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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Sunday
Apr032011

The Commentariat -- April 4

President Obama launches his "endorse the status-quo" re-election campaign with this video:

... Mike Murphy, a Republican consultant who is not a loon, assesses the ad.

... Here's the full text of the e-mail from President Obama -- I mean Barack -- minus the bit that links to the video above:

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.

We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.

So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.

We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.

In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we'll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I'll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that's farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before.

We'll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight.

This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.

There will be much more to come as the race unfolds. Today, simply let us know you're in to help us begin, and then spread the word: http://my.barackobama.com/2012:

 Thank you,
Barack ...

... Karen Garcia provides talking points for Obama campaign workers. ...

... AND conservative Ross Douthat of the New York Times laments that Obama's really good Republican opponents have chosen not to run. CW: I'm really linking Douthat's column for the comments. Gemli's (#6) is a classic; here's part of it, but read the whole comment:

If your list of Republican candidates represents the best and the brightest of the Party of Lincoln, then the End Times are truly upon us. This litany of racially intolerant retrograde homophobic anti-scientific fundamentalist luminaries may be just smart enough to realize that the 'ideas' they have about crushing the middle class under the wheel of false austerity, reaching into women's wombs, vilifying gays, and giving more breaks to corporations may not fly just now with the voters.

Quote of the Day. I would like to publicly applaud the Florida legislature for having the cajones once again to defy an RNC-endorsed/coerced national primary electoral 'system' that gives wildly disproportionate influence in the selection of our nominee (and potentially our next president) to a collection of syrup farmers and ethanol freaks in New Hampshire and Iowa. -- Lew Oliver, Chair of the Orange County, Florida, Republican party

E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post: Will President Obama stand up to Rep. Paul Ryan, who is proposing to dismantle key parts of the government while cutting taxes for the rich. ...

... Ezra Klein links to this January 2011 policy analysis by Andrew Fieldhouse of the Economic Policy Institute titled, "Paul Ryan's Plan for Millionaires' Gain & Middle-Class Pain. The 'Ryan Roadmap' leads to an entitlement raid and middle-class tax hikes in order to enrich the wealthy." (pdf) Klein dregs up the Ryan Roadmap because "Paul Ryan ... is such a big spender that each and every Senate Republican voted to declare his Roadmap unconstitutional?" See Bartlett's & Klein's posts below.

Bruce Bartlett of Capital Gains & Games: Last Thursday "all 47 Senate Republicans introduced a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget.... This is quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen. It looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin. Every senator cosponsoring this POS should be ashamed of themselves." ...

     ... Ezra Klein: "Every single Senate Republican has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would’ve made Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy unconstitutional. That’s how far to the right the modern GOP has swung."

So What's a Teabagger to Do? Russell Berman of The Hill: Funding runs out for the federal government this Friday. "The [House] freshman class, vaunted for its unprecedented size and its Tea-Party ties, has been caught between party leadership nudging it toward compromise on one end and anti-spending activists clamoring for a clash on the other."

NEW. Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker: "... the vulgar truth about Citizens United, the doomed Arizona law [Arizona Free Enterprise v. Bennett], and related future cases remains: the five Justices appointed by Republicans are thrashing the four appointed by Democrats — to the enormous advantage of the G.O.P. Coincidence? You be the judge."

David Callahan in a New York Times op-ed: the Koch brothers & other corporations can not only keep secret their contributions to political advocacy organizations, they can write them off as "charity." But you can't -- private individuals have to pay taxes on donations to such groups. CW: notice how the Supreme Court has decided a corporation is "a person" when it comes to free speech, but the IRS code says a corporation is not subject to the taxes "a person" must pay on political donations. Callahan writes that the IRS "should create a new category for nonprofits engaged in policy advocacy."

Anthony Grafton of the New Yorker: "Around the country, public universities are under attack. Governors and legislators deny that research and higher education are public goods that deserve support from public monies." Grafton notes that the University of Wisconsin-Madison did the right thing by "meticulously balancing the public right to information against countervailing rights to privacy" in regard to the GOP's open-records request for e-mails from Prof. Bill Cronon.

Paul Krugman: Republicans held a committee hearing on climate change last week that "was a farce: a supposedly crucial hearing stacked with people who had no business being there and instant ostracism for a climate skeptic who was actually willing to change his mind in the face of evidence." Comments are here.

New York Times Editors: politicians at the federal and state levels have recklessly endangered the chances for a robust economic recovery.

Nina Totenburg of NPR: Harry Connick, Sr., the New Orleans D.A., who has admitted in court to dropping the ball in his office's prosecution of an apparently innocent man, John Thompson, who sat on death row for 18 years, feels "vindicated" by the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in his (Connick's) favor. CW: Connick shouldn't feel vindicated; he should feel ashamed. With audio, which is well-worth hearing.

Christopher Hitchens in Slate: Afghan President Hamid Karzai makes Quran-burning frenzy worse. Why are we still supporting this guy?

Right Wing World

Steve Benen explains Mitt Romney's latest explanation for Massachusetts' Romneycare. In a nutshell:

That radical, communistic health care policy you hate so intensely? Don't worry, I only did that at the state level.

     ... Trouble is, Romney is on the record saying Romneycare would make a good model for a federal health plan -- you know, one just like the Affordable Health Act. Don't worry, Mitt; Right Wing World is a fact-free zone. You can say anything you want.

In Right Wing World anti-union ads produced for Wisconsin & Florida, only a fake teacher will do.

Local News

How to Get a Well-Paid State Job in Wisconsin. Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the lead story in the online version of the paper: "Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions. Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state. How did Deschane score his plum assignment with the Walker team? ... His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker during last year's governor's race. The group's political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate...." ...

... Ken Vogel of Politico: "A conservative judge’s campaign for re-election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court has become the next front in a growing multi-state Republican effort to limit the power of organized labor. The once-obscure judicial race, which will be decided in a Tuesday [tomorrow] election, has taken on national implications both because Gov. Scott Walker’s signature legislation stripping public union bargaining powers could be decided by the court and because it’s the first time voters have gone to the polls since Walker signed the bill that sparked the national push. The contest between incumbent David Prosser and liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has attracted an infusion of outside spending that could total as much as $5 million...."

Karen Garcia on the New York State budget, passed behind closed doors, which cuts spending for New York City, public schools & many social services, while lowering taxes on the rich who now will be taxed at a lower rate than the middle class. CW: New York has a Democratic governor -- Andrew Cuomo -- and a Democcratic assembly. Republicans hold the majority in the senate, but it really doesn't matter, does it? Democrat or Republican, most of them work in service of their rich benefactors and against the interests of the general public.

Jessica Yellin of CNN: "Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine is planning to announce he will run in 2012 for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat currently held by fellow Democrat Jim Webb, who is retiring, two senior Democratic sources told CNN on Sunday."

Christine Stapleton & Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach (Florida) Post: "Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of 'fraud upon the court.' A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court. Still, critics say judges are not doing enough."

News Ledes

The court’s opinion offers a road map — more truly, a one-step instruction — to any government that wishes to insulate its financing of religious activity from legal challenge. -- Justice Elena Kagan, in her first dissent

New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday effectively upheld an Arizona program that aids religious schools, saying in a 5-to-4 decision that the plaintiffs had no standing to challenge it. The program itself is novel and complicated, and allowing it to go forward may be of no particular moment. But by closing the courthouse door to some kinds of suits that claim violations of the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion, the court’s ruling in the case may be quite consequential." Read the opinion, concurring opinion by Justice Scalia & dissent here (pdf).

New York Times: "Southwest Airlines said on Monday that it had detected subsurface cracks in a third aircraft during inspections and that it had canceled more flights after a five-foot hole ripped through the roof of a jetliner on Friday.... The airline also said in the statement that it had canceled 70 flights from its schedule of 3,400 departures on Monday. That came after Southwest canceled about 300 flights each on Saturday and Sunday."

New York Times: "Major banks, retailers and other businesses warned their customers on Monday to be on the lookout for possible e-mail schemes after a security breach at an online marketing firm exposed the e-mail addresses and names of millions of customers. The marketing firm, Epsilon, which handles e-mail marketing lists for prominent companies like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Kroger, Walgreens and Disney issued a brief statement on Friday saying that hackers had stolen names and e-mail addresses of customers." CW: I got a notice from BestBuy about it, which said only my name & e-mail address had been compromised.

CBS News: "Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, the CBS News Investigative Unit has learned. A source says the commission will be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison." New York Times story here.

Here's the Wall Street Journal story on House Republicans' proposed 2012 budget, prepared by Rep. Paul Ryan: The plan "would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and ... would essentially end Medicare.... Mr. Ryan’s proposal would apply to those currently under the age of 55, and for those Americans would convert Medicare into a ‘premium support’ system.... The proposal would also convert Medicaid, the health program for the poor, into a series of block grants to give states more flexibility." CW: the New York Times story on this proposal is linked in yesterday's ledes.

Washington Post: "With the prospect of a government shutdown looming Friday, leaders of both parties publicly staked out seemingly inflexible positions while staff members worked in private on a possible compromise to finally pass the 2011 budget."

AP: "Libyan rebels pushed into the strategic oil town of Brega on Monday but came under fire from Moammar Gadhafi's forces, as a government envoy began a diplomatic push in Europe to discuss an end to the fighting."

New York Times: "Tokyo Electric Power Company will release almost 11,500 tons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, as workers struggle to contain the increasing amounts of dangerous runoff resulting from efforts to cool the plant’s damaged reactors."

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