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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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Thursday
May122011

The Commentariat -- May 13

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square and have added my comments on Brooks & Krugman. Update: Karen Garcia & Kate Madison have posted their comments, too, and they are fabulous! I love the intros to their comments, too. None of us really expects to make the Times cut on Brooks. Update 2: Garcia & Madison did; I didn't. -- CW

Here's economist Dean Baker, writing in Business Insider, on Brooks: "Did David Brooks' mother tell him that the debt is 'ruinous' or does he just enjoy beating up the elderly?" Brooks tells "readers that he is excited over the possibility that there may be a deal to address the 'nation’s ruinous debt problem.' ... Since there is no evidence in the world that would justify calling the debt problem 'ruinous,' we can assume that this is just the sort of belief that was passed on to Brooks by his parents, in the same way that religious beliefs can be passed on." Thanks to Denis N. for the link.

Why should Carl Levin be the one who needs to do this? Where's the SEC? Where are any of the regulatory bodies? -- Elliot Spitzer ...

** ... Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. "Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee [headed by Carl Levin {D-Mich.}] that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial." CW: Where, I'd like to know, is Barack Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder? It seems obvious he has decided not to aggravate super-connected big campaign donors by charging them with multiple counts of fraud and perjury. The fix is in. Thanks to reader Karen S. for the link. ...

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: in fully half of the major federal agencies involved in regulatory overhaul, the seat at the top is (or will soon become) empty.

Paul Krugman explains why nothing could be worse than a cap on spending and why  Republican/Tea Party Members of Congress are charlatans at best and horrible human beings in all likelihood: "... when people like Mr. Boehner reject out of hand any increase in taxes, they are, in effect, declaring that they won’t preserve programs benefiting older Americans in anything like their current form. It’s just a matter of arithmetic."

Steve Benen on the GOP debt-ceiling strategy: "McConnell and other Republicans are eager, practically desperate, to make major changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — changes that the public won’t like. What the GOP needs more than anything is bipartisan cover. They want Obama to make it so, to use McConnell’s word, this isn’t 'usable' in the next election, because if Republicans tried to do this on their own, the electoral consequences would be severe."

What's Driving the Deficit, from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities. Oh, look, it isn't TARP or the Obama stimulus package. despite your claim. Why, it's George Double-U Bush & his big, fat tax cuts along with the deregulation that led to the recession:

The Washington Post has published the Senate Ethics Committee's full report on John Ensign. It's 75 pages long, but schadenfraude is a powerful incentive so I'll at least skim it. Yesterday's WashPo story -- that the Ethics Committee has asked the DOJ to get off its ass -- is here. ...

... Shorter Version. Manu Raju & John Bresnahan of Politico report on the "bombshells" in the Senate report -- AND they say there are "salacious" details. Sounds like a read that will be at least half as fun as Ken Starr's report on the Lewinsky affair. Tidbit: Rick Santorum is worse than santorum.

Wednesday President Obama conducted a townhall-style meeting on CBS. CBS News has lotsa video clips here, including portions that didn't air. AND here's the full transcript. The full event (minus the outtakes):

I was eating souffle at Rise Restaurant with Laura and two buddies. I excused myself and went home to take the call. Obama simply said 'Osama Bin Laden is dead.' ... I told Obama, 'Good call.'
-- George W. Bush, on how he learned of bin Laden's death. More here from ABC News. No mention of whether or not the souffle had fallen by the time he got back to the restaurant. Maybe he just left it for Obama to finish. -- CW

Following up his Washington Post op-ed I linked yesterday, John McCain gives a Senate floor speech against torture. Joan McCarter of the Daily Kos has some background:

     ... Marcy Wheeler examines the new information McCain presented in his op-ed and floor speech. While she acknowledges the public still doesn't know enough to draw a definitive conclusion, the McCain info provides a window into "why the torture apologists have been so vehement. Because one of their narratives, after all, is that they needed torture to get the key information." But if all the information gleaned to locate Osama bin Laden came from detainees who were not tortured or from detainees when they were not being tortured, the torture advocates lose their one quasi-viable excuse for torture -- they did it "to keep America safe." ...

     ... Andrew Sullivan: "... the lie that torture had anything to do with the killing of Osama bin Laden is accepted as a premise on the propaganda network [i.e., Fox "News"].

David Sanger & John Markoff of the New York Times: "Almost two years after outlining a broad strategy intended to strengthen the security of the nation’s computers and networks, the Obama administration said Thursday that it was sending proposed legislation to Congress that would strengthen penalties for any invasion of private computer systems. But the White House ... said it had elected not to seek authority for stringent top-down regulations that would require companies to erect specific barriers to computer intrusions — which corporations feared would be enormously costly and soon be outdated.

Mike Littwin of the Denver Post has a boffo column on the Republican presidential field, and specifically on why Newt Gingrich is, "in many ways..., just what so many Republicans insist they want.... In Gingrich-speak, nothing is out of bounds, nothing too far below the belt, nothing too unforgivable to say. If I were like Newt Gingrich, here's what I'd say about him: He's everything that is wrong with America today. Since I'm not, I'll just say this: Newt Gingrich? Seriously?"

Right Wing World *

Big Fat Liar Announces Presidential Run. Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, reviews Newt Gingrich's remarks in his first appearance on Hannity's Fox "News" show since Gingrich announced his presidential candidacy. Kessler includes video of the interview. Newt is so mendacious that Kessler gives him the worst rating possible.

Ezra Klein paraphrases the Newest Mitt Romney: “The plan I passed in Massachusetts was great policy, but as president, I pledge to oppose it and enable the insurance industry to undermine any state that attempts to implement it. I believe in the rights of whichever state wants to give the insurance industry the most sweetheart deal first, and a functioning health-care market second." ...

... Dana Milbank on the Romney Twins. ...

... Hey, newly-minted presidential candidate Newt Gingrich loves loved the individual mandate, too. ...

... Ezra Klein: "A lot of Republicans supported the individual mandate" because it was pretty close to Republican policy. Klein lists some prominent Republicans who signed onto federal bills that featured the mandate. ...

... Right Wing World Corollary: It's only bad/unconstitutional if Democrats do it. -- Constant Weader

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

AP: "Texas Rep. Ron Paul has officially announced that he’s running for president. Paul announced on ABC’s 'Good Morning America' that he will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2012":

Blogger is Back. Blogger Buzz explains why Google's Blogger was down for 20.5 hours.

AP: "People have no right to resist if police officers illegally enter their home, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in a decision that overturns centuries of common law. The court issued its 3-2 ruling on Thursday, contending that allowing residents to resist officers who enter their homes without any right would increase the risk of violent confrontation. If police enter a home illegally, the courts are the proper place to protest it, Justice Steven David said."

AP: "Two U.S. officials say pornography was among the items seized when U.S. Navy SEALs raided the Pakistani hideout of Osama bin Laden almost two weeks ago. The officials say it was unclear who the material belonged to, or whether Bin Laden viewed it. Bin Laden's son and two other adult male couriers lived at the compound, the officials said...."

New York Times: "President Obama’s chief envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George J. Mitchell Jr., is leaving that post after two mostly futile years pressing Israelis and Palestinians to make peace, administration officials said on Friday.... The news comes ahead of a critical week in which the president is to deliver a much-anticipated speech on policy toward the Middle East in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden and revolutions in the Arab world, and then to meet with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom the White House has had fraught relations."

Talking Points Memo: "Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) has officially announced his retirement. Kohl's decision to not seek reelection in 2012 opens up a potential top-tier Senate race, in a swing state that has become the center of a polarizing political debate over labor unions in the wake of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union legislation.... Kohl told reporters that he believed the divisions in the state, triggered by Walker's legislation, would make it easier for the Democrats to hold the seat. "I think whoever we nominate is going to have a very good chance of winning," said Kohl. "To some extent the Republicans have overreached, and people have recoiled, and the landscape will be more favorable."

President Obama will meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at 10:00 am ET.

Washington Post: "Twin suicide bombings outside a paramilitary training center in Pakistan’s northwest killed least 80 people early Friday, in what appeared to be militants’ first major retaliatory attack since the death of Osama bin Laden." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Senior police officials said on Friday that a suicide attack that killed more than 80 cadets from a government paramilitary force was most likely retaliation for an army offensive in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and not for the death of Osama bin Laden, as the Pakistani Taliban claimed."

Reuters: "Libyan rebels will meet senior White House officials in Washington on Friday to seek cash and diplomatic legitimacy in their battle to topple Muammar Gaddafi. The United States, Britain and France say they will maintain their NATO-led air campaign until Gaddafi is forced from power but the rebels say they also need cash to hold their besieged positions on the ground." ...

     ... Update. Here's the White House's read-out: "National Security Advisor Tom Donilon met this afternoon with Dr. Mahmoud Gibril, the President of the Libyan Transitional National Council’s Executive Bureau."

CNN: "Three of Osama bin Laden's widows have been interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers under the supervision of Pakistani's intelligence service, according to sources in both governments. The women -- who were all interviewed together this week -- were 'hostile' toward the Americans, according to a senior Pakistani government official ... and two senior U.S. officials.... The eldest of the three widows spoke for the group."

Washington Post: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "sought Thursday to clarify his party’s stance on Medicare heading into high-stakes talks with the White House, telling President Obama he wants 'significant' changes to the program in exchange for lifting the legal limit on government borrowing."

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