Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• In G.O.P. Race, Foreign Policy is Mainly a Footnote - NYTimes.com

  Herman Cain suggested that Israel’s conservative prime minister would be open to allowing Palestinians right of return to the lands they fled in what is now Israel. Gov. Rick Perry suggested it was possible that American troops could be sent to Mexico if drug violence there got worse. And former Senator Rick Santorum offered that the United States should engage with the ousted Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf — now living in self-exile in London — to respond to the threat of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands.

• Wikileaks: Obama responds to leaks with executive order to close security gaps

  President Obama is set to issue an executive order Friday aimed at closing the widespread security gaps exposed when WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified government documents last year. The National Journal, which was given an advance copy of the order, reports that it makes individual federal agencies primarily responsible for safeguarding their information, and issues instructions on how to do so. It also includes provisions for internal psychological profiling in the form of an Insider Threat Task Force, which will ascertain whether those agencies handling classified information can, in the words of the Journal, "weed out the malcontents and people whose behavior suggest they cannot handle sensitive information appropriately."

• Occupy Wall Street protests ramp up in New York, elsewhere - The Washington Post

  The long-running New York protest against economic inequality and perceived Wall Street excesses gained momentum Wednesday as union members joined marchers in Lower Manhattan, while students at several colleges walked out of classes in solidarity and like-minded organizers completed plans to bring the fight to Washington.

• What Occupy DC wants: Less corporate money in politics - The Washington Post

  On Monday, about 20 people gathered to join Occupy DC’s midday meeting in Washington’s McPherson Square, some of whom have been camped out since early Saturday morning. The group ranged from white-collar professionals on their lunch break to unemployed workers and students, one of whom was changing clothes beneath a tree in the park. Occupy DC has no defined policy agenda or demands. But when asked why they showed up, many participants could agree on one thing: corporations have too much influence over the political system

• Pfizer plant to produce 1 billion pills in Kingdom - Arab News

  RIYADH: Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) signed an agreement in Riyadh on Monday with leading biopharmaceutical company Pfizer for the establishment of a multimillion dollar manufacturing plant with a capacity to produce around 1 billion tablets and capsules a year. The agreement was inked between SAGIA adviser Prince Saud bin Khaled Al-Faisal and Guy Lallemand, regional president of Pfizer for Africa and Middle East for Pharmaceutical Businesses, at the Faisaliah Hotel on Monday.

• The Guy Who Chose Sarah Palin as VP Tells Rachel Maddow it Was a Mistake, She's Not Qualified to be Prez | Death and Taxes

  Steve Schmidt is a senior Republican Strategist. As John McCain’s Campaign Strategist in 2008 he was the guy principally responsible for selecting Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP nominee. Two nights ago he appeared on the Rachel Maddow show and told her that selecting Palin was a “failure” of the VP vetting process based on the criterion that the VP must be qualified to become president.

  • Steve Schmidt is a senior Republican Strategist. As John McCain’s Campaign Strategist in 2008 he was the guy principally responsible for selecting Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP nominee. Two nights ago he appeared on the Rachel Maddow show and told her that selecting Palin was a “failure” of the VP vetting process based on the criterion that the VP must be qualified to become president.

• Egypt's military rulers back down on election law, but concerns persist - CSMonitor.com

  Under fierce pressure from a range of political parties, Egypt’s interim military rulers agreed to meet some demands for electoral reform and laid out a tentative timeline for transition to civilian rule on Saturday.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.