Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Current Contributors are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999 and NeonVincent who also serves as chief cat herder.
GOP Follies
- Rewrite, Sugarcoat, Ignore: 8 Ways Conservatives Misremember American History—for Partisan Gain
The Nation - The mortgage crisis began in 2006 and it’s all President Obama’s fault—at least according to Fox News host Sean Hannity. Hannity recently blamed Obama—“his policies, his economic plan, his fault”—for the mortgage crisis, ignoring who was actually president (that would be George W. Bush) as the housing market slipped.
Hannity’s is just one example of the selective memory and historical revision frequently on display in the conservative movement. Right-wing pundits, politicians and pseudo-historians are nibbling away at objective historical truths to rewrite history for present-day purposes, and hardly any topic is off-limits: glorifying the “Reagan Revolution” to children, sugarcoating the Jim Crow South and revising textbooks to offer a favorable view on Phyllis Schlafly—among many others.
Below, read about eight ways in which conservatives try to rewrite, sugarcoat or ignore aspects of American history.
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- After Earthquake and Hurricane, Bachmann Says: 'I Don't Know How Much God Has to Do to Get the Attention of the Politicians'
The Nation - After last week’s East Coast earthquake and then the havoc wrecked by Hurricane Irene, the Minnesota congresswoman told a Florida crowd: “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ ”
That’s a clear turn toward the biblical by the already reasonably biblical Bachmann, who has taken her “last days” turns. And it might be seen as an attempt to counter the rising strength of Texas Governor Rick Perry—who seems to be drawing the more wide-eyed members of the GOP base away from the congresswoman.
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- Colin Powell and the Lone Cowboy
some new favorite Powell quotes this weekend, when he went on “Face the Nation” to talk about Dick Cheney’s charming new book. “I think Dick overshot the runway,” Powell said, with the “cheap shots that he’s taking at me and other members of the Administration.” One of the many things that bothered Powell was Cheney’s complaint that he didn’t support the President:
Well, who went to the United Nations and, regrettably, with a lot of false information? It was me. It wasn’t Mr. Cheney.
Cheney was peddling the false information—does that count? Schieffer said afterward that Powell struck him as “truly, I think, offended about what he read in this book.” He was also bothered by how Cheney described Condoleezza Rice with
an almost condescending tone—she “tearfully” did this…. It’s not necessary to take these kinds of barbs.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/...
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And if you haven't seen Powell speak about Cheney from Face the Nation Sunday, check it out at the New Yorker Link.
Libya and the Region
- Applying the Libya 'Model' to Syria and Iran
The Nation - The New York Times carries a piece titled: “U.S. Tactics in Libya May Be a Model for Other Efforts.” By model, of course, they mean the mobilization of lethal force, including coordinated bombing attacks and precision missile strikes, tied closely to rebel military tactics, jointly run by the United States and NATO. In it, President Obama’s advisers—including Ben Rhodes, the humanitarian interventionist hawk who supported the U.S. war in Libya—suggest that the Libyan action might easily be applied elsewhere. “How much we translate to Syria remains to be seen,” says one adviser, anonymously. And the Times notes:
“The very fact that the administration has joined with the same allies that it banded with on Libya to call for Mr. Assad to go and to impose penalties on his regime could take the United States one step closer to applying the Libya model toward Syria.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Syrian rebels, stymied by Assad’s heavy-handed repression, are increasingly debating calls for taking up arms and asking the United States and NATO to intervene militarily
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Map courtesey of Voices.
- Gaddafi family members flee to Algeria
Al-Jazeera - Muammar Gaddafi's second wife, two of his sons and his daughter have entered Algeria, according to the Algerian foreign ministry.
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However, it gave no information on the toppled Libyan leader, whose whereabouts has remained a mystery since fighters opposed to his government seized control of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, last week.
Algeria said their arrival had been reported to the United Nations and to the head of Libya's Transitional National Council [NTC], now widely recognised internationally as the country's legitimate government.
But an NTC spokesman accused Algeria, Libya's western neighbour, of an act of aggression and said the council would seek the extradition of Gaddafi's family members.
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- Algeria and Libya rebels meet to ease row-report
ALGIERS Aug 29 (Reuters) - Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci has held talks with a top Libyan rebel official, the highest-level contact in months of fraught relations between Libya's new leadership and their Algerian neighbours.
Algeria is the only one of Libya's North African neighbours which has yet to recognise the National Transitional Council, Libya's de facto government after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi .
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- Video: Dissent in Libya against NTC nominations
- US 'wasted $30bn on Afghanistan and Iraq' over decade
BBC - The US government has wasted $30bn (£18bn) in contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade, according to a bi-partisan spending commission.
The commission on wartime contracting blamed an over-reliance on contractors, poor planning and fraud for the waste.
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Writing in the Washington Post, the report's authors warn that investments in the two countries could be wasted even after US involvement there ends. (ENDS??? BL)
... The commission's report is due to be published on Wednesday
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For more on this subject, check out the Daily Kos Group Eyes on Egypt and the Region.
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More News
- Vermont, New Jersey flooded as Irene spares NYC
(Reuters) - New Jersey and Vermont struggled with their worst flooding in decades on Monday, a day after Hurricane Irene slammed an already soaked U.S. Northeast with torrential rain, dragging away homes and submerging neighborhoods underwater.
The massive storm churned up the U.S. East Coast over the weekend killing at least 38 people in 11 states, in addition to three who died in the Dominican Republic and one in Puerto Rico when the storm was still in the Caribbean, authorities said.
Spared from Irene's worst fury, New York City went back to work on Monday despite a partially crippled mass transit system and power outages that left 100,000 customers in the metropolitan area and nearly 1 million in the state without electricity.
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- Judge blocks Alabama immigration law to buy time
By Peggy Gargis
BIRMINGHAM, Ala | Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:37pm EDT
(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked Alabama's tough new immigration law from taking effect this week, making it the latest U.S. state to have a measure on illegal immigration halted in court.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn cited the need for more time to consider the legal challenges against the law in an injunction that blocks implementation of the law through September 29.
"In entering this order the court specifically notes that it is in no way addressing the merits of the motions," the judge wrote in her two-page order.
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The Alabama law, widely seen as the toughest state measure on illegal immigration, requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the United States illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.
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- Firefighters make progress against blaze near Yosemite
(Reuters) - Firefighters battling a forest fire near Yosemite National Park since last week have manage to encircle about a third of the blaze, but a main road into the park remained cut off, officials said on Monday.
Apparently ignited by an explosion in a motor home last Thursday, the blaze has torched 4,755 acres and forced the closure of state Route 140 west of the park, said Tim Ludington, a spokesman for the fire management team.
Numerous campgrounds along the Merced River in the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests have been shut down, as has the privately owned Cedar Lodge resort on Highway 140 in the town of El Portal, Ludington said.
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- Virginia quake may have exceeded nuclear plant design
(Reuters) - The historic earthquake that shut Dominion Resources Inc's North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia last week may have shaken the facility more than it was designed to withstand, the U.S. nuclear regulator said on Monday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had sent a special inspection team to the plant rocked by the 5.8-magnitude quake, after initial reviews from Dominion indicated the ground motion may have exceeded North Anna's design parameters.
The plant cannot be restarted until the operator can show no "functional damage" occurred to equipment needed for safe operation, the NRC said.
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