Politics

• Newt Gingrich: I helped defeat communism – Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com.
• Newt Gingrich: The Obama Re-Election Team Is ‘Determined To Distort Everything They Can’ – ABC News
• Poll watcher: Who is Newt Gingrich’s base? Tea party districts sour on tea party and doggy health care – Behind the Numbers – The Washington Post
• Joe Peyronnin: Obama’s Looking Good
  

  In the words of one long-time Republican, “The Republicans are making President Obama look good.” Well, he makes a very good point about the Republican field of presidential candidates.

• RealClearPolitics – President Obama vs. Republican Candidates
• RealClearPolitics – Election 2012 – General Election: Gingrich vs. Obama… but things can change. the RCP average of the averages is Obama by +5.7
• Obama vs Gingrich A side by side comparison of the two on the issues.
• Another article about Ron Paul calling out Gingrich for his hypocritical flip-flopping: The Anti-Newt Campaign Begins
• Jon Huntsman’s Big Idea – TIME — The long-shot candidate is bolder than Obama about reining in the big banks
• The Day of Savage Web Ads Attacking Republican Front-Runners | FDL News Desk

Climate & Climate Politics

• Global warming: winners and losers in the Arctic’s ‘new normal’ – CSMonitor.com
• Federal report: Arctic much worse since 2006 – USATODAY.com
• Modest Rise in Number Saying There Is ‘Solid Evidence’ of Global Warming | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
• Scientists: Permafrost thaw likely to disrupt global warming predictions | The State Column
• Yet more evidence that shutting down coal plants will not threaten reliability | Grist
• And hanging on to the global warming science denial position we have: Salvaging The Mythology Of Man-Caused Global Warming – Forbes

Evolution (and the politics of it)

• Creationists Whining About “Censorship” « The Skeptical Teacher

The Late William F. Buckley

• A Great Quote:
  

  Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great.

• Good night, Mr. Buckley – Couric & Co. – CBS News
  

  Buckley was conservative before conservative was cool. He was brilliant, Ivy League, handsome and very, very, VERY articulate. And he was, well, so very self confident. All of his talent and style combined to rebirth the moribund conservative movement in this country. From his founding of the National Review to the day he stepped down from moderating his signature talk show, “Firing Line.” It is fair to say that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich all owe their place in American history to the man who once famously wrote that he didn’t know anyone smarter than himself. …

  …In a way, it’s sad that people like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage are today’s mouthpieces for conservatism. What a far leap they are from the quick witted and smart Buckley. I think it’s fair to say that even Buckley’s ideological enemies admired him and respected him. That’s because Buckley was not a hate monger; he was a serious-minded person who made reasoned and rational arguments for his cause. No apologies to Limbaugh, Savage or their listeners and adherents — they are no substitute for Buckley’s class and intellectualism.

Economics & The Economy

• Economic reports, central banks’ actions fuel huge stock rally – latimes.com
  

  The Dow rises 490 points after strong economic snapshots point to healthy job creation and more robust business activity in the U.S. Actions taken by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to address the Eurozone crisis lessen concerns about a financial system meltdown.

  Economic stimulus for Wall Street. But will it create any jobs? (JJH)

• What The Central Banks Did Today – NYTimes.com
• Mark Thoma on Coordinated Central Bank Intervention
• Geithner: Will Fight Efforts To Block New Financial Regulations – Real Time Economics – WSJ
• The 70% solution | Amplifications Brad Delong—
  

  …when we calculate what the tax rate for the superrich will be, we should not consider the effect of changing their tax rate on their happiness, for we know that it is zero. Rather, the key question must be the effect of changing their tax rate on the well-being of the rest of us.

  From this simple chain of logic follows the conclusion that we have a moral obligation to tax our superrich at the peak of the Laffer Curve: to tax them so heavily that we raise the most possible money from them – to the point beyond which their diversion of energy and enterprise into tax avoidance and sheltering would mean that any extra taxes would not raise but reduce revenue.

  […]