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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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Page Links
Saturday
Mar122011

The Commentariat -- March 12

Gen. Wesley Clark, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the basic requirements for successful intervention [in Libya] simply don't exist, at least not yet: We don't have a clearly stated objective, legal authority, committed international support or adequate on-the-scene military capabilities, and Libya's politics hardly foreshadow a clear outcome. We should have learned these lessons from our long history of intervention. We don't need Libya to offer us a refresher course in past mistakes." ...

... BUT. Lloyd Grove in the Daily Beast or Newsweek or whatever: former president Bill Clinton favors imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. Clinton said Thursday, "'We have the planes to make an appropriate contribution to this.' ... Clinton ... argued that Gaddafi himself has already internationalized the conflict by hiring foreign mercenaries 'at $2,000 a day,' to kill Libyans. 'It’s not a fair fight,' the former president said, under questioning by Newsweek and Daily Beast Editor in Chief Tina Brown. 'They’re being killed by mercenaries. I think we should support them.'”

The Sphinx Strategy. Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: "... the White House sees no upside in outspokenness." White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer says the public wants President Obama to lead; "they don't want him serving as a cable commentator for the issue of the day."

CW: in his news conference yesterday, President Obama defended the exteme treatment WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is receiving at Quantico. Not everyone in his Administration is on the same page. Philippa Thomas reports that in a public meeting held earlier this week about the news media's role in foreign policy, State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said , "What’s being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.'” Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy writes that Crowley has since confirmed he made those remarks but that they were his "personal opinion." He also said, "I defer to the Department of Defense regarding the treatment of Bradley Manning."

Suzy Khimm of Mother Jones: "A killer tsunami has devastated Japan and is now threatening Hawaii and the Pacific Coast of the US. But just last month, Republicans voted to gut funding for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center — a cut that would cripple the National Weather Service's ability to issue warnings about such disasters." Yeah, because who cares if we lose some of those elite West Coast libruls?

Killing Him Softly. Republican Joe Scarborough clearly is not a Mitt Romney fan. David Axelrod, on the other hand, says he loves Romneycare. All in all, a fine double-team schtick against Mitt:

Right Wing World

CW: I hadn't intended to link to Gail Collins' column because it's all about the Newt. It's a very fine column, of course, but I urge you also to read Gemli's comment (#1) on her column. Here's his closing graph -- a classic!:

These hypocrites always seem to find God just when it’s politically convenient to do so, and claim that He has embraced them. Personally, I wouldn’t embrace Gingrich if I were wearing a hazmat suit and a respirator. And it’s us humans who will have to vote for him and live with the embarrassing consequences, not some deity who is clearly undiscriminating about the company He keeps. Let's all say a prayer that we don't make a mistake we will certainly live to regret.

Andrew DeMillo of the AP: maybe those apparent gaffes of Mike Huckabee's -- about President Obama & actor Natalie Portman -- weren't gaffes at all. CW: the premises of all of them (several about Obama & two about Portman, if you consider it a gaffe to call a respected actor a "starlet" -- I do) would resonate with much of Huckabee's base. The attention Huckabee's remarks have drawn, though derisive, comes from the main stream and left; could be a campaign moneymaker for the Huckster.

In an interview with Robert Costa of the National Review, Rick Santorum explains why Newt Gingrich really isn't a hypocrite. Santorum likens his own smoking pot in college with Gingrich's multiple, long-lasting infidelities & his (Gingrich's) unceremonious dumping of his wives. Another example of why "santorum" should remain a generic noun. ...

... Speaking of santorum, James O'Keefe -- wait for this -- did a great deal of creative editing of his little sting operation against NPR. Ben Smith remarks, "It's either depressing or sort of wonderful that Glenn Beck's The Blaze was the one to catch some really serious, dishonest lily-gilding in the NPR sting; to-wit: 

      ... ** Scott Baker of The Blaze describes one edit of the O'Keefe tape: "the clip in the edited video implies [NPR exec Ron] Schiller is giving simply his own analysis of the Tea Party. He does do that in part, but the raw video reveals that he is largely recounting the views expressed to him by two top Republicans, one a former ambassador, who admitted to him that they voted for Obama." Baker's piece picks up on several other egregious edits that completely or partially change the meaning of Schiller's remarks. In one case, he appears to endorse extremist Islamic views; he's actually responding to a remark about the group's restaurant reservations. Schiller lost his job over this; so did the NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation). When are real people ever going to learn that the Brietbart-O'Keefe-Tucker Carlson crowd are the santorum of Right Wing World and their breathless, game-changing "exposés" are never what they appear to be. (Think Shirley Sherrod here; think ACORN.)

Local News

Iowa Open Mic. Steve Benen: a couple of top Iowa Republicans are caught discussing a proposed carry law. One of the bill's supporters, the state House Speaker Pro Tem, describes the bill as "The crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill." Includes video. CW: they know what they're doing; they just don't care about the consequences they foresee. P.S. Family-values legislators sure do swear a lot.

Casey Grove of the Anchorage Daily News: "Five people in the Fairbanks area were arrested Thursday by state and federal law enforcement on charges connected with an alleged plot to kidnap or kill state troopers and a Fairbanks judge, according to the Alaska State Troopers." Note to Peter King: as far as I know, these homegrown terrorists are not "radicalized" Muslims. How about conducting a hearing on "radicalized Second Amendment/sovereign citizen" groups.

News Ledes

Wisconsin State Journal: "For a fourth straight Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters opposed to the controversial budget repair bill Gov. Scott Walker signed into law Friday descended on the state Capitol calling for Walker's ouster, while some are calling for a general strike. The crowd swelled as the 3 p.m. rally started and a bitter wind picked up. Protesters from neighboring states joined locals in the slow march around the Capitol."

** New York Times: "An explosion at a nuclear power plant in northern Japan on Saturday blew the roof off one building, brought down walls and caused a radiation leak of unspecified proportions, Japanese officials said, after Friday’s huge earthquake caused critical failures in the plant’s cooling system." The Washington Post story is here: four other reactors are in peril. Los Angeles Times story here: as many as 1,700 may have perished in the quake & tsunami.

... New York Times: "The death toll from the tsunami and earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in Japan, was in the hundreds, but Japanese news media quoted government officials as saying that it could rise to more than 1,300, most of them drowned. About 200 to 300 bodies were found along the waterline in Sendai, a port city in northeastern Japan and the closest major city to the epicenter." ...

... AP Update: "Cooling systems failed at another nuclear reactor on Japan's devastated coast Sunday, hours after an explosion at a nearby unit made leaking radiation, or even outright meltdown, the central threat to the country following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese government said radiation emanating from the plant appeared to have decreased after Saturday's blast, which produced a cloud of white smoke that obscured the complex. But the danger was grave enough that officials pumped seawater into the reactor to avoid disaster and moved 170,000 people from the area." ...

... Kyodo News Update: "The loss of life and destruction caused by Friday's catastrophic earthquake in Japan grew Saturday, with the combined number of people who have died or remain unaccounted for expected to exceed 1,800, while an explosion occurred at a nuclear power plant injuring four workers."

Washington Post: President "Obama's cautious commitment to the [Libyan] rebel movement, which he said is 'just getting organized' in its fight to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule, mirrored the stance taken Friday by European leaders, who until now had been speaking more boldly than Obama on how best to assist Libya's opposition. At an emergency European Union summit, leaders declared that Gaddafi can no longer be considered Libya's leader and must step down immediately. But they stopped short of formally recognizing the rebel movement or endorsing military action to support its armed struggle."

Los Angeles Times: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ... 'is making leaps and bounds in terms of neurological progress,' doctors said Friday, and there is 'a good possibility' she will be able to attend the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, will command in April. Giffords' speech 'is getting very good' and she 'is starting to walk with assistance,' said Dr. Dong Kim, director of Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center...." Arizona Republic story here.

Politico: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has come out in opposition to the House’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, making her the first Republican senator to specifically support the beleaguered organization."

New York Times: "The Justice Department is investigating allegations that a mortgage subsidiary of Morgan Stanley foreclosed on almost two dozen military families from 2006 to 2008 in violation of a longstanding law aimed at preventing such action."

Washington Post: "National Football League team owners locked out the league's players Saturday, shutting down professional football for the first time in 24 years and plunging the nation's most popular and prosperous sport into a time of uncertainty."

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