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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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Tuesday
Dec072010

The Commentariat -- December 8

Jacob Weisberg in Slate on "how the Republicans fleeced Obama in tax-cut poker": "There's an old poker adage that if you don't see the mark at the table, you're it. Bad news, Mr. President. You're the mark." ...

... Paul Krugman & ultra-conservative Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth appear on PBS's "News Hour" to talk about the tax deal & President Obama's disparaging his progressive critics. The segment with Krugman begins about 6 min. in:

... Actually, Krugman, Obama wants to pick a fight with Congressional Democrats. Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Relations between President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have never been worse, but it’s a feud that many in the White House quietly welcome."

** Republican Conspiracy -- Starve the States & Unions. James Pethokoukis of Reuters: "Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy.... That’s why the most intriguing aspect of President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans is what the compromise fails to include — a provision to continue the Build America Bonds program.  BABs now account for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "U.S. President Barack Obama would like to see the the Build America Bonds program continue this year or next year, White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Wednesday." ...

     Also from Reuters: "Failure by the Congress to pass a tax cut deal soon would 'materially increase' the risk of the economy stalling and a double dip recession, White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Wednesday." ...

... ** David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: in the tax deal, there's something for everybody, especially the rich: the biggest beneficiaries. "At least a quarter of the tax savings will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.... In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale — individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000." Includes a chart that shows what's in it for you. ...

     ... Update: the back-and-forth between Jake Tapper of ABC News & Larry Summers on low wage-earners getting whacked is good. Summers finally concedes that Tapper & Kocieniewski are right.

... CW: This is exactly what I said last night in my comment (#8) in Maureen Dowd's column. Michael O'Brien of The Hill: "... senior administration officials said their own party is at least part[l]y to blame for the [tax-cut] deal. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said..., "He [President Obama] and the White House, frankly, urged the House and Senate to hold votes on this before the election.... But they didn't do that, in part because there's not unanimity in the Democratic Caucus on this.'"

The Polls. It Depends on What the Meaning of "All" Is:

     (1) Bloomberg: "Americans don’t approve of keeping the breaks for upper-income taxpayers that are part of the deal President Barack Obama brokered with congressional Republicans, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.... Only a third of Americans support keeping the lower rates for the highest earners." ...

     (2) Gallup: "Two major elements included in the tax agreement reached Monday between President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress meet with broad public support. Two-thirds of Americans (66%) favor extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all Americans for two years, and an identical number support extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed." ...

     (3) BUT Andy Borowitz reports: "President Obama’s deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich drew rave reviews today from the wealthiest .0000001% of Americans, who pronounced the deal 'a total home run.'”

... Biden Did It. Carl Hulse & Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: Vice President Biden & Minority Leader McConnell hammered out the tax-cut deal in secret talks held in the Vice President's ceremonial Senate office. ...

... Jonathan Allen of Politico: "House Democrats railed against President Barack Obama's tax cut deal with congressional Republicans in a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday night, even as there were signs that the White House could pick up enough support for the package to win enactment." ...

... President Obama speaks to his supporters about his tax-cut deal:

... New York Times Editors: "... the Democrats should vote for this deal, because it is the only one they are going to get." ...

... Ezra Klein agrees:

If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind. The GOP got around $95 billion in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and $30 billion in estate tax cuts. Democrats got $120 billion in payroll-tax cuts, $40 billion in refundable tax credits (Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and education tax credits), $56 billion in unemployment insurance, and, depending on how you count it, about $180 billion (two-year cost) or $30 billion (10-year cost) in new tax incentives for businesses to invest. But ... Republicans are treating it as a victory, and liberals as a defeat. ...

       ... CW: Read Klein's whole post. He's very good on how Obama, in his usual tone-deaf way, alienated liberals, in Congress & out. ...

... BUT. Russell Berman & Mike Lillis of The Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday escalated the Democratic criticism of the agreement and said the estate-tax provision was 'a bridge too far.'”

... Michael Linden & Michael Ettlinger of the Center for American Progress say the Obama deal will create 2.2 millions jobs, but call it "unfortunate that these jobs have to come from an agreement that is a balance between large, unneeded, bonus tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and the needed continuation of unemployment benefits, middle-class tax relief, and additional help for the economy...." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Mr. Obama effectively traded tax cuts for the affluent ... for a second stimulus bill that seemed improbable a few weeks ago. Mr. Obama yielded to Republicans on extending the high-end Bush tax cuts and on cutting the estate tax below its scheduled level. In exchange, Republicans agreed to extend unemployment benefits, cut payroll taxes and business taxes, and extend a grab bag of tax credits for college tuition and other items. For the White House, the deal represents a clear shift in policy focus. Mr. Obama and Democrats spent much of the last year pursuing long-term goals. But with the recovery faltering..., the administration is turning back to short-term job creation."

... Matt Bai of the New York Times: "President Obama’s compromise with Republicans on extending tax cuts for the wealthy, which his self-described progressive critics see as a profound betrayal, is bound to intensify a debate that has been bubbling up on liberal blogs and e-mail lists in recent weeks — whether or not the president who embodied 'hope and change' in 2008 should face a primary challenge in 2012."

Richard D. Parsons, the chairman of Citigroup, says his bank and the other major financial institutions are too damned big to fail, and we taxpayers are so lucky we made a profit on the TARP loan to Citi. CW: funny, Parsons doesn't mention that Citi's remarkable turnaround is the result of gouging customers & the huge Fed loans it got at near-zero percent interest. Video. ...

... Washington Post: "The Treasury Department plans to sell the rest of its stake in Citigroup, a move that would allow the government to end its ownership in the bailed-out banking giant while turning a $12 billion total profit for taxpayers."

Alex Altman of Time: "... the National Association of Evangelicals and the United States Council of Catholic Bishops ... came together [Tuesday] to tell Congress to ratify the New START Treaty."

Elizabeth Edwards, photo via Politico.New York Times: "Elizabeth Edwards, who as the wife of former Senator John Edwards gave America an intimate look at a candidate’s marriage by sharing his quest for the 2008 presidential nomination as she struggled with incurable cancer and, secretly, with his infidelity, died Tuesday morning at her home in Chapel Hill, N.C. She was 61." ...

... Meredith Shiner of Politico: "Friends, lawmakers and prominent political figures mourned the loss of Elizabeth Edwards on Tuesday night." Statements from President Obama, Sen. John Kerry, Vice President Biden, Lance Armstrong, Secretary Hillary Clinton and others. ...

... Dr. Barron Lerner in the New York Times: "Lessons from Elizabeth Edwards." ...

Hackattack! AP: "WikiLeaks supporters struck back Wednesday at perceived enemies of the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange, launching hacker attacks against MasterCard, Swedish prosecutors, a Swedish lawyer and a Swiss group that froze Assange's bank account." ...

... New York Times: "The Justice Department, in considering whether and how it might indict Julian Assange, is looking beyond the Espionage Act of 1917 to other possible offenses, including conspiracy or trafficking in stolen property, according to officials familiar with the investigation." ...

... BUT. Reuters: "The Australian government Wednesday blamed the United States, not the WikiLeaks founder, for the unauthorized release of about 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables and said those who originally leaked the documents were legally liable. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd also said the leaks raised questions over the 'adequacy' of U.S. security over the cables."

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