NDN Blog

- Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang worked like a charm.

- Gebe Martinez wonders why, exactly, the GOP is not more welcoming to Hispanics.

- Joe Sestak is officially running for Senate.

- It looks like Sonia Sotomayor is in the clear.

- The Large Hadron Collider is not up to snuff.

- Kevin Drum writes on California's disastrous prison system.

- Russian attack subs are patrolling off the eastern seaboard.

- Paul Farmer is out of contention to run USAID, and the vacancy is causing concern about AID's future.

- Iran is inviting China in for a little direct investment in the oil industry.

- China's GDP numbers are a little fishy.

- The President met with the head of FIFA, as he tries to bring the World Cup back to the US.

- Last, call me obsessed, but there's a new Autotune the News:

- President Obama invited the Senate Dems over for lunch today.  The economy will be on the agenda.  And health care.  And cash for clunkers!

- The Obama Administration's immigration enforcement strategy is little more progressive than Bush's.

- Many states are still in economic distress.

- Tax revenues are on pace to drop 18% this year-- the biggest drop since the Great Depression.

- In the FT, David Roche says savings may be on the rise, but this may not be a good thing.

- John McCain will vote against Sotomayor.

- Bill Clinton is in North Korea, negotiating for the release of two imprisoned journalists.

- Next stop Iran? Three young Americans were arrested while hiking in Kurdistan.

- David Souter just bought a new house in New Hampshire.  Why? The old one lacked the structural integrity to hold his library.

- Will Twitter's 140 character limit send us back to the days of writing in code? I can only hope.

- Last, Fareed Zakaria goes to town on an Iranian apparatchik academic:

- Everyone's getting ready for the health care debate to leave DC and go to the streets.

- Jon Cohn says the debate will be won or lost in August.

- An NYT editorial on Friday took on the injustice of the Bush-era immigration detention centers that still exist.

- The WaPo reported on warrantless ICE raids of private homes in search of individual undocumented immigrants.

- Obama is considering transferring some Guantanamo detainees to another facility within the purview of US law.

- The second part of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's series on the 2008 election came out today.  This episode focuses on McCain's choice of Sarah Palin.

- John Doerr and Jeff Immelt see a "competitivity crisis" in America, particularly on green tech.

- The Obama squad hit the Sunday shows, identifying signs of recovery but seeing a long road ahead.

- The military is researching the power of the hunch in finding IEDs.

- India has no intention of making commitments to cut emissions in the next ten years.

- Six Americans and three allied troops were killed in Afghanistan over the weekend.

- Mexico is considering decriminalizing posession of small amounts of narcotics.

- John McCain sees the GOPs deficit with Hispanics as a problem.  Good on him:

- Politico tells it how it is: Obama's poll numbers are at normal levels.

- GDP growth (shrinkage) numbers for the second quarter come out today.  Obama braces for impact. 

- Hope you weren't holding your breath: Baucus says no health care bill from Finance until after recess.

- A report released yesterday by NY AG Andrew Cuomo says thousands of bankers were paid millions of dollars in bonuses last year, even after their firms had taken cash from the government.

- Paul Krugman sees general misinformation as a huge hurdle to health care reform.

- Thousands returned to the Tehran streets on Thursday, to mourn those lost forty days ago in the initial uprising.

- Stanley McChrystal has big ideas about how to shift strategy in Afghanistan.  He may be asking for more troops.

- Barack's birthday is coming up.  What do you get for the man who already has a nuclear arsenal?

- Last, the Daily Show reports on a poor Larchmont man who can't sell his house:

- Felix Rohatyn and Everett Ehrlich write in the FT in support of a National Infrastructure Bank, something our own Michael Moynihan has advocated for.

- New polling reveals a growing skepticism about the plan to reform health care.

- A bipartisan group of senators is looking to trim about $100 billion from their proposal.

- Karen Tumulty got a long interview with the president on health care.

- In his ever-cheery "Dr. Doom" column, Nouriel Roubini wonders if a weak recovery will lead us in to chronic stagnation.

- Our friend Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of DFID in the UK, spoke on NPR this morning about the importance of talking to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

- Iranian riot police broke up a peaceful mourning ceremony yesterday, forcing opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi to leave.

- The Chinese are bad bosses in Africa.

- Last, who's up for a little autotune the news?  Its a couple weeks old, but it's still fresh:

- Sonia Sotomayor cleared the Judiciary Committee.  Lindsay Graham was the only Republican to support her.

- The housing crash may be beginning to end.

- Felix Salmon isn't ready to be optimistic yet.

- David Leonhardt argues for the importance of establishing a health care tax.

- Ezra Klein's latest in the WaPo on health care.  He speaks out in favor of, among other things, Senator Wyden's Free Choice Act.

- The CBO says good things about the Senate's forthcoming healthcare bill.

- Sarah Palin may be going into radio. She'll do great alongside Rush and Imus. 

- Two students in Kenya have built a small, cheap device from junkyard scraps that allows people to charge their mobile phones using their bicycles.

- Roger Simon tells you the 21 things you can't say to Barack Obama.

- Last, as if we needed more evidence that Lou Dobbs is a bigot who shouldn't be on television, Rachel Maddow asks some tough questions:

- While GOP Senators on the Judiciary Committee will vote against Sonia Sotomayor today, the Chair of the DNC will be addressing the NCLR Conference in Spanish.  Politico is right to see this as a big day for Dems among Latinos.

- The WaPo reports that the government's campaign to keep people in their homes has been less successful than it might have been, because lenders have an incentive to foreclose.

- Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi has called on his followers to flood the streets during a festival next week.

- President Obama opened the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialgogue yesterday here in Washington. There's a palpable sense that the fate of the world economy rests on US-China cooperation.

- Hundreds of thousands have returned to their homes in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, but the wealthy landowners are still staying away.

- President Obama put his juggling skills to work in convincing FIFA to bring the World Cup back to the US in the next decade.  Now there's an initiative I can really get behind.

- Last, more of these "birthers." A guy wanders the Hill, asking Congresspeople if they believe their president is an American citizen:

- The NYT writes that the question of subsidies is central to the health care debate. Will the proposed plans be affordable for currently uninsured middle and lower-middle income families, even with the subsidy?

- Nancy Pelosi is confident her bill will win.

- The Politico squad is forecasting a stormy August, with a high chance of health care debate.

- David Leonhardt has a must-read asking how doctors can be best compensated.

- So does Ezra Klein on the tortured politics of health care.

- Krugman beats back those who see free markets as the only fix for health care.

- The U.S. government is on its way to owning a third of Citigroup.

- Our stupid immigration system is scaring away many of the most qualified people in our economy.

- Secretaries Clinton and Geithner co-author an op-ed describing a new approach to China.

- The Times Mag has a long profile of Valerie Jarrett.

Do you, dear reader, have any thoughts on this new format?  Is it better? Worse? Easier to read? Harder?  An essential part of your morning?  Totally useless? I'd greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

- And last, President Obama speaking on the new approach to China:

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was a surprise speaker at the TED Conference in Oxford this week. The themes of his talk will be familiar to regular readers of this blog and friends of NDN. From the TED site:

We're at a unique moment in history, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: we can use today's interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic -- and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy.

Check out some of our deep thoughts on these subjects at the links below, but first, enjoy the talk:

A Laptop in Every Backpack
by Alec Ross and Simon Rosenberg, 2007
A single global communications network, composed of Internet, mobile, SMS, cable and satellite technology, is rapidly tying the world’s people together as never before. The core premise of this paper is that the emergence of this network is one of the seminal events of the early 21st century.

Harnessing the Mobile Revolution
by Tom Kalil, 2008
In recent years, the use of mobile phones and other mobile communications in developing countries has skyrocketed, and Kalil takes a look at the power of mobile technologies in addressing some of our most pressing challenges, such as reducing the huge inequities in life expectancy between rich and poor countries, fostering inclusive economic growth, and promoting vibrant democracies.

- The pressure is still on health care, as President Obama is getting some serious pushback from his friends on the hill.

- Nancy Pelosi would rather not have a deadline in August, and would rather not abide by the deals President Obama laid out with the health care industry.

- Even as Obama runs into trouble here in the US, his presidency is helping views of America overseas.

- The Dow topped 9,000 for the first time since January.

- A massive corruption investigation in New Jersey closed on its targets yesterday, as 44 individuals were arrested, including three mayors, two state assemblymen, and five rabbis!

- Lindsay Graham is supporting Sonia Sotomayor, and not supporting the crazy right wing.

- The latest from Nico on Iran: members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet walked out on him in protest.

- As Sarah Palin approaches departure, she manages to become even less popular.

- Simon has an op-ed published by British think tank Demos as part of the new Open Left project. I dare say it's a must-read.

- Last, continuing with our "birthers" theme, here's Jon Stewart going to town: