The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday is 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.”

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Post: “Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, a spate of unusually strong and long-lived tornadoes touched down across the state, flipping tractor-trailers and ripping off roofs. The twisters surprised anxious residents, even as the storm’s eye still loomed. Authorities said there had been 'multiple' deaths after the intense and destructive tornadoes.” MB: I'm still on Florida's emergency-call list, and I received several calls from Lee County, urging me to shelter in place.

The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Milton developments are here: “Hurricane Milton, which has strengthened to a 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm, is closing in on Florida’s west coast and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which could bring maximum sustained winds of nearly 160 mph with bigger gusts, poses a dire threat to the densely populated zone that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers. As well as 'damaging hurricane-force winds,' coastal communities face a 'life-threatening' storm surge, the center said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here: “Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. The storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes.... By around midnight, the storm had destroyed more than 100 homes, killed several people in a retirement community and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Washington Post: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to David Baker at the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind.... The prize was awarded to scientists who cracked the code of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins, one of the toughest problems in biology. Baker created computational tools to design novel proteins with shapes and functions that can be used in drugs, vaccines and sensors.”

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

Reuters: “U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence boom. Heralded for its revolutionary potential in areas ranging from cutting-edge scientific discovery to more efficient admin, the emerging technology on which the duo worked has also raised fears humankind may soon be outsmarted and outcompeted by its own creation.”

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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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Saturday
Dec142013

The Commentariat -- Dec. 15, 2013

Mark Mazzetti & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials. Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked -- unlike other N.S.A. facilities -- was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials."

Huh. Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute argues in the right-wing National Review in favor of an extension of the emergency federal unemployment-insurance program. He makes a rational, non-ideological economic argument. Wonders never cease.

Paul Krugman: "It has taken an amazingly long time, but inequality is finally surfacing as a significant unifying issue for progressives -- including the president. And there is, inevitably, a backlash, or actually a couple of backlashes." ...

... Kathleen Geier in the Washington Monthly on economic inequality: "... the policy fixes for economic inequality are fairly clear: a higher minimum wage, stronger labor unions, a more progressive tax system, a more generous social welfare state, macroeconomic policies that promote a full employment economy, and much more powerful government regulations, particularly in the banking and finance sector." Geier builds on Krugman's post.

Dana Milbank awards Selfies to self-centered, hypocritical Washington officials. CW: Ted Cruz might have been Fourth Runner-Up for Time's Person of the Year, but he gets first Selfie ever. And he deserves it.

Chris Geider of BuzzFeed: "A federal judge struck down Utah's criminal ban on cohabitation between a married individual and another person not his or her spouse, a prong in the state's law against polygamy. The Friday ruling did not address legal polygamy -- actually being married to multiple people -- but only what U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups referred to as 'religious cohabitation.'" CW: It was a star-studded case: the plaintiffs star in a TLC reality show called "Sister Wives"; their attorney is well-known lawyer Jonathan Turley. ...

... Turley takes to his blog to boast about his big win. CW: If I won a big case in federal court, I'd brag about it, too.

Amanda Marcotte of AlterNet, in Salon explains Christian conservative belief system & how it impacts the Christian rights' view of the U.S.: "Over and over again, right-wingers warn that all the things they hate, from pro-gay Broadway shows to immigration to multiculturalism, are not just signs of an evolving American society, but portend the actual end of it.... But really, what all these fantasies of cities burning down and impending war and destruction are expressing is a belief that the culture of white conservative Christians is the culture of America. So it follows that if they aren't the dominant class in the United States, then America isn't, in their opinion, really America anymore."

AFP: "Pope Francis said he knew a lot of 'good' Marxists but was no communist himself, following criticism of his diatribes against unfettered capitalism from conservative commentators in the United States. 'Marxist ideology is wrong. But in my life I have met a lot of Marxists who are good people, so I do not feel offended,' Francis said in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa published on Sunday." CW: "Diatribes"?? ...

... The English translation of the La Stampa interview by Andrea Tornielli is here.

Elizabeth Tenety, the Washington Post's "On Faith" editor, says that what people like about Pope Francis is what they like about Jesus.

Faux "News"

Andy Borowitz publishes children's letters to Megyn Kelly along with Kelly's responses. CW: I think Borowitz made up the kids' letters & sent them to Kelly. No doubt Borowitz is just another race-baiter, like the ones Kelly complained about yesterday. But I'm pretty sure Kelly's answers are real. Thanks to James S. for the link.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Joan Fontaine, the patrician blond actress who rose to stardom as a haunted second wife in the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Rebecca' in 1940 and won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a terrified newlywed in Hitchcock's 'Suspicion,' died at her home in Carmel, Calif., on Sunday. She was 96."

CBS "News": "Actor-writer-director Tom Laughlin, whose production and marketing of 'Billy Jack' set a standard for breaking the rules on and off screen, has died."

New York Times: "The European Union on Sunday broke off talks with Ukraine on the far-reaching trade deal that protesters here have been demanding for weeks, and a top official issued a stinging, angry statement all but accusing Ukraine's president of dissembling during the negotiations." ...

... Guardian: "Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved freezing temperatures and aggressive policing to return to central Kiev on Sunday to demand political change, sending a message to authorities that the crisis over the government's failure to sign an EU integration pact is unlikely to end soon." ...

... Guardian: "Senator John McCain on Sunday told thousands of Ukrainian protesters camped on Kiev's main square that Ukraine's destiny lay in Europe and that it would make Europe better." CW: Ah, a cast of hundreds of thousands. Apparently the US network green rooms are getting too small for McCain. ...

     ... UPDATE. But Wait. A sojourn in Kiev didn't stop McCain from appearing on a Sunday show. CNN: "Sen. John McCain joined CNN's 'State of the Union" from Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday after the Arizona Republican addressed thousands of protesters who are angry over the Ukrainian government's decision to backpedal away from an agreement with the European Union." You cannot keep that man off the teevee.

CNN: "The rampage [at Arapahoe High School in Colorado] might have resulted in many more casualties had it not been for the quick response of a deputy sheriff who was working as a school resource officer at the school, [Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson] Robinson said. Once he learned of the threat, he ran -- accompanied by an unarmed school security officer and two administrators -- from the cafeteria to the library, Robinson said.... He praised the deputy's response as 'a critical element to the shooter's decision' to kill himself, and lauded his response to hearing gunshots."

Reuters: "China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat."

Guardian: "The actor Peter O'Toole who found stardom in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81...." The New York Times' obituary is here. The Los Angeles Times has a good slideshow here. ...

     ... Here's a much-expanded New York Times O'Toole obituary.

New York Daily News: "Thousands of drunken Santas went dashing through the snow under the influence Saturday, dutifully earning their places on Saint Nick's 'naughty' list. The red-faced revelers -- many from out of town -- overwhelmed parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan for SantaCon...." With photos.

AP: "... Nelson Mandela has been buried in the African ground he loved. His casket was lowered into the earth after military jets and helicopters with South African flags displayed flew over the pallbearers." The New York Times story, which includes a slideshow, is here.

AFP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in New Delhi[, India,] on Saturday he no longer 'trusts' the United States, accusing the Americans of saying one thing and doing another in his troubled homeland. Karzai's statement to journalists came a day after he insisted he would not be 'intimidated' into signing a security pact allowing US troops in Afghanistan to stay on after next year."

AFP: "Iran said on Saturday that it had safely returned a monkey to Earth after blasting it into space in the second such launch this year in its controversial ballistic programme."

Comment23 Comments
Friday
Dec132013

The Commentariat -- Dec. 14, 2013

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama honors the memories of the 26 ... children and educators who were taken from us a year ago in Newtown, Connecticut":

Manu Raju & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Democrats are on the cusp of securing enough GOP votes to break a filibuster next week on the bipartisan budget, temporarily ending the fiscal crises that have dominated Washington for the past several years. With 53 Democrats and two independents expected to back the measure, four Republicans -- John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Richard Burr of North Carolina -- said that they would vote to cut off debate on the budget, putting proponents just one vote shy of advancing the measure to final passage. Several additional GOP senators signaled Friday that they may also vote to advance the deal...."

David Welna of NPR: "After pulling two consecutive all-nighters, a bleary-eyed Senate is taking a breather on Saturday.... After consulting with McConnell, Reid announced Friday that they would put off further votes until Monday evening."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Mr. Boehner's tough talk in taking on interests considered vital to generating Republican voter enthusiasm and building fierce opposition to President Obama's agenda appeared to represent a turning point in Republican coalition building in the aftermath of the government shutdown." ...

... Kevin Bogardus of the Hill: "Business lobbyists are pumping their fists over Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) slap-down of conservative groups. Executives at trade groups told The Hill they were pleasantly surprised by the strident remarks this week from the typically laid-back Speaker." ...

... CW: If you read between the lines of the two stories above, you can hardly miss noticing that this "turning point" is all about politics & not slightly about principle. Not just Mitch McConnell, but quite a number of sitting MOCs are being Tea-Pee'd; plus business lobbyists are not amused by the radical right's purity code that shut down the government & is threatening their best Congressional water-carriers.

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House continued its slow-motion staff shake-up on Friday by replacing President Obama's chief legislative lobbyist in hopes of improving the president's prickly relations with Congress heading into the new year. Miguel Rodriguez stepped down as the White House director of legislative affairs and will be replaced by Katie Beirne Fallon, currently deputy White House communications director and a veteran Senate aide.... The switch capped a week in which the president recruited his former legislative director, Phil Schiliro, to return to the White House for a few months and enlisted John D. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton and co-director of Mr. Obama's transition, to join the staff for a year." CW: Yeah, I think a game of White House musical chairs will convince Congressional Republicans they want to play nice with the President. ...

... AND David Sanger & Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "President Obama has decided to keep the National Security Agency and the Pentagon's cyberwarfare branch under the same command despite concerns that it concentrates too much power in the hands of a single military official responsible for both surveillance and directing a growing arsenal of cyberweapons. As a practical matter, the decision means that Mr. Obama must appoint a four-star military officer to succeed Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the first person to simultaneously run the two organizations, when he retires early next year." ...

... AFP: "A National Security Agency official said in an interview released Friday that he would be open to cutting an amnesty deal with intelligence leaker Edward Snowden if he agreed to stop divulging secret documents. Rick Ledgett, who heads the NSA's task force investigating the damage from the Snowden leaks, told CBS television's '60 Minutes' program that some but not all of his colleagues share his view." ... Here's the CBS "News" report, by John Miller. With video. Among those who don't favor amnesty for Snowden is Gen. Keith Alexander, who heads the NSA. ...

... Craig Timberg of the Washington Post & Ashkan Soltani: "The cellphone encryption technology used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over public airwaves every day.... The agency's ability to crack encryption used by the majority of cellphones in the world offers it wide-ranging powers to listen in on private conversations." ...

... Matthew McKnight of the New Yorker: "This week in the magazine, Ryan Lizza asks, 'Why won't the President rein in the intelligence community?' And on this week's Political Scene podcast, Lizza and Patrick Radden Keefe join Dorothy Wickenden to discuss this question":

Peter Baker: "President Obama vowed on Friday to join Bill de Blasio, the mayor-elect of New York, and other urban leaders in an effort to combat growing inequalities in American society and pressed Congress to extend unemployment benefits now set to expire":

Angie Holan of PolitiFact: "PolitiFact has named 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,' the Lie of the Year for 2013." CW: Here's the e-mail I sent to PolitiFact: 

One little problem with your 2013 Lie of the Year -- by your own account, Obama never made an unqualified claim that 'if you like your health plan, you can keep it' in 2013. It might be the lie of 2009 or of 2010, but not of 2013. You should at least have admitted that much in your report.

By calling this the 2013 Lie of the Year, readers will naturally infer that the lie was told in 2013. It wasn't, at least not by Obama. You also, slyly, don't directly attribute the lie to Obama this year. But the clear implication of the report is that you are attributing the Lie of the Year to the President. All of this slithering around the facts kinda makes your 2013 Lie of the Year story, uh, Half-True.

This Snoop Dog video, which promotes ObamaCare,

     ... has displeased the guy who makes Greggers look like Astaire:

     .... to wit; I worry about something that seems aim to glorification of the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States as opposed to simply advocating young people go out and sign up for this entitlement program. -- Karl Rove ...

     ... CW: I'll let Steve M. handle this one. (Link fixed; thanks to contributor Nancy.)

Art by Driftglass.CW: Now that I don't have to, I never read David Brooks anymore. But Driftglass whetted my appetite, if only because his claims about Brooks' latest proposal seemed so outlandish, I had to think Driftglass might be kidding. But no.

     Here's Brooks: "Make the executive branch more powerful.... It's a good idea to be tolerant of executive branch power grabs and to give agencies flexibility." ...

     Here's Driftglass: "As [he is] a professional power-groveler, it should come as no surprise that David Brooks wants a king so bad he can taste it. It is mildly surprising that he would actually say it in print." Read the whole post.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The National Guard will distribute identification cards to the gay spouses of its personnel, overriding the resistance of several states that opposed a new military policy permitting such cards to spouses regardless of sexual orientation.... Nine states -- Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia -- said the issuing of ID cards violated their state constitutions, and would not provide them at National Guard facilities, which are under state control. The states' actions rankled Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel...."

Barry Meier of the New York Times has a long story on the Robert Levinson, the C.I.A.-affiliated American who disappeared in 2007 on a mission to Iran. ...

... Charles Pierce: "... Robert Levinson was a spy, and we were told he was something else. The Iranians were the ones telling the truth on this deal. That does not fill me with glee."

Elias Isquith of Salon: "Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaii public official who verified and approved the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, died on Wednesday, the only fatality in a tragic plane accident that occurred off the coast of Molokai. Like clockwork, this sent the birther movement into a tizzy of speculation. Donald Trump, for example, was quick to insinuate something nefarious afoot." CW: Apply Right Wing World Rule No. 1: "If anything bad happens, it's Obama's fault." I'm thinking drones, arent' you? Thanks to James S. for the link.

Local News

In This Friday Afternoon Trenton Newsdump:

... Jenna Portnoy of the Star-Ledger: New Jersey "Gov. Chris Christie today announced Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has resigned, effective immediately. The announcement comes as the scandal over the closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge has reached a national level. Baroni has said lanes were closed for a traffic study, but Democrats believe the move was retribution against the Fort Lee mayor for his failure to endorse Christie for governor.... Christie today flat out denied any involvement in the politics surrounding the closures.... David Wildstein, the agency's director of interstate capital projects, announced his resignation last week. Wildstein is off the payroll as of today, Christie said. Assemblyman John Wisniewski on Thursday subpoenaed Port Authority documents from seven officials, including Wildstein and Baroni, who has said the lane closures were part of a traffic study. The study has yet to surface."

SantaCon. Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Every year since 1997, thousands of men and women have dressed up as Santas, elves, reindeer or some other holiday confection and descended on [New York C]ity's streets for a daylong bar crawl.... On Saturday, the Santas are coming to town again.... SantaCon remains shrouded in mystery. There is no official leader, no tickets or sign-in sheets, and the details of the route remain a closely guarded secret until the last possible moment. The rules -- if they can be called that -- are simple: Don't make children cry, and dress up. This year, the organizers also took to Twitter to remind Santas that unsolicited sexual advances are wrong." CW: Also, you can wear a Santa suit even if you're not a white guy, though clearly your costume will not fool Megyn Kelly. ...

... Faux "News," CYA Edition

Oh. We Didn't Get the "Joke." Hadas Gold of Politico: "Megyn Kelly said Friday evening she was making off-hand and 'tongue-in-cheek' comments about Santa Claus and Jesus Christ being white, and that the controversy over the segment is a result of 'race-baiting' while the real debate was lost.... Kelly said she was simply trying ot make the same point as [Aisha] Harris was in her piece for Slate; that all the Santa's depicted in modern society are white and whether that should change." CW: Totally believable, Megyn. And, yeah, it's all our faults, as you say, "for assuming the worst in people." I feel just terrible for "misinterpreting" the assertions which you are your guests made in claiming myths were facts.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Another round of wintry weather battered the U.S. Midwest and East Coast on Saturday as a massive storm spanning more than 1,000 miles dumped heavy snow, snarling air traffic and making roads treacherous. Airlines reported weather-related delays and cancellations, with major airports in Chicago, Washington, New York City and Newark, New Jersey, scrubbing dozens of flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and FlightStats.com. Nearly 1,000 U.S. flights were cancelled...."

AP: "John Kerry returned Sunday to the winding waterways of Vietnam's Mekong Delta region where he once patrolled on a naval gunboat in the search for communist insurgents. But nearly 50 years later, Kerry was promoting sustainable aquaculture and trade in a rapidly expanding economy rather than hunting Viet Cong guerrillas at the height of the Vietnam War. This was Kerry's first visit back to the Delta since the war."

AP: "A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School on Friday alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building. Police immediately locked down the scene on the eve of the Newtown massacre anniversary -- a somber reminder of how commonplace school violence has become." ...

     ... Update: " A teenager who wounded a fellow student before killing himself at a suburban Denver high school entered the building with a shotgun, a machete, three Molotov cocktails and ammunition strapped to his body, likely intending to track down a librarian who had disciplined him, authorities said Saturday." ...

     ... Denver Post Update: "The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him." CW: His views appear to be liberal.

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Thursday
Dec122013

The Commentariat -- Dec. 13, 2013

Required Viewing. Many thanks to James S. for the link:

If Bob Byrd Were Alive, He'd Die. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Members of the Senate currently are engaging in "an endurance contest to see who could be the most spiteful. As the sun rose on Friday, the Senators had worked through a second straight all-night session — called by Democrats as a way of retaliating for Republicans' delaying tactics on confirmations.... Democrats, hoping to make the situation so unpleasant for their colleagues across the aisle that they eventually break, are scheduling votes at all hours of the day and night. [Majority Leader Harry] Reid is threatening to refuse to let anyone go home until a backlog of dozens of nominees is gone -- even if that means spending Christmas Eve in the Capitol. Mr. Reid has votes planned through Saturday afternoon and will push through another battery of nominations next week, including some that would each require 30 hours of debate, like that of Janet L. Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve." CW: Give 'em hell, Harry. You're my Person of the Year.

Paul Kane & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "The House overwhelmingly passed a 2-year bipartisan budget deal Thursday evening, possibly signaling a truce in the spending showdowns that have paralyzed Washington for the past three years. In their final action of the year, the House approved the budget 332 to 94, with 169 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting in favor, and 62 Republicans and 32 Democrats voting against. Earlier Thursday, lawmakers agreed unanimously to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets military pay and policy, and to extend current agricultural policy after negotiators failed to complete a new Farm Bill." ...

... Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Six of the eight House Republicans running for the Senate on Thursday voted against the budget deal.... Reps. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), top Republican Senate recruits who don't appear to face any threats in a primary, both voted against it, as did a trio of Georgia Republicans facing off in a crowded GOP primary: Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), who just announced a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), also voted against the bill.... The only Republicans running for the Senate who backed the budget bill were Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is seeking to challenge Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), running for an open seat." ...

... Andy Sullivan of Reuters: "Congress is poised to nearly halve the salary cap for U.S. government contractors after years of dramatic increases driven by skyrocketing executive pay. A broad budget bill that won approval by the House of Representatives on Thursday would lower the cap to $487,000 a person, down from its current level of $952,000. The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week. The measure would be a partial victory for the White House, which for years has sought to rein in contractor reimbursements that fund salary and other personnel costs. In May, the White House proposed limiting the reimbursement level to $400,000 a person -- the amount Barack Obama earns as president." ...

... Susan Cornwell of Reuters: "The bitter ideological feud tearing at the Republican Party boiled over on Thursday as the U.S. Congress considered a bipartisan budget deal with angry recriminations between the Republicans' top elected leader and the powerful conservative organizations that have been tormenting him for years." Speaker Boehner takes another whack at "the far right":

     ... Greg Sargent: "There's some choice hilarity here. Boehner says conservative groups 'pushed' Republicans into the destructive government shutdown fight. You'd almost think he was some kind of passive, helpless onlooker, rather than, you know, the leader of House Republicans. Also, as you may recall, Boehner actively wanted Republicans to make a stand around the debt ceiling, which, if anything, was crazier than the shutdown standoff."...

     ... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "If Boehner wants people to believe that something has really changed, then why are they blocking a vote on extending emergency unemployment insurance? Why aren't they allowing a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act? What about immigration reform? Why, in the very same press conference, did he once again talk about repealing Obamacare and getting to the bottom of Benghazi? Boehner wants the media to believe the GOP has changed -- that it's become grown up and responsible. They might report what he wants, but for it to be true, he needs to deliver more than press conference theatrics -- he needs to deliver substantive change."

... Ginger Gibson of Politico: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told Democratic House members at a meeting Thursday morning to 'embrace the suck' and encouraged enough members to back the budget deal on the floor to allow passage...." ...

... Paul Krugman: "One of the truly remarkable things about American political discourse at the end of 2013 is the fixed conviction among many conservatives that the Obama era has been one of enormous growth in government.... the actual numbers show that over the past three years we've been living through an era of unprecedented government downsizing.... These harsh cuts ... were unnecessary..., the cuts did huge short-term economic damage ... [and] a long-term degradation of our prospects, reinforced by the corrosive effects of sustained high unemployment." ...

... Gene Robinson sees House Republicans' acquiescence on a budget deal as a wake-up call for Democrats to buff up their "vision": "If the Republican Party really intends to get back in the game, voters will be presented with two competing visions of how to move the nation forward -- instead of one vision and one cartoon. If the progressive vision is to prevail, it needs to be fresh, vivid and clearly relevant to the moment. Same-old, same-old used to be good enough. It's not anymore."

... Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "The manufacturing sector has experienced a modest renaissance since it hit bottom during the Great Recession.... Wages, however, are falling. Although the average wage for all workers, adjusted for inflation, has declined by about 1 percent since May 2009, Bloomberg reported, it has declined by 3percent for workers in the more-profitable-than-ever manufacturing sector.... If laws are not changed to enable workers to form unions without fear of being fired, the battle for higher median, not just minimum, wages will eventually be fought in the legislative arena as well." Meyerson relates Boeing's anti-worker activities, made more egregious by the fact that Boeing doesn't have to worry about competition as do some manufacturers.

Beutler's Gallery of Morons: Jennifer Rubin, Ron Fournier & Mark Halperin.... Brian Beutler of Salon: "Obama's shutdown critics look like morons after budget deal. Back in August and September ... most conservatives, and several allies of convenience in the mainstream media, argued that Obama needed to get his hands dirty and negotiate a settlement of both issues, even if it meant paying a modest ransom to the GOP. That his refusal to be extorted, to haggle over the terms of his own surrender -- to say nothing of his prior inability to strike a grand bargain with the same hostage-taking party -- amounted to a failure of leadership.... On the merits the Murray-Ryan plan should have been just as acceptable in September as it is now. But Republicans weren't temperamentally prepared for it then. And it's only happening now because Obama refused to be extorted into accepting a GOP-authored plan...." ...

... Charles Pierce on "the rehabilitation of Paul Ryan." Pierce notes, as I did, that the New York Times is cooperating magnificently in this effort. So is Patty Murray, Pierce says. But this is the graf every schoolchild should learn, lest s/he grow up & vote for the Reptilius Wisconsinitus:

Paul Ryan has not changed a single one of the core beliefs, or the policy prescriptions, that Joe Biden laughed off the stage in their debate last year. He still wants to privatize Social Security. He still wants to voucherize Medicare and eliminate Medicaid. He still bristles inwardly with contempt for everyone on any kind of public assistance -- except, of course, for the young Paul Ryan, who went through college on my tax dollars. (You're welcome, dickhead.) He cooperated in this deal not because he believes government should function in order to do the most good for the most people, but because the entire national economic debate is still being conducted largely on ground of his own choosing. He's learned nothing except patience.

AFP: " Twenty immigration reform activists ended a fourth week of fasting Thursday just steps from the US Capitol building, as they received support from top Democratic lawmakers." ...

... Julia Preston of the New York Times: "As the Republican-controlled House of Representatives wrapped up its work for the year on Thursday with no progress on immigration, leaders from both parties said they would return to the issue early in the new year.... Despite the biting chill, the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, surrounded herself on the steps of the Capitol with dozens of Democratic lawmakers and with advocates who had been fasting in a tent on the National Mall to push the House to vote on an immigration bill." ...

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that some of his ancestors came to the United States illegally and said it's fruitless to compare the immigration system of the 1800s to today's.... Biden ... called on House Speaker John Boehner to allow a vote on the comprehensive immigration reform bill the Senate passed in June."

Norm Ornstein in the Atlantic: "... the farm bill [is] the poster child for the state of dysfunction in Congress and American politics.... Despite facing the greatest drought since the Great Depression and broad and deep support for a bill in the Senate, the House managed to reach new depths of dysfunctional embarrassment when Majority Leader Eric Cantor singlehandedly blew up a delicate compromise forged by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas and ranking member Collin Peterson. Cantor decided to get behind a provision on the House floor aimed at cutting food stamps dramatically over 10 years; instituted punitive new work requirements; gave states financial incentive to drop eligible people from the food-stamp rolls; and took away states' flexibility over waivers of job-training provisions...."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "A presidential advisory committee charged with examining the operations of the National Security Agency has concluded that a program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue, though under broad new restraints that would be intended to increase privacy protections...."

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "Anticipating more health care disruptions, the Obama administration Thursday announced a batch of measures intended to help consumers avoid lapses in their care and coverage as the president's overhaul takes effect in January. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced a one-month extension of a special insurance program created by the law for people who cannot get coverage because of health problems. Scheduled to expire at the end of the year,the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan will remain in place through January."

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "The Transportation Department said on Thursday that it would consider banning the use of cellphones for voice calls aboard airplanes, a reaction to public outrage at a Federal Communications Commission proposal to lift a rule that has long forbidden the use of mobile phones during flight. Still, consumers are likely to soon be able to text, check email and connect to the Internet on their cellphones while their flight is above 10,000 feet. The F.C.C. voted 3 to 2 to go ahead with its own measure to solicit comment on whether to repeal the rule on connected devices. But all five commissioners said they shared the public's doubts about such a change."

"Govern in Poetry." Tim Egan: "Today, wallowed in the worst slump of his presidency, President Obama should reach for some words that will outlive him. This guy can write and he can speak, but he's put those talents in a drawer for much of his presidency. In just the last few weeks, though, Obama has shown that his lyrical gifts could still get him off a road leading to yet another mediocre presidency. His speech on income inequality as the defining issue of the day, and the stirring words in the rain on behalf of Nelson Mandela ... showed what Obama can do when he's oratorically unleashed."

Madelaine Ostrander of Yes!, in Nation of Change, on the evolution of Bill McKibben from writer to activist.

David Remnick of the New Yorker on Russian oppression of gays. CW: What the Olympic games need is a gay Jesse Owens to show up Putin as Owens did Hitler. (This is not a Hitler analogy, John McCain; just an historical reference. There's a difference.) I hope every athlete will overtly show support for gay rights.

John Brenahan & Rachel Van Dongen of Politico: "Ryan Loskarn, the now ex-chief of staff for GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), appeared in federal court on Thursday after being arrested and charged with possessing and distributing child pornography. A nervous Loskarn, whose hands were visibly shaking, was detained as a flight risk and because he is a threat given his alleged crimes involving children.... It is unclear why it took federal agents almost three years to question or detains Loskarn after his name and address first emerged in a child pornography probe. The article describes some of the content retrieved from Loskarn's hard drive." ...

... Steven Nelson of US News: "A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court Thursday says Jesse Ryan Loskarn attempted to hide an external hard drive loaded with 'hundreds' of child porn videos when police knocked down his door with a battering ram.... The criminal complaint charging Loskarn with possession and distribution of child pornography offers graphic descriptions of children being sexually abused by older men in videos the longtime congressional aide possessed and shared."

Faux "News"

Charles Pierce: "Today's Washington Post -- which features an op-ed by kindly Doc Maddow, whom I hope managed to avoid getting any Thiessen on her in the process -- sends a heartfelt holiday greeting to Fox News news-reader Megyn Kelly. I would advise wearing a raincoat while reading it, however." The WashPo feature, by Dan Zak, is here. CW: Also, some of you may not want to miss the cheesecake slideshow, which is probably the actual purpose behind all the copy. ...

Yo, Megyn. Here's what forensic anthropologists say Jesus would have looked like.... Megan Kelly, Christian Scholar. Hadas Gold of Politico: "On Wednesday night Megyn Kelly declared on her Fox News show that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white.... Kelly said on Monday when she appeared on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,' 'I'm a straight news anchor, I'm not one of the opinion hosts.... The way we do it on the Fox News Channel is the straight news anchors like us give a hard time to both sides.' It seems as though there may be other things to debate that are 'straight news' beyond whether Santa and Jesus where white." CW: St. Nicholas was probably a Turk or an ethnic Greek, & Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as a Semitic Jew, though there's little evidence either of them was a real person. Anyway, not Anglo-Saxons. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "It's probably appropriate that an anchor on the media network which annually gives us the maddening agitprop over the 'War On Christmas' has kicked up a stir by insisting that Jesus Christ and Santa Claus were (and presumably 'are' for believers) white folks, just like most Fox viewers.... It seems especially idiotic to claim a race for a mythical figure like Santa Claus.... The principal of absolute equality before God is a central principle of Christianity or at least forms of Christianity that haven't succumbed to the secularism (yes, that's what it is, folks) that associates the faith with cultural or political conservatism or the pride of white identity." ...

... This is the piece, by Aisha Harris in Slate, that set Kelly to explaining to all the Foxbot kids -- and she was addressing children -- that no matter what color you are, kiddies, Santa & Jesus are as white as Megyn. CW: See what you're missing by not watching Fox "News"? You could have found out that the imaginary Santa Claus is white. Definitely white. There are all kinds of racism, people. And sooner or later they will show off every kind over there at Fox "News." ...

... NEW. Jonathan Merritt of the Atlantic: "Setting aside the ridiculousness of creating rigidly racial depictions of a fictitious character that does not actually exist -- sorry, kids -- like Santa, Kelly has made a more serious error about Jesus. The scholarly consensus is actually that Jesus was, like most first-century Jews, probably a dark-skinned man. If he were taking the red-eye flight from San Francisco to New York today, Jesus might be profiled for additional security screening by TSA." ...

... NEW. Contributor P. D. Pepe points to this New Republic post which has some fairly wonderful portraits of Saint Nicholas & Jesus "which wouldn't make it on Fox News."

... CW UPDATE. I get all my news from the "Daily Show." This time I went with a hint from the show & found a Guardian story, detailing how a British facial reconstruction expert took the measurements of what is regarded as the skull of St. Nicholas & created a reconstruction that looks like the photo to the left. Now, let's compare the reconstruction to traditional images of St. Nick:

Top row: Russian icon, ca 1900; Forensic reconstruction/Anand Kapoor, 2004, used by permission; Russian icon, 2001 Bottom row: 19th century Russian icon; Russian painting, ca 1990; USA icon, 2000.     ... A right jolly old elf? Hardly. A white jolly old elf? Nope.

..

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News Ledes

AP: "A Kansas man who prosecutors say sympathized with violent terrorists was arrested Friday as part of an FBI sting after he drove a vehicle loaded with what he thought were explosives to a Wichita airport. Investigators allege that Terry Lee Loewen planned to attack Wichita's Mid-Continent Regional airport in a plot aimed at supporting al-Qaida. Loewen, a 58-year-old avionics technician who worked at the airport for Hawker Beechcraft, was arrested before dawn as he tried to drive onto the tarmac." CW: I predict we're going to learn that NSA data sweeps led the FBI to Loewen.

Denver Post: "A student who carried a shotgun into Arapahoe High School [in Centenniel, Colorado, part of suburban Denver,] and asked where to find a specific teacher opened fire on Friday, wounding two fellow students before apparently killing himself, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said."

Guardian: "Snow covers swaths of the Holy Land as storm Alexa continues to cause havoc across the Middle East. Meteorologists in Jerusalem said it was the worst storm to hit the city for 60 years, with snow reported to be 50cm deep in some areas." CW: A sure sign White Jesus is coming home. And meteorologists predict White Santa will land at Ben Gurion to give modest consolation gifts to the kids left behind.

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