Sunday News Roundup

++Jason Linkins provides all you need to know about the Sunday talk shows. He talks about his boss on McLaughlin Report probably being stoned and craving pizza. This week, some black people got to appear instead of the ancient, old white men to discuss the meaning of Nelson Mandela.

++Over 3.7 million have visited the Obamacare website and now the talk shows are asking whether enough young people will enroll.

++The week saw a slight uptick in the progressive agenda. Minimum wage fights are breaking out in local areas. Elizabeth Warren fought back against the "Third Way" crowd, pointing to their funding from banks. The Holy Writ of austerity by cutting Medicare and Social Security was damaged this week as more Democrats are arguing for an enlargement in Social Security. This is a seachange in the national debate.

++Chuck Hagel is in Kabul to secure the ever-elusive security pact with Afghanistan.

++John Kerry brought to Israel the details of secuity arrangments for an Israeli-Palestianian deal.

++President Obama appeared at the Saban Institute here in Washington,D.C. to argue that an Iranian deal is about 50-50 and maybe less.

++John Kerry appeared later at the same forum and was more hopeful than President Obama.

++Bibi Netanyahu said if Iran is nuclear, there will be no Palestinian peace deal. His coalition partners are urging him to get serious.

++The Ukraine has the largest protests since 2004. 

++Meanwhile in the Party of No Ideas, Rand Paul says that extending long-term unemployment benefits would be unfair to those workers,the Tea Party gang wants to block another budget deal,one-third of the delegates to the Virginia Republican Party convention believe Medicare is unconstitutional. The John Birch Society met yesterday at Mount Vernon to discuss how subversive the Right can become.

++Rand Paul offered ingenious solutions to Detroit. He wants the city to become like Saipan and attract foreign investors who would have a tax holiday. Meanwhile Christie's valued the Detroit Art Institute's art collection as worth about $1 billion--peanuts for the total debt of the city. Be assured the wealthy will get it for their private collections.

++Naomi Klein slams Nelson Mandela for adopting a neo-liberal capitalist model for South Africa as if in his two-terms he could preserve the peace and confiscate all the industries.

++Rand Paul won't say he is running for President. Elizabeth Warren said she is definitely not. Bernie Sanders said he might if no progressive runs for the Democratic nomination.

++The Times laments the state of South Africa, even though black South Africans feel better. This seems to be the new meme for the post-Mandela mourning. The man was great but didn't do enough. Maybe Romney will beat him next time.

++The relatively good economic news this week brought crickets from my conservative friends. They tell me "Wait until February." They still believe in hyperinflation and that there will be another crash. 

++Thomas Friedman of the NY Times this morning won another Friedman Unit--a term a blogger coined for every inanity he writes. Friedman claims the bad educational scores of our country indicates there is too much power among Teachers' Labor Unions and too many entitlement programs. Maybe he can join Rand Paul in re-creating Saipan in Detroit.