The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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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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Thursday
Aug182011

The Commentariat -- August 19

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square.

New York Times Editors: "... leaders on both sides of the Atlantic seem determined to handcuff fiscal policies — the main tools that can increase jobs, consumer demand and economic growth — with an unquestioning devotion to rigid austerity.... But Europe’s broad downward trajectory can only be turned around if governments — both those of lenders and debtors — spend more in the near term to put people back to work and get consumers back to spending.... Voters on both sides of the Atlantic need to demand more from their leaders than continued austerity on autopilot." CW: why are the editors of the New York Times smarter than the leaders of the free world? ...

... What Obama Should Propose. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "The ideal jobs package would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy as quickly as possible – but in a way that paid for itself over the long run and, ideally, diminished automatically once a strong recovery is under way. The administration could do a portion of this on its own.... The Fed could obviously lend a hand, maybe a big hand, as well. But ... Congress would have to take some action. Is there a chance Congress would do that? Not right now. Among the proposals circulating on Capitol Hill, the initiative from progressive House Democrats comes closest."

... Cohn: "... the unemployment rate in Michigan ... is up to 10.9 percent, the third consecutive month that it's risen. The story seems to be the same across the Great Lakes region.... The precipitous drop in unemployment in this part of the country has been one of the better, if under-appreciated, economic stories of the last year -- testimony to a rebound in the manufacturing sector bolstered, in part, by the government's rescue of General Motors and Chrysler.... The situation is still markedly better than a year ago, when unemployment in Michigan was 12.4 percent. But this is obviously sobering news -- and a reminder that the economy needs a lot of help." ...

... Michael Cohen, in Time: "It’s not that [President Obama] necessarily believes that deficits should be the country’s top priority, but rather that without fiscal responsibility Americans will continue to view government in an unsavory light. Relying on class warfare attacks or strident defenses of entitlements might provide a short-term political boost for Democrats. It might even win them the 2012 election. But the larger challenge for liberalism is restoring faith in government and making the case to a skeptical electorate for greater public sector activism.

Digby states the obvious: "I would never have thought that Democrats would greet a major economic downturn with promises to cut [social safety-net] programs. It increases people's anxiety about their personal future and takes away the most important rationale for trusting Democrats. It's extremely odd to see this happening." CW: at least obvious to everybody but President Obama & his Administration. ...

... BUT Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... since the showdown over raising the debt ceiling, Democrats have been unusually eager to embrace tax increases, gambling that voters will see the Republican refusal to consider higher taxes for the wealthy as recalcitrant and out-of-touch.... Democrats dubbed their efforts 'Accountability August,' targeting vulnerable Republicans through radio ads, billboards and phone banks in an effort to convince voters that the GOP wants to save tax breaks for millionaires and subsidies for oil companies at the expense of Medicare."

Paul Krugman: "Finally, Someone to Run Against Wall Street. One of the truly amazing things about American politics in the Lesser Depression is that nobody in political life has been willing to run as the champion of ordinary Americans against the financial wheeler-dealers who brought this disaster on us.... So I’m glad to hear that Elizabeth Warren will apparently run for Senate.... She’s got the best credentials on the financial crisis of any prominent figure in American life."

Right Wing World

Tax the Poor! Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal: The "2012 election campaign ... has produced the ... critique that too many Americans pay no income tax at all, a point made by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in July and more recently by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.... Pressed on how they would bring more people into the tax system, none of the top three campaigns offered details." CW: if you want to a good summary of why half of American households pay no federal income tax, this is it. ...

... OR, you could settle for Jon Stewart's explanation. The second segment is right on point, but the first is a swell lead-in:

 

NEW. Karen Garcia: if you like carbon dioxide (it's completely natural!), you'll love the Republican slate of presidential candidates and their Big Business/Big Polluter backers. President Obama, too, has caved, delaying once again the imposition of stricter "jobs-killing" EPA ozone standards.

Bachmann Staff Plays Beat the Press. Literally. Ben Smith & Jonathan Martin of Politico: "In less than two months since entering the 2012 race, [Rep. Michele] Bachmann’s campaign staff has become embroiled in at least five unusually hostile encounters with the traveling media marked by pushing, shoving and, in one instance, the allegation of a threat of violence to a reporter. Some of it has unfolded in full public view..." as this video illustrates: ...

... Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: Bachmann promises to bring gas prices down to less than $2/gallon, evidently by decimating the economy again. CW: and you thought her refusal to raise the debt ceiling was nuts? No, no. It was probably part of her master plan to reduce gas prices. Or something. CW: Read Stromberg; this woman is nuts, stupid or both.

Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for going on vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Romney noted there were "a lot of Democrats in Martha's Vineyard." Apparently, there are a lot of well-heeled Republicans, too. Romney will hold a fundraiser on the Vineyard while the Obamas are there. Funny thing -- Romney didn't mention his own Vineyard turn when he criticized Obama.

... George Condon of the National Journal: "In the two centuries since John Adams was the first president to seek solace outside Washington and the 109 years since Theodore Roosevelt invented the modern presidential vacation, the critics have always been there to attack. Now, it's Obama’s turn to weather the storm."

Dave Mann of the Texas Observer in a New Republic post: "... it’s no secret that some of [Texas's] conservatives and libertarians dispute [Gov. Rick Perry's] conservative credentials.... The closer you look at Perry’s record in Texas, the harder it is to discern any coherent ideology at all." Mann provides examples of Perry's "conservative heresy.... When Perry does involve himself in policy debates, the most consistent thread is that he has sided with big business — that is to say, with industries big enough, or fortuitous enough, to have strong connections with the state government.... If there’s one phrase that best describes Perry’s governing ideology, it isn’t 'conservative.' It’s crony capitalism." ...

... NEW. AND Ben Adler of The Nation: "Perry turned Texas into a corporate welfare agency. What did Texas get in return? Not much...."

... Matt Latimer in the Daily Beast: "For years, [Karl] Rove has made it a hobby of sorts to deflate conservatives more popular with the base than he is....Now he and his henchmen are undertaking their most serious gamble. Rick Perry managed to shine in Texas without Rove's permission, and now threatens to become the current Republican frontrunner without Rove’s blessing. This, Rove has decreed, must be stopped, even if his party is destroyed in the process." CW: frankly, I do enjoy watching Republicans squabble. ...

... Jake Tapper of ABC News: Hecklers & protesters confront Perry in New Hampshire. At one point, Perry opts for ...

... The Popover Defense. CW: One thing about the Republican primary: a good percentage of the stories make you laugh out loud. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Rick Perry, when confronted with a question about his position that Social Security is unconstitutional, stuffed a popover in his mouth and said he couldn't answer because he had "a big mouthful." ...

Your mom is asking about evolution. You know, that’s a theory that’s out there; it’s got some gaps in it. In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools — because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right. -- Gov. Rick Perry, to a New Hampshire boy ...

... Steve Benen: "... if they’re teaching 'both creationism and evolution,' they’re violating the law. It’s not even a gray area — the Supreme Court has already struck down a law that called for 'balanced treatment for creation-science and evolution-science in public school instruction,' concluding that the law violated the separation of church and state." As to letting students "figure out which one is right," Benen says, "Reality is not multiple choice. Public school curricula are not supposed to present fact and fiction, only to leave it ambiguous which is which." ...

Via Salon.... Justin Elliot of Salon: Robert Morrow, "an Austin Ron Paul supporter, has taken out a full-page ad in the local alt weekly newspaper seeking any 'stripper ... escort ... or "young hottie'" who has slept with Rick Perry, part of his single-minded jihad against the presidential candidate.... At the bottom of the ad is a nod to the longtime (and equally unsubstantiated) rumors that Perry, who has pursued sundry anti-gay policies, is himself gay. "Note to gay people: If you know the truth about Rick, please QUIT covering for him," it reads.... Back in 2008, [Morrow] paid for (and personally voiced) an anti-Hillary robocall in South Carolina that made the unsubstantiated claim that 'Hillary knew about and helped cover up Bill's rape of Juanita Broaddrick.'"

Jim Newell of Gawker: "Sen. Tom Coburn [R-Okla.] Has Lost His Mind." In one townhall meeting, Coburn said (1) medical treatment of the elderly was better before Medicare though "doctors and hospitals often went unpaid for their efforts, or accepted baked goods or chickens in partial payment"; (2) he wants to shoot up the Senate which is "a class of career elitists" and "cowards," but he isn't allowed to "pack a gun on the Senate floor"; and (3) and Obama favors safety-net programs because "As an African-American male... [Obama received] tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs." O-Kaaay. ...

     ... Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: "Keep in mind that the only area where Obama has attempted to create a new entitlement is health care, which is the same goal pursued by Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, and other non-black politicians."

Chait: Rick Santorum says gay marriage, abortion & eliminating school prayer are "the root causes" of the financial crisis; i.e., general social "immorality" begets (the biblical verb is so appropriate here) Wall Street immorality. CW: so I guess we can see how President Santorum would handle the recession. "Get thee to a nunnery, Lloyd Blankfein."

Local News

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A week after launching a listening tour of Massachusetts, former White House official Elizabeth Warren has filed an exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission as she prepares to challenge Sen. Scott Brown in 2012." The Website of the exploratory committee is http://elizabethforma.com

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: We Are Ohio, a group campaigning to repeal a law eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees, yesterday rejected Ohio Gov. John Kasich's (R) offer to compromise with him. The group said they could talk once the bill was repealed.

News Ledes

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) says he won't run for Senate in 2012 or run against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (RTP) in a 2012 recall election. He also says, "I will be working to re-elect [President Obama] and hope to play a significant role in that effort."

New York Times: "Stock markets in Europe opened sharply lower Friday, a second day of brutal losses, as investors once again took fright at the debt and economic woes that are roiling Europe and the United States."

AP: "White House budget chief Jacob Lew has ordered agency heads to submit spending plans for the upcoming budget at least 5 percent below this year's levels. He also wants them to propose ways to trim a total of at least 10 percent of their spending."

New York Times: "The United States and several of its major allies on Thursday called on Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to give up power.... Almost simultaneously, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany issued a joint statement urging Mr. Assad 'to face the reality of the complete rejection of his regime by the Syrian people and to step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people.' Canada made a similar appeal, as did the European Union. The United Nations human rights office in Geneva issued a damning, 22-page report that concluded that Syrian government forces might have committed crimes against humanity...."

Reuters: "U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday said China had 'nothing to worry about' concerning the safety of its vast holdings of Treasury debt, while China's Premier Wen Jiabao gave a ringing endorsement of the resilience of the debt-ridden U.S. economy. The exchange came on the second day of Biden's five-day visit to China where he is seeking to reduce distrust between the world's two largest economies and build relations with Chinese leaders."

AP: "A bomb exploded in a mosque in a Pakistani tribal region as hundreds were gathered for prayers Friday, killing at least 40 people and wounding 85 others in the first major attack in the country during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan."

AP: "Suicide attackers stormed a British compound in the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least 10 people in a five-hour gunfight on the anniversary of the country's independence from Britain. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack on the British Council in the western part of Kabul."

Al Jazeera: "Israeli aircraft have struck Hamas security installations in Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians, in further retaliation for attacks along the Egyptian border in which eight Israelis died." CW: ... because the best way to handle an atrocity is to commit another atrocity.

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