The Ledes

Friday, October 11, 2024

Washington Post: “Floridians began returning to damaged and waterlogged homes on Thursday after Hurricane Milton carved a path of destruction and grief across the state, the second massive storm to strike Florida in as many weeks. At least 14 storm-related deaths were attributed to the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.”

Washington Post: “Twelve people were rescued from an inactive Colorado gold mine after they were trapped 1,000 feet underground for about six hours following an elevator malfunction. One person was killed in the accident, which happened about 500 feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek, Colo., Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at a Thursday news conference. The site is a tourist attraction. Eleven other people aboard the elevator at the time, including two children, were rescued shortly after the mechanical malfunction, which Mikesell said 'created a severe danger for the participants.' He said four suffered minor injuries.... Twelve others in a separate group remained trapped in a mine shaft 1,000 feet underground for several hours after the incident, before they were rescued Thursday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Monday
May052014

The Commentariat -- May 6, 2014

Internal links, graphic removed.

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama has signed up for eight interviews with TV meteorologists on Tuesday to defend a landmark report against those who deny climate change. The interviews were scheduled as part of a carefully co-ordinated rollout of the National Climate Assessment. The exhaustively detailed account of the impact of climate change on America will be formally launched at the White House on Tuesday."

Conservative Justices: Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In cases raising First Amendment claims, a new study found, Justice Scalia voted to uphold the free speech rights of conservative speakers at more than triple the rate of liberal ones.... Social science calls this kind of thing 'in-group bias.' ... Lee Epstein, a political scientist and law professor who conducted the new study with two colleagues, said it showed the justices to be 'opportunistic free speech advocates.' ... The Roberts court's more liberal members 'present a more complex story,' the study found. All supported free expression more often when the speaker was liberal, but the results were statistically significant only for Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010. In the case of Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the difference was negligible." ...

... Conservative Justices: Freedom of Religion for Me but Not for Thee. Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "Stopping just short of abandoning a historic barrier to religion in government activity, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled on Monday that local governments may open their meetings with prayers that are explicitly religious and may turn out to be largely confined to expressing the beliefs of one faith." (Emphasis added.)

... what we find here is that the principal dissent's objection, in the end, is really quite niggling. -- Justice Samuel Alito, on Justice Elena Kagan's dissent, in an opinion concurring with Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Greece v. Galloway

An accurate translation is too offensive to write. -- Constant Weader

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "... not only did the court move the goal posts — from now on sectarian prayer will be permissible until it isn't -- but it also threw out the rule book and benched all the refs.... From now on we just do as the religious majorities say, so long as nobody is being damned or converted.... Alito and Kennedy ... [ha]ve reimagined the refusal of dissenters to either pray along or remove themselves from the room -- but in any event to stop kvetching -- as civic rudeness." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "In what legal experts are calling a landmark decision, on Monday the United States Supreme Court struck down what many believe to be the main reason the country was started. By a five-to-four vote, the Court eliminated what grade-school children have traditionally been taught was one of the key rationales for founding the United States in the first place. 'The separation of church and state has been a cornerstone of American democracy for over two hundred years,' said Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority. 'Getting rid of it was long overdue.'"

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court Monday decided once again to stay out of the legal battle over whether some states are too restrictive in issuing permits to carry a handgun outside the home. The justices without comment turned down a request to review whether New Jersey's law requiring 'justifiable need' to get a handgun permit infringes on Second Amendment rights."

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The death rate in Massachusetts dropped significantly after it adopted mandatory health care coverage in 2006, a study released Monday found, offering evidence that the country's first experiment with universal coverage -- and the model for crucial parts of President Obama's health care law...." ...

... Nick Budnick of the Oregonian (Friday): "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened at least a preliminary inquiry into Cover Oregon.... The law enforcement arm of the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also launched at least a preliminary inquiry into potential spillover from Cover Oregon into the state's Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan, The Oregonian has learned. Meanwhile, both the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. House oversight committee [that would be Darrell Issa] have announced their own investigations." ...

... Liz Kowalczyk of the Boston Globe: "Massachusetts plans to completely scrap the state's dysfunctional online health insurance website, deciding that it would be too expensive and time-consuming to fix the overwhelming number of flaws. Instead, officials will buy an off-the-shelf product used by several other states to enroll residents in health plans, while simultaneously preparing to join the federal HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace if that product fails." ...

... CW: It's hard to remain as baffled by the Healthcare.gov meltdown when you learn that state exchanges, which should be relatively easier to design, had such major fails, too. (Maryland is giving up on their system, too.) ...

... Jenna Levy of Gallup: "The uninsured rate for U.S. adults in April was 13.4%, down from 15.0% in March. This is the lowest monthly uninsured rate recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008.... This downward trend in the uninsured rate coincided with the health insurance marketplace exchanges opening in October 2013, and accelerated as the March 31 deadline to purchase health insurance coverage approached...." ...

... Reducing the number of uninsured Americans is not a goal in itself. The point of helping people get health insurance is to protect them from crippling medical bills, stabilize their finances, and give them access to health care when they need it. Raw numbers on coverage are just one indicator of progress towards that goal. But they're a pretty important one. -- Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic

Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory [sic] sign ups for 'train rides' for Jews in the 40s. -- Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) ...

... Apparently this sick fuck elected official has not apologized. -- Constant Weader ...

... And he won't. Steve M. has some background on this sick fuck "obsessive-compulsive troll" elected official.

... Mark Trumbull of the Christian Science Monitor: "The American public is now evenly split in its opinion of the Affordable Care Act, an improvement in the law's standing, according to a new Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll. Some 47 percent of American adults support the law known as Obamacare, and 47 percent are opposed, finds the poll, conducted between April 26 and May 1."

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: Michele Leonhart, "the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, is refusing to support a bill backed by the Obama administration that would lower the length of mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug crimes, putting her at odds with her boss Attorney General Eric Holder on one of the criminal justice reform initiatives he hopes to make a centerpiece of his legacy.... Leonhart was originally confirmed as deputy administrator of the DEA during the Bush administration in 2004, but was nominated to take over the agency by President Barack Obama over the objections of many drug policy reformers."

... The president chose his economic team, and when there was only so much time and so much money to go around, his economic team chose Wall Street instead of American families who were in trouble. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a HuffPost interview

... Greg Gordon of McClatchy News: "Declaring that 'there is no such thing as "too big to jail,'" Attorney General Eric Holder hinted on May 5th that the Justice Department is ready and willing to impose criminal sanctions on major banks or other financial institutions":

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House has pressured the chief executives of some of America's largest energy, financial and industrial corporations into canceling plans to attend an international economic forum in Russia to be hosted by President Vladimir V. Putin this month, the latest effort to isolate Moscow in retaliation for its intervention in Ukraine."

Alex Rogers of Time: "Congressional Democrats launched a unified attack on Monday against the newly announced special House committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks as a political ploy that will waste taxpayer money, while Republicans defended the committee as a necessary next step in the investigation of a terrorist attack that killed a U.S. ambassador." ...

... ** Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "If you compare the costs of the Reagan Administration's serial security lapses in Beirut to the costs of Benghazi, it's clear what has really deteriorated in the intervening three decades. It's not the security of American government personnel working abroad. It's the behavior of American congressmen at home." CW: A must-read.

Dean Obeidallah of the Daily Beast: "... when I first heard the outrage from some on the right to comedian Joel McHale and President Obama's jokes at the WHCD, I could only assume they were joking.... I might have more sympathy for the conservatives upset by Obama and McHale’s 'mean' jokes if I heard them denounce the truly hateful crap spewed in the past by people in their camp. Instead, we heard Rush Limbaugh's despicable comments calling Sandra Fluke a 'slut' and a 'prostitute' defended by Rick Santorum because he views Limbaugh as an 'entertainer.'" ...

... Speaking of Santorum: Let's not make this argument that we're for the blue-collar guy but we're against any minimum wage increase ever. It just makes no sense.... If the Republicans want to go out and say, 'we're against the minimum wage,' then go out and make the argument to the American public and the 80-some percent of the American public who believes we should have a minimum wage. -- Rick Santorum, in a "Morning Joe" appearance

Rick Santorum is more liberal than the vast majority of current U.S. Senators. That's heartening. -- Constant Weader ...

... AND Here's a Movie Santorum Should Watch. Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "Emily Letts, a 25-year-old abortion counselor at a clinic in New Jersey, knew that she wanted to use her own abortion story to help other woman making their own decisions about whether to end a pregnancy.... In an essay published on Cosmopolitan.com, Letts explains that she decided to film her procedure after trying and failing to find a video of a surgical abortion online.... Her video ... shows her doing some deep breathing and humming during the short procedure, as well as talking things over with the staff in the room." ...

... In her Cosmopolitian essay, Letts writes, "I had never been political about abortion rights before, but the idea of helping women through an abortion and supporting them and reassuring them that they are still wonderful and beautiful resoated deeply with me." ...

... Letts says in the video, "I just want to share my story." So we're sharing:

Annals of American "Journalism," Ctd.

To Fox "News," "Those People" All Look Alike. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: In a story about the Korean ferry's sinking, Fox "News" aired footage of Nepalese mourning the loss of Sherpa guides in a Mount Everest avalanche.

To the New York Times, Conservatives & Liberals All Look Alike. CW: After you read Adam Liptak's story on the justices' biases, linked above, read what Steve M. has to say about the way Liptak frames the results for conservative & liberal justices. Steve is absolutely right. I had to cherrypick Liptak's story to present an accurate picture of the findings of the study he's reporting.

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "... numbers, pulled from every Fox transcript on Nexis for the dates in question, tells the story of what happens when it becomes clear that Obamacare is succeeding." Thanks to James S. for the link/

 

Beyond the Beltway

John Clarke of Reuters: "Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley on Monday approved a gradual hike in the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour as fellow Democrats seek to make raising the wage an issue ahead of this year's midterm congressional elections.... Maryland joins California, Hawaii, Connecticut and the District of Columbia in passing legislation or signing into law increases in the minimum wage."

CW: Aw, I just cain't keep up with the Bundys. Joe Schoenmann of the Las Vegas Sun: "Surrounded by reporters and supporters, Cliven Bundy's family protested peacefully in front of the Metro Police department this morning and filed criminal complaints against the federal Bureau of Land Management for assault and other alleged offenses." ...

     ... Among their complaints: BLM officers were impersonating police officers. The story by Henry Brean of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is more detailed, but I'm not citing it because the company that owns the paper is a well-known "copyright troll," "named after its practice of scouring the internet for 'violations' in order to make a profit." The Review-Journal owner loses in court, but I can't afford the nuisance suit.

It is not our practice to take crime reports on law enforcement agencies conducting a law enforcement function. In this case, the Bureau of Land Management is a recognized federal law enforcement agency. -- Las Vegas Metro police, in a statement

Mireya Navarro & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "New York City will commit $8.2 billion in public funds to a 10-year housing plan that could transform the cityscape from Cypress Hills in Brooklyn to the shores of the Harlem River, while providing affordable homes to thousands of low- to middle-income residents, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday. In embracing a vision for a denser New York, the mayor intends to require, not simply encourage, developers to include affordable units in residential projects in newly rezoned areas around the city."

William Rashbaum & Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have issued a grand jury subpoena seeking emails, text messages and other records from all the members of the anticorruption commission that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly shut down in March, three people briefed on the matter said on Monday. The action by prosecutors from the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, comes just weeks after he took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the governor's shutdown of the panel and took possession of its investigative files."

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "An Occupy Wall Street activist is facing up to seven years in prison after being convicted by a jury in Manhattan of assaulting a New York police officer as he led her out of a protest. Cecily McMillan was on Monday afternoon found guilty of deliberately elbowing Officer Grantley Bovell in the face in March 2012. After a trial lasting more than four weeks, the jury of eight women and four men reached their verdict in about three hours." ...

... ** Molly Knefel of the Guardian: "While this is nothing new for the over-policed communities of New York City, what happened to McMillan reveals just how powerful and unrestrained a massive police force can be...."

Congressional Races

Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: "The primary season is truly upon us as North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana host primaries today. Twenty-five states will hold primaries in the next six weeks and today's key one to watch will take us into a fight that will play out all over this country in the coming weeks: the establishment GOP vs. the Tea Party and whether the establishment can finally put down the Tea Party rebellion and re-take the Senate. We'll also watch as a possible 2016 proxy fight between Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, and even Mike Huckabee erupts in North Carolina."

Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "A slew of May primary battles begins Tuesday as the Republican establishment looks to reassert its control over a divided GOP in a number of states. Its first big test comes in North Carolina, where business-friendly GOP groups have gone all-in for House Speaker Thom Tillis as he seeks to avoid a primary election runoff and turn his focus to Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). The race is a top priority for the GOP as it seeks to win back the Senate."

Presidential Race

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Fearful of a third successive Democratic triumph, concerned Senate Republicans are turning against 2016 presidential bids by upstart hopefuls within their own ranks. In forceful comments to The Hill, GOP senators made it plain that they would much prefer their party nominate a current or former governor over Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.) or Rand Paul (Ky.). CW: Bolton gets senators on the record arguing that senators don't make good candidates."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "An international uproar mounted Tuesday over the fate of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants in mid-April, with the Obama administration preparing to send a team of specialists to Nigeria to help recover the missing girls and U.N. officials warning that the kidnappers could face arrest, prosecution and prison under international law."

Guardian: "Ukraine is close to war, the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has warned in interviews published in four European newspapers on Tuesday. Dozens are feared to have died in clashes outside Slavyansk on Monday as Ukrainian troops clashed with pro-Russia separatists."

Comments Off
Sunday
May042014

The Commentariat -- May 5, 2014

Internal links removed.

NPR: Cinco de Mayo is mostly a U.S. production. Except in the village of Puebla, Mexico, the holiday in not celebrated by Mexicans.

Christian Nation, Ctd. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a town in upstate New York may begin its public meetings with a prayer from a 'chaplain of the month.' Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 5-to-4 decision, said 'ceremonial prayer is but a recognition that, since this nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond that authority of government to alter or define.' In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the town's practices could not be reconciled 'with the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share of her government.'"

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "A group of wealthy liberal donors who helped bankroll the Center for American Progress and other major advocacy groups on the left is developing a new big-money strategy that could boost state-level Democratic candidates and mobilize core party voters. The plan, being crafted in private by a group of about 100 donors that includes billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and San Francisco venture capitalist Rob McKay, seeks to give Democrats a stronger hand in the redrawing of district lines for state legislatures and the U.S. House."

E. J. Dionne: "The roughly one-eighth of voters who disapprove of [President] Obama but nonetheless support [Hillary] Clinton for 2016 may be the most important group in the electorate. If Democratic candidates can collectively manage to corral Clinton's share of the national electorate this fall, the party would likely keep control of the Senate and might take over the House of Representatives."

Paul Krugman: " On Thursday, House Republicans released a deliberately misleading report on the status of health reform, crudely rigging the numbers to sustain the illusion of failure in the face of unexpected success.... Mainstream politicians didn't always try to advance their agenda through lies, damned lies and — in this case -- bogus statistics. And the fact that this has become standard operating procedure for a major party bodes ill for America's future."

Digby, in Salon: "Benghazi!™ is about portraying the Obama administration as being wimpy on terrorism, of course. But ... the Obama administration is the one that killed bin Laden and is taking down terrorists -- and anyone who might accidentally look like one, which is a whole other story -- with drone strikes all over the Middle East and Africa. (It's true that he's failed to invade a random country just to prove America's manhood, but he's still got a couple of years.) ... The Obama administration has made not one single move on terrorism with which the right would normally quarrel. But they simply cannot admit that this or one of their most important organizing principles is off the table: National security is as fundamental to them as low taxes and gun rights.... So they're ... making a national security scandal up out of whole cloth. But this isn't about Obama, not really. They have another Clinton to kick around and her involvement in Benghazi!™ as secretary of state gave them a perfect opportunity to dust off the old scandal sheet music and brush up on those old songs." ...

... Michael Hirsh of Politico: "The Benghazi-Industrial Complex is here to stay, fueled by a mania on the right to somehow, in some way, validate Issa's declaration that Obama is the 'one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times' and, above all, to tarnish Clinton ahead of 2016 by linking the former secretary of state directly to the deaths of [Ambassador Chris] Stevens and the others." ...

... John Bresnahan, et al., of Politico explain what-all the House "select committee" on Benghaaaazi! will be doing. Nancy Pelosi may not even name Democrats to the committee. CW: Even Politico writers seem to regard this latest "investigative" effort as a joke.

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "David G. Blanchflower, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, and Adam S. Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, argue in a new paper that the slow pace of wage growth is the best indicator of an incomplete economic recovery. Until wages start rising more quickly, the economy remains far from healthy. The two men also argue that the federal Reserve should focus on wage growth in calibrating its stimulus campaign because wage growth effectively summarizes other measures like unemployment and participation."

Alec MacGillis of the New Republic on what a stupendously lackadaisical regulator SEC chair Mary Jo White is. Not too surprising:

I believe there is too much bias toward Wall Street among regulators. At the time, I said I hoped she would prove me wrong. But I'm still waiting for the S.E.C. to break from the status quo and demand accountability from the financial institutions it oversees. It's time we find watchdogs outside of the very industry that they are meant to police. -- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), after voting against White's confirmation

... CW: White & her husband got super-rich defending Wall Street muckamucks. Her husband is still working his day job, as far as I know. White was a horrible choice, but I think Obama knew just what he was doing. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link to MacGillis's piece.

Gene Robinson, the former Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire, announces his pending divorce in the Daily Beast.

Katie McDonough of Salon tries to explain racism to a privileged white racist Princeton freshman. Good luck with that: "... like many white people he doesn't want to confront racism and white privilege because those things have -- and will continue to -- really, really help him out in life. And the reality is that he doesn't have to confront this stuff, either.... That's exactly how white privilege works."

Elizabeth Barber of Reuters: "Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush showed courage in breaking his 'read my lips: no new taxes' campaign pledge to broker a 1990 budget compromise that may have cost him re-election two years later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said on Sunday. The organization honored the 41st U.S. president with its 2014 Profile in Courage Award, praising the Republican leader's 'decision to put country above party and political prospects' in the deal with congressional Democrats."

Must-Not-Read "Journalism." Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political journalists known for their detailed, gossip-filled books on the past two presidential campaigns, will join Bloomberg in the coming days to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy." ...

... Speaking of lousy journalists, Joe Hagan has a profile in New York of Lara Logan. Numerous "Friends of Lara" at CBS "News" diss her -- anonymously, of course. Profiles in courage -- not. ...

... Driftglass sums up the excellent journalism evident on the Sunday shows in one sentence: "It was a Benghaaaazi-fest, with breadcrumb filler." ...

     ... AND he links to this post by Emily Smith, no doubt an excellent gossip journalist at the New York Post's Page Six: "David Gregory's tenure at 'Meet the Press' has suffered another blow after the show's long-standing producer, Chris Donovan, quit after 12 years and defected to work for ABC rival George Stephanopoulos at 'This Week.' Donovan, who started at ABC last week, was fed up with embattled Gregory and the direction of 'Meet the Press,' sources tell Page Six, which has sunk to third place in the ratings, behind CBS' 'Face the Nation' and ABC's 'This Week.'" ...

... Charles Pierce has a much longer review of "Sunday Showz" "journalism." He wants to see more entertainers & sports figures on the shows. His fave this week:

I did a little bit of research, more whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism. That's why ... why we have shows like Ghostbusters and don't have shows like Racistbuster. You know, it's something that's still part of our culture and people hold on to some of these ideas and practices just out of habit and saying that well that's the way it always was. But things have to change. -- Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, on "This Week"

I totally would watch Racistbusters. If the first episode was a two-parter at the Bundy Ranch, the ratings would be through the roof. -- Charles Pierce

... CW: Maybe Driftglass & Pierce should have watched Univision's Sunday show, where Jorge Ramos repeatedly pressed Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee on Republicans' immigration policy. As Greg Sargent reads Goodlatte's evasive, but still telling, answers, "Republicans have effectively defined their policy stance as follows: Obama is not deporting enough low level offenders with lives here, so therefore we won't embrace any form of legal status for them."

Beyond the Beltway

Tim Devaney of the Hill: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Sunday blamed the state of Oklahoma for a 'botched' execution of a death row inmate last week, but said his state will proceed with the death penalty without pause.... Texas currently has 273 people on death row. The Lone Star State has executed more than 500 people -- the most of any state -- since the Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty in 1976."

Congressional Races

Susan Page & Kendall Breitman of USA Today: "A nationwide USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll shows the strongest tilt to Republican candidates at this point in a midterm year in at least two decades, including before partisan 'waves' in 1994 and 2010 that swept the GOP into power."

Presidential Election

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: Rand Paul's Very Special Guest at the Kentucky Derby: Rupert Murdoch. "There is a great tradition of political theater and back-room dealing at the Kentucky Derby, and the pageant involving Mr. Murdoch fit right in."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Pro-Russian insurgents shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter as heavy fighting re-erupted around a key rebel stronghold on Monday, leaving at least eight people dead and dozens wounded. The fierce fighting in Slovyansk, a separatist stronghold, broke out as the Ukrainian government sought to regain control of the key Black Sea port of Odessa, dispatching a special police unit to that city after deadly clashes there between rival mobs supporting Ukraine and Russia." ...

... Reuters: "Switzerland's federal prosecutor has frozen 170 million Swiss francs ($193.34 million) of assets in Swiss bank accounts belonging to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich and people close to him, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday."

Reuters: "The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's firm on Monday began distributing another $351.6 million to the swindler's former customers, boosting the amount recouped to nearly $6 billion."

Chicago Tribune: "Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago whom colleagues called one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, died over the weekend. He was 83." ...

     ... Becker's New York Times obituary is here.

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Saturday
May032014

The Commentariat -- May 4, 2014

President Obama, speaking at the White House Correspondents' dinner last night:

... AND the runners-up:

... New York Times bans David Brooks from White House Correspondents' dinner. (CW: Okay, the fastidious Gray Lady doesn't let any of her staff attend the dinner, but that's not as satisfying a headline. If Joe Biden can write his own headlines -- see video above -- so can I.)

CW: As Hillary goes, so goes MoDo. I don't think Dowd can survive at the Times without the aid of elixir of Clinton. ...

... The New York Times Editors review President Obama's foreign policy performance, & find it isn't nearly as bad as MoDo claims. ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.), a close ally of President Obama's who chaired the Democratic National Committee during the president's first term, threw his support behind Hillary Rodham Clinton's prospective presidential campaign on Saturday. Addressing a breakfast meeting of Democratic women in South Carolina, Kaine called Clinton 'the right person for the job' and pledged to do what he can to draft the former secretary of state into the 2016 presidential contest."

Mike Lux of American Family Voices compiles a video of Elizabeth Warren's greatest hits. Thanks to Barbarossa for the link:

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker reviews Warren's book for the New York Review of Books.

Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: By framing sexual assault as a civil rights issue, the Obama administration has forced educational institutions to address sexual violence on campus. ...

... Richard Perez-Pena & Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Increasingly..., at colleges across the country..., more victims [are going] public, more of them [are filing] formal federal complaints, a new network of activists [is making] shrewd use of the law and the media, and the Obama administration [is stepping] up pressure on colleges."

Beyond the Beltway

The Price for Warmongering: $35,000. Kelly Heyboer of the Star-Ledger: "Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed out of giving Rutgers University's commencement speech today amid growing opposition among the school's students and faculty.... Earlier this week, about 50 Rutgers students staged a sit-in inside the campus administration building to protest the selection of Rice to speak. She was scheduled to receive $35,000 for her speech and an honorary Rutgers doctoral degree." ...

... Kathleen Geier of Washington Monthly on why Rice never should have been invited nor given a hefty speaker's fee. ...

... Mob Rule! Wingers are predictably wigged-out. This post by William Jaconbson of Legal Insurrection is a case in point. However, Jacobson's exchange with Eric Boehlert of Media Matters is interesting, including Jacobson's last response -- Hillary's "mushroom cloud appearance."

Eleanor Clift of the Daily Beast: Now the Koch brothers -- along with right-wing impresario Art Pope -- are pumping money in to a North Carolina supreme court race in a move toward take control of the state's judiciary.

Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post: "Georgia's Catholic and Episcopal churches are opting out of the state's new expanded gun law. Among other things, the expansive legislation signed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) last week bans weapons from places of worship but gives religious leaders the authority to make exceptions to that ban for licensed gun owners. In the days since it was signed, senior religious leaders in the Catholic and Episcopal communities in Georgia have vowed not to allow such exceptions." Via Steve Benen.

More from Right Wing World

I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions. -- Oklahoma state Rep. Michael Christian (apparently his real name), who "spearheaded an effort to impeach Oklahoma state Supreme Court justices who were aiming to delay" the execution of Clayton Lockett

Scott Kaufman of the Raw Story: "Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because 'Buddha didn't create us, Mohammed didn't create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures' who created us." ...

... CW: The federal government should grant free transit & a moving stipend to anyone who lives in Alabama, is not a white male fundamentalist Christian, and wishes to move to a state that embraces equal protection. ...

... Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, where the First Amendment also applies only to Christians, a Satanist group is putting the finishing touches on a statue they propose to mount on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol, next to the Ten Commandments monolith approved by the state legislature & placed there in 2012. There's evah so slight a chance the state will not approve the Satanist installation. Steve Benen notes that the Satanist's case is strong: "There are, after all, no second-class Americans citizens when it comes to the First Amendment. If one group has the right to erect a monument, so does everyone else."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Gerry Adams, the leader of the Irish political party Sinn Fein, was released from police custody without charges on Sunday after four days of questioning into a gruesome 1972 Irish Republican Army murder of a widow with 10 children. But the police will hand over a file of potential evidence against him to prosecutors, police officials said."

Washington Post: "A trio of new studies has discovered that the blood of young mice appears to reverse some of the effects of aging when put into the circulatory systems of elderly mice."

Washington Post: "Ukrainian ­authorities vowed Saturday to restore control over the roiling eastern part of their nation, slowly advancing on two key breakaway cities even as the Kremlin and its supporters in Ukraine said the violence demanded a response. The military operations Saturday claimed at least 10 lives, medical officials said, a day after a conflagration in a trade union building killed dozens of pro-Russian activists in the port city of Odessa in the bloodiest day in Ukraine in nearly three months." ...

     ... Update: "Divisions deepened in Ukraine's third-largest city Sunday as pro-Russian militants attacked a police station in Odessa and freed 67 of their allies, while pro-Ukrainian activists gathered with sticks and clubs and vowed to defend the southern city from the kind of takeovers that have occurred in the eastern part of the country. The spread of the violence to Odessa has raised the stakes dramatically in the Ukraine crisis...."

AP: "The doomed ferry Sewol exceeded its cargo limit on 246 trips -- nearly every voyage it made in which it reported cargo -- in the 13 months before it sank, according to documents that reveal the regulatory failures that allowed passengers by the hundreds to set off on an unsafe vessel. And it may have been more overloaded than ever on its final journey."

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