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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
Feb222011

The Commentariat -- February 23

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "As the Qaddafi clan conducts a bloody struggle to hold onto power in Libya, cables obtained by WikiLeaks offer a vivid account of the lavish spending, rampant nepotism and bitter rivalries that have defined what a 2006 cable called 'Qadhafi Incorporated.'”

Karin Brulliard of the Washington Post: "As the Obama administration has boosted economic and development assistance for Pakistan over the past two years, it has deployed U.S. diplomats and aid workers more widely to implement education programs, flood relief and other projects. The apparently growing belief that many Americans work as sinister agents could imperil those efforts or endanger those carrying them out, U.S. and Pakistani officials said." The U.S.'s admission that Raymond Davis, accused of shooting dead two Pakistanis last week, was a CIA contractor, only confirmed Pakistanis' suspicions. The U.S. continues to claim he should have diplomatic immunity. ...

... Tom Raum of the AP: "Some members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, are threatening to cut off funds to Pakistan if Raymond Allen Davis is kept much longer in a Pakistani jail. But turning him over to the U.S. could unleash a torrent of anti-American sentiment across Pakistan, threatening to undercut that country's fragile civilian government."

Ha, ha. Walker Pwned. After he heard Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin refused to take calls from Democratic legislators, Ian Murphy, who runs the Buffalo Beast site (founded by Matt Taiibi), called Walker posing as financier & Walker-backer David Koch. Murphy/Koch not only got through, they had a 20-minute conversation, which you can listen to below. (The Buffalo Beast site is currently down [1:45 pm ET]). Update: the Buffalo Beast site is back up. Give it a hit. Murphy has a partial transcript of the audio. Audio Parts 1 & 2:

     ... Adam Weinstein of Mother Jones -- and Walker's office -- verified the call. ...

     ... Ezra Klein: "The state's Democratic senators can't get Walker on the phone, but someone can call the governor's front desk, identify themselves as David Koch, and then speak with both the governor and his chief of staff? That's where you see the access and power that major corporations and wealthy contributors will have in a Walker administration, and why so many in Wisconsin are reluctant to see the only major interest group representing workers taken out of the game.... Walker ... is not opposed, in principle, to powerful interest groups having the ear of the politicians they depend on, and who depend on them. He just wants those interest groups to be the conservative interest groups that fund him...."

Judith Davidoff of the Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times: "The billionaire brothers whose political action committee gave Gov. Scott Walker $43,000 and helped fund a multi-million dollar attack ad campaign against his opponent ... have quietly opened a lobbying office in Madison just off the Capitol Square. Charles and David Koch, who co-own Koch Industries Inc. and whose combined worth is estimated at $43 billion, have been recently tied with Walker's push to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public workers." ...

** Shawn Doherty of the Cap Times: "The [Walker] bill allows the Walker administration, without approval of the Public Service Commission and without a competitive bidding process, to sell off or lease the state's several dozen energy plants to private companies.... The guy Walker put in charge of the office that will oversee these potential power plant sales — though some people worry they will be more of giveaways than sales — is Jeff Plale.... He is one of the two Democratic senators who at the very last minute defected from the Democratic ranks to vote against state employee contracts last fall. Around a month later, Walker handed the former South Milwaukee Democratic legislator the $90,000 post as the administrator of the Department of Administration's Division of Facilities. And now he is busy defending the administration's move to sell off the state's power plants as no big deal." ...

... Michael Fletcher & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The budget fights initiated by Republican governors represent a multi-state effort by like-minded politicians to solve budgetary problems in part by weakening public employee unions and demanding significant concessions from workers. After the November elections, Republicans now control many more state legislatures and governorships." ...

... Greg Sargent: Gov. Scott Walker refuses to accept the public workers' union concessions & declare victory. "For all of Walker's pieties about how he really, honestly, truly isn't out to bust unions, his own conduct makes it entirely clear what this is really all about." ...

"A Less Perfect Union." Stephen Colbert weighs in on Turmoil in the Middle West:

... In Right Wing World, the story is that Scott Walker campaigned on ending collective bargaining rights for public workers, & the public voted him into office, so its "democratic" to take away their rights. Andrew Sullivan, who thinks it's fine for Walker to restrict union benefits, has searched for evidence that Walker actually campaigned against collective bargaining, and he can't find any. ...

Quote of the Day: There is something bizarre about Republican commentators who cheered on Tea Party protests against a clear Obama campaign pledge -- health insurance reform -- suddenly decrying public protests against something a politician didn't campaign on. -- Andrew Sullivan

... Dennis Cauchon of USA Today: "Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law." ...

... There are conflicting news stories out of Indianapolis on Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' position on public employee collective bargaining rights, so I'm going with this Politico story by Maggie Haberman: "Mitch Daniels suggested Tuesday that Republicans drop their push for the right-to-work legislation.... The Republican governor and presidential hopeful also said he won't send out state police to round up absent Democratic state [House] lawmakers, who fled the state to stall Republican action on the bill."

... Meanwhile, the AP reports that "The Indiana Senate has approved a bill to limit teachers' collective bargaining rights despite objections from minority Democrats and hundreds of union members protesting in the Statehouse.The Republican-ruled Senate voted 30-19 Tuesday to approve the bill, which is part of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' aggressive education agenda." CW: so was this Daniels' idea or not? Has he changed his mind? I can't tell. ...

... CW: AND pardon me while I fall out of my chair. Peter Schorsch of Saint Petersblog: "Gov. Rick Scott said during a radio interview Tuesday that Florida shouldn’t move to take away public employees’ collective bargaining rights as the Republican governor of Wisconsin has proposed, reports the News Service of Florida." Heretofore America's Worst Governor, Scott may be falling into Second Worst Governor place, behind Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

What You Should Know about Raising the Debt Limit. Even though the federal government will hit the national debt ceiling in a few months, Republicans have been threatening for some time to refuse to raises the debt limit. They characterize their threats as demonstrations of "fiscal responsibility." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report titled "Delays Create Debt Managment Challenges & Increase Uncertainty in the Treasury Market." The first two sentences of the report should (but won't) blow the wind out of Republican sails:

The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay obligations already incurred.

Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: "U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler didn't just endorse the constitutional legitimacy of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Tuesday evening. She used her 64-page ruling to answer some of the most basic criticisms of the new federal health care law. AP story here. TPM has a copy of Judge Kessler's ruling here. From a footnote in the ruling:

In short, those who choose not to purchase health insurance will ultimately get a 'free ride' on the backs of those Americans who have made responsible choices to provide for the illness we all must face at some point in our lives.

     Cohen writes, "The quote ... speaks ... to all the Americans out there who refuse to buy health insurance in the name of federalism and the 10th Amendment."

Andrew Cuomo with "concubine" Sandra Lee, after attending mass on Sunday, January 2, 2011. AP photo.Oh, No! "Public Concubinage." Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "A consultant to the Vatican’s highest court is calling for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to be denied holy communion because he lives with his girlfriend without being married to her. Edward N. Peters, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, who last year was named by Pope Benedict XVI as a consultant to the Vatican court, the Apostolic Signatura, called the governor’s living situation 'public concubinage' in his blog on Jan. 4, and said in a recent interview that Mr. Cuomo, who is Roman Catholic, must refrain from taking communion under canon law. CW: I love having stupid stories like this pop up for mental health breaks.

Here's a story we like even better. Jeff Gelles of the Philadelphia Inquirer: when Well-Fargo slapped a huge, extra-legal new insurance premium onto Patrick Rodgers' home mortgage loan, Rodgers tried to get the bank to drop the excessive coverage, but -- surprise! -- Wells-Fargo personnel wouldn't even return his phone calls. So Rodgers took the bank to court & obtained a judgment against it -- and a court-ordered sheriff's levy against a local branch of Wells-Fargo to enforce the judgment. With a little help from Rodgers, the story gained national media attention, & Wells Fargo settled with Rodgers. CW: you see what lengths you have to go to to get a bank to return a fucking phone call.

Right Wing World

Another Winger implies Michelle Obama is fat. This time it's the svelte Rush Limbaugh. Really. Max Read of Gawker has the audio & a transcript.

Should this man be calling this woman "fat"?     ... OR, as Jimmy Kimmel asked, "Isn't that the morbidly-obese pot calling the kettle African-American?"

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune has decided not to run for president in 2012, saying he wants to remain in the Senate to fight for conservative principles." CW: Thune's main qualification is that he looks like a president:

John Thune shows House twerps Eric Cantor & Paul Ryan how to look presidenty. Life photo. NEW: the likeness between Thune in this shot & the real President, pictured below, is striking. Why, even their outfits are identical.

News Ledes

President Obama on the situation in Libya:

New York Times: "House Republicans told Senate Democrats on Wednesday that they would agree to a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown next week only if the measure began instituting House-passed cuts on a pro-rated basis."

New York Daily News: "Libya's former justice minister, one of several senior officials to defect since Khadafy ordered a military crackdown on protesters Sunday, told a Swedish tabloid that he has proof Khadafy personally ordered the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. That Libya was behind the bombing is not new, but Mustafa Abdel-Jalil's claims suggest Khadafy could face an international criminal trial if he survives his revolution." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Muammar Gaddafi ... clings to power in the face of mass protests demanding  his resignation, as parts of the country's state structure appear to be disintegrating around him. Fears are growing that Libya's state apparatus, once seen as a powerful and coherent entity, is facing collapse as key officials quit the government, with some joining the protesters, and as international isolation mounts. Fresh gunfire was reported in the capital Tripoli on Wednesday, after Gaddafi called on his supporters to take back the streets from anti-government protesters." New York Times story here. ...

... Reuters: "Egypt's new cabinet met for the first time on Wednesday with security high on its agenda and under attack from the Muslim Brotherhood and others who want it purged of ministers appointed by ousted president Hosni Mubarak. In preparation for polls that military rulers have promised to hand over power to civilian rule in six months, activists announced the forming of a new political party on Wednesday."

New York Times: "After a week of upheaval in Madison, Wis...., the [union] battle moved to Ohio, where the Legislature held hearings on a bill that would effectively end collective bargaining for state workers and drastically reduce it for local government employees like police officers and firefighters.... In Indiana, nearly all of the Democratic members of the state’s House of Representatives stayed away from a legislative session on Tuesday in an effort to stymie a bill that they say would weaken collective bargaining. By late Tuesday, they seemed to have succeeded in running down a clock on the bill, which was to expire at midnight. Representative Brian Bosma, the speaker of the Indiana House, said the bill would die when the deadline passed." ...

     ... Indianapolis Star Update: "Republicans have killed a controversial labor bill that has sparked a Democrat work-stoppage and large union protests at the Statehouse. But Democrats say that isn’t enough to get them back to the Statehouse. Rep. Dale Grubb, D-Covington, the House Democratic caucus chairman who was with the Democrats at an Illinois hotel, said House Democrats are going to stand strong and won’t return to the state until Gov. Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma assure them they won’t resurrect four additional labor measures and six education bills." ...

... AP: "Democrats kept the Wisconsin Assembly up overnight with a droning filibuster in another desperate attempt to block the Republican governor's bold plan to strip public sector workers of nearly all of their bargaining rights.... Meanwhile, tens of thousands of demonstrators have descended on the state Capitol in monumental protests that entered their ninth day Wednesday."

AP: "A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit claiming that President Barack Obama's requirement that all Americans have health insurance violates the religious freedom of those who rely on God to protect them. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, on behalf of five Americans who can afford health insurance but have chosen for years not to buy it." President Clinton appointed Kessler to the court.

New York Times: "Rescue workers struggled to find survivors on Wednesday as much of New Zealand’s second largest city remained silent and dark a day after an earthquake killed scores of people."

AP: "A renewed call for Middle East-style democracy protests in China urged citizens to take strolls at specific locations on weekend afternoons and demanded authorities release activists apparently still in custody Wednesday."

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