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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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Monday
Dec062010

The Commentariat -- December 7

President Obama holds a news conference to defend his tax deal with Republicans:

NAUSEA!

... Here's the transcript.

We truly live in a bizzaro world when a call for immediate 'shared sacrifice' from middle class federal employees is soon after followed by a massively costly extension of tax cuts for millionaires.
-- Jon Walker, Firedoglake

Getting Republicans to agree to more tax cuts in return for preserving existing tax cuts is roughly equivalent to getting crack addicts to agree to try a different brand of cocaine in return for allowing them to keep their existing stash. -- John Cassidy, The New Yorker

... AP: "... President Barack Obama announced agreement with Republicans Monday night on a plan to extend expiring income tax cuts for all Americans, renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and grant a one-year reduction in Social Security taxes. The emerging agreement also includes tax breaks for businesses.... Obama's announcement marked a dramatic reversal of his long-held insistence, originally laid out in his 2008 campaign, that tax cuts should only be extended at incomes up to $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples." New York Times story here: "The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing long-term fiscal imbalances." ...

... Adam Serwer makes several good points about the tax deal, but this is one to keep in mind: "This deal [was] made necessary only by the Democrats' bungling of a strong, popular position on tax cuts in advance of the midterm elections...." ...

... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "Although his liberal supporters are furious about the decision, President Obama's willingness to extend all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts is part of what White House officials say is a deliberate strategy: to demonstrate his ability to compromise with Republicans and portray the president as the last reasonable man in a sharply partisan Washington." CW: Hah! ...

... Here are the White House talking points on the tax deal, sent in a memo to "Congressional allies," via Ben Smith. ...

... Krugman comments on the tax plan here and here and here.

... Here's Peter Baker's view of our pragmatic President: "For the first time since his party’s drubbing in last month’s election, and arguably for the first time on a major domestic policy since he took office, Mr. Obama forged a deal with the Republican opposition.... In that deal come the first clues to how he plans to govern for the next two years.... He made clear he was willing to alienate his liberal base...."

... Anderson Cooper on President Obama's broken promise:

... The Huff Post has another nice roundup of clips of President Obama deriding "tax cuts for millionaires & billionaires." He still says he doesn't like them, but he's endorsed them in his "compromise." ...

... Pat Garofalo of the Wonk Room: "So in return for continuing the fiscally irresponsible and economically unsuccessful Bush tax policy, Democrats receive an desperately necessary extension of jobless benefits of the sort that used to be completely uncontroversial until this Congress came to town, as well as some helpful tax breaks for the working class that Republicans likely would have supported under any circumstance.... But the most pernicious piece of this deal is the estate tax cut. It will amount to another $7 billion in tax breaks in 2011 that benefit no one but the ultra-wealthy." ...

... As Ezra Klein sees it, "... rather than paring the tax cuts and the deficit back, they're making both larger. If you're of the mind that the economy needs all the extra help it can get right now..., this is a lot more extra help than anyone expected Republicans and Democrats would agree to give it. And from a political perspective, if you believe that what matters for elections is the economy -- and you should -- then it's worth it for the White House to lose news cycles in 2010 if it means adding jobs by 2012.... The next fight over the tax cuts will be part of the 2012 election.... The White House's problem is that they handled the politics of this argument so poorly in 2010 that their allies on the Hill don't trust them to do better in 2012. One Senate staffer summed up his reaction to the deal in one word: 'Nausea.' ...

... John Cassidy of The New Yorker: "From a political perspective, the agreement is a humiliating moment for President Obama, and one that may forever rupture his relations with the liberal wing of his party....   From an egalitarian standpoint, the failure to end Bush’s giveaway to the rich is an inexplicable failure. It will only strengthen the impression that the United States is ... a country in which a small group of rich people wield an inordinate amount of political power. But from an immediate macroeconomic perspective, and, hence, from the perspective of a President preparing for a reëlection campaign in 2012, the tax-cutting agreement makes some sense. By boosting the overall level of spending power, it will reduce the chances of the economy falling back into recession sometime next year or in 2012." ...

... Low Expectations, Part 1. Later, after reading more of the President's deal, Klein says the deal is not as bad as it might have been. Money quote, so to speak: "The tax cuts for income over $250,000 are a bad way to spend $100 billion or so, and the estate tax deal is really noxious." ...

... Low Expectations, Part 2. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones says the same: "This isn't anyone's idea of dream legislation, but it could be a lot worse. But how stimulative is it? Answer: not much in a positive way, but it does prevent the elimination of current programs that would have been contractionary." ...

... Low Expectations, Part 3. New York Times Editors: "President Obama’s deal with the Republicans to extend all the Bush-era income tax cuts is a win for the Republicans and their strategy of obstructionism and a disappointing retreat by the White House. We suppose it could have been worse." ...

... More on Why I Love Bernie!

... Katrina vanden Heuvel in a Washington Post op-ed on Obama's right turns, on Afghanistan, on the Korea trade deal, on deficits, on jobs: "This is political self-immolation." ...

... Obama gives away the store just after Krugman recommends you see the film "Inside Job." That's appropriate. Here's the trailer for "Inside Job":

"I Want It All for Christmas":

Tom Toles, Washington Post.... those of you who bought the idea that electing more Republicans would be the path to reform here in the Emerald City .... have been gamed yet again, and the name of that game is still the same: money in politics. And the money comes from...oh!...the rich! Now watch in surprise as your newly duly elected representatives vote to serve the interests of the rich! Who could have guessed. -- Tom Toles

Manu Raju of Politico: "Members of Congress requested almost 40,000 earmarks that exceeded $100 billion directed to their home districts and states for the current fiscal year, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis to be released Tuesday."

Peter Boyer of The New Yorker profiles Speaker-in-Waiting John Boehner, who will not have an easy time controlling his caucus, especially the new tea party members.

CW: based on yesterdays oral arguments & precedent, it appears the conservatives on the Supreme Court are prepared to deprive veterans of their benefits when their illnesses or injuries cause them to miss filing deadlines. Justice Scalia's cruel, vindictive, closed-minded rigidity, as reported in this article by Adam Liptak of the New York Times, makes clear that he is a sociopath.

I'm not particularly optimistic that they're going to get this done. -- Defense Secetary Robert Gates, on repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Evelyn Rusli of the New York Times: economist Nouriel Roubini, a/k/a Dr. Doom, "says he’s increasingly worried about ... America’s real estate mess. The country’s real estate problems are 'underappreciated,' and banks could face another $1 trillion in housing-related losses, Mr. Roubini said.... The United States 'real estate market, for sure, is double dipping,' Mr. Roubini said. 'The apparent increase in prices has been fully reversed, demand is falling, and supply is going to increase.'”

I think we have to blow up the place. -- Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), on how to fix Congress

"Keith Chaudruc, left, of Madison, tries to get a word in (but he can't) as Gov. Chris Christie berates him at a town hall meeting in Parsippany on Friday." Photo & caption by Star-Ledger.

CW: Republicans are begging New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie to run for President. The editors of the Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest-circulation newspaper, call him a bully: 

Christie has turned state politics into one never-ending yo’ mama joke. It doesn’t matter who you are — school superintendent, teacher, student, U.S. senator, state Assembly leader, former education commissioner or just a regular guy trying to have a conversation: If you disagree with him, Christie will try to humiliate you publicly. -- Editors, Star-Ledger

      ... CW: the editorial, which includes an account of one incident in which Christie bullied a citizen -- & involved Christie's ordering state trooper to effectively manhandle the guy -- is entertaining. Includes video.

Ho Ho Ho! Steve Benen: Christmas is just around the corner and "they" are picking on Christians again. Happy Holidays! ...

Farah Stockman & Matt Viser of the Boston Globe: "The latest trove of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks provides a rare glimpse into behind-the-scenes meetings Senator John F. Kerry has held with world leaders.... The cables ... portray him as a statesman who is constantly seeking a middle ground...." ...

... Mark Thompson of Time points to Denver Nick's profile of Bradley Manning, who is suspected of providing classified documents to WikiLeaks.

President Obama speaking yesterday in North Carolina on education, innovation & the economy:

     ... AP: "President Barack Obama warned Monday the United States faces a new 'Sputnik moment' in an increasingly one-world economy and said it must move dramatically to hold its place as global leader."

New York Times: "In the latest twist in the drama swirling around the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, British police officials said on Tuesday they had arrested Julian Assange ... on a warrant issued in Sweden in connection with alleged sex offenses." Story has been updated: "Assange ... was denied bail by a London court on Tuesday.... Mr. Assange said he would fight extradition" [to Sweden].

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