News Nuggets 1219

DAYEE PICTURE: The Naxi, Yi, and Bai ethnic minorities in China hold ceremonies at Jade Mountain in Yunan Province in China.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

The Nuggetsman will be in transit tomorrow all day so the next posting will be on Wednesday.

The Biggest Threat To China's Economy (Gordon Chang) from Forbes Magazine 
"... events since early last month in North Asia—the tearing up of the Korean War armistice, Pyongyang’s promises of pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the U.S., and the deployment of North Korea’s mobile missiles, to name just a few of them—suggest the biggest threat to the Chinese economy may be the least discussed one: turmoil in the region."

How China’s Jets Threaten Russia (Richard Weitz) from The Diplomat 
"China’s suspected proclivity for copying weapons systems has made Russia wary of exporting its technology. Still, the Russians may one day end up with a taste for ‘Made in China’ hardware."

Inside North Korea: A Rare Dispatch from Deep Within the Lunatic Rogue State Enslaved by Zombie and Sons from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"John Sweeney enters the secretive state to see 'the true North Korea'.  Travelled undercover as a tourist as journalist are barred from the state. He found the regime 'a more frightening tyranny than Saddam's Iraq'."

Young Adults Getting Critical Health Services Under Obamacare (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"The ADM cohort was more likely to incur claims related to mental health, substance abuse, and pregnancy.” This group had higher health care spending than the otherwise insured 19-26 year old population because they used more medical services and because of higher hospital inpatient spending."

President Obama, Republicans Fight the Class War (Martin and Harris) from Politico
"That fundamental reality of the Obama years — that the president won a second term in large part because he gave new life to an old brand of class-based politics — continues to echo six months later as the dominant factor shaping American politics this spring, as the parties slog through the latest fiscal fight. Both parties are in the midst of intense and far-reaching debates about how to respond."

Conservatives to Obama: Spend More! (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast 
"From Sarah Palin to Paul Ryan and now Greg Walden, why do Republicans keep attacking Obama for trying to save money? Peter Beinart explains this weird phenomenon."

Republicans Fear Clinton in 2016 (Zeke J Miller) from Time Magazine 
"... more than two dozen operatives and officials expressed worry that none of their party’s potential 2016 candidates can take her down. One early primary state RNC member put it simply: “If she gets in, we’re toast.”"

Rand Paul Forces Suffer Setback vs. GOP Establishment from Politico 
"In the GOP’s ongoing establishment vs. grassroots saga, chalk one up for the establishment. Since Mitt Romney’s loss, the Rand Paul wing of the party has been on the ascendency. But libertarians hit a roadblock Friday as the Republican National Committee opted at its spring meeting to keep in place a host of rules rammed through by the Romney campaign at last year’s national convention."

The Endless Vetting Of Marco Rubio (McKay Coppins) from Buzz Feed
""Rubio is just 41, but he has already served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. And his quick rise to national stardom, along with his long, varied career in state politics, well-known financial troubles, and ties to an embattled former congressman have combined to prompt many in the political class -- including some of his most enthusiastic boosters -- to speculate that the Senator's pristine political brand will collapse under the weight of national scrutiny.""

The Albany Machiavelli (Chris Smith) from New York Magazine
"For all his speechifying about the 'us' of government, he runs a government of one, controlling decisions large and small. And the way Cuomo wins his battles--strong-­arming and horse-trading; a mastery of talking past inconvenient questions and facts--tends to antagonize enemies and allies, as in the most recent round of budget wrangling, in which he managed to chafe both liberals and business fat cats. People are afraid of him..."
He's positioning for a presidential run.  Politically, he sounds like someone who could be a formidable candidate -- but in all other respects h sounds like bad news!

SOUTHERN POLITICS NUGGET!!
Spokesman: Gov. Deal Won't Comment on Wilcox Prom from WMAZ-TV [of Macon, Georgia]
"Better Georgia asked Deal and others "to publicly support the students of Wilcox County who are fighting to end a 'separate-but-equal' high school prom." ... Wilcox County High School has no official prom, but for years, some parents and students have organized a private whites-only segregated prom. School officials say they have no control over that and have issued a statement in support of the integrated prom."

FOX PHOTO NUGGET!!
20 Foxes And The People Who Keep Them As Pets from Buzz Feed
"While some say that foxes are destructive, smelly and hard to train, these animal lovers see them as the perfect pet. And who can blame them?"

BIG BEE'S NEST NUGGET!!
Police Seal Off House on Holiday Island After Seven Meter Wasps Nest Found from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"The nest was reportedly found at a property on the island of Tenerife.  It is said to have been 22ft long and covered nearly an entire room. Experts believe wasps migrating from Africa may have created it."

News Nuggets 1218

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Milky Way as seen from New Zealand.  From National Geographic.

There's No North Korea Crisis (Robert A. Manning) from the National Interest
"... there is no crisis, only a farce. This time around, it is louder and more melodramatic. But we have seen time and again North Korea throwing a political tantrum in response to annual U.S.-ROK military exercises or the latest round of UN Security Council sanctions in response to Pyongyang testing a nuclear device or launching a missile. ... The world is not on the brink of an imminent nuclear confrontation. North Korean troops and artillery are not about to pour across the Demilitarized Zone. This is all nothing more than political theater."

New Details About Lockheed's Latest Stealth Drone (John Reed) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Remember, the sea service is looking to field an unmanned, stealthy, fighter-size jet capable of taking off from aircraft carriers and doing everything from spying to bombing to conducting air-to-air refueling by 2020 under a program called Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike -- or UCLASS."

A New Budget for a New Party (Ron Brownstein) from National Journal 
"Obama's fiscal proposal aligns him with the politics of minority, millennial, and college-educated voters."

The 'Emerging Democratic Majority' Isn't Assured—Unless the GOP Refuses to Change (Nate Cohn) from the New Republic
"If the white share of the electorate declines further, Republicans won’t just need to match their best performance of the last 24 years among white voters, they’ll also need to match their best performance of the last 24 years among non-white voters. If they can’t make the requisite 16-point gain among non-white voters—a tall order, to say the least—then the next Republican candidate will enter truly uncharted territory, potentially needing to win up to 64 percent of the white vote just to break 50 percent of the popular vote."

Social Conservatives Threaten Revolt Against GOP (Henry Decker) from National Memo
"Social conservatives are threatening to revolt against the the Republican Party, in the latest sign that the Republican National Committee’s “Growth & Opportunity Project” has little to no chance of success."

Family Research Council Says 'Don't Send a Dime' to GOP (Justin Sink) from The Hill
""Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don’t send them a dime of your hard-earned money," Perkins said in the email, a copy of which was obtained by CNN."
YOU tell'em, Tony!!  I've been telling people not to send money to the RNC for years!

Did Being Black Cost Obama Votes? from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire 
"A new Harvard study concludes that "racial animus in the United States appears to have cost Obama roughly four percentage points of the national popular vote in both 2008 and 2012.""

RNC's Celeb Plan Falls Flat in Hollywood from Politico
"The Republican National Committee is meeting this week in the most touristy part of Tinseltown, but it’s apparent the “Celebrity Task Force” recommended by last month’s “autopsy” report isn’t going to happen. The proposed task force was the most mocked of 219 suggestions from a five-member committee tasked with looking into why the party fared so poorly in 2012."

Jane Fonda Tells Veterans Boycotting Her Movie 'The Butler' to 'Get a Life' from Fox News
"This week, Fonda had a simple message for Reyes and the page's fans. “Get a life." In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Fonda said of her casting: “If it creates hoopla, it will cause more people to see the movie… I figured it would tweak the right. Who cares?” ... But Fonda isn’t the only casting choice in "The Butler" causing some to roll their eyes."
This story is so interesting on so many fronts not least of which is how it showcases perfectly the on-going centrality of Vietnam and the 1960s issues set to the contemporary conservative movement.   Any time right wingers can resurrect the left-wing ghosts from that era just sends them into peals of partsan rapture -- never mind that most Americans could not care less!  Fonda sees this clearly.

"CRAZY AS LUNES" GOP NUGGET!!
State GOP to Auction AR-15 Style Rifle at Dinner (Jim Brunner) from the Seattle Times
"When the Washington State Republican Party holds its annual fundraising dinner this weekend, one of the items up for auction will be an AR-15 style rifle  — the type of semi-automatic weapon targeted by many gun-control advocates since Adam Lanza used one to rapidly kill 20 children and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school."
WOW!!  The latest from the numb and dumb wing of the GOP.  This is almost like the times back in the early 20th century when people would sell hangman's noose type souvenirs after particularly gruesome lynchings.  The "f--- you!" message to the victims in Newtown is hard to miss here.

TEENAGER NUGGET!!
How Teenagers Spend Money (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic
"Ah, life without a mortgage, insurance, or savings."

GAY MARRIAGE NUGGET [of a sort]!!
Gay Man Separated from Husband in Hospital was Beaten and Harassed from Raw Story
"New information from an account of Gorley’s arrest published online and from an interview that Gorley’s daughter Amanda did with John Aravosis from Americablog paint an upsetting and disturbing picture of the ordeal that Gorley faced trying to assert his legal rights of power of attorney at his husband’s bedside."

HOPE-FOR-PAWS DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
Annie Hart: "I Set Out to Rescue Dogs, But the Dogs Rescued Me" from the Huffington Post
"Over the past year, I've been getting involved with several animal rescue groups in the Los Angeles area where I live. Their Facebook pages are compelling and the dramatic rescue videos they post often go viral - with good reason. Nothing tugs at the heartstrings like a homeless, terrified, dog being saved from a horrible, lonely death on the streets. One local group - the Bill Foundation - stands out from the crowd, taking on the most desperate, seemingly hopeless dogs you could imagine."

BASEBALL HISTORY NUGGET!!
Jackie Robinson Again (Roger Angell) from the New Yorker
"... he very first black player in the majors: a carefully selected twenty-eight-year-old college graduate and Army veteran primed and prepped in 1947 by Dodger President Branch Rickey, who exacted a promise from him that he would never respond, never complain, never talk back, no matter what taunts or trash came at him from enemy players out of the stands. He did us proud, but at a cost beyond the paying."

News Nuggets 1217

DAYLEE PICTURE:  A baby Large-spotted Genet (a relative of the mongoose) at the National Zoological Gardens in South Africa.  From Zooborns.

Will Chinese Troops Cross the Yalu? from Foreign Policy Magazine
"U.S. intelligence looks at Beijing's military options in North Korea. ... Although current consultations between Washington and Beijing are taking place behind closed doors, we do have a window into how the United States assessed China's options during a similar crisis nearly two decades ago -- options that included Chinese troops crossing the Yalu to secure its borders."

North Korea Threatens War, and South Korea Wants Revenge (Gordon G. Chang) from the Daily Beast
"The bellicose threats from Pyongyang are the same as ever. But this time, South Korea isn’t going to let a provocation go by without retaliating. Gordon G. Chang explains why."

How to Keep NATO Strong (Anders Fogh Rasmussen) from Foreign Policy Magazine 
"For Europeans, the transatlantic alliance cannot be taken for granted."

Curtains for Hezbollah? (Jamie Dettmer) from the Daily Beast
"The civil war in Syria is undermining the Shiite movement. The fall of Assad could spell its end. By Jamie Dettmer in Beirut."

Pope Emeritus Benedict's Health has Worsened Following Reports 'He Will Not be With Us Much Longer' from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The health of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has deteriorated, the Vatican has revealed. Senior church officials were forced to make their fears public after a respected Vatican expert declared 'we won't have him with us for very much longer'."

How Boehner’s Crazy Method Is Letting Obama’s Agenda Move (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"President Obama’s second-term agenda is actually chugging along at what by current standards counts as a brisk pace. ... Things are happening. But they are happening in the characteristically and necessarily odd way that has come to be seen as normal in the Washington of Barack Obama and John Boehner."

Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner? (John Dickerson) from Slate
"There is nothing substantively new about Obama's budget plan. He has offered versions of the same plan privately to Republican leaders, but now he's trying to go around those leaders. One requirement for building trust with Republican senators is putting these offers on paper. This is meant to show individual senators that he is making good on the promises he has made in private conversations, but it also offers them the cover they need with their constituents."

Will the Christian Right Flee the GOP? (Alex Seitz-Wald) from Salon 
"Republican civil war heats up as social conservatives feel abandoned and threaten to form a third party."
Oh yes.  Thelma turns to Louise and shouts "Hit the gas!"

The GOP-Fox Circus Act (Reed Richardson) from the Nation
"This ongoing debate about whether broadening conservatism's appeal requires new messages or just new messaging has ignored the 800-pound gorilla in the room, however. Noticeably absent from all the right wing's public self-criticism is any interest in confronting the potent role played by the Republican Party's single most important messenger, Fox News."

Rand Paul goes to Howard University in Peace, Receives Quiet (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"Tea party titan Rand Paul, visiting Howard University on Wednesday, told students that he had been called “either brave or crazy to be here” at the historically black college. Probably some of each: brave, because he’s trying to sell himself and fellow Republicans to African Americans, a singularly resistant demographic; and crazy, because he based his pitch on revised history and airbrushed facts — and the Howard kids weren’t fooled."
Conservatives (and GOP pontificators especially) live in an alternative universe where their out-dated and not-so-subtly racist version of black history goes unchallenged.  Most conservatives (especially older ones) assume that what they were taught in grammar school was the "correct" version of US history and that blacks essentially "lived" that same history.  What Rand Paul encountered yesterday was what happens when that self-serving marinaded-in-ignorance version meets reality.  Let's be clear (and perhaps even charitable): Paul looked like a well-intentioned fool.

Said in a more snarky way, see this item:
Rand Paul and the Sweet Smell of Your Own Crap (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"The gist of what happened yesterday was that Paul took this clown show to an audience at an historically black college where, yeah, they actually do know that Lincoln freed the slaves and that Frederick Douglass was a Republican. And they’ve even heard about the Dixiecrats. ... The GOP is so deep into its own self-justifying racial alternative reality that there’s some genuine surprise when the claptrap doesn’t survive first contact with actual black people."

GENDER AND CULTURE NUGGET!!
Home Ec.: The Economic Logic of the "New Domesticity" from the New Republic
"The brilliance of Emily Matchar’s new book, Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity, is that it exhaustively describes what disillusioned workers are opting into: a slower, more sustainable, and more self-sufficient lifestyle that’s focused on the home. The woman who leaves the public workplace is “the Brooklyn hipster who quit her PR job to sell hand-knitted scarves at craft fairs,” Matchar writes. “She’s the dreadlocked ‘radical homemaker’ who raises her own chickens to reduce her carbon footprint."
Yes -- and how are they paying their student loans?  I have long been skeptical of sweeping gender narratives about how "women" are choosing some "simpler" more home-centered life.  Really?  Who are these people?  It has long seemed to me that they are middle and upper-class women who actually have more choice in the matter.  I suspect working-class women would view this narrative with disbelief mixed with bitter humor.  It's simplicity as an affluent person's life-style choice.

ACADEMY NUGGET!!
The Ever-Shrinking Role of Tenured College Professors (in 1 Chart) (Jordon Weissmann) from the Atlantic
"For almost 40 years, we've been witnessing the rise of the adjuncts. ... Once, being a college professor was a career. Today, it's a gig.  That, broadly speaking, is the transformation captured in the graph below from a new report by the American Association of University Professors."

CLASSIC CAR NUGGET!!
Revealed: These Five Famous Flops are the Worst-selling Cars to Ever Hit American Roads from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Some are ill-conceived - appealing to a non-existent segment of the market. Others are poorly designed - offering the wrong features or inadequate options. Others are shoddily made and suffer from crippling recalls and poor reliability.  Some are just bad cars. The Yugoslavian Yugo GV is reviled by car critics as the most heinous vehicle ever to hit American roadways.  These are the five least-popular cars ever mass-produced for the American market."
Where's the AMC Gremlin?  That one should have made the list somehow.

IMPORTANT MILITARY TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
The Ultimate Remote-Control Helicopter: US Military Set to Use Full-Sized Aircraft that is Actually a DRONE from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"At first glance, it looks like a perfectly normal helicopter. But Northrop Grumman’s new MQ-8C Fire Scout is missing one key thing - a pilot. The craft, shown off at a trade show this week, has been stuffed with electronics so it can be flown as a drone - but with all the same capabilities as a normal helicopter."

DOLPHIN NEWS NUGGET!!
Dolphins See Themselves in Mirror from CNN via YouTube

News Nuggets 1216

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Painted Dunes in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT GUN CONTROL NUGGET!!
Pro-Gun Absolutism: The Gun Lobby’s Push to Privatize Law and Order (Will Marshall) from the Daily Beast
"In the gun lobby’s America, you’ll have to kill if you don’t want to be killed. Will Marshall on the delusional project of outsourcing public safety to private vigilantes."

Republican Threats To Filibuster Gun Bill Appear To Be Falling Apart from Talking Points Memo
"Numerous Republicans said Tuesday they won’t vote to block gun control legislation from reaching the floor, making Senate Democrats increasingly optimistic that they’ll have the necessary votes to begin debating their bill, even though final passage remains uncertain."

Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff (Andrei Lankov) from the New York Times
"People who talk about an imminent possibility of war seldom pose this question: What would North Korea’s leadership get from unleashing a war that they are likely to lose in weeks, if not days? ... the use of nuclear or other terror weapons would be certain to invite overwhelming retaliation, delivering North Korea’s decision makers to a fiery oblivion. Suggestions that those leaders are irrational and their decisions unfathomable are remarkably shallow. North Korea is not a theocracy led by zealots who preach the rewards of the afterlife."
While in the main I agree with this author, the real danger here lies in North Korean military leaders either buying into their own rhetoric (a real possibility given how misinformed many of them are about the US and the rest of the world generally) or becoming obsessed about "losing face" as the whole world watches.  See the following item for more on these types of concerns.

With Friends Like These… (Helen Gao) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Even the Chinese are finally starting to think their allies in Pyongyang are a little bit crazy."

Getting Ready for Post-Castro Cuba (Arturo López-Levy) from the National Interest
"In Cuba, a post-Castro era is looming on the horizon. The Obama administration should muster the political will to prepare the United States for February 2018, when neither Fidel nor Raúl Castro will remain at the helm of the Caribbean island."

Obama Budget Catching Hell From Both Sides: Why That’s a Good Sign (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"Liberals are howling ‘sellout’ over Social Security reform, and Republicans are readying their reflexive ‘tax and spend liberal’ attacks. That’s how you know Obama’s budget is a good one, says John Avlon."

Supreme Court Nominee-in-Waiting (Jeffrey Toobin) from the New Yorker 
"The next Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday afternoon, April 10th. Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but few are misled. The stakes in this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation, he'll be on the Supreme Court before President Obama's term ends."

Obama Could Win in 2014 Midterms by Losing Legislative Battles Now (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"The president may be in trouble on guns, immigration, and the deficit, but Eleanor Clift reports that his failure could boost Democratic chances of winning back the House."
As I have noted here before, I think taking back the House in '14 is Obama's paramount goal for this next year.

Memo to the GOP: Ideas Win Elections; Winning the Issues is the Winning Strategy (David Winston) from National Review
" If the Republican party is going to fix its branding problem, then it must first focus on generating products (policies derived from those principles and ideas) that will bring back customers. That’s the real challenge ahead for the party and its candidates. Unfortunately, much of the Republican campaign-consulting community — from strategists to pollsters to ad gurus — treats candidates and their ideas as liabilities, not assets. For decades, their strategic focus has consisted of negative ad campaigns and little else."

Paul Stumbles Trying To School Howard Crowd On Black History from Talking Points Memo
"As Rand Paul told it, the biggest problem keeping African Americans from voting Republican is that they didn’t know Republicans have long been leaders on abolition and civil rights. As students at Howard University heard it, the problem was that Paul was condescending, misleading, and removed from the issues facing their community."
What a dope!  Thank God it looks like he'll be running for president in 2016.

WORLD WAR II BOOK NUGGET!!
Vichy Lives!—In a Way (Robert O. Paxton) from the New York Review of Books 
"L’Héritage de Vichy is an unconventional work—more a catalog of curiosities than a regular book. It advances a strong claim: that contemporary France still bears today many traces of the Vichy regime that governed under German occupation from 1940 to 1944."

HONG KONG HOUSING NUGGET!!
Think Apartments in New York are Cramped? Extraordinary Images of the 'Living Cubicles' that are Home to Millions in Hong Kong from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Incredible shots offer a glimpse into the reality of living in one of the most densely populated areas of the world.  Hong Kong is home to a population of seven million crammed into an area of just 424 square miles. Claustrophobic nature of Hong Kong high-rises captured by German
photographer Michael Wolf"

News Nuggets 1215

DAYLEE PICTURE: The face of a Mandrill.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Obama’s Cultural Transformation Of America (Andrew Sullivan) fro The Dish 
"The 2012 election was a watershed for cultural change – and I suspect the sudden jump in support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization reflects a bandwagon effect in the wake of Obama’s overwhelming cultural victory. Obama has presided over the moment when white America came to accept that it no longer has the demographic clout to ignore non-white America..."

Poverty Plagues Obama’s America, Press Based in Booming Cities Shrugs (Stuart Stevens) from the Daily Beast
"A small, thriving minority now dominates the national conversation, even as more and more Americans struggle to get by, writes Stuart Stevens."

GOP Health Experts Agree: Don't Count on 'Obamacare' to Fail (Jill Lawrence) from the National Journal
"Is the Obama administration totally bungling implementation of its signature universal health care law? Is the law destined to collapse of its own weight? Or is that wishful conservative thinking? The
administration gets some surprising backup from top health officials from two Republican administrations."

The Jobs Crisis at Our Best Law Schools Is Much, Much Worse Than You Think (Jordan Weissmann) from the Atlantic
"The barren job market for law school grads has become a familiar reality by now. But here's something that tends to get lost in the story: The problem isn't just about no-name law schools churning out JD's nobody wants to hire. Even graduates at some of the country's top programs are struggling.  At this point, it seems, there are only a small handful of schools that could reasonably be called safe bets."

Thesis Defense (Katie Roiphe) from Slate
"No, it’s not a waste of time to get a literature Ph.D. It teaches you to commit to your ideas."

Obama’s Social Security Gambit (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast 
"Liberals are furious at the president over his Social Security proposal. Michael Tomasky says they have nothing to worry about—because Republicans won’t deal."

For Obama, Gun Control is More than Just a Feel-Good Gesture (Walter Shapiro) from Yahoo News
"Obama is gambling that investing time and effort in the cause is more than just a feel-good gesture. For if the NRA cannot be beaten on this limited front—even after the horrors at Sandy Hook Elementary School—then we will never limit gun violence."

The Wrong Fight (David Weigel) from Slate
"Why super-loud Republicans threatening a filibuster over the gun bill makes Democrats smile."

Americans Hate Congress Because Congress Doesn’t Care About Americans (Brad Brannon) from US News and World Report
"Is it any wonder that Americans dislike Congress so much? It shouldn't be a surprise because our representatives in Washington ignore public opinion. Gun control is the perfect example. ..."

Republicans: Stop Us Before We Gaffe Again! (Bill Barrow) from the New Republic
"The distinction between policy flaws and communication problems is at the crux of the GOP’s soul-searching as the Republican National Committee convenes this week in Los Angeles for the first time since the report’s release. And it’s a discussion that won’t end anytime soon as conservatives, moderates and pragmatists struggle for control of the GOP megaphone."

Mitch McConnell versus Mother Jones (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"The suggestion by the McConnell campaign that Mother Jones engaged in “Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters” is intriguing; it constitutes a suggestion that Mother Jones broke the law."

Bobby Jindal: Stupid, Party of One (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine 
"Republicans remembered they still had this Jindal guy sitting around. Jindal reinflated his reputation with speeches urging Republicans not to be the “stupid party,” advice that struck some of them as potentially a good idea. But now the second Jindal bubble has popped."

TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Through the Google Glass: Revealed, the Secrets of How Search Giant's Eyewear Really Works from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Google has refused to reveal the internals of its system, or show exactly how it will work.  German designer Martin Missfeldt created a graphic explaining the system."

NYC PHOTO NUGGET!!
The Gritty 1970s Photographs that Capture New York When it was a City in Decline from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The 1970s are considered a low point for New York City.  More than 820,00 people fled the crime and an unreliable transit system over the course of the decade, moving from the city to the suburbs. The city went nearly bankrupt as Wall Street sputtered under the economic stagnation of the era."

News Nuggets 1214

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Canadian Sphynx Cat.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT FOREIGN POLICY NUGGET!!
America the War-Weary and War-Wary (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"Talking with members of Congress at a gathering here last week was an education in the public’s wariness of new foreign entanglements — especially in Syria. It was a reminder that the post-Iraq era is only beginning, and that it may limit the United States’ ability to exercise power for the next few years."

Does North Korea Think U.S. Going Soft? (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"North Korea is dangerously close to crossing a line. Not the line that leads to a missile attack on the United States, but the one that separates being a rogue state from being a parody of a rogue state. Pyongyang's bluster is as comical as its nuclear threats are implausible."

Taliban Have Second Thoughts About Fighting in Afghanistan (Sami Yousafzai, Ron Moreau) from the Daily Beast
"News of peace talks in Qatar are giving some Taliban fighters doubts about the jihad. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau report on the indecision in the ranks."

Obama Takes Control In The Second Term from BuzzFeed
"No blackberries in meetings, no question who's in charge. “His personal favorite issues have really come out,” says a labor leader."

A Spectacular, Colorful Chart of Who Works (and Who Doesn't Work) in America Today Who are the 37 percent? (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic 
"The share of American adults who are either working or actively looking for work -- i.e.: the labor force participation rate -- fell to its lowest point since 1979, according to today's jobs report.  If 37 percent of American adults aren't in the labor force, what are they doing?"

Obama's Top-down Grassroots Army from Politico
"It’s what differentiates OFA from other grassroots groups, and even the Democratic National Committee: they’re combining large-dollar donations and unpaid local leaders for a carefully built, lasting structure that they believe will be just as effective in supporting the president as it was in electing him."

A Secret Deal With Pakistan on Drones, Sealed in Blood from the New York Times
"The C.I.A.’s covert drone war in Pakistan began with the 2004 killing of a Pashtun militant, the result of a secret deal that was a turning point in the agency’s fight against terrorism."

Insurance and Freedom (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Since House Republicans will block anything Mr. Obama proposes, his budget is best seen not as policy but as positioning, an attempt to gain praise from “centrist” pundits. No, the real policy action at this point is in the states, where the question is, How many Americans will be denied essential health care in the name of freedom?"

The Republican Party is Officially Broken (Jared Bernstein) from Salon 
"Washington's problem isn't partisanship or a fatally flawed system. It's that one party is massively dysfunctional."

Yes, Sequestration Is Actually Bad (Jon Favreau) from the Daily Beast 
"Pundits said President Obama was crying wolf on sequestration. Turns out the wolf is real, says former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau in his debut Daily Beast column."

The Young are the Restless (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"The surge of generational change continues in this country, altering the cultural landscape with a speed and intensity that has rarely — if ever — been seen before."

Texas Turns Battleground as Cowboy Boots Win Hispanics (Michael Tackett) from Bloomberg News Service
"“Our goal is very simple,” Steele said. “It’s to turn Texas back into a battleground state by treating it like a battleground state.” Population trends are on his side, even if the history of the last quarter-century is not. The transformation underway in Texas is one of many that exemplify how changing demographics are shifting the nation’s political makeup as well."

Can We Get Hillary Without the Foolery? (Maureen Dowd) from the New York Times
"The real question is not whether but whither. Does Hillary have learning software? Did she learn, from her debacle with health care, to be more transparent and less my-way-or-the-highway? "

ACADEMIC NUGGET [of a sort]!!
Thesis Hatement (Rebecca Schuman) from Slate
"Getting a literature Ph.D. will turn you into an emotional trainwreck, not a professor. ... I deeply regret going to graduate school, but not, Ron Rosenbaum, because my doctorate ruined books and made me obnoxious.  I now realize graduate school was a terrible idea because the full-time, tenure-track literature professorship is extinct. After four years of trying, I’ve finally gotten it through my thick head that I will not get a job—and if you go to graduate school, neither will you."

1950s CULTURE NUGGET!!
Finding Mr. Right: A 1950s Guide to Dating (Alessandra Ram) from the Atlantic
"After reflecting on Eve’s bad dates, Mary tells her friend that it is actually she who needs to change, not the men. Her behavior is simply too demanding ..."

CONTEMPORARY CULTURE NUGGET!!
Honey, We’re Praying for You (Aaron Hatzler) from Salon
"My parents can't handle the fact that I'm gay, and we'll never agree on religion. But I've found acceptance anyway."

News Nuggets 1213

DAYLEE PICTURE: Deer enjoying the wavy fields in southern Moravia in the Czech Republic.

UP-FRONT ECONOMICS NUGGET!!
The Urge to Purge (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn’t even try to limit the damage. ... It turns out that the urge to purge — the urge to see depression as a necessary and somehow even desirable punishment for past sins, while inveighing against any attempt to mitigate suffering — is as strong as ever. Indeed, Mellonism is everywhere these days."

Why Dictators Don’t Like Jokes from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Pro-democracy activists around the world are discovering that humor is one of the most powerful weapons in the fight against authoritarianism."

To Create Jobs, the U.S. Must Spend (Dimitri B. Papadimitriou) from the Los Angeles Times
"The government can and should increase the deficit to return us to prosperity. Without such outlays we can't get enough GDP growth to seriously attack unemployment."

Why the Culture Wars Now Favor Democrats (Ron Brownstein) from National Journal
"Gay marriage, gun control, immigration—the wedge issues now divide Republicans."

Hillary Derangement Syndrome (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast 
"Are Republicans really going to try to damage Hillary Clinton by digging up old non-scandals no one even remembers? They’ll do damage, all right, says Michael Tomasky, but not to Clinton."

Deep in the Red of Texas, Republicans Fight the Blues from the Wall Street Journal
"In no state is the Republican grip at once so firm, and under such challenge from Democrats, as it is in Texas. And nowhere is that grip of more consequence to the fortunes of the national GOP."

GOP Still Struggling With Outreach Initiative (Henry Decker) from National Memo
"The Republican Party’s “outreach” initiative is still struggling to gain traction, as major party figures can’t seem to stop themselves from offending the party’s target audience at every available opportunity."

Is This the Best the GOP Can Come Up With? (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"Republicans must be staging some kind of fiendishly clever plot to lure Democrats into a false sense of security. That’s the only possible explanation for some of the weirdness we’re seeing and hearing from the GOP. The party must be waiting to come out with its real candidates and policy positions at a moment when unsuspecting Democrats are in the vulnerable position of being doubled over with laughter."

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
Alabama FINALLY Pardons the 'Scottsboro Boys'... 82-years after They were Falsely convicted of Raping Two White Women from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"On the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. new legislation is set to be passed that would pardon the Scottsboro Boys - nine black teenagers falsely convicted of raping two white women in 1931. The bill which was presented to the Alabama House today, passed 103-0 to applause from the chamber and Governor Robert Bentley has already said that he will approve the measure which passed through the state senate unanimously."

REAGAN FAMILY NUGGET!!
Patti Davis and Michael Reagan 'Feud' Over Gay Marriage (Lloyd Grove) from the Daily Beast
"Patti Davis thinks her dad would support gay marriage, and her brother Michael Reagan insists he

OBAMA POPULAR CULTURE NUGGET!!
President Meets “Kid President” from Talking Points Memo
"If you need a cuteness/heart-warmingness injection, click below …"

News Nuggets 1212

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Golden Tabby Tiger at the Olmense Zoo in Antwerp.  From the Daily Mail of the UK

Who's In Charge North Korea? A Brief Look At Who Pulls The Political Strings from the Huffington Post
"As North Korea intensifies its belligerent rhetoric against Washington and Seoul, the world has turned its eyes on Kim Jong Un -- the country's enigmatic leader. The young Kim rose to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011. But is the 30-year-old "Dear Leader" the only one pulling North Korea's political strings? HuffPost World investigates."

North Korea Seen Moving Missile: Report from Reuters via the Huffington Post
"It was not clear if the missile was mounted with a warhead or whether the North was planning to fire it or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying."

ABC-WaPo survey: Everybody Supports a Path to Citizenship. Except Republicans, of Course (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"... the trend lines show increasing support for a path to citizenship among Democrats and independents and shrinking support among Republicans. Net support has grown by 10 points among Democrats and 11 points among independents, but it has shrunk by 13 points among Republicans."

The Death of the Political Sex Scandal (Joshua Green) from Businessweek 
"Sanford’s comeback is only the latest example that behavior that once would have swiftly and permanently destroyed a career has become no more than a temporary setback, if that. The political sex scandal is dead."

The Republican Plan for Replacing Obamacare Doesn’t Replace Obamacare (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"The confusion here is the term “replace Obamacare.” Obamacare is, at its heart, a policy to make sure most every legal resident of the United States has access to comprehensive, affordable health care. ... The eight-point program Domenech lays out is not an alternative approach to achieving the same goal. It’s actually an effort to achieve an almost perfectly opposite goal."

Republicans Increasingly Isolated on Many Major Issues (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"One thing that remains striking about our politics right now is the degree to which public opinion among Republicans is increasingly isolated and drifting away from the rest of the electorate. You see this on pretty much every major issue facing the country."

The G.O.P.’s Digital Makeover (Thomas Edsall) from the New York Times 
"Republican strategists wonder whether they can catch up to Obama’s Democrats on data mining, microtargeting and other contemporary campaign techniques."

One Thing We Don’t Know About Hillary: Did She Learn Any Lessons from 2008? (Alex Pareene) from Salon
This is probably the MOST PRESSING concern Clinton supporters should have about a potential Hillary candidacy!
"So, in 2016, will Hillary Clinton surround herself again with longtime Democratic National Committee and Clinton administration veterans whose primary qualification for their positions is knowing the Clintons? Or will she hire people who understand that the Democratic Party coalition, and the ways to appeal to its many members, have changed?"

A Viewer's Guide to Hillary Clinton Fever (Maggie Haberman) from Politico 
"... there are a number of different choices — about her financial future, about her public profile, about whom she surrounds herself with — that will make clear whether Clinton is organizing her life in anticipation of a second presidential run or has decided to liberate herself from ambition and just do what she wants. Here is a checklist of things to watch about Clinton’s future — a kind of viewer’s guide to Hillary Fever:"

Long Before Hillary Decides For 2016, Scandal Trolls Are Coming Back (Joe Conason) from the National Memo
"Like so many conservatives of his cohort, Frum was no foreign policy expert. He made his right-wing bones in relentless “scandal” attacks on the Clinton presidency, eagerly appearing on television to spout the daily stream of angry nonsense.  Unlike some who participated in that long, nasty jihad,  he still has not accepted the national verdict on the Clintons. Sounding today like a manic concern troll, Frum writes worriedly that her candidacy would “reopen embarrassing ethical disputes” from her years as First Lady."

Be Afraid, GOP: Hillary Clinton Is Back and She Will Beat You in 2016 (Robert Shrum) from the Daily Beast
"And her return should strike fear in the hearts of Republicans everywhere. Robert Shrum on why Hillary will prevail in 2016."

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
New Test for Computers: Grading Essays at College Level from the New York Times
"Software developed by a joint venture of Harvard and M.I.T. uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks."
Yes -- "other tasks", like looking for a new job.

SOUTH ASIA CULTURE NUGGET!!
I Was a Pakistani Soap Opera Star! As the World Burns in Karachi (Mira Sehti) from the New Republic
"They said they were from the intelligence unit that monitored the physical safety and secrecy of the country’s nuclear weapons, and that they meant no harm, but photography or filming of the nuclear facility was not allowed. Dumbfounded, we all looked around and suddenly realized that, in fact, the tower of a nuclear facility loomed behind us."

News Nuggets 1211

DAYLEE PICTURE!! An Emperor Penguin going through the ice in Antarctica.  From National Geographic.

Unlearned Lessons and the Syrian Civil War (Paul R. Pillar) from the National Interest
"Diehl's declared objectives in his signed column are to absolve himself and other Iraq War proponents from any credibility gap when they advocate U.S. immersion in yet another Middle Eastern war, and to warn of how any Iraq War syndrome might unwisely dissuade the United States from conducting worthwhile military interventions—such as in Syria."

Kim Jong Un is Not Crazy (Stephan Haggard) from CNN
"March brought us a series of what pundits like to call "provocations" by North Korea. On closer inspection, Pyongyang has opted for rhetoric over actual military actions. While Kim Jong Un's pursuit of nuclear and missile capability remains worrisome, escalating signals of resolve could suggest nervousness as much as strength. So, is the regime in trouble?"

Will the Chinese Be Supreme? (Ian Johnson) from the New York Review of Books
"[China and Japan] are somewhat suddenly locked in their most sustained and bitter dispute since the war, one that doesn’t have an easy way out for either side. How all this has come to pass is drawn out in several important new books. ... at heart they share a common idea: China is burdened with historical baggage that makes its rise less linear than many imagine. By extension the authors imply that the current troubles aren’t inevitable and may be more manageable than some would believe."

The Apology Heard 'Round the World (Henri J. Barkey) from the National Interest
"The apology was as dramatic as the events that led to it: Netanyahu called Erdogan from an airport tarmac as President Obama looked on. U.S., Israeli and Turkish diplomats had been working on resolving the impasse for months..."

Egypt Becoming a Nightmare for Muslim Brothers (Zvi Mazel) from Real Clear World
"For the Muslim Brotherhood, the long awaited dream come true is turning into a nightmare. Having survived 80 years of persecution to achieve power democratically, they suddenly find themselves the focus of widespread popular hatred."

Economic Data Show That, at Last, (Many of) the Fundamentals Are Sound (Daniel Gross) from the Daily Beast
"It may be a dumb catchphrase, but Tuesday’s round of positive economic data—credit-card and mortgage delinquency down, auto sales and production up—is a sign the fundamentals are finally looking somewhat sound."

Sequestration Effects: Cuts Sting Communities Nationwide from the Huffington Post
"It's now an article of faith that dire sequestration warnings were overblown. ... This is a dramatic misunderstanding of what's actually happening. The grips of sequestration are just now beginning to be felt and the effects are already quite dramatic."

Germany Doesn't Get Much Sun. How Did It Become a Leader in Solar Energy? (Andrew Curry) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Germany’s little-guy suppliers are destabilizing big power companies. ... Solar panels line Germany's residential rooftops and top its low-slung barns. They sprout in orderly rows along train tracks and cover hills of coal mine tailings in what used to be East Germany. Old Soviet military bases, too polluted to use for anything else, have been turned into solar installations. Twenty-two percent of Germany's power is generated with renewables."

Obama Seeks to Shift Conservative Tilt of Key Court from the Washington Post
"President Obama has pressed senators from both parties in recent weeks to confirm a new federal judge for one of the country’s most powerful courts, using an aggressive strategy to campaign for a judicial nominee whom White House officials consider a potentially crucial figure in boosting the president’s second-term agenda. The effort reflects a new White House effort to tilt in its favor the conservative-dominated U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is one notch below the Supreme Court and considers many challenges to executive actions."

Obama's Trash-Talkers from Politico
"Twitter is aflame these days with high-ranking former Obama aides. Liberated from any official constraints, overflowing with opinions and no small measure of old resentments at political foes and the news media, they are letting the world know what they really think — and seemingly enjoying themselves no end while doing so."

The Really Early 2016 Line: Hillary, Biden Look Strong Over Potential GOP Field from the McClatchy News Service
"The 2016 presidential election is far off, but an early sign indicates that Republicans could face trouble if Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden becomes the Democratic nominee, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll."

Early Look At 2016 GOP Field Shows 5-Way Horse Race, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; New Jersey's Christie Has Just 14% from Quinnipiac University
"Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio gets 19 percent of Republican voters, with 17 percent for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, 15 percent for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and 10 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Other contenders are at 3 percent or less."
"Just 14%"?  Where does that only come from?  Given the right-wing thrashing Christie has taken since the middle of last year and that he wasn't even invited to speak at the CPAC conference, it's far more striking to me that he is anywhere near 14%.

13% of Americans Believe President Obama Is the Antichrist (Matt Berman) from the National Journal
"New polling shows just how many conspiracy theorists lurk among us—and what they believe."

Obama, Both Bushes, Clinton and Carter, the ‘World’s Most Exclusive Club,’ to Reunite (Zeke J Miller) from Time Magazine
"On April 25, President Barack Obama will be united with his four living predecessors in Dallas for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University, officials confirmed Tuesday. According to White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest, both Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be on hand when the 43rd President’s library and museum are dedicated. The last time all five met was in January 2009 before Obama was sworn in, in a meeting and lunch hosted by Bush in the Oval Office for the members of the “world’s most exclusive club.”"

HOPE-FOR-PAWS DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
Night Rescue: Perry from Hope-for-Paws via YouTube

HAPPINESS NUGGET!!
Getting Happier: Three Books on Happiness from the Los Angeles Review of Books
"I suddenly realized that happiness is not something to be taken for granted (I can hear you saying “duh!”). When I came to this blinding insight, my parenting aims turned on a dime. I also discovered that my wife had appreciated this all along, and that equipping our kids to be happy had always been part of her parenting agenda."

RADICAL POLITICS NUGGET!!
Exclusive: Bill Ayers On the Weathermen, Obama’s Crap Job & More (Marlow Stern) from the Daily Beast
"Robert Redford plays a member of the Weather Underground in ‘The Company You Keep’ The group’s real-life founder, Bill Ayers, tells Marlow Stern about its radical agenda, how we provoked North Korea, and more."

News Nuggets 1210

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT OBAMA PHOTO NUGGET!!
President Obama Consoling a Crying Child: A Story Told in Three Photos (Dan Amira) from New York Magazine
"A small child started crying after apparently losing at the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll today. President Obama was there to console him."

The Kim Who Cried Wolf (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"Kim Jong Un’s current desperation is a direct result of Barack Obama’s response to the traditional North Korean strategy of making threats in order to get the rest of the world to sit down at the table and negotiate, an offer that usually yields some concessions. But Obama’s response is not to respond at all. He’s calling the North Koreans’ bluff. It is a logical strategy, given past results: concessions achieved, the Koreans quit talking. If Obama’s strategy works, Kim’s only rational moves will be to back down and hide away, or back down and negotiate–on our terms. But he also has irrational options and, again, what if he doesn’t back down?"

My Hyperinflation Vacation (Graem Wood) from the Atlantic
"A trip to the Iranian resort island of Kish illuminates the pressures, limits, and strange consequences of economic sanctions."

Eurozone Unemployment Reaches Record High Of 12 Percent from the Huffington Post
"The eurozone economy has passed another bleak milestone. Official figures Tuesday showed that unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro has struck 12 percent for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999."

Will Obama’s Majority Survive? (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine 
"The Republican Party appears to be caught in a double bind, in which the electorate is growingly progressively less white, and even younger white voters hold less conservative views than older ones. What’s more, evidence suggests that voters maintain the partisan allegiances they form at a young age. The picture looks grim for the GOP."

Hillary Clinton’s First Test from Politico
"Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign begins this year in Virginia. She hasn’t said anything about 2016, but Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign is serving as a testing ground for Clinton’s clout, operatives and donors."

Democrats’ Prospects in 2014 Are Worth an Honest Debate (Stuart
Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"“It’s pretty rare that one can read an article, agree with just about every individual detail in the article, and yet disagree with the article completely.” And disagree he does, in a measured, detailed way, arguing that “microanalyses” invariably miss political waves and changes in voter sentiment. So here is my reaction to Singiser’s criticism: I completely agree with you, Steve."

Social Conservatives Fight Back (Jonathan Martin) from Politico
"Leading cultural conservatives, including the movement’s standard-bearers from the past two presidential campaigns, have had it with Republican elites faulting them for the party’s losses and are finally ready point a finger back at the establishment."

CULTURAL ICONS NUGGET!!
Lady Gaga Turned Down $1 Million to Perform During RNC from the Washington Examiner
"Not even a million dollars could convince Lady Gaga to perform during last summer's Republican National Convention. ... other entertainers also said "no thanks" to appearing at the GOP convention including Dolly Parton and the rapper Pitbull, who Republicans hoped to feature at an event for the Hispanic Leadership Network."
I find this kind of story irresistible -- because it raises so many questions about the mindset of convention organizers. I can completely get Parton being invited -- but LADY GAGA!? Why not Madonna? Or David Sedaris? Or Kim Kardashian? Or Cher?  Or any number of other cultural personalities who have spent their careers running from so-called "mainstream" American values?

SILENT ERA HOLLYWOOD NUGGET!!
Young Charlie Chaplin Photo Reveals He Used To Be A Total Babe (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"We could hardly recognize the dapper silent star without his fedora, cane and handy moustache. But we have to say the comedian is quite the hunk. Thank you, Buzzfeed, for showing us our new favorite (posthumous) heartthrob."

News Nuggets 1209

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Kyrgyz Yurt (traditional portable hut) in Afghanistan.  From National Geographic.

CONSERVATIVE PUNDIT NUGGET!!
Time to Get Serious (John Podhoretz) from Commentary Magazine
"To paraphrase Sun Tzu, you need to know your political antagonist if you are to prevail against him—and you need to know yourself. The truth is that Barack Obama and his liberal followers have been doing very serious work over the past four years, and the same cannot be said, alas, of far too many people who oppose them."
Podhoretz, one of the most partisan ideologues on the right, reveals a lot about the conservative mindset regarding Obama and (I think rightly) diagnoses one of the major errors Republicans have made: underestimating and even dismissing Obama.  They made the same mistake with Clinton back in the 1990s.  It is just one more problem the GOP faces by relying on the conservative media machine: it has tended to overemphasize or give too much volume to those who view Obama (and the Democrats generally) with contempt.  This, in turn, has led too many conservative political operatives and activists to overestimate Obama's weakness and underestimate how politically savvy he really is.  Even in this piece, however, Podhoretz swims freely in the ocean of right-wing dark fantasies. As with Clinton back in the 1990s, it will take a full six years if not longer for the GOP to even begin to appreciate Obama's political skills.

Ex-Reagan Budget Director: George W. Bush's Policies Bankrupt The Country from the Huffington Post
"A former adviser of Ronald Reagan has some choice words for George W. Bush. David Stockman, Reagan’s budget director from 1981 to 1985, slammed Bush and his former boss in an op-ed in The New York Times Sunday. Stockman argued in the piece that Reagan’s view on the deficit “created a template for the Republicans’ utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin Coolidge.”"

Lessons From a Comeback (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"...reports of the state’s demise proved premature. Unemployment in California remains high, but it’s coming down — and there’s a projected budget surplus, in part because the implosion of the state’s Republican Party finally gave Democrats a big enough political advantage to push through some desperately needed tax increases. Far from presiding over a Greek-style crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown is proclaiming a comeback. Needless to say, the usual suspects are still predicting doom..."

Three Days that Saved the World Financial System (Neil Irwin) from the Washington Post
"In only 15 minutes, the Dow Jones industrial average had fallen about 1,000 points, razing the stock prices of some of America’s biggest companies to a single penny. It would later be known as the “flash crash” and would be chalked up to strange technical factors. But in the heat of the moment, it flashed a different sort of danger. To the leaders of the European Central Bank who made up the Governing Council, who that very day had dismissed risks to their financial system, the crash seemed a striking referendum on what they had done — or rather, not done."

Stuffy Old Men: Region, Religion, Race and Class Define and Buffet GOP (Lloyd Green) from the Daily Beast
"The once-Republican Solid South is starting to look like a blue-and-red checkerboard, writes Lloyd Green."

Why Conservatives Hate College (Neil Gross) from Salon
"The right's decades-long war on academia and "liberal professors" is about defining an elite "populists" can oppose."

The New, Nicer Anti-gay Marriage Debate (Alex Pareene) from Salon
"Ross Douthat tries his best, but the arguments for "traditional" marriage aren't getting any better."

Will the GOP’s Plan to Fight Obamacare in the States Backfire? (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"The question, though, is whether governors who purposefully do a very bad job implementing Obamacare will hurt the law, or just themselves and their states. Call it the California v. Texas question."

How Immigration Reform is Scrambling American Politics (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"Since the beginning of the Obama era, Republicans have seen big, bipartisan legislative victories for the Obama administration as defeats for the Republican Party. ... The rules of politics are designed such that it’s not in the interest of the minority party to work with the majority party. There are moments when countervailing forces — be they public opinion or policy desires — can overcome the basic zero-sum nature of politics. But they’re increasingly rare."

Healthcare an Obstacle as Republicans Court Latinos from the Los Angeles Times
"As GOP members of Congress seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they risk undermining outreach efforts among the law's biggest supporters."

Opinion: No Sign of a Break to Washington’s Dismal Deadlock (Juan Williams) from The Hill
"Senate Democrats have offered a revealing peek at how they plan to keep their majority in place in 2014."

Americans' Top Critique of GOP: "Unwilling to Compromise" (Lydia Saad) from Gallup
"As Republican leaders openly scrutinize their party after a 2012 election that was disappointing for them, rank-and-file Republicans, independents, and Democrats voice the same primary criticism of the GOP: it is "too inflexible" or "unwilling to compromise." When asked to say what they most dislike about the Republican Party, 26% of Republicans, 17% of independents, and 22% of Democrats offer this critique -- leading all other mentions."

BIG BUNNY NUGGET!!
The Ultimate Easter Bunny: Heavyweight Ralph Weighs 3st 8lbs (that's Heavier than an Average Three-year-old Child) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"He eats a diet of cabbage, broccoli, corn on the cob, sweetcorn, half a cucumber, a carrot, half a bag of watercress, two sweet apples, two slices of brown bread and Weetabix with cream crackers EVERY single day.""