The Ledes

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the progress of Hurricane Helene. "Helene continued to power north in the Caribbean Sea, strengthening into a hurricane Wednesday morning, on a path that forecasters expect will bring heavy amounts of rain to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba before it begins to move toward Florida’s Gulf Coast."

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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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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Wednesday
Jun012011

The Commentariat -- June 2

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square, and added my comment to Linda Greenhouse's post, linked below. Update: Marvin Schwalb has added a not-to-be-missed comment on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. ...

... Linda Greenhouse has quite an interesting column about the background of Brown v. Plata, the California prison overcrowding case that the Supremes just decided in favor of the defendants in a 5-4 split, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion. You can read the opinion & dissents here (pdf). ...

NEW. New York Times Editors: "No matter how they tried to spin it, 318 House members actually voted against paying the country’s bills and keeping the promise made to federal bondholders.... The games that now pass for governing in an increasingly embarrassing 112th Congress are menacing the nation’s future.... What Republicans seem unwilling to acknowledge is that the debt-limit debate is not about future spending. It is about paying for a deficit already incurred because of two wars and tax cuts approved by both Republicans and Democrats at the behest of a Republican president." ...

     ... Karen Garcia commented on the editorial & received 100 or more reader recommendations. Then, in their wisdom, the Times moderators removed her comment. You can read the "disappeared" comment on Garcia's website Sardonicky. ...

     ... Update: I've added a comment on today's Off Times Square on the Times' removal of Garcia's comment. I think my OTS comment is sort of funny, but then I've never stopped being somewhat sophomoric. Okay, 8th-graderish.

With all the noise about the Ryan/Republican Tea Party's budget's "ending Medicare as we know it," you wouldn't think this next story would be news. But it is. People concerned about Medicare are a huge voting bloc; those who receive Medicaid, not so much. So -- the story -- Sam Baker of The Hill: "Cuts to Medicaid are no more palatable than cuts to Medicare, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told reporters Wednesday. Medicaid advocates and some congressional Democrats are worried that Medicaid could become a more ripe target for funding cuts amid the political firestorm over proposed changes to Medicare. But House Republicans’ proposal to convert federal Medicaid funding into block grants for the states 'is not, in my mind, a plan that will find currency in our caucus,' Menendez said." CW: That's good news. ...

Dr. Aaron Carroll, writing in the Washington Post graphically dispels the Republican meme that tort reform will substantially reduce medical costs. He provides some pretty impressive proofs. ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Among conservatives, 54% are opposed [to the Ryan/Republican Tea Party Medicare plan]. Among current seniors -- who would not be affected by the changes in the Ryan Medicare plan -- a full 74% are opposed, even after they're told that Ryan's plan affects Americans 55 years of age and younger. Even Republicans break against Ryan's plan, though only slightly. Fifty percent oppose the plan, while 48% support it." ...

... I'm the death-panel-supporting, socialist, may-not-have-been-born-here President. -- Barack Obama, to House Republicans when they complained about Democrats' "Mediscare demagoguery" ...

Here's Poor Pitiful Paul Ryan, whining after the House Republicans' meeting with President Obama. AFP photo.Kate Pickert of Time: "In a closed door meeting between Obama and Republican House members on Wednesday, GOP Whip Eric Cantor 'pressed' the president to "stop the demagoguery," according to Politico. A GOP aide familiar with the discussion said Ryan himself accused Obama of adopting a Medicare strategy solely focused on being re-elected in 2012." Pickert is not impressed with Republicans' Mediscare charges. ...

      ... Here's the Politico report by Glenn Thrush & Abby Phillip.

Another Sorry-Assed Victim of Bush Fatigue? Matt Bai of the New York Times: "What the country would probably see [in Rick Perry] is another Texas governor with the same Texan talk and Texan swagger, someone who once schemed with Karl Rove and who, as a social conservative, is so reliably dogmatic that he signed a bill that made it explicitly illegal for the state to confiscate your gun in the event of martial law or some kind of federal takeover, or maybe if the British decided to invade again."

Christie Gives New Jersey the Bird. Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, "took a State Police helicopter to see his son play high school baseball on Tuesday. And whether that is important or trivial, it surely did not help the image of a conservative Republican who has won national notice for preaching belt-tightening and berating those who resist.... Throughout Wednesday, Blogrunner, the Web site that tracks online commentary, rated the helicopter story ... as one of the five most influential in the blogosphere." CW: sorry; as long as this story has legs, I'll keep running it. I find it much more interesting than Weiner's wiener, tho Weiner is doing his best to give his story legs by refusing to detail the facts (see Infotainment for the now-foot-long Weiner story). ...

... Here's the original Star-Ledger story, which I have not linked before. Not only did Christie use a helicopter purchased for Homeland Security & patient transfer purposes, he had a car waiting to drive him 100 yards from the bird to the field. Then he left half-way through his son's big game to go meet with Iowans who want him to run for President. ...

... The Blue Texan of Firedoglake: "So Christie, who nixed a rail project that would’ve created 6,000 jobs and declared war on New Jersey’s teachers because he claimed the state was broke — blew through nearly $3 grand of the taxpayers’ money to watch half a high school baseball game." ...

... AND, Lord Christie has a history of spending lavishly at public expense. The U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General was not amused. Via Steve Benen.

I got a note from blogger Carolyn Jackson today, which reminded me to take a look at her blog. Her most recent post is a Memorial Day reflection, but it is good for any day. Jackson doesn't post often, but everything she writes is worth the wait.

Peter Hamby of CNN has a Palin story that actually has a little substance: Sarah Palin met with Fox "News" officials for more than an hour yesterday. If Palin is seriously contemplating a run for president, Fox would likely suspend or cancel her contract as it did with Newt Gingrich's & Rick Santorum's contracts.

News Ledes

President Obama met with the House Democratic caucus this afternoon. Politico Update: "House Democrats pressed President Barack Obama on Thursday to keep his word and stand firm on Medicare as negotiations with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling heat up."

Los Angeles Times: "As Mitt Romney formally announced his presidential bid Thursday, two larger-than-life political personalities [Sarah Palin & Rudy Giuliani] crashed into New Hampshire, stealing the nominal frontrunner's thunder and underscoring that the GOP field is far from settled." ...

... L.A. Times: "The White House and President Obama's reelection campaign have long been treating Mitt Romney as the Republican frontrunner in 2012. And as the former Massachusetts governor was kicking off his campaign in New Hampshire, press secretary Jay Carney was ready with a response to his charge that the president had 'failed America' and prolonged the recession. His answer ... alternately pointed the finger at the Bush administration for driving the nation into recession and defended steps Obama took to reverse it." Story includes text of Carney's full response.

ABC News: "House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls 'a legal and political hot potato at the President.' In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either: a) Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or b) Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya.

Politico: "Criminal charges are expected to be filed Friday against two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, the result of an investigation into campaign cash allegedly funneled to the woman he had an out-of-wedlock child with."

Boston Globe: "Tornadoes tore through Western and Central Massachusetts yesterday, killing at least four people, injuring an untold number, and reducing schools, churches, and homes to splinters along its destructive path. Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency throughout Massachusetts and ordered up to 1,000 troops from the National Guard to help with rescue efforts. He said at least 19 communities had reported damage and he asked officials in those towns and cities to close schools and keep nonemergency personnel home today to allow work crews to clear streets."

Al Jazeera: "Fighting has continued in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, between forces loyal to the president and those allied to an opposition tribal group." AND, an earlier report from Al Jazeera: "At least 41 people have been killed overnight in ongoing street fighting between government forces and opposition tribal fighters in Yemen's capital." Both reports include video. Also, Al Jazeera is running a liveblog here.

** AP: "The Health and Human Services Department rejected changes in Indiana's Medicaid plan Wednesday, saying it illegally bans funding for Planned Parenthood, and sought to make clear that a similar fate awaits other states that pass legislation barring any qualified health care provider. State officials signaled they would not accept HHS' decision. In a letter sent to Indiana's Medicaid director, Medicaid Administrator Donald M. Berwick said Indiana's plan will improperly bar beneficiaries from receiving services. Federal law requires Medicaid beneficiaries to be able to obtain services from any qualified provider." CW: another reason to love Dr. Berwick. His is serving under a recess appointment because Republican Senators have blocked his confirmation.

New York Times: "Google said Wednesday that hundreds of users of Gmail, its e-mail service, had been the targets of clandestine attacks apparently originating in China that were aimed at stealing their passwords and monitoring their e-mail. In a blog post, the company said the victims included senior government officials in the United States, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries, military personnel and journalists."

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