News Nuggets 608

This surprisingly beautiful creature is an ornate day gecko of Mauritius, an island country east of Madagascar.  From National Geographic.

How US Intends to End War with Taliban (Ahmed Rashid) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"After more than two years of internal disputes and rivalries, the Obama administration is for the first time united on stepping up its secret talks with the Taliban. It also wants to start wider talks with regional countries such as Pakistan, which hold the key to a peaceful settlement as the US and Nato prepare to pull out their troops by 2014."

Time to Up the Ante on Egypt (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"We should spend less on Afghanistan and more on Egypt."

A two-fer from Ignatius today:
Syria’s Assad, Caught Between Reform and Repression (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"With his regime hanging by a thread, Syria’s President Bashar Assad faces two interlocking challenges this week that will determine his political fate: He must somehow calm the centers of protest, and he must convince the public that he means what he promised about reform."
Not going to happen.  I am coming to the view that Assad himself is not fully in charge right now, that hard-liners are increasingly directing events.   I suspect that the manic quality of the gov't's actions reflects an increasingly split Ba'ath Party leadership.

A Day After Crackdown in Syria, Activists Regroup (Anthony Shadid) from the New York Times
"A day after the Syrian regime crushed one of the biggest demonstrations yet by protesters in Homs, a cautious calm fell over the city Wednesday as activists prepared for demonstrations on Friday."

Inside Iran: the Art of Resistance (Jason Rezaian) from the Global Post
"With street demonstrations in Iran effectively crushed, music, photography and painting are now a leading way to express a desire for change."

NSC Security Advisor Samantha Power and Her Subjects (Jacob Heilbrunn) from the National Interest
"Today this Wilsonian doctrine is sold as a form of atonement for past wrongdoings—that, unless we intervene decisively in what is often a civil war to tip the balance of the scales to one side, America will once again have blood on its hands. Never again, in other words, will become ever again. IT WOULD be hard to think of a more ardent promoter of this doctrine than Samantha Power."

Cape Wind, First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm, Building Plan Approved from the Associated Press via Huffington Post
"A federal agency approved a construction and operations plan for the Cape Wind project off the Massachusetts coast, clearing the way for work to begin on America's first offshore wind farm as early as this fall, U.S. Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar announced Tuesday."

The GOP's Budget Backfire (Kirsten Powers) from the Daily Beast
"Not only are Republicans wasting time with the Paul Ryan proposal, their cynical gambit on the even more drastic House Republican Study Committee came back to bite them. They may be under pressure to keep campaign promises about balancing the budget—but they're running a huge risk of electoral disaster with their overreach."

The Decade the GOP Hopes You've Forgotten (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"If this anti-tax adamance -- and the dire warnings of what life in a post-tax hike America would look like -- sounds familiar, it's for good reason. Republicans issued the exact same warnings the last time a president proposed addressing exploding deficits (in part) through tax increases on the wealthy. This was back in 1993..."

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

In WI, What Prosser's Victory Means for the Recall Elections (Sean Trende) from RealClearPolitics
"Wisconsin clearly remains a bright "purple" state. This reality has significant implications for the upcoming recall elections, which we can now examine in more detail..."

Here's an up-date:
Four Wisconsin Recall Petitions Filed, Control of State Senate Now a Toss-Up (Chris Bowers) from Daily Kos
"Four recall petitions have now been filed against Republican state Senators in Wisconsin: Dan Kapanke (April 1), Randy Hopper (April 7), Luther Olsen (April 18), and Sheila Harsdorf (April 19, today). The petitions will likely all be challenged by the Senators against whom they were filed, but given that the petitions all exceeded 140% of the minimum amount required and were closely examined before being submitted, all the challenges will fail."
I think Trende is closer to the mark here in arguing that actually REPLACING the GOP lawmakers will be very hard to pull off.

The GOP’s Donald Trump Birther Problem is of its Own Making (Adam Serwer) from the Washington Post
"The GOP’s elite anti-birther backlash against Trump is now in full swing, as Trump rises in the polls and everyone tries to figure out whether his candidacy is legitimate or Andy Kaufman-esque political performance art. George Will is warning that Trump could “make a shambles of the Republican debate just by being there,” while Charles Krauthammer proclaimed that Trump is the GOP’s Al Sharpton."

The Right's First Trump Attack (Lloyd Grove) from the Daily Beast
"The Club for Growth came out swinging at the Donald, casting him a liberal big-spender. Lloyd Grove talks to Trump about why he’s drawing fire—and how he doesn’t know who his assailant is."

Trump did NOT help himself with this vacuous response he gave on MSNBC concerning the "Right-to-Privacy"'s link to Roe v. Wade:
Pro-Lifers: Donald Trump Doesn't Understand How Pro-Life Works (VIDEO) from Talking Points Memo
"Trump apparently thinks he can split the difference, and appeared to have no understanding of the connection between the view of a right to privacy and the abortion debate. "I guess there is, I guess there is," Trump said when Guthrie asked if there's a Constitutional right to privacy. "And why, just out of curiosity, why do you ask that question?" Guthrie informed him of the connection to abortion, but Trump seemed surprised that the two went together...  The pro-life establishment was not impressed."
New York City, let me introduce you to Kansas.  Kansas, this is New York City.  There is SO much about Trump that won't translate to the rest of the country.  This is only the beginning.

Huntsman: He Worked for Obama. Can He Beat Him? (Jeff Zeleny) from the New York Times
"On paper, given his affiliation with Mr. Obama, Mr. Huntsman would seem to be facing a tough time in a primary where anti-Obama sentiment is expected to run high. But in a crowded field, with many Republicans signaling dissatisfaction with the candidates thus far, his supporters hope he could get beyond short-term challenges with a long-term pitch of electability."
He has nothing to lose by throwing his hat in.

BLOGGER PROFILE NUGGET!!
Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders (Fred Bernstein) from Out Magazine
"With his provocative columns and scathing political commentary, the journalist has never shied away from controversy. We step into his complicated world."
I routinely find Greenwald to be annoying -- but there is no denying that he is one of the most brilliant, encyclopedic, and prolific bloggers out there.  In many ways, he has become the conscience of the progressive blogosphere, constantly reminding liberals (and everyone else) where we are not being true to what we profess.

HISTORICAL CRIME NUGGET!!
FBI Dossier Reveals Chilling Profile of Jack the Ripper... Shame It was Released 100 Years Too Late from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"A secret FBI dossier, which has just been declassified and made public, reveals how one of its acclaimed secret agents - and a pioneer of criminal profiling - attempted in vain to unmask the serial killer."

News Nuggets 607

Old dock posts and fish at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia.  From National Geographic.  

In Afghanistan’s South, Signs of Progress in Three Districts Signal a Shift (Rajiv Chandrasekaran) from the Washington Post
"Those indications of progress are among a mosaic of developments that point to a profound shift across a swath of Afghanistan that has been the focus of the American-led military campaign: For the first time since the war began nearly a decade ago, the Taliban is commencing a summer fighting season with less control and influence of territory in the south than it had the previous year."
This long-form item is from the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, a withering description of Bush's civilian reconstruction efforts in Iraq.  He is one of the most wide-awake commentators on the Middle-eastern and South Asian scenes out there.  All I can say about this article is "THIS is progress?!"

The War In Afghanistan: How Much Are You Paying? (Amanda Terkel) from the Huffington Post
"The group, a project of the Brave New Foundation, has created a Cost of War calculator, allowing Americans to figure out how much of their tax dollars are going toward the war, based on their income and filing status."

Syrian Security Forces Open Fire On Rally from NPR's Morning Edition
"The Syrian government's crackdown against demonstrators hasn't deterred them from taking to the streets. There are reports that security forces have fired on a large protest in the country's third-largest city Homs. Philip Sands, of The National, and English-language newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates, talks to Renee Montagne about the protests."

Republican Horror Movie Sequel Hits Theaters (Jonathan Alter) from Bloomberg News Service
"Republicans jumped all over President Barack Obama’s budget speech at George Washington University as political, and they are absolutely right. It was the old Obama, the one who changed history in 2008, and he is back on his game, both thematically and tactically. The domestic debate now is much clearer and the takeaway for Republicans is out of a horror movie: Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Budget Mulligan Puts Obama in Game (John E. Sununu) from the Boston Globe
"... the recent battle to settle 2011 spending levels demonstrated that there is an effective process for future negotiations. It’s nice to have this debate off the table, but even more valuable is the working relationship that has been established by Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Set aside partisan perspectives for a moment. This was a tough, complex negotiation where Reid and Boehner represented their members’ interests with determination. Both parties gave something and, arguably, got something. ... Each walked away with even stronger support within his own caucus, a better understanding of his counterpart, and credibility with one another."
A surprisingly fair and candid assessment from the usually partisan Mr. Sununu.

Today's (Needless) Hysteria: the S&P Panic (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"I know that markets run on fear, greed, instinct, and panic as much as on logic. But seriously, how could this non-story have dominated the news today?"

How Nancy Pelosi Can Save The Day, And Regain Power, In Debt Ceiling Fight from Talking Points Memo
"That's where Boehner would get stuck. He knows the debt limit needs to be lifted. He knows that to get a debt limit bill through the Senate, he needs Democratic buy in. And if Pelosi and her leadership team keep Democrats aligned, he knows that means ditching just about all the concessions Republicans want. Boehner would thus be forced to lift the debt ceiling on Pelosi's terms."

Postcard From New Hampshire: Angry Republicans, Eager Candidates (Michael Crowley) from Time Magazine
"“This is a bipartisan restaurant!” she pleaded.) The couple eventually stormed out of the room. “Low-lifes is what you are,” the fuming man declared on his way out. Welcome to New Hampshire, where conservatives are mad as hell and looking for a presidential candidate who can channel it–and beat Barack Obama in 2012. ... The overall picture is one of a restless Republican base that sees defeating Obama as a matter of national survival."
Crowley presents an interesting portrait of the Tea Party movement right now -- if you are part of the establishment GOP, you can only cringe over where these folks will ultimately land in the various nominating processes coming up for 2012.

SC Tea Party Rally a Dud from Fitnews
"Politicians, political operatives and members of the media came close to outnumbering attendees at a much-hyped Columbia, S.C. Tea Party rally starring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday."
More evidence of the declining cohesion of the Tea Party movement at the grassroots level.  See a similar phenomena in Nevada HERE.

Gov. Scott Walker Reportedly Planning Financial Martial Law In Wisconsin (Rick unger) from Forbes
"Reports are surfacing that Scott Walker is now preparing his next assault on the democratic political process in the State of Wisconsin."

Ex-Iraq Commander May Throw Hat in Texas Senate Race from the McClatchy News Service via the Bradenton Herald [of FL]
"Democrats appear to have recruited retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas, setting the stage for a potentially competitive race in 2012 for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison."
While Sanchez has been linked with the Abu Ghraib scandal, I will have to say that I have heard him speak, and he can be quite compelling.  Potentially, he could be a good fit for the Texas electorate.

Wisconsin Recall: Organizers Over 110% of Minimum Signatures Against Third GOP State Senator (Chris Bowers) from Daily Kos
"Those gathering signatures to force incumbent State Senator Sheila Harsdorf into a recall election in June have indicated they have collected more than the 15,000-plus signatures needed.(…)"

The Donald Thinks the GOP is Stupid (Roger Simon) from Politico
"According to the hot, new theory, Trump does not really buy into the nonsense of birtherism, and once he has established himself with Republican regulars, he will abandon it, announcing that his investigators could find no proof that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of this country."
There is a part of me that would love for this to be true.  What a perfect antidote for the over-hyped, content-less, celebrity politics of our time, where voters live in wholly fabricated realities.

Why Trump Soars (David Brooks) from the New York Times
"But he is actually riding a deep public fantasy: The hunger for the ultimate blowhard who can lead us through dark times. He is riding something else: The strongest and most subversive ideology in America today. Donald Trump is the living, walking personification of the Gospel of Success."

Krauthammer Doubles Down on the ‘Trump is the GOP’s Al Sharpton’ Claim from the Daily Caller
"It turns out that George Will isn’t the only conservative who isn’t impressed with the Donald’s effort to pump himself up for the White House. On last weekend’s broadcast of the syndicated weekend public affairs program “Inside Washington,” columnist Charles Krauthammer called Donald Trump the “Al Sharpton” of the GOP presidential primary contest and he elaborated on that claim."

WATERGATE HISTORY NUGGET!!
Watergate's 'Last Chapter' from Politico
"The museum’s display on Watergate quoted a book accusing Bob Woodward of “offering bribes” to get scoops. The library director made his own views plain: “I don’t think we’d ever open the doors to Bob Woodward. He’s not a responsible journalist.” On Monday evening, the library did indeed open its doors to Woodward and his old boss, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee. They flew in to see a new Watergate exhibit—one that aims at last to tell the story dispassionately and portrays the journalists as truth-seekers."

News Nuggets 606

 An amazing image of Obama and others looking up at the Christ the Redeemer statue at the peak of Corcovado Mountain during the Obama's recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  From the White House.

Libya's Only Part of Mideast Equation from the Los Angeles Times
"Four other countries should matter more to the U.S. The revolutions or protests in Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain will affect democracy in the region, the Shiite-Sunni balance of power and the fight against terrorism."

U.S. Secretly Backed Syrian Opposition Groups, Cables Released by WikiLeaks Show from the Washington Post
"The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables."
The release of this information is bad news for the Syrian protesters.  One of Assad's few claims to legitimacy in Syria is his opposition to Israel and the US -- he will now be able to claim (seemingly with some basis in reality) that the protests are a US/CIA-inspired plot.  He will be under increased pressure now to crush the protests with whatever violence is required. 

Talking 21st Century Statecraft from The Diplomat
"Thom Woodroofe speaks with one of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top advisers about e-diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific."

Arab Spring a mixed blessing for Iran and Turkey (Omer Taspinar) from Today's Zamen [of Turkey in English]
"Which regional power benefits the most from the revolutionary democratic change taking place in the Arab world: Iran or Turkey? This question is sometimes posed in reference to the two countries’ very different political systems providing two very different models for the Arab Spring in the region."

China's Military Gets Expeditionary (Gabe Collins) from The Diplomat
"In the fifth in our series on understanding Asia-Pacific sea power, we look at the PLA’s growing expeditionary capabilities and its greater implications."

Al-Jazeera Has Fans in Obama W.H. from Politico
"In the halls of American power, the Arab Spring has brought Al-Jazeera in from the cold. Seven years after then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the broadcaster’s reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” and President George W. Bush joked about bombing it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised it as “real news” in her recent Senate testimony. Not only that, her staffers, as well as those of the CIA and the Obama White House, were attending the Congressional Correspondents’ Dinner as Al-Jazeera’s guests. "
Yes -- the Bush folks ignored Al Jazeera, and it SHOWED. One only needs to recall the pathetic, heavy-handed PR efforts of Karen Hughes to see how insulated from Arab public opinion they all were back then.  In the early weeks of the "Arab Spring" moreover, US cable news channels were so remote from what was happening, who else was there but Al Jazeera -- who was actually doing an *excellent* job of covering one of the most important stories of our time.

Iran Accuses Siemens Over Stuxnet Virus Attack from Reuters News Service
"An Iranian military commander has accused German engineering company Siemens of helping the United States and Israel launch a cyber attack on its nuclear facilities, Kayhan daily reported on Sunday."

Obama: From Wimp to Winner (Andrew Romano) from the Daily Beast
"Obama outmaneuvers his opponents—and his allies—every time. In this week's Newsweek, Andrew Romano looks at how the president's pragmatism gets results."

On Climate Change, the GOP is Lost in Never-Never Land (Fred Hiatt) from the Washington Post
"The Republican self-deception that draws the most attention is the refusal to believe that Barack Obama is American-born. But there are Republican doctrinal fantasies that may be more dangerous: the conviction that taxes can always go down, but never up, for example, and the gathering consensus among Republican leaders that human-caused climate change does not exist."

America’s Elites Have a Duty to the Rest of Us (E.J. Dionne)from the Washington Post
"At other moments in our history, the informal networks of the wealthy and powerful who often wield at least as much influence as our elected politicians accepted that their good fortune imposed an obligation: to reform and thus preserve the system that allowed them to do so well. They advocated social decency out of self-interest (reasonably fair societies are more stable) but also from an old-fashioned sense of civic duty. “Noblesse oblige” sounds bad until it doesn’t exist anymore."

House First-quarter Fundraising Winners and Losers from Politico
"For several House GOP first-termers and relative political newcomers who were swept into office in November, the first fundraising quarter was an opportunity to prove they have political strength in districts that typically favor Democrats. That didn’t happen."
You can bet Nancy Pelosi is paying close attention to this dynamic as she and the House Dems look to take back the House next year.

As Reelection Push Begins, a Report Card on Obama's Political Challenges (Marc Ambinder) from the National Journal
"Despite high marks for likability, he remains undefined for many voters."
I think Ambinder (like many pundits) misses a key element here: the US has gone through three years of profound economic hardship, foreign and domestic politics has been in upheaval, and Americans have rarely been more bitterly divided on the fundamental issues of the day.  And YET, his report card has 3 As, 3 Bs, and 2 Cs!

The Mission: Mitt Romney’s Strategies for Success (Ryan Lizza) from the New Yorker
A long profile of the Romney campaign.
"Romney is a passionate advocate of each new stance he takes."

What’s Donald Trump Really After? from Politico
"Trump is making the “types of moves that one makes if they’re actually running,” said one top Republican consultant familiar with his efforts."

Top Ten Reasons Why Sarah Palin is Running For President (Tony Lee) from Human Events
"...conventional wisdom holds that Palin is setting herself up to be an entertainer, a conservative money maker, or a right-wing flame thrower who seeks only to rouse up the conservative base and get rich quick off of it. If those who proffer these theories had listened to and read her words closely, they would know that Palin has been telling everyone that she is running for president in 2012. Here are ten reasons why."
Now, I don't buy Lee's argument here.  I don't think Palin plans to run -- but the prospect of The Donald AND Sarah trying for the nomination is too rich a scenario not to at least contemplate -- if for no other reason than for the laugh factor!  You could envision primary debates where Romney would be the only remotely sane person on the stage!

RELIGION NUGGET!!
Will the Last Person to Leave the Church of England Please Turn Out the Lights (Adrian Hamilton) from the Independent [of the UK]
"The Church of England is an institution in decline, with fewer worshippers than ever and dissent in its ranks. Could salvation come in the form of severing its ties with the State?"

BRITISH COLONIAL HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Endgames of our Empire Never Quite Finished – Just Look at Bahrain (Madeleine Bunting) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The discovery of the Mau Mau boxes reveals a lot more about the British government than just archival mismanagement."

ANCIENT ROME NUGGET!!
Tyrannical Roman Emperor's Home Reconstructed (PICTURES) from Discovery News
"Nero left behind a legacy of bloody terror, but he had a stunning palace, which tourists can now view virtually."

RICHARD NIXON NUGGET!!
Diminishing Nixon (Marvin Kalb) from the National Interest
"Unlike most other presidents, Richard Nixon seems never able to rest in peace. Apparently, not even at the Nixon Library."

News Nuggets 605

The Hang En Cave in Vietnam.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT LOCAL ENVIRONMENT NUGGET!!
Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells, Report Says from New York Times
"Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats."

Libyan Rebels Say They’re Being Sent Weapons from the New York Times
"The rebel military leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes, said Saturday in an interview with Al Arabiya, a satellite news channel, that his forces had received weapons supplies from unidentified nations that supported their uprising. ... Asked whether any arms shipments had arrived yet, a spokesman for the rebel military, Col. Ahmed Bani, smiled broadly, but then insisted, “I didn’t quite confirm it.”"

Khyber Impasse (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"How long can the United States and Pakistan keep pretending that they actually have any interests in common?

NATO Back in the Saddle (James Joyner) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"How Libya helped NATO get its groove back."

U.S. and Allies Seek Possible Refuge for Qaddafi from the New York Times
"The Obama administration has begun seeking a country, most likely in Africa, that might be willing to provide shelter to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi if he were forced out of Libya, even as a new wave of intelligence reports suggest that no rebel leader has emerged as a credible successor to the Libyan dictator.

As Inmates 23 and 24, Stunned Mubaraks Adjust from the New York Times
"Gamal Mubarak, a prince of the political scene, now prisoner No. 23, and his older brother, Alaa, leader among the business elite, prisoner No. 24; the prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, a patrician man who once said Egyptians were not ready for democracy; ... They make docile inmates, their captors say, still stunned to find themselves behind bars."
When you stop and think about it, this is QUITE remarkable.  It is actually very rare that the core people of a dictatorship are EVER held to account.  And yet, here you have the core people in the docket in a matter of weeks after having been overthrown.  AMAZING!

The Power of Mockery (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"The juiciest story behind the Middle East uprisings doesn’t concern Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse or C.I.A. bags of cash. Rather, it’s the tale of how a nonviolent revolutionary strategy crafted by Serbian students and an octogenarian American scholar came to challenge dictators in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and many other countries. This “uprising in a bottle” blueprint was developed by the Serbian youth movement, Otpor, to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. One of Otpor’s insights was that the most effective weapon against dictators isn’t bombs or fiery speeches. It’s mockery."

Is Obama a Centrist? (David Rothkop) from Foreign Policy Magazine
An interesting - and I suspect on-the-money assessment of the intersection of Obama's values and actions.
"Personally, I think Obama is a liberal at heart (his writings and record before becoming president suggest this) who is also profoundly pragmatic. (Just like I think Boehner is a conservative at heart who is also profoundly pragmatic.) Pragmatism may sound cheap and valueless, but compared to inaction in the face of urgent issues it's not so bad. Many of Obama's policy choices are compromises. Some are between him and the right, some are between him and the hawks in his administration, some are between him and our European allies, some are between him and the left and no doubt many are between him and his conscience or his own aspirations. This makes idealists crazy because they feel like he should fall on his sword and bleed to death for the purest expression of the most extreme form of his values..."

Think Again: Education (Ben Wildavsky) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Relax, America. Chinese math whizzes and Indian engineers aren't stealing your kids' future."

In Senate, 2012 Federal Budget Drama Could Take Bipartisan Turn from the Christian Science Monitor
"The House passed its federal budget bill Friday on a near party-line vote, but both the Senate and the president are working hard to forge a bipartisan alternative."

With Obama's Speech, Momentum Gathering to Cut Defense Spending from the Christian Science Monitor
"Like Medicare and Social Security, cutting defense spending has been something of a 'do not enter' zone for many lawmakers. But that may be changing."
I hope so.  Along with raising taxes, it has become a litmus test for me in the "measure of seriousness" department.

How Obama Seized the Political High Ground in Budget War (Robert Creamer) from the Huffington Post
"ith his speech yesterday, President Obama seized the high political ground in the budget war that will heavily define his second two years in office. Four factors have changed the political equation."

Why Democrats Could Take Back the House in 2012 (Adam Abramowitz) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"... there are three reasons to believe that Democrats have a decent chance of taking back control of the House in 2012."

So far I a have been giving only passing attention to the News Corps scandal that has been brewing.  But the scandal just seems to be getting bigger. I hope/wonder if Murdoch himself is implicated?
91 Victims and Rising: Met Police Admits Scale of Phone Hacking from the Guardian [of the UK]
"High court proposes four test case hearings as Sienna Miller offered £100,000 to settle."

Maine's Madman Governor Paul LePage Strikes Again (Colin Woodard) from the Daily Beast
"Just 100 days into Gov. Paul LePage’s Tea Party-fueled administration, his fellow Republicans are fighting back, defeating his push to bring back toxic baby bottles. Now Maine faces a choice between the Republicanism of moderate Olympia Snowe or the more bellicose LePage, reports Colin Woodard."

Trump's Tea Party Triumph (Jim DeFede) from the Daily Beast
"The Donald, suddenly riding high in the 2012 polls, drew rave reviews at a Tea rally in Boca Raton. ... Trump's plan: Tell those world leaders that they have to do what the United States wants for now on. In Iraq, Trump said, "we should just take all the oil," adding "to the victor goes the spoils." The same philosophy goes for China and Saudi Arabia and Japan and Europe. With Trump as president, he will tell them all to jump, and all they get to say in return is, "How high?""
Breath-taking.   THESE are the people who will determine who will be the GOP nominee.  Absolutely breath-taking.

News Nuggets 604

One of many stunning photographs using a special flash taken at depths of more than 7,000 ft off of Hawaii.  See the Undersea Creatures Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT MILITARY SPENDING NUGGET!!
How to Save a Trillion Dollars? Start with Defense (Mark Thompson) from Time Magazine
A really good, readable, relatively brief overview of the military spending issue! Another good primer on the defense budget.  Yesterday we posted an excellent critique of the defense budget done by the Pentagon itself and covered in Foreign Policy Magazine.  These two together are must-reads!
"Aircraft carriers, born in the years before World War II, are increasingly obsolete platforms of war. They feature expensive manned aircraft in an age when budgets are being squeezed and less expensive drones are taking over. While the U.S. and its allies flew hundreds of attack missions against targets in coastal Libya last month, cruise missiles delivered much of the punch, and U.S. carriers were notable only for their absence. Yet the Navy, backed by the Pentagon and Congress, continues to churn them out as if it were still 1942."

Hooray! The Yanks are Going Home (Philip Stephens) from the Financial Times [of the UK]
"The harsh truth, though, is that Europe needs shock treatment. As long as they are nestling comfortably under the US security umbrella, Europeans will continue to inhabit a postmodern utopia in which the only thing to do with defence spending is to cut it and the only power worth talking about is of a distinctly soft variety."

The New Cold War from the Wall Street Journal
"There has long been bad blood between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but popular protests across the Middle East now threaten to turn the rivalry into a tense and dangerous regional divide."

US-Brazil Relations: Something Real, for a Change (Walter Russell Mead) from the American Interest
"Spurious “breakthroughs,” vacuous discussions of “chemistry,” “strategic partnerships”: the Preacher said it best in Ecclesiastes.  It is striving after wind and a weariness of the flesh. But every now and then something actually happens, and even a summit meeting can register a real change in relations between countries. Something like this happened when Edward VII visited France in 1903, and it happened again during President Obama’s recent visit to Brazil.  The relationship between the two countries is changing in truly momentous ways, and while the visit didn’t cause these changes (which have been gathering force for twenty years), it did help crystallize perceptions."

Wall Street Presses Republicans to Reach a Deal on Debt Ceiling from the Wall Street Journal
"During a recent series of meetings and fund-raisers, top Wall Street executives and lobbyists have urged Republicans to resolve the debt-ceiling debate quickly or risk turmoil in the bond market."
The Tea Partiers who are wagging the GOP dog right now COULDN'T CARE LESS about these Wall Streeters!

On Raising Taxes, 'Safe to Go Back Into the Water?' (Jim Tankersley) from the National Journal
"Tax increases have long been political shark bait. Obama's might not be."

A Tax Day Special—The U.S. is a Low-Tax Country from AmericaBlog
"From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a few charts to comfort you on Tax Day."

The Triumph of Taxophobia: First Principles: Arguing the Economy (Jonathan Chait) from the New Republic
"The conservative movement’s embrace of taxophobia is probably the most important development in American political life over the last three decades. It is the one quality that most distinguishes American conservative elites from conservative elites in other countries. They’re more likely to question climate science, more sanguine about people dying for lack of health insurance, and less xenophobic (which is rather nice). But above all—far above all—they hate taxes. Taxophobia has spawned an epistemology of its own and has completely reshaped the landscape of American politics."

Right Doesn't Make Might for Boehner from Politico
"Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) keeps running smack into an uncomfortable truth: his large Republican majority hardly gives him a mandate to govern in divided Washington. A sizable bloc of 59 Republicans ditched his landmark budget deal Thursday, leaving Boehner in need of Democratic votes to drag the bill over the finish line – most of them rounded up by Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland."

House GOP Takes Another Look at Clean-Air Regulations from the National Journal
Some really good environmental nuggets under this rather predictable headline.  It is because of critical "below-the-fold" issues like this that it MAKES A DIFFERENCE who is in the White House.
"Putting to rest almost a dozen Clean Air Act violations, the federally run TVA announced that it will shutter 18 of its oldest coal-fired boilers at its 11 coal-fired power plants—one of which will also close. The units make up 16 percent of its coal-fired fleet. ... The settlement represents the “largest coal retirement commitment in the history of EPA’s national enforcement initiative,” according to the regulatory agency."

Pouty Republicans Mad at Partisan Obama (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Outplayed by the president, Boehner can't get GOP votes for the budget. Next up: Paul Ryan's plan to kill Medicare."

GOP Freshmen Revolt Picks Up Steam (David Frum) from FrumForum
"Over the course of the budget battles of the last few months, a growing group of freshmen have begun to lead a revolt against Republican leadership."

The Cook Report: Trump’s a Joke (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"Legitimate presidential candidates are at risk of being marginalized by a publicity-hungry reality-show host."

Obama: Donald Trump's Birth Certificate Talk Helps Me (James Oliphant) from the Los Angeles Times
“I think that over the last two and a half years there's been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short-term for Republicans, but creates, I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in a general election where most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii. He doesn't have horns,” Obama said in the ABC interview."

Supporting Obama's view is this item:
Poll: Trump takes the lead from Public Policy Polling
"Only 38% of Republican primary voters say they're willing to support a candidate for President next year who firmly rejects the birther theory and those folks want Mitt Romney to be their nominee for President next year."
**Thirty-eight percent!!**  WOW!! From the time of the McCain campaign in '08 when GOPers began putting it out there that Obama was a Muslim, a terrorist, etc., establishment Republicans chose with few exceptions to say nothing.  Some even cynically upheld these and other rumors, believing firmly I think that it would only undercut Obama's legitimacy.  Having fed this monster for three years now, it finally turns out that the beast is going to EAT THE GOP instead.  Pretty cosmic!

Romney Rides Again (David Bernstein) from the Boston Phoenix
"To win the GOP nomination, Mitt will need to do things differently this time. Here's how."

Poll: Floridians Have Strong Buyers Remorse After Electing GOP Gov. Scott from TalkingPointsMemo
"Only three months removed from Governor Rick Scott's (R) inauguration, a majority of Florida voters now say the state is headed in the wrong direction and that, if they could do it all over again, they wouldn't have elected Scott in the first place, according to a new Suffolk University poll."

Jon Huntsman: The Only Cool Republican? (McKay Coppins) from the Daily Beast
"Jon Huntsman is finishing up as Obama's ambassador to China, but his supporters are already crafting his "hip" persona—his motorcycle, cover band, youthful indiscretions. McKay Coppins on whether it'll be enough in 2012 to win Huntsman crucial under-40 voters, who swarmed to Obama in 2008."

Bill Clinton Recalls "Romantic" Days of Prostitutes in Times Square from NBC New York
"Former President Bill Clinton fondly remembers a "romantic" time when you could still get a prostitute in Times Square."
Ah -- OUR BILL!!  I don't know that he'll ever quite fit the traditional mold of the respected elder statesman ex-President!

ANCIENT LANGUAGE NUGGET!!
Phonetic Clues Hint Language Is Africa-Born from the New York Times
"A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa as the place where modern human language originated."

DINOSAUR NUGGET!!
That's Not a Dinosaur! from the Wall Street Journal
"As new fossils and research accumulate, scientific reality is increasingly at odds with popular images of the great creatures."

UNDERSEA CREATURES NUGGET!!
Colorful Creatures: Amazing 'X-ray Style' Images of Ocean Dwellers at Night (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"This incredible set of photographs reveal capture some of the sea's inhabitants in a way you have never seen before. The stunning pictures, taken off the coast of Hawaii, were taken in the dead of night with a special flash to give a wonderful display of colours."

News Nuggets 603

East Antarctica’s ice-covered Lake Untersee is home to bacteria mounds of stromatolites like those present during the earliest times of life on Earth. See the Antarctic Nugget below.  From Discovery News.

U.S. Public Diplomacy and the Arab Uprisings (Marc Lynch) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"It's easy to point to the problems with American public diplomacy, and I'll do that at the end of this post.  But first, I would point to three areas where the administration can claim some real vindication in its approach to engagement with the Muslim world."
The more I read of Lynch's columns at Foreign Policy Magazine, the more  impressed I am with his grasp of the Middle Eastern situation in all its complexity.

U.S., Allies Raise Ante on Ouster of Gadhafi from the Wall Street Journal
"The leaders of the U.S., France and the U.K. said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization must continue operations in Libya until Col. Moammar Gadhafi leaves power, raising the stakes in the showdown with the Libyan ruler."

While the Saudi Elite Looks Nervously Abroad, a Revolution is Happening (Soumaya Ghannoushi) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The gap between the Saudi regime's conservative ideology and modern urban reality has fed discontent across society."

The (Geo)politics Behind Europe's Libya Split (Luis Simón Navarro) from European Voice
"Does Germany's lack of support for action in Libya reflect ‘softness' and introversion? No. Just as with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the debate over the military intervention in Libya tells us as much about geopolitics within Europe as it does about geopolitics beyond Europe."

U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings from the New York Times
"Even as the United States poured billions of dollars into foreign military programs and anti-terrorism campaigns, a small core of American government-financed organizations were promoting democracy in authoritarian Arab states."

Budget Deal: CBO Analysis Shows Initial Spending Cuts Less than Expected from the Washington Post
"In the end, about one-quarter of House Republicans voted against the bill. That total included 28 of the 87 Republican freshmen, who had won election by promising that the solutions were simple — it was how Washington works that was unnecessarily complicated. For some, the news of this accounting alchemy showed how complicated the place remains, even with them in it."
The way this bill finished up points to a possible future where Boehner forges an alliance with moderate democrats and creates a REAL bi-partisan governing coalition that basically leaves the Tea Party extremists on the sidelines.

Signs pointing in this direction -- see the following:
No-tax-Hike Pledge Creates Republican Rift, Potential Roadblock to Deficit Deal from the Washington Post
"Republicans are feuding over whether to abandon the party’s long-held opposition to higher taxes in pursuit of a deficit-cutting deal with Democrats."

With Obama's Speech, Momentum Gathering to Cut Defense Spending from the Christian Science Monitor
"Like Medicare and Social Security, cutting defense spending has been something of a 'do not enter' zone for many lawmakers. But that may be changing."

The Y Article: The Pentagon's Secret Plan to Slash Its Own Budget (John Norris) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The narrative argues that the United States is fundamentally getting it wrong when it comes to setting its priorities, particularly with regard to the budget and how Americans as a nation use their resources more broadly. The report says Americans are overreacting to Islamic extremism, underinvesting in their youth, and failing to embrace the sense of competition and opportunity that made America a world power. The United States has been increasingly consumed by seeing the world through the lens of threat, while failing to understand that influence, competitiveness, and innovation are the key to advancing American interests in the modern world."
A VERY important salvo from the Pentagon concerning the budget debate. HERE's the original report.  It's worth checking out on it's own merit -- it's a relatively short, quite readable document.

Obama Deficit Speech Reveals his Core Beliefs (Fareed Zakaria) from the Washington Post
"I prefer Obama’s approach — which is also closer to that of the Simpson-Bowles commission — with more cuts to entitlements. But what’s critical is that, finally, after years of kicking the can down the road, we are having the national debate about America’s future."

Why Conservatives Are Angry at Obama's Debt Speech (Erik Hayden) from the Atlantic
"As with some of the President's other heavily-hyped addresses, outrage seeped from conservative newspapers, magazines, and politicians immediately after the last sentence of the speech was uttered."

Who's Serious Now? (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, sounds upset. And you can see why: President Obama, to the great relief of progressives, has called his bluff."

If Ryan Plan is Out, What’s Plan B? (David Frum) from the FrumForum
"If not the Ryan vision of the future, what then should be the conservative response to the fiscal crisis of the American state? I’ve been thinking very hard about this question for a long time. I’m not done thinking about it either. But here’s my own current working answer. It has 5 points, 3 below, 2 in the subsequent post."
This is part 5 of a series.  The whole series is HERE.

Here's this too-weird -for-words political nugget:
Arizona ‘Birther’ Law to Accept Circumcision Papers as Proof of Citizenship from Raw Story
"If you intend to run for president in Arizona but don't have the required birth certificate, all is not lost. The state may be willing to accept a description of your penis -- if you've got one -- as proof you were born in the U.S. Before passing their so-called "birther" bill Wednesday, Arizona Republicans apparently decided it wasn't fair to limit proof of citizenship to the "long form birth certificate." So, they amended the measure to include several other forms of proof."
Now WHY would you accept circumcision "papers" and NOT a stamped, signed, notarized "certification of birth" from Hawaii's Secretary of State?!  Rabbis are not THAT hard to find in Arizona!

The GOP's Big Battle With Diversity (Mary Curtis) from The Root
"In the 2012 presidential election, the party of Lincoln has a long way to go to woo black voters back into the fold. Is there, as Newt Gingrich claims, a difference between "inclusion" and "outreach"?"

The Tea Party's GOP Hit List (David A. Graham) from the Daily Beast
"Watch out, moderates. Tea Party activists are outraged over Thursday’s budget vote—and they’re vowing to unseat GOP senators who caved to Dems. David A. Graham on their new hit list."
OH GOOD!!  This development could represent the Dems' best chance for holding onto the Senate next year.  The hope is that the Tea Party crowd will nominate a bunch of three-ring-circus clowns in place of highly electable moderates or at least sane conservatives!

Trump to Announce His Candidacy in May, Boasts of Friendship with 'The Blacks' (Alex Eichler) from the Atlantic
"The reality TV star and avowed birther has told Newsmax that on the May 15 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice, he'll be announcing a press conference to be held a few days later. And at that press conference, says Trump, he'll officially declare his intentions to run for president in 2012."

Donald Trump’s Presidential Bid Splits Republicans from Agence France-Presse
"If he doesn't get the support he needs from the Republican Party establishment to become the GOP nominee, Trump has threatened to run as an independent. Such a move would split the vote of Republican-leaning independents and spell trouble for other conservative candidates seeking to unite their divided party against incumbent Obama."

What Donald Trump's Birther Investigators Will Find in Hawaii (Joshua Green) from the Atlantic
"The path to Obama's birth certificate, as told by someone who's looked."

More on the DR. SEUSS NUGGET from the other day!!
'The Bippolo Seed': The 'Lost' Dr. Seuss Stories (Lynn Neary) from NPR's All Things Considered
"These are not half-written stories found in a dusty attic after the death of the author. These are stories that have already been published."

JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE SOUND NUGGET!!
What The Japan Earthquake Sounded Like... Underwater (AUDIO) from TalkingPointsMemo
"Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Vents Program at Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Oregon State University didn't feel the massive earthquake that struck off Japan on March 11. But they did hear it."
An amazing recording!

OBAMA FAMILY BOOK NUGGET!!
First Family of Writers Grows by One from the New York Times
"When Ms. Soetoro-Ng’s book, “Ladder to the Moon,” hit bookshelves on Tuesday, it added to a growing Obama family literary canon."

ANOTHER OBAMA FAMILY NUGGET!!
Barack Obama's Irish Roots (Tom Sykes) from the Daily Beast
"The Irish village of Moneygall is preparing to welcome an American president whose ancestor was a native son. Obama's planned May visit has excited locals—and prompted more racial awareness, writes Tom Sykes."

ANTARCTICA NUGGET!!
Antarctic Lake Hides Bizarre Ecosystem from Discovery News
"Bacterial colonies form cones like those on early Earth."

News Nuggets 602

A Bengal tiger putting on a show leaping for pieces of meat at the Rangunan Zoo in Thailand.  See the Happy Tiger Nugget below.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Countries Agree to Try to Transfer Some of Qaddafi’s Assets to Libyan Rebels from the New York Times
"NATO, Arab and African ministers agreed Wednesday “to work urgently” with the Libyan rebel leadership to set up a mechanism by which some frozen assets belonging to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his family might be transferred to the rebel cause."

Can Africa Really Help Libya Find Peace? Why the Rebels Rejected the AU Ceasefire (Barak Barfi) from the New Republic
"The TNC felt itself pigeonholed by popular sentiment: It is under intense pressure from Libyans in rebel-controlled territory to reject any deal that does not include Qaddafi’s departure.... But the TNC’s dismissal of the deal makes sense for an additional reason: Qaddafi’s relationship with the AU."

Iraqi Youths’ Political Rise Is Stunted by Elites from the New York Times
"In a country where the demographics skew even younger than in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, the wave of political change in the region has laid bare a generation gap here split by old resentments nurtured by dictatorship and war and a youthful grasping for a stake in the new Iraq. "

Syria's Crackdown Playbook: Fighting Public Anger with Increasing Brutality from Time Magazine
"The snippets of information leaking out of Syria — through smuggled mobile phone footage, Twitter, Facebook, furtive calls to citizens inside and outside the country, as well as the official media — paint a fragmentary picture of a chaotic state desperately trying to contain swelling anti-regime anger with increasing brutality."

In Egypt, the Revolution Rolls On from the Economist [of the UK]
"As Hosni Mubarak and his sons are taken into custody, Egypt's revolution is still going strong."

Vatican Served with Court Papers in Wisconsin Abuse Case from the Associated Press via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"The Vatican has been served with court papers stemming from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf, attorneys for the accuser and the Vatican said Tuesday."

Obama's Speech: Reaction Roundup, Pt I from Daily Kos
"When a President decides to inject himself into the conversation, he commands the stage. In addition to Jed Lewison's roundup from earlier today, here's more reaction to the President's speech."
HERE is part II.

Obama's Budget Speech: Daily Beast Contributors Weigh In from the Daily Beast
"In an address that offered a vigorous defense of liberal values and traditional entitlement programs, President Obama laid out his vision for a plan that would cut $4 trillion from the deficit over the next 12 years. Howard Kurtz, Eleanor Clift, John Avlon, Grover Norquist and more Daily Beast contributors weigh in."
My reaction: Obama smoked the GOP (and Paul Ryan particularly) yesterday.  By cherry-picking from the Bowles-Simpson report and vigorously defending the principles behind the social safety net, he basically left the Republicans to defend the most extreme anti-tax, anti-safety net elements of the Ryan plan.  What the GOP is left with is to defend massive tax cuts for the wealthy along side massive benefit cuts for the poor and the elderly and other similarly draconian proposals that ONLY appeal to the hard right.  Obama basically made his play for liberal and centrist support -- and I think he'll get it for the most part.

Barack Obama: Returning to the Fray from the Editorial Board of the Guardian [of the UK]
"A fighting President Obama is better than one who pretends to stay aloof."

Obama's Speech: The Umpire Strikes Back (Jonathan Chait) from the New Republic
"He wanted the be the umpire of the debate, not a participant in it. In his budget speech today, Obama attempted to square the circle in two ways."

Raise America's Taxes (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"President Obama in his speech on Wednesday confronted a topic that is harder to address seriously in public than sex or flatulence: America needs higher taxes. That ugly truth looms over today’s budget battles, but politicians have mostly preferred to run from reality. Mr. Obama’s speech was excellent not only for its content but also because he didn’t insult our intelligence."

There Definitely is a Revenue Problem, People (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
An important rejoinder to the GOP's talking point that "increased revenue is not the problem."
"We do indeed also have a revenue problem. Historically, both spending and revenue average somewhere in the ballpark of 19% of GDP. They fluctuate of course, but that's a general estimate. Let me pick out five years totally at random (sorry I can't link, this is from an Excel spreadsheet done up by the Office of Management and Budget I was sent):
1954: receipts 18.5%, outlays 18.8%
1967: receipts 18.4%, outlays 19.4%
1981: receipts 19.6%, outlays 22.2% (under Reagan!)
1996: receipts 18.8%, outlays 20.2%
2006: receipts 18.2%, outlays 20.1%
Get the picture? Democratic presidents, Republican ones...doesn't fluctuate that much.
2011 (estimate): receipts 14.4%, outlays 25.3%"

GOP: Obama's Speech So Partisan We'll Never Reach Budget Agreement from TalkingPointsMemo
"Their responses thus edged beyond substance into the realm of personal grievance. Indeed, they implied that the speech may have poisoned the well so much that working together where common ground exists might now be impossible."
Time has a related story HERE.

Obama's "Base" Problem Doesn't Actually Exist (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
Time and again during Obama's 27 months in office, we've witnessed eruptions like this, with one-time Obama supporters claiming that because of [insert Obama action here], the president has lost their support for good. ... All of these episode -- and others like them -- have one thing in common: For all of the threats and dire forecasts, Obama's base stuck with him."

Obama '12 Strategy: Deal and Get Results from The Hill
"For weeks, Obama and press secretary Jay Carney were given repeated opportunities to join Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in trying to drive a wedge between Boehner and his conservative Tea Party freshman class. It never happened... Joining Reid's attack, officials said, would have only jeopardized the deal, which to this White House is what matters."

On Debt Proposal, Obama’s Birth Secret Revealed (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"His embrace of the compromise debt proposal — and of the effort by the Gang of Six senators to put something like it into legislation — will be considered apostasy by true believers on both sides. But it dramatically increases the likelihood that Washington will solve its debt problem — and it strongly allies Obama with the independent voters who will determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election."

Republicans Scramble for Votes as Top GOPer Bails on Budget Deal from Daily Kos
An interesting development on last year's budget deal just agreed to last week.
"As amusing as it will be seeing John Boehner rely on Nancy Pelosi to get the deal through the House, the real implication will be that going forward, the extreme right flank of the GOP will have proved itself utterly irrelevant to the process."

The Mental Roots of Racial Prejudice from Miller-McClure Magazine
"Italian researchers find social conservatives tend to attribute more negative qualities to members of a minority group."

Why Candidate Trump Is Leading the Polls (Matt Latimer) from the Daily Beast
"It’s not just that weird birther thing. Matt Latimer examines why The Donald, in his unlikely bid for the GOP presidential nomination, touches a chord with the electorate."

Waiting for Mitt to Fall (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"When the alleged presidential front-runner of the allegedly ascendant political party takes his first formal step towards candidacy, and pretty much everybody either yawns or jeers, it is clearly not a good sign for the politician in question. And in general, I can't recall a presidential "front-runner" who's been written off as a hopeless loser long before the contest begins by about half the political cognoscenti."

Ed Kilgore gets a two-fer today:
The Fred Thompson Effect: Why a Dark-Horse Candidate Can’t Save the GOP (Ed Kilgore) from the New Republic
"By now, it should be obvious that anyone hoping party insiders will draft a Jeb Bush or Chris Christie or Rick Perry to rescue the lackluster Republican 2012 field from itself is living in a hopeless fantasyland. But in case you need even more evidence, consider this: Dark-horse candidates who aren’t fully committed to running for president, deep within their bones, have a terrible track record of misfires and flameouts."

These last two stories reflect the following harsh reality:
GOP Establishment Feels Heat in S.C. from Politico
"OP activists attending county party conventions last weekend here and in next-door Greenville County – the heart of the conservative Upstate –made scant mention of Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty. Instead, the talk is of Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump and even Allen West, a rookie Florida congressman who’s shown no interest in running for president.  ... conservatives here, as elsewhere, have been radicalized."

HAPPY TIGER NUGGET!!
Bengal Tiger Entertains at Thailand Zoo by Leaping into Pool After Chunks of Meat from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"These spectacular images show a female Bengal tiger as she attempts to entertain visitors at a Thailand zoo. Asih has become a favourite for visitors at Rangunan zoo as she dives into her pool in pursuit of chunks of meat."
Pretty spectacular images!  All you can say is that you would not want to be one of the "pieces of meat" this animal is leaping for!

HAPPY MUSEUMS NASA NUGGET!!
Dismantling the Space Shuttle Program from the Atlantic
"NASA's Space Shuttle program continues to wind down, with only two more launches planned -- the final one taking place in June (if funded). NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently announced four facilities where shuttle orbiters will be displayed permanently in New York, California, Florida, and Washington, D.C."

News Nuggets 601

The rare, primitive rabbit, the Amami Rabbit located only on two tiny islands in Japan.  From National Geographic.
States of Conflict: An Update from the New York Times
"LEAVING aside all the new conflicts in the Middle East, how are our nation’s longstanding struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan going?"

America's Arab Comeback (Daoud Kuttab) from the Globe and Mail [of Toronto]
"Without much fanfare, the past few months have seen no anti-American demonstrations and no burning of U.S. flags across the Arab world. Arabs seem increasingly willing to accept – and even applaud – the Obama administration’s policy toward the region."

Egypt Detains Mubarak and Sons from Al Jazeera
"Top prosecutor says ex-leader and two sons will be held for 15 days pending a probe into abuse of authority and graft."
If you are any living US president, this is probably not good news.  Mubarak and his sons know where 30 years worth of bodies (literally and figuratively) are buried -- and if any of them are facing real time I suspect they will say whatever they need to say to avoid that fate.

American Public Sees Democratization of Middle East as Positive for US from World Public Opinion
"Favors Democratization Even if Countries Become Less Friendly to US."

A darker, probably closer-to-the-mark perspective on where things are headed:
Pray. Hope. Prepare. (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"In the Arab world, almost all these countries are Yugoslavia-like assemblages of ethnic, religious and tribal groups put together by colonial powers — except Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, which have big homogeneous majorities. So when you take the lid off these countries, you potentially unleash not civil society but civil war. That is why, for now, the relatively peaceful Arab democracy revolutions are probably over. "

How Close Did the United States Come to Launching a War against Iran? (Christopher Preble) from the National Interest
"As early as 2005, Israel determined that it could not deliver a knockout blow against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Ha’aretz reported over the weekend. Documents obtained through Wikileaks reveal that Israeli officials informed U.S. diplomats in December 2005 “that there is no chance of a military attack being carried out on Iran.”"

What Does 'Fukushima Is Now as Bad as Chernobyl' Actually Mean? from the Atlantic
"Even though the Japanese spokesperson for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency took pains to differentiate the crisis from Chernobyl, Fukushima is now classified as a level 7 alongside it. In the most basic terms, what does that mean?"

China: On the Defensive from the Economist [of London]
I had posted this last week -- but the following image still sticks in my mind:
"... the [Communist] party seems to have concluded, to crack down long and hard now than to wait and see. In George Orwell’s novel “1984”, an intellectual party hack paints a vision of the future as “a boot stamping on a human face—for ever”. China has updated that."

More Pentagon Papers Donald Rumsfeld Did Not Want You to See (John Cook) from Gawker
"In July 2004, as the Iraq War spiraled out of control, Donald Rumsfeld ordered a staffer to draw up a "What Did Not Happen?" memo—a list of potential bad outcomes that had been avoided—to make himself feel better. Things could be worse, right? Then they started happening. The "What Did Not Happen?" memo—which Gawker obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, along with thousands of pages of other documents from Rumsfeld's tenure—is practically a parody of Rumsfeld's truculent blindness to his own failures."
What else is there to say about this clueless clown that hasn't already been said!?

Ship, Sub Building Efforts Back on Track: U. S. Navy Undersecretary from Defense News
"The U.S. Navy's major shipbuilding and aviation programs are largely setting into stability, but questions are rising about the strategic outlook for the Navy and Marine Corps and the forces they will need in the future, all in the context of a declining defense budget."
Well, boys and girls, with defense budget cuts an ESSENTIAL element of any progressive version of the up-coming budget plan, it is useful to begin to get GROUNDED in how truly ENORMOUS our military is.  I will be posting easy-to-grasp nuggets on this for the coming weeks.

The Follower? Republicans Question the President's Leadership on the Budget. Do They Have a Point? (John Dickerson) from Slate
Short answer: No.
"The president and his aides made a tactical decision to be followers on the budget deficit... If the president had led in this way, say White House advisers, his proposals would have become a target, and nothing major would have gotten done. ... The Obama approach was ratified at the time by a leader of the party now criticizing the president for his lack of leadership. On the day of the president's State of the Union address, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Mike Allen of Politico that if he were president, he wouldn't speak in public about the details of an entitlement overhaul."

Obama and the Budget Civil War (Howard Fineman) from Huffington Post
A moving statement about the historic opportunity that Obama has today.
"..., in a speech to the nation, a Lincoln-loving Obama will offer viewers and voters a strong defense of the moral role of the federal government. He has no choice, but it also is an opportunity if he is willing to seize it with eloquence and conviction. He and his advisors see the GOP's attack on Medicare as a fateful blunder, one that can allow Democrats to reframe the debate away from deficit-reduction to the need to preserve the social safety net and sense of one nation. History moves in generational waves, and this is both the conclusion of one and the beginning of something, the course of which no one can predict."

Obama to Draw Sharp Contrast with GOP Over Deficit from the Los Angeles Times
"In a speech Wednesday, the president is expected to call for higher taxes on wealthier Americans, as opposed to Republican plans to slash Medicare and Medicaid."

Al Sharpton: Obama's Go-To Black Leader (Wayne Barrett) from the Daily Beast
"The president’s extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week has as much to do with his rejection of Jesse Jackson, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley as it does with the once-embattled reverend."

Base Politics (Chuck Todd et al.,) from MSNBC
"The dilemma for Democrats: To win national elections, they have to win a larger share of the moderate vote than Republicans do. And that’s why Democratic presidents -- whether they’re Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or the next one -- often disappoint their base."

In WI, Democrat on Waukesha County Vote Panel Speaks Out from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Kitzinger 'shocked' in retrospect not to have been told of major error."

Business Breaking With Kasich Over Union Busting Bill from TalkingPointsMemo
"Now, as the fight over SB5 shifts to a massive ballot repeal initiative organized by labor, Democrats and progressives in Ohio, Kasich's got a new problem on his hands: the support of the state Chamber of Commerce, which broke with tradition and made Kasich the first gubernatorial candidate to ever get its endorsement, is fracturing."

PPP's Own Poll Shows Bad News for Republicans from Daily Kos
""Republicans taking control of the House may have been one of the best things that could possibly have happened for Obama's reelection prospects." Indeed, despite a still-sucky economy and middling-at-best approval ratings, the extremism of the GOP is helping to keep Obama afloat."

Speaking of bad news for the GOP:
CNN Poll: Trump Tied for First in GOP Horserace from CNN
"Donald Trump is now tied with Mike Huckabee for first place when Republicans are asked who they support for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, according to a new national poll. But while a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that the real estate mogul and reality TV star has nearly doubled his support since mid-March, it doesn't mean he has smooth sailing ahead."
I find this to be pretty hilarious.  It's a classic case of if you spout nothing but BS long enough, eventually you will wind up surrounded by nothing ... but BS.  Given the rhetoric of the GOP over the last three years, they DESERVE a candidate like Trump, someone who could VERY EASILY turn their nominating process into a clown cars' demolition derby.  Can you IMAGINE what the candidate debates might look like?!  I can't wait to see it!! 

Hoping to avoid this kind of prolonged farce, we see this:
Mitt Romney to Birthers: Barack Obama Was Born Here. Period. from Politico
"Mitt Romney forcefully said Tuesday night that he believes President Barack Obama was born in America and that “the citizenship test has been passed.”"
Ah, we caught you this time, Mitt!  Trying to be sane in the Happy House!  It tells you something about the state of the GOP when saying this actually represents COURAGE on Romney's part.  But -- sorry, dude.  Fifty percent of the voters YOU WANT to nominate you aren't buying it -- and I predict that they won't any time soon.

"YES, MEIN FUHRER" SCHOOL NUGGET!!
Chicago School Bans Homemade Lunches, the Latest in National Food Fight from Yahoo News
My view: the likes of Andrew Breitbart thrive with this kind of mandated overreach.
"Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food--or go hungry. Only students with allergies are allowed to bring a homemade lunch to school, the Chicago Tribune reports. ... For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch."