News Nuggets 734

The temples at Mount Merapi in Indonesia.  From National Geographic.

Assad, Going Down (Rami Khouri) from the New York Times
"The regime is increasingly isolated at home and abroad, but remains bunkered down and ready to fight to the end. The exact nature of that end game is not clear, but seems imminent now, especially in view of just the past week’s events. The most telling:"
I keep reading middle eastern columnists declaring this -- but it still doesn't look truly eminent to me.  There is simply not enough evidence of unrest in the two biggest cities in Syria: Damascus and Aleppo.  What is the disposition of residents in these two cities? 

Libya Rebels Say Qaddafi Is Cornered in Town from the New York Times
"Rebel fighters believe they have cornered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in the desert town of Bani Walid, only 150 miles from the capital, and have called on him to give up peacefully to avoid further bloodshed, a top official of the transition government said Wednesday."
Who knows if this is true.

"Thank You, America" (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"Americans are not often heroes in the Arab world, but as nonstop celebrations unfold here in the Libyan capital I keep running into ordinary people who learn where I’m from and then fervently repeat variants of the same phrase: “Thank you, America!”"

Team Obama Finds Hope for 2012 in a History Lesson (Michael Scherer) from Time Magazine
"For presidential historian Michael Beschloss, the question Daley asked him to address was the one on everyone’s mind these days in the West Wing: How does a U.S. President win re-election with an unemployment rate far higher than voters can bear? The answer Beschloss provided gave some lift to Obama’s team."

S&P Considers Rating Subprime-Backed Securities Higher Than U.S. Government from the Huffington Post
"Though the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's no longer believes the United States merits a top triple-A rating, it is prepared to put its stamp of approval on a set of bonds backed by subprime mortgages, only a few years after its high ratings of other subprime-backed securities helped set the stage for a financial crisis and near-collapse of the global economy."

Former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel: Republican Party Has ‘An Astounding Lack Of Responsible Leadership’ from Think Progress
"In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., go right through them, Eisenhower — they would be stunned.”"

The Texan-to-English Dictionary: Interpreting Rick Perry's Foreign-Policy Speech (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"From its very first stiff, nuance-lite, detail-free bursts of formulaic jingoism it triggered something back in our lizard brains, releasing whatever combination of neural chemicals it is that produces dread-filled déjà vu. Sweet Josephine, says your autonomic nervous system, I've seen this movie before!"

Daniel Drezner at FPM has his own take on the same speech:
Rick Perry Inspires a New Foreign Policy Award (Daniel Drezner) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"James Lindsay analyzes the content over at CFR, concluding that, ""There is something in it for every significant foreign policy constituency in the GOP," although "any mainstream Republican or Democratic presidential candidate could have given Perry’s speech."  This is likely because, "while Perry’s speech was heavy on foreign policy bromides it was short on specifics." Lindsay is being kind -- this speech is ninety-eight percent concentrated pablum..."

We Read Rick Perry's "Fed Up!" So You Don't Have To from the Texas Tribune
"We figured not everyone would have time to read the 220-page work. So we read the book again (yes, we did read our governor’s book when it first came out) to produce a (relatively) quick guide to Fed Up! A kind of CliffsNotes, Trib style."

Obama's "Bratty, Tantrum-Prone Child" Strategy (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"He's not hoping that we'll reward him for his reasonableness -- just that they'll punish his childish opponents."

Why Moderate Republicans Still Support Mitt Romney (Ben Adler) from the Nation
More than anything else, this column tells you why Romney's campaign is in such deep trouble.
"Mitt Romney has adopted a series of hard-core right-wing positions, but he's still the candidate of the GOP elite because they know better than to believe him."
Romney's full of crap and the right-wing tea partiers KNOW IT.  Normally, GOP elite types could assume that such a candidate could effectively pull the wool over the eyes of the right-wing rubes in places like Iowa and South Carolina long enough to get "their guy" through the nominating process.  Prediction:  not happening this time!  It is my sense that the core of the GOP have stopped listening to Romney.  He has done nothing but lose ground since Perry entered the race.  More importantly, for anyone who has been paying attention, Perry has been hit with A LOT of negative press lately (much of it pushed by these same GOP elite types) -- but, guess what?  So far, average right-wing primary voters are ignoring all of it.  Perry is very effectively channelling their world view right now.  Doubt it?  Check out Jonathan Chait's comments as well as this assessment from a prominent conservative at the Weekly Standard.

ANCIENT HISTORY NUGGET!!
Extraordinary Pictures of the 2,000 Year Old Underground Labyrinth Where Jewish Rebels Hid from Roman Soldiers from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The sprawling underground labyrinth was dug by Jewish rebels fighting the Roman empire. Archaeologists believe some of the maze could date back to the first century BC. It is a fascinating part of history which attracts visitors from across Israel. But it is virtually unknown to foreigners."