In keeping with my woefully outdated philosophy of what makes a lede story, here is my pseudo-front page for this evening:
- Obama Pushes for More Regulation, Extends Oil Drilling Moratorium (WSJ) — Meanwhile, the BBC spin on the story is that “Obama defends oil spill response,” while back at the WSJ‘s opinion pages, Karl Rove is gleefully writing that “Yes, the Gulf Spill Is Obama’s Katrina.”
- Setback Delays ‘Top Kill’ Effort to Seal Leaking Oil Well in Gulf (NYT) — Meanwhile, in a related story… “Gulf Spill Bigger Than Valdez, Estimate Shows.”
- New U.S. Security Strategy Focuses on Managing Threats (NYT) — It has plenty of slap-Bush lines for President Obama’s own peanut gallery, but also contains strong elements of the pragmatic continuity that I’ve praised in the past (and which drives his base nuts).
- Apple Tops Microsoft in the Market (WSJ) — OK, yeah, this is now more than 24 hours old. But I missed it yesterday, so I’m just gonna man up and admit it and run this stale story on my front anyway, because it’s huge. Of course, this still doesn’t mean that Mac won out over PC. It’s a measure of handheld mania, and the fact that Apple always has the hottest such gadgets, from iPod to iPhone to iPad to iPhedupfromhearingaboutit.
- ‘Kids Say The Darndest Things’ Host Linkletter Dies (NPR) — Yeah, I didn’t know he was still around, either. He was 97, so he’d been retired awhile.
- Website Editors Strive To Rein In Nasty Comments (NPR) — Now here’s a talker that’s near and dear to my own heart.
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Re; No. 6—the hardest part for me is realizing those people are out there, and when it’s a local site, that I might meet them.
I’m glad you are able to see the pragmatism in the President’s national security strategy document despite the fact that it seems to be a pretty clear rejection of the neoconservative/unilaterist approach to foreign policy that you’ve generally endorsed since you’ve been doing the blog.
The most decisive statement of that change of direction comes from counterterrorism advisor John Brennan: “our enemy is not terrorism, because terrorism is but a tactic. Our enemy is not terror, because terror is a state of mind and, as Americans, we refuse to live in fear…Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists,” Brennan said, because use of these religious terms would “play into the false perception” that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are “religious leaders and defending a holy cause, when in fact, they are nothing more than murderers.”
“The United States is at war,” he said. “We are at war against al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates.”
As somebody else said on a blog somewhere, just because Osama bin Laden wants a religious war doesn’t mean we have to give him one.
Brad, I know you don’t put much stock in the TV spin shows (Oreilly, Olberman, etc) but last night Rachel Maddow had a terrific and, completely non-partisan, piece on the progress at the world trade center site. She rode up an elevator to what will become the 20th floor of World Trade Center 1, (formerly known as the Freedom Tower). Her host, the chief engineer over the WTC 1 project, pointed out the various aspects of the ongoing work. The WTC site is now the world’s largest construction project.
In addition to WTC 1 there is considerable progress on the memorial project. The two footprint fountains are clearly visible from Rachel’s WTC 1 vantage point. There is also significant work on the transportation hub and another of the skyscrappers.
There is a long way to go and progress has been slow but there is now visible and extensive progress on the reconstruction work. Hopefully the memorial will be finished by 9/11/11. It will be tight but if they don’t make it it won’t be for a lack of effort and enthusiasm.