Saturday Reads

'Cupcakes on a Book' by Rachel Montague

Good Morning!!!

First up, a couple of items from Politico.

Well, we can’t get any action on torture memos and evidence destruction, but Robert Gates is ordering a probe into leaks. Guess it’s only a problem if we know about it.  This time the problem is who inkled the DADT pentagon survey before its time.

“The secretary strongly condemns the unauthorized release of information related to this report and has directed an investigation to establish who communicated with The Washington Post or any other news organization without authorization and in violation of department policy and his specific instruction.”

The Pentagon’s anger over the release of parts of the report aren’t based on national security concerns. Instead, the newspaper story appeared to foil a carefully orchestrated plan to make public the reports findings after they were due Dec. 1. Releasing aspects of the report would affect public perceptions just weeks before the issue is likely to emerge again in Congress. The newspaper article based on only parts of the report could undermine the overall integrity of the report’s findings, Pentagon officials said.

I suppose that means that all had to get their stories straight before we found out about it.   I’m also thinking that some folks probably aren’t quite on board with it yet.

Raise your hand if you think Rick Perry is running for President.  Yup, me too.  He’s angling for some higher profile positions right now.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be tapped as the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association when the organization meets next week in San Diego, GOP sources tell POLITICO.

Perry recently released a book taking aim at the federal government and both the subject of the tome, “Fed Up!,” and his promotion of it have fueled speculation that he is eyeing a presidential bid.

Ah, Matt Yglesias wants to feel better about Obama and just comes out and says it in a post called ‘Results, Not Words’. Good luck with that.

I think that where a lot of progressive political junkies go wrong is that they think “blame Republicans for failing to pass plan to fix the economy” is a close substitute for “fix the economy.” In reality, the evidence that fixing the economy would help Democrats politically is overwhelming, while the evidence that the plan/block/blame strategy would work is non-existent. People like me and Atrios would feel better about President Obama and his team if they made public statements that indicated that he roughly agrees with our take on what ideally should be done, but people like me and Atrios are neither swing voters nor marginally attached voters. Our emotional state has very little political relevance.

Here’s Juan Cole’s take on Obama and Asia and what he calls The Asian Century. Bottom line:  No one takes us seriously any more and they still don’t like us very much.  Cole sees this from the diplomatic viewpoint.  I’ve seen it from the same things in terms of trade and economics.  It’s just a matter of time before we’re the little guys just like the Brits.

Just how weakened the United States has been in Asia is easily demonstrated by the series of rebuffs its overtures have suffered from regional powers.  When, for instance, a tiff broke out this fall between China and Japan over a collision at sea near the disputed Senkaku Islands, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to mediate.  The offer was rejected out of hand by the Chinese, who appear to have deliberately halted exports of strategic rare-earth metals to Japan and the United States as a hard-nosed bargaining ploy.  In response, the Obama administration quickly turned mealy-mouthed, affirming that while the islands come under American commitments to defend Japan for the time being, it would take no position on the question of who ultimately owned them.

Likewise, Pakistani politicians and pundits were virtually unanimous in demanding that President Obama raise the issue of disputed Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Indian sojourn.  The Indians, however, had already firmly rejected any internationalization of the controversy, which centers on the future of the Muslim-majority state, a majority of whose inhabitants say they want independence.  Although Obama had expressed an interest in helping resolve the Kashmir dispute during his presidential campaign, by last March his administration was already backing away from any mediation role unless both sides asked for Washington’s help.  In other words, Obama and Clinton promptly caved in to India’s insistence that it was the regional power in South Asia and would brook no external interference.

This kind of regional near impotence is only reinforced by America’s perpetual (yet ever faltering) war machine.  Nor, as Obama moves through Asia, can he completely sidestep controversies provoked by the Afghan War, his multiple-personality approach to Pakistan, and his administration’s obsessive attempt to isolate and punish Iran.

Here’s a cool list. It’s the World’s Richest Women. It’s also another sign of the Asian Century.  Have you learned any Mandarin yet?

Topping the list is Zhang Yin, founder of a paper recycling company, who is worth $5.6 billion. She’s followed by two more Chinese women who are each worth more than $4 billion. To put that in perspective, Oprah ranked ninth with $2.3 billion and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is 20th with $1 billion. The numbers were compiled by the Hurun Report.

What explains the surge in China’s wealthy women? One answer appears to be an intense work ethic and strong ambition. According to a study completed earlier this year by the Center for Work-Life Policy, just over one-third of all college-educated American women describe themselves as very ambitious, versus two thirds in China.

Here’s another eye-popper: More than 75 percent of women in China aspire to hold a top corporate job, compared with just over half in the US. One of the more interesting findings from the study was that communism may have given women a boost, because it underscored that women could do whatever men could do. Who could have ever imagined that Maoist philosophy could be a calling card for capitalism?

Chinese women, like their American counterparts, still have a long way to go. Only 11 percent of the richest Chinese citizens are women and Chinese women have about a third less wealth than their male counterparts. Here in the US, the Census Bureau recently said that the number of women with six-figure incomes is rising at a much faster pace than it is for men. But overall, women still earn about twenty cents less on the dollar than men nationwide and only three percent of CEO’s of publicly-traded companies are women.

WAPO reports that the Supreme Court has declined to throw out DADT.

Rejecting a request by a Republican gay rights group, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to stop enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy while a lower court hears a challenge to the ban.

Friday’s decision by the high court keeps in place the military’s ban on gays and lesbians serving openly as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit prepares to hear legal arguments in a case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans. The group is challenging the constitutionality of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and in September convinced a federal district judge to briefly block enforcement of the ban.

The 9th Circuit reversed the decision, which led LCR to appeal to the high court on Monday. The Justice Department argued the policy should continue as the court case proceeds.

The justices provided no comment with their decision, but Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case, the court said. Kagan previously served as the Obama administration’s solicitor general and helped develop the Justice Department’s strategy on the Log Cabin case.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Salon.  It seems that one of Sarah Palin’s top aides is funded by George Soros AND it’s something the Beckster overlooked in his all out attack on Soros as worst person in the world.  Oh, wait, Soros as anti-American fascist commie pinko … Well, one of those things you call people who you want to make a living off … and no, this isn’t a gratuitous fire spouting liberal I obsess with Sarah Palin post.  You can breathe easy now.  I’m just intrigued by the irony of it all.

Glenn Beck spent the past week denouncing the liberal billionaire and philanthropist George Soros as a “puppet master” who is orchestrating a coup “to bring America to her knees.”

Given Soros’ alleged role plotting to destroy the United States, Beck and his Fox viewership might be surprised to learn that one of Sarah Palin’s top aides has been on Soros’ payroll for years.

That would be Republican lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, Palin’s foreign policy adviser and a member of her small inner circle. He runs a Washington, D.C., consulting firm called Orion Strategies. Scheunemann and a partner have since 2003 been paid over $150,000 by one of Soros’ organizations for lobbying work, according to federal disclosure forms reviewed by Salon. The lobbying, which has continued to the present, centers on legislation involving sanctions and democracy promotion in Burma.

Scheunemann’s client is the Open Society Policy Center, a DC-based advocacy group founded and funded by Soros. The Open Society Policy Center says on its website that it “encourages Congress and the Administration to press the military dictatorship in Burma to restore political rights and democracy.”

In the course of Beck’s three-day look at Soros’ network of organizations and his links to Democratic politicians, the fact that a top aide to a likely GOP presidential candidate has been retained by a Soros outfit did not come up.

So, my guess is the media is in a ratings war to find the bottom of the gene pool.

[MABlue’s picks]
A worthy Nobel Peace Prize laureate is finally free. You hear that China?
Aung San Suu Kyi walks free

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom today amid massive cheers from elated supporters who flooded the streets outside her home in Burma.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years, was greeted by jubilant crowds who had gathered in Rangoon in anticipation of her release.

Facebook wants to invade your privacy some more.
Facebook set to launch ‘Gmail killer’ email system

Facebook is set to launch its latest Google-taunting product on Monday: the long-anticipated Facebook email system.

The launch of an @facebook.com email is not itself a great surprise – the existence of a secret project officially known as Project Titan and unofficially as “Gmail killer” has been circulating since February.

But tech industry analysts believe that a Facebook email system, coupled to its popular photo and events programs, could become a comprehensive competitor to Gmail.

I always knew those vanity plates had some usefulness.
Vanity Plate Leads Police To Robbery Suspect

Hooksett woman was arrested and charged with robbing a pharmacy after a witness jotted down the vanity plate on her car as she left the area, police said
[…]
The license plate reported by the witness was B-USHER, which police said was registered to Bonnie Usher, 43. Usher was arrested at her home a short time later and charged with armed robbery.

How could a woman say “NO!” to this perfectly nice gentleman?
Man accused of trying to run down ex-girlfriend after rejected marriage proposal

Hernandez’s car had the proposal “Stacy Will You Marry Me?” written on the back window of his car, according to reports.

“She said no. He was a little unhappy with that,” Berg said.
Hernandez allegedly drove onto the sidewalk through some bushes and into the restaurant parking lot, narrowly missing the woman

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?