The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

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.”

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The Commentariat -- May 16, 2013

Your Daily Scandal Sheet

Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "It was often said of Bill Clinton that he was blessed in his enemies, and to a degree the same may be true of Barack Obama." ...

... Gail Collins: "It's been quite a week, what with the I.R.S. scandal, the Benghazi controversy and revelations about the Justice Department's sweep of The Associated Press's phone records. Plus, the Russians came up with an alleged American spy in a bad wig who they said was caught carrying a compass, an atlas of Moscow and a ridiculous traitor-recruitment letter." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "President Obama announced Wednesday night that the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service had been ousted after disclosures that the agency gave special scrutiny to conservative groups. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., meanwhile, warned top I.R.S. officials that a Justice Department inquiry would examine any false statements to see if they constituted a crime. Speaking in the White House's formal East Room, Mr. Obama said Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew had asked for and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner, Steven Miller, who as deputy commissioner was aware of the agency's efforts to demand more information from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status in early 2012.... Mr. Holder's warning came as lawmakers stated unequivocally that I.R.S. officials had lied to them in failing to disclose the added screening despite being pressed repeatedly."

... Michael Hiltzig of the Los Angeles Times writes what for me is the definitive analysis of the IRS "scandal." I don't see why everybody else is having so much trouble with this. ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos gets it: "... while the politics is heating up, some important context is emerging, like the fact that liberal groups were targeted as well, and in fact the only group to have its application denied was a liberal group." ...

... David Kay Johnston of the Columbia Journalism Review makes several salient points., including about how inaccurate some news reporting has been (New York Times). ...

... Eric Holder tells Darrell Issa that the way he conducts himself is "inappropriate" and "shameful":

... Igor Bobic of TPM: "Attorney General Eric Holder testified Wednesday that his recusal from a criminal investigation into an administration leak of classified information last year was not done in writing." CW: sounds a little like a convenient, retroactive recusal. ...

... Dana Milbank: "Recusal is no excuse." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Under fire over the Justice Department's use of a broad subpoena to obtain calling records of Associated Press reporters in connection with a leak investigation, the Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters in keeping their sources and communications confidential.... It is not clear whether such a law would have changed the outcome of the subpoena involving The A.P." ...

... Kevin Drum: "In 2010, such legislation was introduced, and died when it was filibustered by Republicans in the Senate. More generally, media organizations have been lobbying for a federal shield law for decades, and Congress has been resolutely unwilling to pass one.... Politically, Obama is basically daring Republicans to put their money where their mouths are. You want to make the DOJ leak investigation into an issue of executive overreach? Fine. Then rein it in. Pass a law making it clear what DOJ can and can't do in leak investigations."

Yeah, I Knew It: It's All David Petraeus's Fault. Michael Shear & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "E-mails released by the White House on Wednesday revealed a fierce internal jostling over the government's official talking points in the aftermath of last September's attacks in Benghazi, Libya, not only between the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, but at the highest levels of the C.I.A. The 100 pages of e-mails showed a disagreement between David H. Petraeus, then the director of the C.I.A., and his deputy, Michael J. Morrell, over how much to disclose in the talking points, which were used by Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, in television appearances days after the attacks.... The White House released the e-mails to reporters after Republicans seized on snippets of the correspondence that became public on Friday to suggest that President Obama's national security staff had been complicit in trying to alter the talking points for political reasons. While the e-mails portrayed White House officials as being sensitive to the concerns of the State Department, they suggest Mr. Obama's aides mostly mediated a bureaucratic tug-of-war between the State Department and the C.I.A." Here are the e-mails. Now you too can release snippets to suit your own purposes. ...

... ** Greg Sargent publishes an excellent response to the Benghazi hysteria from Tommy Vietor, former "spokesman for the National Security Council. He was intimately involved in coordinating the interagency debate over what to say publicly about the attacks." One thing Vietor explains is why the White House had its finger in the pie in the first place -- um, it's the law -- the law which of course Congress passed. ...

... Ain't Democracy Great? Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest national poll finds that Republicans aren't getting much traction with their focus on Benghazi over the last week. Voters trust Hillary Clinton over Congressional Republicans on the issue of Benghazi by a 49/39 margin and Clinton's +8 net favorability rating at 52/44 is identical to what it was on our last national poll in late March. ... 41% [of Republicans] say they consider [Benghazi] to be the biggest political scandal in American history to only 43% who disagree with that sentiment.... One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history is that 39% of them don't actually know where it is. 10% think it's in Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia with 4% not willing to venture a guess." By contrast, in a PPP survey conducted in August 1998, 87% who said they considered the Monica Lewinsky affair the biggest political scandal in American history were able to pinpoint the location of President Clinton's penis. Another 10% pointed to Clinton's head (also a correct answer). Only 3% were not sure. PPP survey via Charles Pierce.

Business as Usual. Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Under pressure from Wall Street lobbyists, federal regulators have agreed to soften a rule intended to rein in the banking industry's domination of a risky market. The changes to the rule, which will be announced on Thursday, could effectively empower a few big banks to continue controlling the derivatives market, a main culprit in the financial crisis.... Just five banks hold more than 90 percent of all derivatives contracts." CW: Republicans on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission naturally wanted to water down the regs. The deciding vote came from a Democratic commissioner who went along with the Republican commissioners & the banks: his name is Mark Wetjen, & before he got his current sinecure, he was a staffer for Harry Reid. Read the full article; it's going to get worse when commission chairman Gary Gensler, whose term is up, leaves.

Harry Reid Is Still Dithering. Brian Beutler of TPM: "If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to change the Senate filibuster rules -- either broadly, or more narrowly to fast track presidential nominees -- he'll need a strong case. Part of that case will rest on whether Republicans make good on their threat to block confirmation of Richard Cordray -- President Obama's non-controversial nominee to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- unless and until Democrats agree to weaken his agency's regulatory power.To that end, he'll hold a vote on Cordray's nomination next week."

Paul Krugman on the "debt crisis" that isn't: "To the millions of Americans who are out of work and may never get another job thanks to premature fiscal austerity, the VSPs would like to say, 'oopsies!' ... Correspondents tell me that at VSP Central, aka The Washington Post -- where deficit panic has pervaded the news pages as well as the opinion section -- the stunning new [CBO] deficit report is buried as a small item deep inside the paper. And Bowles and Simpson, who are now 26 months into their prediction of fiscal crisis within two years, will continue to be treated as revered gurus." CW: I caught a bit of NPR coverage of the new CBO numbers. I was encouraged that they had Dean Baker on to explain the facts; then -- at their he-said/she-said best -- they had Pete Peterson's No. 1 hackess (isn't that the term for a girl hack?) on to explain why the debt is still a MAJOR PROBLEM which can only be resolved by killing old people. Or something.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Thursday, Mr. Obama will meet with senior Pentagon officials to discuss legislative responses to the sexual assault crisis. Also on Thursday, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the New York Democrat who has made this her signature issue this year, will introduce legislation that would give military prosecutors rather than commanders the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Ms. Gillibrand's goals are to increase the number of people who report crimes without fear of retaliation and to give legal power to military prosecutors. "

In not too many years, Texas could switch from being all Republican to all Democrat. If that happens, no Republican will ever again win the White House. New York and California are for the foreseeable future unalterably Democrat. If Texas turns bright blue, the Electoral College math is simple.... The Republican Party would cease to exist. We would become like the Whig Party. Our kids and grandkids would study how this used to be a national political party. 'They had Conventions, they nominated Presidential candidates. They don't exist anymore.' -- Ted Cruz. Yup, that Ted Cruz. ...

... Thomas Edsall, in the New York Times: "A group of Democratic operatives ... is determined to bring Texas back into the Democratic column. [The operation,] Battleground Texas, has put the fear of God into the Texas Republican Party."

Ken Ward, Jr., of the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette: "Today's Gazette story by Kate White about the Monday explosion that injured two workers at the Airgas facility in Putnam County included this bit of news: 'Members of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration arrived at the scene.' As best I can tell, this is the first time anyone from OSHA has ever visited this particular facility. OSHA data includes no record of the agency ever inspecting the site.... Unlike the nation's coal mines, other workplaces are not required to be inspected periodically by federal safety officials.... As the AFL-CIO explained in its latest Death on the Job report, at the current rate, it would take OSHA's small office in West Virginia -- they've got just 8 inspectors -- more than 100 years to inspect every workplace in the state." CW: Via Charles Pierce. Bear in mind, OSHA ignores these dangerous workplaces not because OSHA inspectors are lazy bureaucrats but because Congress limits the agency's funding (8 inspectors in the whole state of West Virginia). Employers are free to violate common-sense safety standards because that's the way Congress wants it.

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: Mark Sanford is back in Congress.

Maureen Dowd Dislikes Women & Democrats. I didn't link MoDo's column yesterday because I thought it was stupid. Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog does a nice job of explaining why.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

The congressional hearings yesterday starring Eric Holder who I must say, held his temper quite well given the fact that he was being questioned by a bunch of caterwauling, republican ruffians who were rude, strident, and acted inappropriately. High on this list were Louie "Goober" and a fella from Florida named DeSantis. Louie just couldn't contain himself and had something very close to a meltdown or better yet, a hissy fit. DeSantis yelled at Holder the whole time , almost snarling like a snippy bulldog. And of course our John Hamm look-alike (Issa dyes his hair and fancies himself as adorable as J.H.) apparently strained Holder's patience at trying to put up with this bombardment. Someone pleaded for civility––but it went nowhere. One interesting thing, however, was that Holder intimated that they now have knowledge about the culprits who did the dirty deed in Benghazi. One scandal down, maybe, three more to go. At least Obama isn't being blamed for the sexual abuse in the military–––yet.

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: probably because the House committee heads -- all men -- don't care about sexual abuse in the military. (Those fatigues are so provocative, female military are just asking for it.)

Marie

May 16, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Re: Titles and their 'dresses; From: Department of Private Relations
(yea, they're my nephews and nieces; who else would give'm a job?)
Hack; public information officer, capable of spinning silk from shit.
Hackess; same as above; female version.
Hackette; different than above; female version; ROM, ample cleavage, Fox gnus commentator.
Hackass; Department Head; can turn blather into matter, six into nine, when raining will explain sunshine.
Alright boys and girls, let's go; we got some 'xplainin'.
IRS? That's what they do. They call'em tax collectors.
Benghazi? Wrong place, wrong time, standing too close to the fire.
I'll be at lunch.

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

Lets nominate Holder for the Golden Balls award. "Inappropriate and shameful" to Issa. My heart sung to hear a truth proclaimed in the House.

Dowd will forever be unfulfilled. Her life's work centers around a desperate search for a surrogate daddy. She drags a velvet bag of dreams around monogrammed "Dreams: Oedipal version", which was lovingly assembled back at Immaculata High School long ago.

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Way to go Team Obama. Don't stand behind your people. Throw 'em to the baying media hounds. Secretary Lew fires the IRS commissioner who had nothing to with this IRS "scandalette."

I fail to see what the IRS did wrong. They're supposed to review application to be granted tax exempt status. Selecting applications by their title looks to me that someone thought the names raised red flags. Did any of these conservative groups have their applications rejected? Apparently not. Who decided these groups were "unfairly targeted?"

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Charles Pierce's latest on the IRS dogfight is interesting.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/common-sense-campaign-irs-nightmare-051613

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

My comment on the Times article got 86'ed. Hope you don't mind.

Often, organizations receive tax-exempt status because of what they purport to represent and not because of what they do.

If not for the blanket and biased exemptions for churches and other worship-based organizations, difficult decisions would have to be made each time such an organization asked to be exempted from taxes.

The IRS needs clearer criteria in making these decisions. Is the group in question organized to distribute food to the homeless? To build houses for people? Is it a volunteer fire department in an area that does not have a professional fire department? If so, it's best to encourage the organization by allowing it to use every dollar in its mission.

By this standard, it would be a rare 501(c)(4) group that would even come close to qualifying for tax-exempt status. So many would just fail to submit an application that the IRS's job of sorting out the truly charitable from those who would use tax savings to build garish McMansion cathedrals would be easier.

Here's how to solve this problem: As of some date less than a year hence, all tax exemptions cease. Simple extension applications that concentrate solely on charitable mission will be read, starting tomorrow. We will need to hire and train thousands of people to read the applications. It's a jobs program, a stimulus package, and a wake-up call to any smart aleck who currently is under the impression that our federal government is some schmuck to be pushed around.

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Mark Morford on Obama's "scandals" and other events.

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/05/14/guns-to-your-gay-mother/

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

By now many will have seen Cong. Gohmert's admonition, not to cast aspersions on his asparagus. It says something about his synapses not really working right, biologically. I think he meant to say not to calumniate his cauliflower, but he would probably deny that allegation, and the alligator.

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Interview with David Cay Johnson re IRS. Worth a watch.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/16/the_other_irs_scandal_david_cay

May 16, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
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