The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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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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The Commentariat -- November 15

Candorville by Darrin Bell at Candorville.com. Via my old friend John L. Click on cartoon to see larger image.** "The Establishment President." David Bromwich in the London Review of Books assesses Barack Obama's presidency: "Obama acted on the assumption that the establishment is one and irreplaceable, and must be served in roughly its present form."

Paul Krugman: the odds are not good that the President will find it within himself to take a stand against the GOP, China & other bad actors in the international community.

Jackie Calmes & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: President Obama returns from Japan to the kabuki theater of the lame duck session. Oh, how will it all end? Not with a bang but a quack.

Ha! Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is stepping down from the conservative organization she founded last year. Ms. Thomas plans to resign as CEO of Liberty Central, a group designed to be a clearinghouse for conservative activists and the Tea Party movement...." CW: judicial ethics are so annoying.

Kilroy Was Here. Sam Stein: "A coalition of progressive lawmakers, labor unions, and soon-to-be-former members of Congress [like Mary Jo Kilroy {D-Ohio}] are demanding that the Democratic Party hold an up or down vote on a tax cut package that extends rates for the middle class while letting those for the wealthy expire.... Even as the White House is signaling its willingness to cut a deal extending the top brackets for an additional few years, progressive lawmakers and the AFL-CIO have begun imploring the party to partake in a veritable game of chicken. Make Republicans vote against a package that included just tax cuts for the middle class as the deadline for all rates to be reverted closes in."

New York Times: "The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a longtime defender of the Congressional authority over federal spending, said on Monday that he would support a proposed ban on earmarks, the lawmaker-directed spending items, in the next Congress." ...

... Jay Newton-Small of Time comments on Mitch McConnell's reversal & capitulation on earmarks. CW I've commented on Newton-Small's post.

Dana Milbank: Eric Cantor walks back his treasonous remarks without walking back his treasonous remarks. You people just got it wrong! (See Milbank's update down the page.)

He Was against It before He Was (Secretly) for It: Lee Fang of Think Progress: though Sen. John Ensign vehemently opposed the Affordable Healthcare Act & has refashioned himself as a teabagger, he wasn't above soliciting (& receiving) a near-$1 million grant under the act for the University of Nevada School of Medicine. CW: wonder if he sent a thank-you note. Plus, how come Fang had to go to the trouble to obtain documentation though an FOIA request? Letters from Senators concerning the expenditure of federal funds should all be on-the-record.

Noam Levey in the Los Angeles Times: "With their eyes on the 2012 election, Republicans are preparing to maximize conflict with Democrats over healthcare in the new Congress and minimize potential compromises, according to GOP strategists, lawmakers and lobbyists.... Republican leaders and strategists think a renewed battle over healthcare will help the party expand its electoral gains and drive President Obama from the White House."

Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker: "House Republicans and their Tea Party allies reject even the idea of concern. Not content merely to ignore the science, they have decided to go after the scientists."

Roxana Tiron of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may not be able to secure enough votes to pass the [defense authorization] bill because of language repealing the ban on gays in the military.... But abandoning the effort to repeal the 'Don’t ask, don’t tell' policy would be a political disaster for President Obama...." ...

... Here's an update from Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog. ...

... The Human Rights Campaign urges you to call your Senators & ask them to repeal DADT NOW.

... NEW. Three Amigos Disagree on DADT. Joe Lieberman "strongly" favors repeal.

Secretaries Hillary Clinton & Robert Gates in a Washington Post op-ed: "Before this session of Congress ends, we urge senators to approve an arms control treaty that would again allow U.S. inspectors access to Russian strategic sites and reduce the number of nuclear weapons held by both nations to a level not seen since the 1950s."

The Wall Street Journal identifies the year's ten highest-paid CEOs. The top-paid CEO, Gregory Maffei of Liberty Media Corp. pulled down $87.1 million. CW: Liberty Media owns QVC, Expedia, Starz,  the Discovery Channel & a bunch of other stuff, including large chunks of enterprises like Time Warner Cable & Sirius XM Radio. Remember, Republicans think these CEOs should get a tax break.

James Surowiecki of The New Yorker on "greedy geezers": in the midterm elections, seniors, especially older seniors, voted heavily Republican. mostly apparently because of their opposition to health reform. "There’s a colossal irony here: the very people who currently enjoy the benefits of a subsidized, government-run insurance system are intent on keeping others from getting the same treatment.... In hard times voters get more selfish."

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones debunks the "uncertainty meme" -- the notion popular among pundits that the reason businesses aren't growing is that they don't know what the future holds. BTW, the "PPACA" that Drum refers to is the Affordable Care Act a/k/a the healthcare reform act. ...

... Steve Benen remarks that "uncertainty" is a Republican cover invented because "they can't blame the economy on tax increases, since taxes have gone down not up, and they can't blame the recession on Bush since they still support his economic policies..., so 'uncertainty' becomes a convenient catch-all. But it's still ridiculous. Businesses have been reluctant to hire because they need more customers. It's really not a mystery."

American "Justice" -- Just Another Wall Street Scam. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Large banks, hedge funds and private investors hungry for new and lucrative opportunities are bankrolling other people’s lawsuits, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into medical malpractice claims, divorce battles and class actions against corporations — all in the hope of sharing in the potential winnings." ...

... The New York Times provides a timeline that describes "the legal path to lawsuit lending," which indeed used to be illegal.

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post profiles my hero, Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "After two years of investigations and political recriminations, [Rep. Charlie] Rangel [D-NY] is scheduled to appear before a hearing of the House Ethics Committee on Monday to formally rebut charges that his fund-raising and personal finances violated Congressional rules." ...

... Ashley Parker of the New York Times profiles R. Blake Chisam, the staff lawyer who will present the cases against Rangel & Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cal.).

After learning that George W. Bush plagiarized chunks of Decision Points, Andy Borowitz asked his readers to "come up with the best plagiarized first line[s] for the book." Here are a couple:

They were betterer times, they were worserer times.

My momma always said life was like a jar of fetus.

[Bill] Clinton and I are buddies. -- George W. Bush. Clip & extended transcript are here. If you really want to, you can watch more of Candy Crowley's interview of George W. & Jeb Bush here.

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: despicable hit man James O'Keefe smears an exemplary teacher this time; Republican Gov. Chris Christie, untroubled by a complete distortion, piles on.

It's Always Something. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Reports have trickled in about reusable [grocery] bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafe levels of lead.

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