International
- Will Israel Attack Iran? – NYTimes.com.
- How the U.S. and Iran Keep Failing To Find a Peace They Both Want – Trita Parsi – International – The Atlantic
The 30-year-old U.S.-Iran enmity is no longer a phenomenon; it is an institution. For three decades, politicians and bureaucrats in both countries have made careers out of demonizing each other. Firebrands in Iran have won political points by adding an ideological dimension to an already rooted animosity. Shrewd politicians, in turn, have shamelessly used ideology to advance their political objectives. Neighboring states in the Persian Gulf and beyond have taken advantage of this estrangement, often kindling the flames of division.
Israel and some of its supporters in the United States, in particular, have feared that a thaw in U.S. relations with Iran would come at the expense of America’s special friendship with the Jewish state.
But the strategic cost to the United States and Iran of this prolonged feud has been staggering. Harming both and benefiting neither, the U.S.-Iran estrangement has complicated Washington’s efforts to advance the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians in the 1990s, win the struggle against al-Qaeda, or defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and the insurgency in Iraq. Still, the strategic cost of this enmity has oftentimes been dwarfed by the domestic political cost to overcome it.,,,[read the full article…]
- A Europe-Iran War – NYTimes.com
- Even without Hormuz blockade, Iran has options | Reuters
Politics
- Free-Market Socialism – NYTimes.com
- State of the Union: Obama, GOP battle to frame 2012 fight – Political Hotsheet – CBS News
- The Numbers and Politics of Barack Obama’s New Buffett Rule | Swampland | TIME.com
…The vertical lines show the range of taxes paid by Americans in various income brackets. As you can see, wealthier people generally pay more taxes. There is some overlap, but the overlap is pretty tiny in a country of 250 million people. “Roughly a quarter of all millionaires (about 94,500 taxpayers) face a tax rate that is lower than the tax rate faced by 10.4 million moderate- income taxpayers (10% of the moderate-income taxpayers),” the report concludes. No one has yet scored exactly how many taxpayers will be effected by Obama’s Buffet Rule proposal, which would essentially establish a 30% alternative minimum tax for those who make more than $1 million a year. But it is a safe bet that it is in the same ballpark. In other words, we are only talking about roughly 94,500 families getting a tax increase, or roughly as many people as live in Hillsboro, Oregon.Obama is pitching the Buffett Rule as having major savings potential. “If the country was in a surplus like it was back in 2000, I’d understand us saying, well, let’s try to let millionaires keep every last dime,” he said in Iowa. “I get that. But that’s not the situation we’re in. And so we’ve got to make choices. Do we want to keep investing in everything that’s important to our long-term growth — education, medical research, our military, caring for our veterans — all of which are expensive? Or do we keep these tax cuts for folks who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them? Because we can’t do both.”
- Timothy Geithner’s last term – Josh Boak – POLITICO.com
- Daily Kos: Open thread: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘It Gets Better’ video
- Christie Can’t Shake N.J.’s Last Place Business-Climate Rank – Businessweek
Politics — Newt Gingrich
- GOP angst: Gingrich’s rise could be their downfall – CNN
- The Last Word – Newt Gingrich wants a moon colony
Politics — Mitt Romney
- If Romney is nominated, 2012 will be about taxes – The Washington Post
…In 2008, when John McCain was vetting Mitt Romney for vice president,Romney turned over 23 years of tax returns. McCain went on to pick Sarah Palin.
Climate & Climate Politics
- Five shots against global warming denialism | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
- Global warming skeptics to take center stage in Portland (poll) | OregonLive.com
- New map for what to plant reflects global warming – Boston.com
- The Express: Climate change is just a 1,500 year cycle | Carbon Brief — Geez, The Express elevates their climate change denial to a new level.