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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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Monday
May162011

The Commentariat -- May 17

I've posted an Open Thread for today on Off Times Square. I'll slap up my comment on Brooks' Nonsense Column du Jour. Update: comments on the Brooks-Gingrich photo are pretty hilarious -- add your own.

How to write about Republicans. Read Rick Hertzberg. Read Rick Hertzberg again.

Tim Egan: "Republicans ... hate Medicare because it represents everything they are philosophically opposed to: a government-run program that works and is popular across the political board. It’s tough to shout about the dangers of universal health care when the two greatest protectors (if not creators) of the elderly middle class are those pillars of 20th-century progressive change, Social Security and Medicare."... Paul Ryan tried to divide and conquer by insulating today's seniors from his plan to end Medicare. "Ryan himself has made a naked play for greed in defending the plan. 'Seniors, as soon as they realize this doesn’t affect them, they are not so opposed,' he has said." But his little ploy didn't work: "seniors are opposed." 

In a New York Times op-ed, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, makes a compelling case for United Nations recognition of Palestine. In September, Palestinians will ask the U.N. General Assembly to admit Palestine as a full member.

"The Secret Sharer." Jane Mayer of the New Yorker on Thomas Drake, whom the DOJ has charged and will try under the 1917 Espionage Act. CW: I haven't finished reading Mayer's article, but I will; and I've read enough to know Mayer tells you more about the workings of the federal government than Thomas Drake has. ...

... Glenn Greenwald: "Mayer's article is what I'd describe as the must-read magazine article of the month, and I encourage everyone to read it in its entirety...."

Robert Kuttner of American Progress writes a long, compelling article on Obama's "theory of power" & why it doesn't work. "As late as the 1990s, there were still moderate Republicans -- and no economic catastrophe. Today, we live in drastically different times, ill-suited to Barack Obama's operating theory of a conciliatory, above-the-fray presidency."

Adam Serwer: thanks to the Supremes' refusal to hear the Mohamed, et al., v. Jettesen Dataplan appeal, the federal government can now invoke the "state secrets doctrine" on any case. Read the update, too, which might be significant, tho there's no way to know. ...

... Meanwhile, Torture Advocates Parade their Stuff. Ariane de Vogue of ABC News: former Bush AG Mike Mukasey and others can't let it go: really, really, really Obama didn't stand a chance of nabbing bin Laden if Bushies hadn't tortured KSM. ...

... Lawrence O'Donnell elaborates:

Like most of us, Jon Stewart is having a hard time keeping up with the news, but he still can't give up headlines like "Weapons of Mass Turbation":

Chris Hedges & Cornel West are always over the top, but Hedges' interview of West contains some essential truths about deep disappointment in President Obama that many of us recognize & share. And, no, I don't feel sorry for West that Obama didn't return his phone calls any more than I feel sorry for Newt Gingrich that President Clinton put him on the back of the plane.

Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "The New York attorney general has requested information and documents in recent weeks from three major Wall Street banks about their mortgage securities operations during the credit boom, indicating the existence of a new investigation into practices that contributed to billions in mortgage losses. Officials in Eric T. Schneiderman’s, office have also requested meetings with representatives from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. The inquiry appears to be quite broad.... Early in the financial crisis, Andrew M. Cuomo, the governor of New York who preceded Mr. Schneiderman as attorney general, began investigating Wall Street’s role in the debacle. But those inquiries did not result in any cases filed against the major banks. CW: because how can you collect campaign money from a guy you put in jail? ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: meanwhile, the Inspector General at HUD finds evidence of fraud at the top five banks that for some strange reason the "federal foreclosure task force" couldn't find. AND read Dayen's earlier post on the same subject.

Philip Gourevitch of the New Yorker on the French reaction to the news of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Gourevitch's take is way funnier than the Times' account. If you can read & understand French, Gourevitch links to this Rue89 story that recounts a (disputed) story about Strauss-Kahn's attack on young French journalist Tristane Banon. ...

... Elaine Sciolino of the New York Times: "the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is once again challenging the assumption that the private lives of the rich, famous and powerful are off limits to public scrutiny. That the most serious accusation against Mr. Strauss-Kahn is attempted rape, and not just an indiscretion involving a consensual sexual relationship, only adds to a sense on the part of some people in France that the curtain of privacy needs to be lifted." CW: note how the author treats rape as some sort of "advanced sex" or "naughty sex escalated." No, it's an act of violence. ...

Yesterday, President Obama delivered the commencement address at Booker T. Washington in Memphis, which won the President's 2011 Commencement Challenge:

Right Wing World *

Joan Walsh of Salon does a nice job of toting up Newt Gingrich's racist dog-whistle slurs of the week. It's amazing (and would be comical if it weren't so disgusting) how many ways Newt can dream up to point out what his base may not have noticed: the President is black. Thanks to reader Doug R. for the link. ...

... AND Big Ideas Man Gingrich reverses his position on the Ryan End Medicare budget YET AGAIN. Steve Benen: "Two weeks ago, Newt Gingrich endorsed the House Republican budget plan, including provisions to end Medicare. Over the weekend, he reversed course, calling the Paul Ryan agenda 'radical change' and 'too big a jump' for Americans. A day later, he reversed course again, saying the media misunderstood and there’s actually 'little daylight between Ryan and Gingrich.' And then Gingrich reversed course once more, telling the Wall Street Journal the Ryan plan is the wrong way to go.... Remember, all of this is unfolding just a few days after the disgraced former House Speaker launched his campaign." CW: sorry if this is outdated. Gingrich probably changed his position again this morning.

Jon Stewart on Friend-of-Jesus Mike Huckabee's decision not to run for president. Stewart's piece is much more than funny; it's a condemnation of the jaw-dropping double standards of Huckabee and the whole Fox "News" crowd:

Greg Sargent: Donald "Trump exits the race with a major accomplishment under his belt: He single-handedly did more damage to the right’s ongoing campaign to paint Obama as culturally suspect and vaguely alien than anyone else in American politics today.... Thank you, Mr. Trump, for your service to this country."

Paul Krugman is going to Yurp this week, but he's left us with some thoughts on Wise Man/Enema Man Alan Simpson: "It turns out that Simpson has been telling us how to fix Social Security, yet he doesn’t know the most basic facts about the program, and when confronted with data from the Social Security Administration, he insists that they’re left-wing talking points." Here's what Krugman means. And here's the best screenshot I could get of Simpson, the leader of the "adult conversation," giving the fuck-you gesture to the head of the AARP. V-e-e-r-y adult:

     ... You can watch the C-SPAN video here. The excerpt Krugman mentions has been isolated. The gesture comes in at about 44 min.

When Is a Cut Not a Cut? When It's an Increase. Brian Beutler of TPM: Oops! That "historic spending cuts" bill Republicans played down to the wire in April turns out to increase federal outlays this year by about $3 billion. (It's a little more complicated than that, but the CBO report says the bill cost most this year than if Republicans had just passed no-change continuing resolutions. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. CW: Hate to think what this does to those die-hard deficit hawks.

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

President Obama & King Abdullah of Jordan make statements to the press:

Washington Post: "Pakistani paramilitary troops shot at NATO helicopters that crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan early Tuesday, triggering a firefight that left two soldiers wounded, military officials here said. The incident, which coalition officials in Afghanistan said they were investigating, served as a new threat to U.S.-Pakistani relations...."

New York Times: "The already weak prospects for a bipartisan debt-reduction deal this year dimmed further on Tuesday when a Republican member of the Senate’s 'Gang of Six,' Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, withdrew after months of private negotiations amid differences over changes to Medicare." CW: I see this as good news.

New York Times: "Condé Nast Publications ... has reached an agreement to lease one million square feet at 1 World Trade Center, giving ground zero a much-needed corporate anchor with a proven ability to attract other businesses."

National Journal: "Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is staying in the House, and won't run for the U.S. Senate, two well-placed GOP sources tell National Journal." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and the chairman of the House Budget Committee, made it clear on Tuesday that he would not run for the Senate seat being vacated by Herb Kohl...."

President Obama hosted a White House reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month this afternoon.

After meeting, President Obama & King Abdullah of Jordan made statements to the press this afternoon. See video above.

Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers is calling on Congress to probe the nation’s housing-construction program for the poor, citing years-long delays and other breakdowns that have thwarted the production of hundreds of affordable-housing projects."

Politico: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of the leading critics of the Obama administration’s response to last year’s Gulf oil spill, says things are going much better as his state deals with flooding along the Mississippi river. 'This has been a joint collaborative effort,' Jindal said [apparently unaware of the redundancy of his remark]."

AP: "Harmon Killebrew, the Minnesota Twins slugger known for his tape-measure home runs, has died at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., after battling esophageal cancer. He was 74."

Al Jazeera: "A security services building and the headquarters of Libya's anti-corruption agency in Tripoli have been set ablaze after being hit by apparent NATO air strikes. The two buildings on Al-Jumhuriya Avenue are close to the residence of leader Muammar Gaddafi, in an area where two explosions were heard at around 1.30am on Tuesday (1130 GMT)."

Washington Post: "The [Obama] administration has accelerated direct talks with the Taliban, initiated several months ago, that U.S. officials say they hope will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July. A senior Afghan official said a U.S. representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany ... with a Taliban official considered close to Mohammad Omar, the group’s leader."

Washington Post: "Queen Elizabeth II began her first-in-a-century royal visit to Ireland on Tuesday, just hours after Irish police discovered a bomb in the luggage compartment of a bus traveling to Dublin. The British monarch’s visit is seen as a dramatic symbol of the improved relations between Ireland and its former colonial master. But now the historic nature of the four-day tour threatens to be overshadowed by security jitters." The Irish Times story is here, with links to related stories.

Los Angeles Times: "Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago — before his first run for office — with a longtime member of their household staff. Shriver moved out of the family's Brentwood mansion earlier this year, after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the paternity. The staff member worked for the family for 20 years, retiring in January." 

CW: Missed this one in yesterday's news. AP: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to revive a lawsuit [Mohamed, et al., v. Jeppesen Dataplan] challenging a controversial post-Sept. 11 CIA program that flew terrorism suspects to secret prisons. The appeal asked the court to examine two controversial aspects of the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks, 'the extraordinary rendition' program that sent the suspects to secret prisons and the 'state secrets privilege.'"

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