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Pakistan floods: World reactions
(The Week)
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 The Week - The waters have started to drain in Pakistan, but the country's problems are far from over. The world reacts:
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Illegal immigration has declined: Why?
(The Atlantic Wire)
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 The Atlantic Wire - A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center finds that illegal immigration is
down. Annual inflow between 2007 and 2009 was roughly two-thirds less than between 2000 and 2005, report
Pew authors Jeffrey Passel and D'Vera Cohn. Furthermore, "the most
marked decline in the population of unauthorized immigrants has been
among those who come from Latin American countries other than Mexico."
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Palin Visits Iowa: Clever Marketing or 2012 Prelude?
(The Atlantic Wire)
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 The Atlantic Wire - Like it or not, the will-she-or-won't-she whispers about whether
Sarah Palin will throw her hat in the ring for a
2012 presidential bid won't end until she states verbatim, "I'm
not running." Until then, even the slightest suspicions of her political ambitions will set off speculation. One of the larger such hints is her recent decision to be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Republican Party's
Ronald Reagan Dinner. Not only because Iowa
plays a unique role in kick-starting the presidential primaries, but
because--according to recent polls--Palin
clearly needs to bolster her image and credibility in
order to have a shot at becoming the Republican nominee. Here's what
pundits are saying about her latest turn in Iowa:
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Can Obama Deliver Israel-Palestine Peace?
(The Atlantic Wire)
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 The Atlantic Wire - Direct Israel-Palestine peace talks begin today, hosted by President
Barack Obama at the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas both join Obama to
commence what will be the ninth round of U.S.-led Israel-Palestine peace
talks over 31 years. Jordanâs King Abdullah and Egyptâs President Hosni
Mubarak will also be present. The process begins inauspiciously, with
Palestinian group Hamas claiming the murders of four Israeli civilians, one of whom was pregnant, and Israeli settlers continuing
the construction of West Bank settlements despite a U.S.-backed
settlement freeze. Here's what observers have to say about Obama's
approach at one of the longest running and most stubborn problems in
U.S. foreign policy.
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6 global warming skeptics who changed their minds
(The Week)
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 The Week - Climate change doubters have just lost one of their leading lights, as writer Bjorn Lomborg calls for a worldwide carbon tax. But he's not the first high-profile defector
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Fall elections: A Democratic 'bloodbath'?
(The Week)
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The Week - A new Gallup poll shows Republicans with a record lead in a "generic ballot." Just how bad will it get for the Dems in November?
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A bank bailout for Afghanistan?
(The Week)
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The Week - A run on Kabul Bank — the nation's largest — is triggering fears of an Afghan financial meltdown. Should the U.S. step in?
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How Old School Is George Clooney's 'The American'?
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - The options could hardly be starker for Labor Day movie-goers. On one hand, there's the blood-stained Machete,
which seems to revel in the number of body-parts it dismembers for the pleasure of audiences. And, of course, there's also that
European-tinged, art-house hitman movie with the relatively unassuming poster
of George Clooney furrowing his brow. What's that one about, exactly?
It appears that nearly half of our nation's finest critics lost their
patience with the slow-burning film before trying to figure that out.
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Newt's Faint Presidential Prospects
(RealClearPolitics.com)
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RealClearPolitics.com - On Friday, at a town hall in small town Oklahoma, conservative Sen. Tom Coburn said Newt Gingrich is "the last person I'd vote for, for president." Gingrich is "a super-smart man but he doesn't know anything about commitment to marriage." Gingrich lacks, in Coburn's view, "the character traits necessary to be a great president."
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Guns, drugs, and La Barbie: Why America is responsible for Mexican drug cartels
(The Christian Science Monitor)
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The Christian Science Monitor - After the arrest this week of one of MexicoâÂÂs most ruthless drug lords, âÂÂLa Barbie,â media coverage has highlighted his American-born, football star origins.
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Schneiderman for Attorney General
(The Nation)
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The Nation - The Nation -- "Transformational politics is the work we do today to ensure that the deal we can get on gun control or immigration reform in a year—or five years, or twenty years—will be better than the deal we can get today. Transformational politics requires us to challenge the way people think about issues, opening their minds to better possibilities."
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The Latest Oil Platform Accident Is a Grim Reminder of Our Energy Challenges
(Huffington Post)
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Huffington Post - Read Sen. Tom Carper's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
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Quote of the Day: Why Internet Debates Are So Awful
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - "I have thought a lot about why people get so hostile online, and I have
come to believe it is primarily because we live in a society with a
hypertrophied sense of justice and an atrophied sense of humility and charity, to put the matter in terms of the classic virtues. ... In our online debates, we not only fail to cultivate
charity and humility, we come to think of them as vices: forms of
weakness that compromise our advocacy. And so we go forth to war with
one another."--Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton College, writing at Big Questions Online. (Via ArtsJournal.)
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Labor Secretary Asserts 'There Are Jobs Out There'
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - A Friday op-ed from labor secretary Hilda Solis
tries to strike a delicate balance. At USA Today, Solis attempts to
acknowledge the bad unemployment rate, point to how far we have come,
encourage workers to retrain, and assert that "there are jobs out
there." That's a tough set of points to make while hitting the right
tone, particularly on a day when a terrible July jobs report is
released. Did she pull it off? Over at National Review,
Jonah Goldberg
summarizes the piece as "maybe you're not looking hard enough," which
probably isn't the message the administration wants to send. Here's the
breakdown so you can see for yourself:
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Why Are the Feds Suing Brash Arizona Sheriff?
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire -
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Happy Hour Vid: Rachel Maddow and Jimmy Fallon Mix Up Some Sazeracs
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - Just in time for the long weekend, Rachel Maddow stopped by Late Night to teach Jimmy Fallon the proper way to mix a sazerac, that most beloved of New Orleans blackout specials. Maddow's ideal version of the drink? One that tastes "like liquorice and I'm-not-hung-over-anymore." That sounds reasonable to us. Very reasonable.
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Young Adults Shy Away From 'Democrat' Label
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - Citing a Pew Research Poll, The New York Times' Kirk Johnson surmises
that college students, who once swooned for President Obama, are now
beginning to distance themselves from the Democratic Party. The "college
vote," which traditionally skews Democratic, may be marginalized
this year as young adults become disillusioned with the
administration. The trend comes
at a particularly poor time for Democratic candidates, as Republicans and
Tea Party "insurgents" have been building momentum toward significant congressional gains this November. Pundits parse the numbers, explaining the implications of the latest electoral wrinkle.
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White House Ponders Business Tax Cuts
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - Stagnant Jobs Reports Says It All, comments The Washington Post's Ezra Klein, reviewing numbers released today. "No wonder the White House is looking for further stimulus measures."
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When Apple and Facebook Clash
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - Ping, Apple's new foray into social networking,
is already driving a wedge between Facebook and the Cupertino company. At first,
Apple's new social network was partially integrated with
Facebook, allowing users to connect with their Facebook friends who had also signed up for Ping. Facebook has since blocked Ping from
accessing its API, rendering the feature useless and forcing Apple to
dismantle it. In a surprisingly candid interview with All Things
Digital, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said negotiations to further integrate with Facebook broke down
because of the "onerous terms" set by Facebook. So what happened and is this just the beginning of a longer feud?
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Why NASA Would Now Like to Visit the Sun
(The Atlantic Wire)
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The Atlantic Wire - While many have lamented the end of the space-shuttle era, NASA has quickly turned to dreaming up the next grand space adventure: sending
an unmanned solar probe to "plunge" into the Sun's atmosphere and
investigate its properties. The mission, which is slated for
2018, will equip the Solar Probe Plus
with a heat shield able to withstand temperatures over 2,550 degrees
Fahrenheit, aiming to "provide answers" to questions that
scientists have wrestled with for decades. Pundits explain what exactly
the mission will entail:It's No Theatrical Stunt reports
Kit Eaton at Fast Company. The Solar Probe Plus will have five missions
as it ventures near the sun: it "will measure electrons, protons and
helium ions in the solar wind, produce amazing wide-field 3-D images of
the Sun's corona, detect the electromagnetic shock-wave concussions and
fields in the solar atmosphere, sample and detect the elements in the
atmosphere and attempt to work out the heliosphere's origins." Plus,
"sheer curiosity" is always at the root of such "awesome" missions.Aiming 'for the Heart of the Sun (Literally)' writes
Rebecca Doyle gleefully at Popular Science. The main thrust of the "five
missions" the Solar Probe will undertake is studying solar radiation.
"Improved solar storm forecasts could protect future long-distance space
explorers who would not be protected by Earthâs magnetic field," she
notes. "NASAâs goals are to figure out why the sunâs corona is several
hundred times hotter than the surface and why it produces an
accelerating solar wind....The only way to do it is to go to the source,
NASA says."'It's A Region No Other Spacecraft Has Ever Encountered' marvels
Mashable's Stan Schroeder. The four million mile trip is slated to
leave sometime before 2018 and will hope to "solve" two key questions. Dick Fisher, director of NASAâs Heliophysics Division in
Washington names them: "why is the sunâs outer atmosphere so much hotter than the
sunâs visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth
and our solar system?"Astronomers Have Dreamed About This For a
Half-Century since "the National Academy of Science's 'Simpson
Committee' in 1958 recommended a probe to investigate," observes Charles
Cooper. "Several studies were subsequently carried out to test the
feasibility of the project, but nothing came of them." Until now, that
is.
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