatwa. ... Buying and selling dogs is illegal in Iran, unless they are guard dogs or used by police. Dogs are considered "haram," or unclean, in Islam. Until recently, keeping dogs as pets was limited to a small circle of Westernized Iranians."