The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

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
Dec012011

The Commentariat -- December 2

My New York Times eXaminer column on David Brooks' paean to the superiority of the German culture is here. (Either Brooks is getting sicker & sicker, or I'm just reading more closely.) The NYTX front page is here.

The Lighting of the National Christmas Tree (Thursday evening):

... AND on that happy note: "The Senate Wants the Military to Lock You up without a Trial." Spencer Ackerman of Wired: The Senate has included an amendment in the defense spending bill, which allows "the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial.... The detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners."

     ... Update. Jeremy Herb of The Hill: "The Senate passed a $662 billion Defense bill Thursday evening after a long fight over how the U.S. military detains terror suspects. The bill passed overwhelmingly 93-7, following an agreement reached late Thursday afternoon to add compromise language on the detention of U.S. citizens and terror suspects on U.S. soil.... It is not clear whether the change will satisfy the White House, which has threatened to veto the Defense bill over the detainee provisions. The Obama administration expressed its opposition to the use of military detention within the United States, but also had concerns over the legislation tying the hands of federal law enforcement by mandating military custody and prosecution of al Qaeda members. The administration also opposes restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees."

Paul Krugman on how the Very Serious Europeans are killing the euro.

Karen Garcia on the two-tiered world of New York Times commenters and Obama supporters. CW: I'll probably have something on the Times' "trusted commenters" in tomorrow New York Times eXaminer. I just felt obligated to let Brooks have it today (see above).

Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting 'We are the 99 percent,' referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, 'You are the one percent' referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon." ...

... Occupy the Office. Print story here, with additional audio:

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine explains the arithmetically different ways a presidential campaign treats the Electoral College and a specific demographic, because -- here's a surprise -- the right wing, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, is making up stuff. So, no, no matter what you hear in Right Wing World, Obama is not abandoning white working class Americans.  CW: Maybe Chait could also start vetting David Brooks' columns & save him some embarrassment.

Greg Sargent: "The [Karl] Rove-founded group Crossroads GPS has run ads falsely insuinating that [Elizabeth] Warren backs the violence of protesters, and national Republicans have called on her to repudiate the protests.... A new poll just out from the University of Massachusetts suggests this conservative line of attack has yet to bear fruit. The poll finds that Warren has edged ahead of Scott Brown among registered Massachusetts voters, 43-39, though that’s within the margin of error. What’s more interesting is what the internals tell us about whether each side’s message is resonating."

Right Wing World

The public ... still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem. -- Pollster Frank Luntz, advising GOP governors on how to "message" Occupy ...

... More on Luntz's words of wisdom from Greg Sargent. ...

... AND more yet from Seth Michaels of Working America: "Remember, when you hear talking points like those touted by Luntz, what you’re really hearing is anxiety and desperation. It’s the anxiety and desperation of the 1 percent and their political allies, who know that a message about economic fairness resonates with voters and threatens their control over our politics and our economy. Take these talking points for what they are—calculated falsehoods, and a cheap, transparent attempt to use real economic worries to support the same old 1% agenda."

"Mister One Percent." MoveOn.org is running this ad in Iowa;

Willard & Newt. Art via Esquire.Charles Pierce of Esquire assesses Willard & Newt: Willard "come[s] across like Eddie Haskell with a hedge fund. Newt's reversals come within the overall currents of his apparently depthless self-regard."

News Ledes

Presidents Obama & Clinton announces a $4 billion investment in energy efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings:

ABC News: "With his chances for winning the GOP nomination sliding by the day, Herman Cain’s team today launched a 'Women for Cain' campaign, chaired by his wife Gloria, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to salvage his candidacy. The embattled candidate said this afternoon that he’s going to make an announcement Saturday to 'clarify' what his next steps are."

AFP: "Facebook said Friday that it plans to hire thousands of employees over the next year and add an engineering team to its office in New York."

New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel [of Germany] on Friday called for swift action to amend European treaties to address the underlying causes of the debt crisis that has shaken Europe and jeopardized the future of the common currency."

Politico: "Tired of waiting, the House Agriculture Committee moved Friday to subpoena former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine to testify regarding the collapse of MF Global and the loss of customer funds belonging to farmers who relied on the futures broker.... Hours later, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced she would also seek a vote in her panel next week to compel her former colleague to appear."

New York Times: "House investigators examining the 2008 push by Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. to take the Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama found 'probable cause' that Mr. Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, directed one of his supporters to raise money for Rod Blagojevich, who was then the Illinois governor, in exchange for the appointment to the Senate, a detailed investigative report released Friday shows." The report (pdf) is here.

AP: "U.S. officials gave Pakistan soldiers the wrong location when asking for clearance to attack militants along the border last weekend, Pakistani military officials said Friday. The strike resulted in the deaths of 24 soldiers and a major crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad."

ABC News: "The morning after the Senate defeated Democratic and Republican plans to extend the payroll tax cut, President Obama issued a Grinch-like threat to Congress to pass a payroll tax cut before the holiday recess or 'we can all spend Christmas here together.'” See also Saturday's Commentariat.

The Hill: "Unemployment dropped to 8.6 percent in November, its lowest level in nearly three years.The steep drop — the jobless rate was 9 percent a month ago — is good news for Democrats and President Obama, who is counting on a recovering economy to help him win a second term." New York Times story here.

Washington Post: "The Senate late Thursday rejected competing partisan visions for extending a temporary tax break that benefits virtually every American worker, clearing the way for more serious negotiations over how to cover the cost of the tax cut. All but a handful of Democrats voted in favor of their party’s proposal, but in a surprising turn, more Republicans voted against the GOP plan than in favor of it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted this week that a majority of his conference would vote for the party’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut."

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