News Nuggets 493

Sumatran Rhinoceroses from southeast Asia.  An extremely rare animal among an entire family (rhinoceroses) of rare animals.  I had never seen anything like these guys before.  They reminded me of images of some of the long-extinct large mammals from mesozoic America.  From National Geographic.

In China, Confidence Clouded by Apprehension (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"The paradox of a rising China - a country that wants to play a bigger role in global affairs but suffers from a combination of lethargy and stage fright - was on display here at a conference with Chinese officials."

Liu Xiaobo: Nobel Peace Prize Widens China Conflict (Gordon Chang) from the Daily Beast
"There was an empty chair at today's Nobel ceremony because of China's crackdown on dissidents. Gordon G. Chang on why the event can't hide the rifts in China's supposedly "harmonious" society. "

Chief Obstacle to Iran's Nuclear Effort: Its Own Bad Technology from the Christian Science Monitor
"Continuing technical challenges mean Iran is still probably 3 to 5 years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Diplomats should exploit that leverage."
WHO CALLED IT!?!

Wikileaks Cables Expose an Ideological Israel-Iran Conflict (Aluf Benn) from Al Haaretz [of Israel in English]
"The leaked cables reveal that the Israeli-Iranian conflict is about more than the nuclear issue. It is a sweeping ideological conflict. And history teaches that such conflicts end only when one side has been knocked out."

Why the Middle East Needs Back-channel Diplomacy (Mike Herzog) from the Telegraph [of the UK]
"Without the use of a back-channel, the Israelis and Palestinian will not be able to properly engage, writes Mike Herzog."
I SO agree with the general point here.  If/when peace comes to the Israelis and Palestinians, it will leave the peoples on both sides DEEPLY unhappy.  The concessions each side will have to make will NOT be popular.

Another Nuclear Pact With Russia Close to Approval (Peter Baker) from the New York Times
"While President Obama focuses his energy on pressing the Senate to sign off on a new arms control treaty with Russia, another nuclear pact with Moscow is securing final approval after more than four years with virtually no notice but potentially significant impact."

Stuxnet Worm Still Out of Control at Iran's Nuclear Sites, Experts Say from FOX News
"Iran's nuclear program is still in chaos despite its leaders' adamant claim that they have contained the computer worm that attacked their facilities, cybersecurity experts in the United States and Europe say."

North America: New Energy Kingdom (Neil Reynolds) from the Globe and Mail [of Toronto]
"The American Petroleum Institute reports that the United States produced more crude oil in October than it has ever produced in a single month, “peak oil” or not."

Obama's Silent Majority (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"Liberal commentators and activists and interest group leaders may be seething over Obama, but their rage has not trickled down to the Democratic voters (and, in particular, the Democratic voters who identify themselves as liberals), even though they've been venting their grief for the better part of two years."

Tax Cut Bill: WH, Lawmakers Reach New Compromise from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"The White House and key lawmakers cleared the way Thursday night for swift Senate action to avert a Jan. 1 spike in income taxes for nearly all Americans, agreeing to extend breaks for ethanol and other forms of alternative energy as part of the deal."

The Realpolitik Behind the Tax Deal (Robert Creamer) from the Huffington Post
"Behind any big historic political bargain there are usually big, bottom-line self interests. The case of the tax deal negotiated by the Democratic White House and Republican Leadership is no exception."

Selective Outrage: The President’s Liberal Critics Need a Reality Check (Walter Fields) from NorthStar News
"We do understand the tremendous burden that this President carries because of the mess he inherited and the weight of being the nation’s first Black President. It is not the perspective of many white liberals who are now crying foul over Mr. Obama’s tax-cut deal with the Republicans. There seems to be no pleasing them."

Why Obama is Breaking Up with Democrats (David Swerdlick) from The Root
"Obama's not a progressive, Democrats are all talk and 2012 is right around the corner. If you need proof that President Barack Obama got what he absolutely had to out of the tax-cut deal he made with congressional Republicans, listen to the sound of silence coming out of Sarah Palin's Twitter feed."

CMU Study: Sexual Orientation in the Military a Subject Long Researched
"“One of the interesting things we discovered is that the military has investigated the issue of sexual orientation in its ranks for close to 100 years,” said Timothy Haggerty, now director of Carnegie Mellon's Humanities Scholars Program."

Poll: Americans Want Action on the Deficit, but Oppose Most Proposals to Cut It (Bruce Drake) from Politics Daily
"an overwhelming majority of Americans believe it is a major problem and almost none of the most widely mentioned proposals to cut the red ink by reducing spending or raising taxes get majority support from the public."
No surprise. 

Obama and the Left, 2012 Version (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Mercifully (and take note, those of you who think the Kos site is full of loonies), "I don't want a primary challenger to Obama" was winning when I cast my vote. This whole talk is deeply silly."

Every Man His Own Historian (Stanley Kutler) from Truthdig.org
"The right’s twist of history to please its backers and fuel its agenda is a vigorous enterprise. Serious history, serious scholarship and serious discussion of facts and ideas are dismissed with tunnel vision. In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty scornfully said “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”"

Most Scientists in the Country are Democrats. That's a Problem (Daniel Sarewitz) from Slate
"[Democrats] have convinced themselves that they are the keepers of the Enlightenment spirit, and that those who disagree with them on issues like climate change are fundamentally irrational. Meanwhile, many Republicans have come to believe that mainstream science is corrupted by ideology and amounts to no more than politics by another name. Attracted to fringe scientists like the small and vocal group of climate skeptics, Republicans appear to be alienated from a mainstream scientific community that by and large doesn't share their political beliefs. ... How would a more politically diverse scientific community improve this situation?"

I just had to go off on this one!  This guy so misses the point.  Most scientists are Democrats because they have been driven out of the GOP!  My uncle is a world renowned nuclear physicist.  In areas such as foreign policy and economics, he is more aligned with Dick Cheney and the Club for Growth than with any liberal I could name.  He had voted Republican most of his adult life UNTIL the 1990s.  With Bush 43 he stopped voting with the GOP at all.  As was widely reported, under Bush many top gov't scientists (many of them colleagues of my uncle) had political "minders" who escorted them around to make sure they wouldn't say anything that countered the Bush "line" on scientific matters.  It was like something out of the Soviet Union!  HOW can you expect scientists (a highly networked and collaborative discipline) to look passed that?!  

         The author of this item also misses a larger point: for 40+ years, since the shellacking Goldwater got in 1964, the conservative wing of the GOP has systematically worked to undercut most of the "knowledge industries" that routinely presented evidence that ran counter to the conservative narrative.  The main-stream media was first on their list.  But in the 1970s and 1980s they moved on to the social sciences - everything from sociology to psychology and most other ss disciplines besides have been (in the eyes of ideological conservatives) completely discredited.  
        In the 1990s, conservatives moved on to history, environmental studies, and any thing with "global" or "multicultural" in its title.  And, with the 21st century, they have moved on to economics.  The vast majority of economists turned away from Reagan's "trickle-down" policies years ago and have thoroughly de-bunked the "Laffer curve," the idea that the best economic policy is to simply keep cutting taxes.  GOP lawmakers and TV talkers have been in complete denial about this.  
        And, now they have their sites set on scientists.  Whether the issue is evolution, stem cell research, or global warming, it has been CENTRAL to the conservative agenda for lo these many decades to discredit any institutional information sources that counter the underlying narratives that guide decision-making on the right.  Instead, what you've gotten over the years is the building up of a right-wing media machine that can be counted on to spout a richly textured conservative counter-narrative, one that NEVER has to confront the peer-reviewed findings of actual scientists, real historians or world-class economists.  What you get instead is FOX News, Glenn Beck University, and museums and theme parks devoted to creationism.  Scientists have not converted to 21st century versions of LBJ.  It has been ideological conservatives who have driven these people away. 

2012-Pres.: Can Daniels Contend for the Presidency? (Mona Charen) from RealClearPolitics
"National bankruptcy, on the other hand, "is a mathematical certainty" if we don't change course ... and fast. "The America that we have known is profoundly threatened."  It's because the stakes are so high that Daniels has let himself be cajoled into considering a presidential run himself."/10/can_mitch_daniels_contend_for_the_presidency.html
As I have said here many times, Daniels is one of the few GOP potentials for 2012 who Obama needs to watch out for.  He comes off as much more authentic than most of the rest.  Here's a conservative's take on Daniels' candidacy.

OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
Best Cosmic Mindblowers of 2010 from National Geographic News
"Wrap your brain around National Geographic News editors' picks of some of the odder astrophysics concepts introduced in 2010."

News Nuggets 492

A lionfish among glassfish in Egypt's Red Sea.  From National Geographic.

Gregg, GOP Ready to Get Behind START from the National Journal

"With a tax deal imminent, some Republicans say that it's time to get behind the New START pact."

The Truth About China's GDP (Caitlin Dickson) from the Atlantic

"Li Keqiang, a senior Chinese official and rumored front runner for the prime minister's chair, is quoted in the cable as having referred to the country's GDP numbers as "man-made" and "therefore unreliable." The Telegraph reports that "Chinese officials have repeatedly been found to have artificially inflated their local GDP figures in order to win face and hit their targets,""

HERE's the original story from the Telegraph of the UK.

This is quite an interesting story -- how much of the "China as coming economic giant" story is inflated rhetoric?  As Thomas Friedman has noted, the "electronic herd" has a way of paying countries back for just this kind of duplicity.  What else have they been lying about?

A Sound Trade Deal with South Korea from the Editorial Board of the New York Times

"There are compelling reasons why Congress should approve a free trade agreement with South Korea. Here are two: South Korea is the 12th largest economy in the world and it is a strategic ally of the United States in a very dangerous neighborhood."

Everything You Need to Know About the Bush Tax Cut Deal (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post

"...an actual, negotiated deal, in which the two parties sit in a room and give things up, and compromise on positions they'd taken in public, and walk out with a deal that accomplishes more than was strictly necessary? I didn't see that one coming.  The deal has something to annoy everyone -- but also something for everyone."

No Deficit of Courage (Jon Meacham) from the New York Times

"In the same way that Mr. Obama struck his deal to secure lower tax rates for the middle-class and win an extension of unemployment benefits, Mr. Bush gave on tax rates to get “pay as you go” rules — meaning that no further spending could be approved without compensating budget cuts or revenue increases. It was the beginning of the fiscal discipline that helped create the budget surpluses of the 1990s.  While Mr. Obama’s immediate concern is stimulus and Mr. Bush’s was deficit-reduction, both gave way on issues critical to the true believers within their parties."

The Tax-Cut Deal is Actually a Win for Democrats (Jonathan Bernstein) from the New Republic

"Oh, it’s clear that Barack Obama and the Democrats are making a trade they didn’t want, and in that sense are losing. But they’re winning something, too.  Actually, the best way to think of this is in the context of a post that Klein wrote (if I recall correctly) last spring, in which he noted that Republicans could have had whatever they wanted on health care in exchange for their votes."

Actually It's a Pretty Good Deal… (Steve Kornacki) from Salon

"The compromise, in other words, gives Obama a chance to take further action to boost the economy and bring unemployment down -- and the more he can do that, the better his chances (and his party's chances) will be in 2012."

A Second Stimulus (David Leonhardt) from the New York Times

"The apparent deal over the Bush tax cuts highlights why the Democrats probably had to accept the extension of all the Bush tax cuts. No politician is likely to use this word — at least no Democratic politician — but the deal amounts to a second stimulus bill."

Obama: President; McConnell: Sucker (Andrew Sullivan) from the Atlantic

"Notice something about all of this? They all now realize that Obama has been a little shrewder than they took him to be."

The Deal Breakers: Democrats Should Embrace Obama's Compromise from the Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune

"It also seems to have escaped them that under the circumstances, the president did a better-than-expected job of advancing Democratic priorities in a climate that is anything but hospitable. If their own economic theories are correct, he also improved his party's chances of rebounding in 2012."

While the Trib editorial board is ideologically to the right, what it says matters given that I think that (as with the Dems) GOP lawmakers are going to raise their own stink about this deal.

The Anger of Barack Obama (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post

"Faced with increasing criticism from liberals over his decision to compromise with Republicans on a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, Obama openly chastised the party's base -- warning them of being "sanctimonious" and reminding them that "this country was founded on compromise"."

Obama Tax Deal Should be Supported (Simon Rosenberg) from NDN

...my initial take is that he got more than he is being credited for, and the GOP was exposed as having a very weak economic hand which spells trouble for them in the consequential economic debates to come."

WikiLeaks and Assange Pretend There are No Consequences (John Kass) from the Chicago Tribune

"Though I'm a First Amendment absolutist, I wouldn't have published those stolen U.S. State Department cables. Still, he and others have the right to publish the news.  But Assange — or the newspapers that published the documents — don't have the right to pretend there are no real consequences."

British Court Denies Bail to Assange in Sex Inquiry from the Guardian [of the UK]

"In a hearing that lasted just under an hour, Mr. Assange said he would fight extradition. But despite the presence in court of several prominent people ready to vouch for him, he was called a flight risk and ordered to remain in custody until a further court session on Dec. 14. His British lawyer, Mark Stephens, told reporters Mr. Assange would appeal the denial of bail."

Legal Tangle Tightens Around Wikileaks, Julian Assange from the PBS Newshour

"The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is just one of the many problems he and his secrets-exposing website now face as the U.S. explores possible prosecution on espionage charges. Gwen Ifill talks to Jeffrey Smith, former CIA general counsel, and Abbe Lowell, who has defended clients on espionage charges."

Why Julian Assange Is No Daniel Ellsberg (Todd Gitlin) from the New Republic

"Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers was a great democratic act that helped clarify for the American public how its leaders had misled it for years, to the immense detriment of the nation’s honor. By contrast, Wikileaks’s huge data dump, including the names of agents and recent diplomatic cables, is indiscriminate. Assange slashes and burns with impunity."

The Dark Side of the Web (Margaret Wente) from the Globe and Mail [of Toronto]

"Julian Assange has all the makings of a 21st-century folk hero. He has single-handedly humiliated a great power by exposing its dark secrets and hypocrisies…. There’s just one problem with this heroic picture. Julian Assange has made the world a far more dangerous place."

The Strange Justifications of Wikileaks' Julian Assange (Trish Durkin) from The Week

"No matter what he says, he is not about exposing the abuse of power. He is about thwarting the exercise of power ."

Don't Primary Obama, Change Congress (Joan Walsh) from Salon

"I think pondering a primary challenge to Obama is suicidal, and reflects a certain fecklessness on the left."

Five Reasons Sarah Palin Will Run (Matt Latimer) from the Daily Beast

"Her poll numbers are off, and some GOP bigwigs have come out against her. But Sarah Palin's fan base could care less. Matt Latimer on what her followers see in her."

CAREER NUGGET!!

Thirteen Great Careers for College Grads from the Huffington Post

"All of the jobs listed have above-average median annual pay rates, and all are expected to experience above-average growth between 2008 and 2018. Jobs that are expected to have few openings in the coming year were not included."

US News and World Report has their own Top-50 List HERE.

News Nugget 491

The continental trench as it looks off of Silfa, Iceland.  From National Geographic.

Let's Not Make a Deal (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"It’s all or nothing, they say: all the Bush tax cuts must be extended. What should Democrats do?  The answer is that they should just say no. If G.O.P. intransigence means that taxes rise at the end of this month, so be it."
Yes, Mr. Krugman -- and when was the last time you got some legislation through Congress?  Krugman's column so showcases for me the essence of the liberal critique against Obama right now -- liberals want a party leader who will go to the mat for their principles.  While understandable, what is missed in this equation is a simple fact often lost in the current hyper-partisan environment: someone has to govern!  The extension on jobless benefits is essential right now!  Given the unprecedented economic, military and other unprecedented crises the country faces right now, the demand to place governance over partisan or ideological street fights has never been greater!  In our system, this means compromising.  With justification, liberals are mad as hell about the outcomes of the mid-terms.  But this doesn't change the fundamental condition the US is in right now.  It seems clear to me that Obama has decided that he is going to give precedence to governing.  It also seems that right now he is routinely the only one in the room who is doing this.

Obama's Korea Gambit Might Just Pay Off (Gerald Seib) from the Wall Street Journal
"In early November, President Barack Obama ended a trip to South Korea without a much-anticipated free-trade deal—and with the prospects of a broader free-trade agenda sliding rapidly downhill.  Last week, a South Korean trade delegation came to Washington and agreed to the deal on terms the Koreans wouldn't even discuss, much less accept, in Seoul.  The rapid change wasn't just startling. It was one of the most important international economic developments in recent years."

Iran and the Bomb (Hendrik Hertzberg) from the New Yorker
"In the past decade, we have been drawn into two wars on Muslim soil. Neither has ended. We cannot afford a third…"

Not Dead Yet (Christopher Dickey) from Newsweek
"One of the great ironies of the latest WikiLeaks dump, in fact, is that the industrial quantities of pilfered State Department documents actually show American diplomats doing their jobs the way diplomats should, and doing them very well indeed."

Shell Shocked (Ron Moreau) from Newsweek
"U.S. troops aren’t the only ones in Afghanistan who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder. It also afflicts Afghan civilians—and the Taliban, too."

Leaks Backfire by Exposing Hidden US Virtue (Al Hunt) from Bloomberg News Service
"WikiLeaks is one of those stories where the passions of the moment blind us to the more important lesson. … All miss the mark. … Still, rather than exposing ineptitude, the secret documents actually reflect well on U.S. policy and diplomacy."
I don't like the word "virtue" in this context -- but otherwise Hunt is on the mark here.

Early Struggles of Soldier Charged in Leak Case from New York Times
"…while that dispute rages on, with the Pentagon having recently demanded that WikiLeaks remove all secret documents from the Internet and hand over any undisclosed materials in its files, Private Manning is being held in solitary confinement at Quantico, Va., under suicide watch."
HERE's the original story announcing Pfc Manning's arrest back in June from Wired Magazine.

Read Cables and Red Faces from the Economist [of London]
"… experts also miss a larger point: they themselves are part of the elite inner-circle that WikiLeaks wants to break open so that Everyman can judge for himself. … But any gains will come at a high cost. In a world of WikiLeaks, diplomacy would no longer be possible. The secrecy that WikiLeaks despises is vital to all organisations, including government—and especially in the realm of international relations."

What Repeal of DADT Will Mean (Eve Conant) from Newsweek
"Critics worry that the policy change could affect unit cohesion and be a distraction at a time of war. So it’s worth asking: what would repeal really entail? A quick guide:"
This is a good inquiry -- if a bit premature.  I'm quite skeptical that supporters of repeal have the necessary clout right now to achieve it anytime soon.

Saudi Women's Veil Versus Modernity from Emirates 24-7 [of the UAE in English]
"Mufleh and Mohammed are among many Saudi men who have never seen the face of their wives as they insist on sticking to ancient tradition of keeping their face covered even in front of their relatives or husbands in defiance of ongoing changes brought about by the advent of oil and a massive foreign influx."
I am not one to leap to accusations of misogyny -- but this behavior strikes me as somewhere beyond misogyny to a culture-specific type of gender nihilism.  Whacked.  I don't know what else to say!

Sarah Palin versus Republican 'Blue Bloods' from the Christian Science Monitor
Is the establishment GOP ganging up on Sarah Palin? In the ongoing drama that is Palin’s political reality show, score this past week “Blue bloods 3, Palin zip.”

CIVIL WAR NUGGETS!!
Buchanan: Too Little, Too Late (Jamie Malanowski) from the New York Times
If you have an interest in Civil War history, the Opinionator column of the NY Times has had as a regular feature a really GOOD series of articles on the coming of the Civil War -- al as part of the 150th anniversary of the war!  This is the latest item -- but I urge you to check out the entire series.  They're only into the end of the Buchanan administration -- so there will be hundreds of columns to come!

WHALING NUGGET!!
Sea Shepherd Departs for Seventh Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign: Operation No Compromise from Sea Shepherd News
"After months of preparation, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has officially set sail for their 2010-11 Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign, Operation No Compromise. This year’s fleet is the strongest to date including veteran vessels the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, with the addition of the newly-acquired trimaran Gojira, Japanese for Godzilla, with the necessary speed and power to outrun the whalers and put an end to their shameful activities.  Sea Shepherd will also deploy a more capable helicopter this year."

ANOTHER WHALING NUGGET!!
Has the Japanese Whaling Fleet Surrendered? from the Sea Shepherd News
"Could the whale wars be over? Things are looking very good in that direction! The whalers may be close to capitulation.  It is December 1st, at least on the Japanese and Australian side of the International Date Line, but the Japanese whaling fleet remains in port."

BOOK NUGGET!!
Book Review: 'Going Home to Glory' by David Eisenhower with Julie Nixon Eisenhower from the Los Angeles Times
"David Eisenhower's graceful memoir is both a warm personal recollection of his grandfather and a cogent summary of Dwight D. Eisenhower's place in the American political spectrum."

RUSSIAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
Rare Window Into Life of Tsarist Russia from the BBC
"A rare window into life in imperial Russia is due to open on Monday, when hundreds of letters, postcards, photographs and even menus from the court of Tsar Alexander III are put up for auction in Geneva."

News Nuggets 490

A giant wisteria tree in the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture in Japan.  From National Geographic.

Luger: Prospects Improve for OK of Arms Treaty from the Associated Press
"The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says he's more optimistic now about ratification of a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia."

Covert War Against Iran's Nuclear Aims Takes Chilling Turn from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Sophisticated cyber-worms, motorcycling assassins: but who is behind the increasingly sinister campaign against the Iranian energy program?"

How to Fight and Win the Cyberwar (Mort Zuckerman) from the Wall Street Journal
"We should think of cyberattacks as guided missiles and respond similarly—intercept them and retaliate."
As usual, Mort Zuckerman brings forth the "neocon" take on an important topic.  I think his view reflects a dramatic shift that is taking place among policy makers and military-industrial-complex types about the future of the nature and shape of cyberwar.  Given the Stuxnet worm in Iran and what Wikileaks has been up to [just to name two instances among many], look for this conversation to get much more public.  Hopefully, it will go in more creative directions than Mort takes here.

Wikileaks' Wall Street Bombshell (Charlies Gasparino) from the Daily Beast
"With Assange's next release apparently targeting Bank of America, traders fear a subprime lending scandal will be exposed. Charlie Gasparino talks with someone who has read the leaked files."

From WikiLemons, Clinton Tries to Make Lemonade from the New York Times
"When American diplomats get together these days, there is lots of dark talk about the fallout from the sensational disclosure of secret diplomatic cables. Will angry foreign governments kick out ambassadors? Will spooked locals stop talking to their embassy contacts? Behind all the public hand-wringing, however, there is another, more muted reaction: pride."

Cables Depict Range of Obama Diplomacy from the New York Times
"…engagement can take many forms, from friendly to wary, naïve to cunning, and it was never quite clear how the term would translate from a campaign sound-bite to a practical approach to the world. Now we know, from the granular picture of engagement-in-action that emerges from that trove of 250,000 Wikileaks cables, many from the first 13 months of the Obama presidency. Mr. Obama’s style seems to be: Engage, yes, but wield a club as well — and try to counter the global doubts that he is willing to use it."

After the Leaks, the Shakeup (Philip Shenon) from the Daily Beast
"In the wake of the WikiLeaks cable disaster, Team Obama plans to reassign key U.S. embassy personnel—pulling those who were compromised and could be in danger."

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord."
Imperialist strong-arming, lying, and heavy-handed manipulation -- for the cause of curbing global warming.  To me this story speaks to the complexity of trying to make broad generalizations about the US's role as an imperial superpower.

WikiLeaks Founder Threatens to Release Entire Cache of Unfiltered Files from the Globe and Mail [of Toronto]
"At the centre of a tightening web of death threats, sex-crime accusations and high-level demands for a treason trial, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threatened to unleash a “thermonuclear device” of completely unexpurgated government files if he is forced to appear before authorities."
The arrogant SOB.  From the most casual contacts to long-term imbedded sources, they will all be compromised.  Who cares the thousands of lives who will be placed in danger or the non-US, non-diplomatic careers and lives that will be up-ended if he does this?  From the beginning this was all about him -- there was never any great "first amendment" principle being upheld or some new era of "openness" being advocated.  These releases were all an expression of his own personal pique with the US.  [See the Trudy Rubin piece below] Now he's going to lash out.  If he follows through. he's toast.  The first amendment (as articulated in the Pentagon Papers case) does not protect this kind of behavior.  Indeed, his styling of this threat [if you read the article] brings him further into a realm of illegality that few countries will tolerate.  Indeed, what is predictable now is a cyber version of the Patriot Act.  Just as an aside: if he does this I suspect this will put Pfc Bradley Manning, Assange's original source for the leaks, into a WHOLE NEW CATEGORY of legal danger.  Thanks Bradley for all your help!

Julian Assange, Information Anarchist (Gordon Crovitz) from the Wall Street Journal
"Whatever else WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has accomplished, he's ended the era of innocent optimism about the Web. As wiki innovator Larry Sanger put it in a message to WikiLeaks, "Speaking as Wikipedia's co-founder, I consider you enemies of the U.S.—not just the government, but the people."  The irony is that WikiLeaks' use of technology to post confidential U.S. government documents will certainly result in a less free flow of information. The outrage is that this is Mr. Assange's express intention."
While there are several points Crovitz makes that I don't agree with, his general point about less free flow of information I think is spot on.

Worldview: Disclosure Without a Cause (Trudy Rubin) from the Philadelphia Inquirer
"WikiLeaks' recent document dump was reckless and of limited value, and the group's founder has expressed dubious motives."

And more from a completely different front in the increasingly complex world of global cyberwar:
Vast Hacking by a China Fearful of the Web from the New York Times
"That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by Wikileaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States."

What Don't Ask, Don't Tell Protects (Brendan Tapley) from the Daily Beast
"The military's outlawing of gayness has made it one of the last bunkers of safe male bonding. Brendan Tapley on what motivates Don't Ask, Don't Tell's supporters."
I'm not sure I buy the author's argument -- but it's an interesting psycho-historical speculation.

CA-Att Gen: 'Female Obama' Must First Tackle California (Nicole Allen) from the Atlantic
"Northern Californians have long been chattering about Kamala Harris, the Indian and African American San Francisco DA who tackled the city's prison industrial complex and recidivism rates with a vengeance. But now that she's won a protracted vote-count for state attorney general, Harris is drawing national attention. And Democratic star-spotters are liking what they see."

CAR NUGGET!!
The Best New Electric and Plug-In Cars from Newsweek
"Plug-in cars. Prius killers. Diesels that don’t stink. Automakers are in a race to earn their green stripes."

ANCIENT ROME NUGGET!!
Shoe Designer Wants to Restore Roman Colosseum but Not Do the Work from Italy Global Nation (IGN)
"The founder and chief executive of luxury shoe company Tod's said he is willing to spend 25 million euros to sponsor Italy's effort to restore the 2,000 year old Roman Colosseum. The catch is the Italian government must scrap a rule that restoration sponsors have to organise the work."
They're considering putting billboards up IN THE COLOSSEUM to help pay for the big-buck renovations!?  That's whacked!

BOOK NUGGET!!
100 Notable Books of 2010 from the New York Times
A wonderful collection of 2010 books!  Might give some folks some Christmas gift ideas!

MARS NUGGET!!
'Postcards from Mars': 15 Amazing Pictures of the Red Planet (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"NASA's amazing Spirit and Opportunity rovers have survived (and generally thrived) on Mars for more than 25 times their expected lifetimes, returning spectacular images and other data that are helping scientists literally rewrite the textbooks about Martian history."
The pictures are amazing!

News Nugget 489

An enormous supercell cloud forming in Glascow, Montana in July.  See the Amazing Storms Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Bin Laden's Lonely Crusade (Peter Bergen) from Vanity Fair
"A decade after White House aide Richard Clarke’s famous memo warning against al-Qaeda, it’s time for a reality check: the 9/11 attacks did not achieve what Osama bin Laden had hoped, and the list of his enemies is growing. Keeping the threat in perspective is the surest way to prevail."

America's 'Iran Watchers': A Coordinated Effort to Get Information about Tehran from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"In 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice realized that Washington needed to know a lot more about Iran. Since then, observation posts in surrounding countries have been supplying information, including rumors of a slap for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
In 2006, the US was well into plans to bomb Iran [see Seymour Hirsh's items in the New Yorker].  So …, like what does this mean?  Rice & co. actually wanted to KNOW something about the country they were about to obliterate!?  What was that all about!? 

Guarding the State Department's Secrets (Davo Oloppade) from the Daily Beast
"The release of the WikiLeaks cables sent Hillary Clinton's team scrambling to do damage control. Dayo Olopade talks to State Dept. officials about their efforts to step up cybersecurity."

So Much For The Conspiracy Theories from Newsweek
"WikiLeaks cables are not expected to support claims of U.S. plots to destabilize Latin America."

WikiLeaks.org Domain Taken Down: DNS Host Cites ‘Mass Attacks’ as Site Vanishes from Web from Raw Story
"Amid international pressure and a series of crushing denial of service attacks, the site WikiLeaks.org has finally slipped underneath the waves. Its DNS host, EveryDNS.com, killed the domain late Thursday night, according to an update posted to WikiLeaks' Twitter account. The host cited "mass attacks," the whistleblower organization said."
This is a really fascinating story!!  My first reaction (and still my main reaction) is that these attacks are coming from large 'state actors' (guess who?).  This story line is supported HERE by Assange's lawyers.  But it also seems clear that the cyber attacks are coming from a VERY BROAD range of additional actors.  See THIS ITEM from the Financial Times of London. It's kind of like the wolves, hyenas, vultures, AND the dung beetles all converging on the wounded wildebeest.  I'm unclear how wikileaks can survive in this kind of environment.

More news in this same line: 
PayPal cuts WikiLeaks from Money Flow (Juergen Baetz) from RealClearWorld

And then there's this: 
Wikileaks and Neocons (Jacob Heilbrunn) from the National Interest
"Charles Krauthammer raises the specter of KGB tactics to take out Wikileaks major domo Julian Assange. Sure, if you want to make him a martyr."

You Thought Passing Health Reform Was Hard? Try Repealing It (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic
"Critics of health care reform this week thought they would get their first win in the campaign to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Instead they got a lesson in just how politically challenging a wholesale repeal might be."

Poll Shows Americans as Ideological Conservatives, Operational Liberals (Alan Abromowitz) from the Democratic Strategist
"Abramowitz devises an interesting scale depicting support for government activism among various demographic groups as indicated by the poll, and concludes: Despite the dramatic gains made by the Republican Party in the 2010 midterm elections, support for activist government remains very strong in the American public."
Which half of brain is going to show up at the polls?

The Sight of Women's Breasts Won't Deter Islamists – They're Obsessed with Sex (Pravenn Swami) from the Telegraph [of the UK]
"Denmark’s government is being called upon to employ a lethal new weapon in the fight against Islamist extremism: bare breasts."
This strikes me as a milder version of the burka ban in France -- a too-cleaver-by-half way of having conservative islamists self-select themselves OUT of immigrating to Europe.  I WILL say it conjures up all kinds of interesting cultural "tests" states could invent to scare off the culturally conservative.

How the Tea Party Is Wrecking Republican Foreign Policy (Barry Gewen) from the New Republic
"On some issues, the Tea Partiers will predictably line up with the Republican leadership, but on others they may find they have more in common with Democrats. They may even provide Barack Obama with unexpected support. Those who think Sarah Palin speaks for the Tea Party on foreign policy haven’t been paying attention."
WHAT A SHAME!!

Sarah Palin's Meanest Critics: The Conservative Elite (Colbert King) from the Washington Post
"The recent attacks on Sarah Palin by establishment conservatives make her Democratic opponents seem like wusses. The prospect of a Palin presidential candidacy in 2012 has obviously spooked the GOP elite. But do they have to be so mean?"
The interesting thing about this fire from the right against Palin is that (based on recent profiles in Vanity Fair) she is the kind of person who will run for President in 2012 -- just to spite these elite conservatives.  It's possible that the more they attack her, the more likely she is to run.

AMAZING STORMS NUGGET!!
Eye of the Storm: The Jaw-dropping Image of an Enormous 'Supercell' Cloud (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"It looks like something from the film Independence Day. But although it may seem like an alien mothership, this incredible picture is actually an impressive thunderstorm cloud known as a supercell."

HORSE NUGGET!!
Call the Cavalry! Team of Firefighters Rescues Horse from Icy Swimming Pool (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The gelding only made it as far as a neighbouring house's back garden, where it fell into an ice-covered swimming pool full of freezing cold water. Luckily, the householders in Essen heard the noise made by the panicked animal."
Really interesting pictures of the process it took to extricate the poor animal.

SCENIC ROAD NUGGET!!
21 Coolest Roads in the World (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"Driving the open road is one of the rare pleasures in life. The ability to roll the windows down and enjoy the view is such a treat. There is much to be said for scenic drives, but what about scenic roads? The roads that, in themselves, are pretty amazing."

SLEEP NUGGET!!
Sleep Cherry-Picks Memories, Boosts Cleverness from National Geographic News
"Sleeping brain "calculates" what to remember and what to forget, study says."

News Nugget 488

Welcome: An African elephant wanders through the Elephant Hotel in Zambia, as a herd do every October, as it's a traditional route.  See the Elephant Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
NASA Discovers New Life: Arsenic Bacteria with DNA Completely Alien to What We Know from the Huffington Post
"NASA is holding a press conference today at 2pm to announce a major finding in their research in astrobiology, and speculation is high the agency said the finding "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.""

Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way from the New York Times
"The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work. That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well. But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning."

America Bails Out a Thankless World from Investors Business Daily
"Turns out the Fed had over a dozen emergency programs operating beginning in 2007-08, one of them lending close to $9 trillion to Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and other troubled institutions, often at the comical interest rate of 1%. Foreign banks got much of the Fed's emergency credit."

Tackling a Problem Does Not Equal Attacking It (Paul Pillar) from the National Interest
"There has been still more commentary and still more blurring of the distinction—and it is an important distinction—between how Arabs worry about Iran, including its nuclear program, and the sentiments the same Arabs have toward a possible U.S. or Israeli military attack against Iran."

Why is Iran Chasing the Road Runner? (Meir Javedanfar) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The paranoid regime is wasting time on 'western plots' when it should be uncovering why its nuclear scientists were attack… Centre for Doctrinal Analysis, have spent millions of dollars researching cartoons such as Coyote and the Road Runner as part of an effort to uncover western plots to overthrow the regime."

American Diplomacy Revealed -- as Good (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"Let’s hear it for the men and women of the U.S. Foreign Service! They are, to judge from the WikiLeaks dump of a quarter-million of their private or secret cables, thoughtful, well-informed and dedicated servants of the American interest who write clear, declarative English sentences."

What Does WikiLeaks' Treasure Trove of Diplomatic Traffic Show? A State Department on its Game (Timothy Garton Ash) from the Los Angeles Times
"My opinion of the State Department has just gone up several notches. In recent years I have found the American Foreign Service to be somewhat underwhelming, a bit dandruffy, especially when compared with other, more self-confident arms of American government, such as the Pentagon and the Treasury. But what we find here is often first rate."

See You in Court, Mr. Assange: Why the First Amendment Won't Necessarily Protect WikiLeaks from Slate
"Based on precedent—and, almost as relevant, on the current composition of the Supreme Court—it seems likely that the court would allow a case against Assange. The problem would be getting him to court."

Speaking of getting him to court:
Net closes on Assange: Arrest by British Police Expected in Days from the Independent [of the UK]
"procedural error with the European Arrest Warrant had delayed the arrest of the 39-year-old Australian, who is wanted in Sweden over sexual allegations but has been in England since October."

Could Wikileaks Go Homeless? (Brian Ries) from the Daily Beast
"With international pressure mounting on WikiLeaks, Amazon's decision to kick the site off its server triggered debate among other Web-hosting companies over how to handle the political hot potato. Brian Ries talks to the deciders."

WikiLeaks Founder is Losing Legal Options from Salon
"Julian Assange's legal options narrowed Thursday as the WikiLeaks founder lost an appeal against a court order for his arrest and his British lawyer said authorities knew his precise location."
Yup.  He messed with the wrong set of hombres!

Lieberman, GOP Team Up for Anti-Wikileaks Bill from Agence France Presse via Raw Story
"Amid calls in the US Congress to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a group of senators on Thursday unveiled a bill to make it easier to target the self-described whistleblowing website."
Quite predictable.

Sudan's Attention-Grabber from the Sunday New York Times Magazine
"John Prendergast … has focused attention on the country. But will that be enough to head off another bloodbath?"

The US is Betting on Putin from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"The US is well informed in Moscow -- which is why Washington is skeptical that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has much of a future. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, diplomatic cables make clear, is 'in the driver's seat.'"

Black Hawk Up: The Forgotten American Success Story in Somalia (Dominic Tierney) from the Atlantic
"It was a heroic mission that saved thousands of lives. Skewed perceptions proved disastrous, searing humanitarian intervention with the mark of Cain, and sapping the will to fight genocide the following year in Rwanda."
I actually don't buy most of what Tierney is selling -- but it would be nice to think that SOMETHING positive came from that debacle. 

Calling the Senate GOP's Bluff: Multiple Bills Likely to Come Up Before Tax Cuts (Amanda Terkel) from Huffington Post
"The Senate GOP's threat to filibuster every single piece of legislation until the chamber resolves budget and tax cut measures will likely be tested as soon as Friday."

ELEPHANT NUGGET!!
Well Ladies, How are You Enjoying Your Safari Holiday So Far? Moment a Curious Elephant Wandered Up to Say Hello (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Two women were given the nature close-up of their lives when a wild bull elephant approached their veranda as they sat out in the sun. … It's a similar story at the Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa National Park, also in Zambia, where the elephants are more regular visitors."
I know that this situation was quite dangerous for the women involved -- but it is interesting to contemplate a world where a herd of wild elephants will move through an up-scale resort and no-one gets hurt, no one reaches for a gun, and, indeed, the whole thing is largely passed off as "just one of those things" that happens this time of year.  It suggests that, through education and other factors, people and wildlife [even of the really big kind] CAN live together.

News Nugget 487

Six cheetah cubs (a huge number for one cheetah mother) in the Massai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.  See the Cheetah Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Europe's Crisis Widens from the Wall Street Journal
"Italy, Spain See Bonds Sink, Portugal Faces Rating Cut as Faith in Rescue Ebbs."
NOT GOOD!

China: As Clueless as Everyone Else on North Korea (Bill Powell) from Time Magazine
"With North and South Korea inching closer to a resumption of one of the 20th century's bloodiest wars, the China's diplomatic response seemed tin-eared at best — and clueless at worst."

North Korea 'Highly Likely to Attack South Korea Again' from the Telegraph [of the UK]
"North Korea is “highly likely” to attack South Korea again as its ailing leader Kim Jong-il seeks to bolster the standing of his regime ahead of a planned handover of power, South Korea’s intelligence chief has warned."
Again -- NOT GOOD!

North Korea is China's Growing Monster (Frank Ching) from the China Post [of Hong Kong in English]
"Wittingly or not, China is nurturing a monster in North Korea."

WikiLeaks Doesn't Tell All Concerning Obama's Successful Iran Policy (Doyle MacManus) from the Los Angeles Times
"Confidential documents show that the U.S. is telling the truth about its objectives with Iran; what they don't reveal is that Obama's policy of engagement and sanctions is showing signs of success."

US Diplomats Aren't Stupid After All (Joshua Kucera) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"How WikiLeaks restored one journalist's faith in the State Department."

Wikileaks Shows the Skills of US Diplomats (Fareed Zakaria) from Times Magazine
"A remarkably broad consensus has formed that WikiLeaks' latest data dump is a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. While there are debates over how the Obama Administration should respond, everyone agrees that the revelations have weakened America. But have they? I don't deny for a moment that many of the "wikicables" are intensely embarrassing, but the sum total of the output I have read is actually quite reassuring about the way Washington — or at least the State Department — works."

Wikileaks Accidentally Helps US (Leslie Gelb) from the Daily Beast
"Julian Assange clearly intended the State Dept. cable leaks to smear the U.S. as evil and selfish. Leslie H. Gelb on how he inadvertently proved the opposite."
Y'know, once I began delving into these cables, this was exactly my impression. 

Wikileaks: Interpol Issues Wanted Notice for Julian Assange from the Guardian [of the UK]
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange facing growing legal problems around world."
I've concluded that this guy is an arrogant SOB who is pretty clueless about the damage he has done to hundreds of eminently worthy individuals and initiatives around the world.  Personal relationships are gold in diplomatic circles and the ones who are really going to get it in the teeth professionally are the US's professional diplomatic corps.  These are folks who routinely slave for decades in remote parts of the world, building up relationships, developing expertise, sacrificing in substantial professional and personal ways, and, at times even having their lives endangered.  Dozens of these folks, perhaps more, will be recalled, their utility profoundly degraded thanks to wikileaks, their careers ruined, and, for each one, there were sets of initiatives that will be pushed back to square one.

Swedish Court Confirms Arrest Warrant for Wikileaks Founder from the New York Times
"Sweden's highest court refused on Thursday to grant permission for Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing organization, to appeal a court order seeking his arrest to face questioning over alleged sex crimes, his lawyer and said."
Assange has a huge target on his ass right now.  He'd better be careful where he flees to.  He has pissed off A LOT of people in very high places ALL OVER THE WORLD.  I suspect, one way or another, he will get nailed for some offense and locked up.

The Cables' Credibility Question (Matthew Duss) from the American Prospect
"What do the WikiLeaks cables tell us about the Middle East in the wake of the Bush Doctrine?"

The Wounded Home Front (Robert Kaplan) from the American Interest
"The Soviets knew that a dead body causes no tactical inconvenience. It only removes the one dead person from the field. But a wounded person requires the assistance of people all the way down the line who could otherwise be fighting. Likewise with the home front in a war. The dead leave an awful vacancy in the lives of loved ones, but those who are seriously wounded or psychologically traumatized can disrupt families and society more."
A surprisingly good look at the HUGE human costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- here from a notable war hawk.

The Pentagon, Pursuing Justice from the New York Times
"The long-awaited report on “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the secretary of defense have made it clear that the law should be repealed immediately."

Field of Dreams: Why Obama Won't Face a Primary Challenger (Ed Kilgore) from the New Republic
"For a substantive primary challenge to occur, a coherent bloc of Democratic voters—whether liberal or moderate—would have to sour on Obama and coalesce behind another candidate in such a way that threatens the president's hold over his base. There's just no sign of that happening."

CT-Sen: Dodd Bids Farewell to Senate from Politico
"In his final speech on the Senate floor, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd urged his colleagues to work together in a bipartisan fashion and not change the filibuster rules that have guided their chamber. “The time of my departure has come,” said Dodd, who is Catholic, quoting Saint Paul. “I’ve fought a good fight…I kept the faith.” "
A very good Senator who served CT and the US well.  I wonder what's next for Mr. Dodd?

CHEETAH NUGGET!!
SIX Hungry Cheetah Cubs Learn to Hunt with Mum from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Adorable images show how the female cat has her hands full with a rarely high number of offspring - but she's certainly rising to the challenge."
The photos are REALLY GOOD!

WORLD WAR II NUGGET!!
Art's Survivors of Hitler's War from the New York Times
"Sculptures once reviled by the Nazis as “degenerate” art, including one by Edwin Scharff, were recently unearthed and are on view at the Neues Museum in Berlin."

WORLD WAR I NUGGET!!
Last Shot at Preserving Battleship Texas Under Way from the Houston Chronicle
"Once touted as the most powerful weapon on the planet, the nearly century-old battlewagon has endured some 60 years as an historic relic moored in the brackish Houston Ship Channel, corrosion from water outside and inside munching at its steel and patchwork repairs. "Our boat's been sitting in the water and rusting away, so we get it out of the water," says Andy Smith, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's manager of the battleship site east of Houston. That's the goal as work finally is beginning to permanently remove the Texas from water …."
Good luck!  What an enormous project!!  Getting one of the original "Dreadnought" class battleships out of the water!!

News Nuggets 486

Yes, indeed, packing some news weapons, Sea Shepherd is revving up for another go at the Japanese whaling fleet!  See the Whaling Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers from Foreign Policy Magazine
"#3: Barack Obama: … To Obama has fallen a tough task: the hard work that accompanies the building of a new order to succeed America's unchallenged rule as the lone post-Cold War superpower. But luckily for the world it is a task Obama embraces, if still hesitantly at times."

The Global Thinkers Book Club from Foreign Policy Magazine
"What the smart set is reading -- from definitive guides to the global economic crash to the most unexpected new maps of the human psyche. And no surprise: They're all reading each other."

Diplomacy in Action: What the WikiLeaks Documents Tell Us about the Practice of Foreign Policy (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
"Mainly they illustrate principles about the "great game" of power politics dating back to Thucydides—that nations behave according to their material interests and that a big part of diplomacy lies in appealing to, threatening, or manipulating those interests. And they show that, within the narrowing realm in which the United States (or any country) can influence others in the post-Cold War world, the Obama administration has been playing the game fairly well."

A Glimpse into the Dark from the Economist [of London]
"They suggest that among the younger generation of Chinese officials there is a growing desire to relinquish support for North Korea. One official apparently stated that all of Korea “should be unified under ROK [South Korean] control”."

Hitting the North: North Korea's Four Unique Points of Vulnerability from the Los Angeles Times
"The response by Seoul and Washington this time should be to impose a palpable penalty on Pyongyang.  North Korea, by its own choice, is unique in the world. "

The Enemy of My Frenemy … (Owen Matthews) from Newsweek
"What the WikiLeaks cables reveal about the possibility of a regional war with Iran and the surprising ways the U.S. and Russia are collaborating to contain that threat."

What We Know About the Sabotage of Iran's Nuclear Program from the Atlantic
"Today was a very bad day for Iran's illicit nuclear program."

Ahmadinejad: Iran's Nuclear Program Hit by Sabotage from the Washington Post
"Iran's uranium-enrichment program has been the target of sabotage, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday, but he refused to say whether the Stuxnet computer virus had been responsible for the problems."

Everyone already knows.  See, for example:
Iran: Computer Malware Sabotaged Uranium Centrifuges from Wired Magazine
"In what appears to be the first confirmation that the Stuxnet malware hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that malicious computer code launched by “enemies” of the state had sabotaged centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program."

Ah! But then there's this:
Iran: West behind Scientist's Death from Al Jazeera
"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has accused Israel and Western governments of being behind the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist."
Jared's prediction: these Iranian nuclear scientists who are being assassinated are being killed by the order of the Iranian government itself.  Why?  Because these scientists have been working for western intelligence for some time.  Ahmadinejad gets a twofer here -- he wipes out a deeply imbedded spy -- and get's to whip up domestic support for his regime by blaming the US and Israel.  You can bet that he and the Iranian secret police are looking feverishly to track down how their nuke program got sabotaged by stuxnet and other "techno-flies" in their nuclear ointment. 

Some more detail is HERE from PBS's Frontline.  Also, a supporting piece of evidence can be found HERE from the Christian Science Monitor from January of 2010: Killing of Iran Nuclear Scientist: Charges Fly Over Who's Responsible

Tea Party Complications (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
"That the movement views compromise as a problem is a problem."
Like ... WHO did not see this coming!?  To tweak Mr. Gerson, I am surprised that anyone is surprised!  It says something about our political class and their acceptance that people campaigning for political office will say anything to get in ... and then actually completely do something else -- as if somehow that is good governance!  It explains in part why voters pay less and less attention to the MSM.

The Next Kennedy (Aaron Blake) from the Washington Post
"When retiring Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy exits the House next month, it will be the first time in 64 years that no member of the Democratic party's first family will be serving in Washington.
How long the drought will last is already the subject of much debate, with the 2012 election already looking ripe for the next Kennedy to step forward."

WHALING NUGGET!!
'Fastest and Strongest' Anti-whaling Ship Yet Launched to Disrupt Japanese Vessels at Sea from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The new state-of-the-art interceptor vessel has taken to the sea with a promise that it has the potential to stop the Japanese in their tracks. The director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Jeff Hansen, hailed the $4m (£2.57m) craft today and promised it wouldn't suffer the same fate as its predecessor, which lost its bow in a confrontation with whalers."
Are we BAD or what!!?  More seriously though, Watson and the Sea Shepherd folks need to watch it -- because if I remember correctly the Japanese vessel that ran over last season's version of this boat GOT OFF!  They were not penalized for what they did.  What's to stop them them from even more deliberately running over this new one?  It will be interesting to see how they fair this year.

TIGER NUGGET!!
These Pussycats are NOT Afraid of Water from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The trio of unusual underwater playmates fight each other underwater as they chase after a chunk of meat at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Zoo, near San Francisco."

TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAM NUGGET!!
You’re O.K., but I’m Not. Let’s Share from the New York Times
"Though Landmark is viewed by some as an incubator for overly assertive or blissed-out automatons who bear a strange predilection for the phrase “got it,” the eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken, the Boston Philharmonic conductor Benjamin Zander and Paul Fireman, the former Reebok chief executive, are all Landmark graduates, as are employees of Exxon Mobil, JPMorgan Chase, NASA and the Pentagon, who have been coached by the company’s consulting firm, the Vanto Group."
See also THIS ITEM from Business Week.

HIGHER ED NUGGET!!
French Professors Find Life in U.S. Hard to Resist from the New York Times
"Academics are increasingly leaving France for the United States, which carries the risk of a “brain drain” in France, according to a report this month by an independent study group."