The Short List

• Protests continue around the Middle East, in the wake of Tunisia's and Egypt's revolutions.  Egypt's military rulers have selected retired judge, Tareq al-Bishry, to lead a committee in consider constitutional changes.  The Economist's Lexington columnist reflects on U.S. involvement in the Middle East over the past 20 years and opportunities in the future.  Meanwhile, we're not sure if Roger Simon is trying to be ironic or a twerp with a column that confirms Politico's status as a rag publication.


• As Secretary of State Clinton will lay out a State Department plan to foster internet independence.  Meanwhile, Facebook is less revolutionary force and more corporate bystander.  **Editorial Note:  The juxtaposition of these two articles is exactly the kind of blind cyber-utopianism that Evgeny Morozov warns us about in The Net Delusion (DCExile book review forthcoming).**


• A judge in Ecuador ruled that Chevron needs to pay $9 billion to compensate various groups over pollution to remote parts of the Ecuadorean jungle.  Appeals by both the winning and the losing side are expected.


• Over 200 people were killed in South Sudan, after a renegade militia attacked.


• Marc Grossman has been selected to replace the late Richard Holbrooke as AfPak Special Envoy.