Sunday, January 30, 2011

Bits and Pieces - Not Egypt Edition

The Sunday papers are oddly out of step today. There are a few opinion pieces on Egypt, but it looks like the editorial decision was that they'd chew over the SOTU a little more today and they haven't been able to keep up with Twitter.

Oh, and there was Davos, too, that Very Special Meeting for the Very Special People. Nicholas Kristof had the good sense to tweet "Why are we here?" the other day and now is in Cairo. But, if you wanted any more evidence of Davos's irrelevance, you can read Steven Pearlstein, Will Hutton, or about their panel repeating that an attack on Iran would be a very bad idea. And some Very Important People were miffed that that attack on ordinary people at Domededovo Airport kept Dmitry Medvedev from being more of a backslapper at Davos. Bad form, Dmitry! Newspaper editors had to make up their minds about today's edition somewhere around Wednesday or Thursday. The Davos organizers probably had to set up this panel some months back.

Meanwhile, Very Special Conservative Kathleen Parker remains miffed that President Obama hasn't said what she wants to hear in exactly the words she wants to hear. This will, I'm sure, repair the economy and make jobs, so get with it, Prez! Steve Benen says more about this scandal so that I con't have to.

Then there's Wikileaks. Doyle McManus tells us it's so yesterday, while Alan Rusbridger gives the Guardian's view of Assange and the whole process, presumably in response to the New York Times's view of the same things.

Are you seeing a pattern of Very Specialness?

Back to the SOTU. Frank Rich has a very good column that recognizes the fruits of the long community organizer slog, namely the Republican Party's discrediting of itsself, without quite recognizing how it happened.

The end of US decline. Thank goodness.

I have always liked the concept and practice of satisficing.

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