The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'”

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The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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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 -- September 24

President Obama's weekly address on strengthening the American education system:

     ... The transcript is here. Reuters: "Young people in the United States are falling behind their overseas peers in reading, math and science, President Barack Obama said on Saturday, calling education reform an essential part of economic recovery."

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square.

** Profs. Theodore Marmor & Jerry Mashaw in a New York Times op-ed: "Where politicians once drew on a morally resonant language of people, family and shared social concern, they now deploy the cold technical idiom of budgetary accounting.... The language of sociology and common culture has been replaced by the language of economics and individualism. ...

... BUT this ad, which Ben Smith says the DNC is actually airing heavily & is not just dropping on the YouTubes in hopes bloggers & other unimportant media outlets will pick it up, somewhat belies the professors' contention (or maybe Obama is finally getting it):

... Via Steve Benen, more evidence the Obama administration is serious about jobs:

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic asks a couple of political scientists -- & Guy Molyneux & John Sides -- why Americans love the elements of Obama's jobs plan but don't love Obama so much. CW: I'd add, ... and Republicans are superb at vilifying Obama & ridiculing his policies.

Aaron Pressman of Reuters: "The Federal Reserve's 'Operation Twist' to bring down bond yields and stimulate the economy is likely to cause pain for the nation's largest pension funds.... Hit both by falling stock prices and falling bond yields, the 100 largest pension plans of public U.S. companies have assets covering only 79 percent of their liabilities as of the end of August, down from 86 percent at the end of 2010...."

Anna Palmer of Politico: "Congress may be leading the government toward a shutdown, but that isn’t stopping lawmakers from leaving town to raise money. Before a vote Monday to keep the government open beyond Sept. 30 and FEMA funded, Republicans and Democrats have plans outside of Washington to host fundraisers and other party committee events."

Charlie Cook of the National Journal on how Republicans could defeat healthcare legislation. Presume "Obamacare" makes it through the courts more-or-less intact. Now presume the Republican presidential candidate wins in 2012. Then presume Republicans retain control of the House, but with a smaller majority. Next presume Republicans take control of the Senate, even by one senator, &/or get fake Democratic senators to vote with them. The House could repeal Obamacare, the Senate could pass it via reconciliation -- as a budgetary bill that does not allow for a filibuster (which requires 60 votes) & President G. O. Poop could sign the repeal. CW: All of Cook's scenarios are plausible, BTW. And they would work for any policies that are primarily budgetary in nature. Don't think it will happen? Vote Republican & you'll find out.

Olga Pierce, et al., of ProPublica: So-called (& so-named) "independent" redistricting advocacy groups "are being quietly bankrolled by corporations, unions and other special interests. Their main interest in the once-a-decade political fight over redistricting is not to help voters in the communities they claim to represent but mainly to improve the prospects of their political allies or to harm their enemies. The number of these purportedly independent redistricting groups is rising, but their ties remain murky. Contributions to such groups are not limited by campaign finance laws, and most states allow them to take unlimited amounts of money without disclosing the source."

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Obama administration has managed to buy time and may have staved off an embarrassing and politically awkward showdown over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. It may also have maneuvered itself into a corner. The U.S. and the rest of the international diplomatic Quartet of Mideast peacemakers endorsed specific timelines for restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Friday.... Committing to those detailed deadlines raises potentially unrealistic hopes...."

Chris Bowers of Daily Kos: "Scared by [Elizabeth] Warren's rapid rise [as a candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts], the forces of Wall Street have suddenly made her a top target." The Politico "charges" against Warren, which Bowers cites, are beyond ridiculous. CW: She's getting the Obama treatment. Read the whole article.

Right Wing World *

"Yikes." Juana Summers of Politico: "The conservative commentariat spoke with near-unanimity Friday on Rick Perry’s debate performance: The Texas governor didn’t just lose, he bombed.... His second consecutive weak outing set off alarm bells on the right, where too many cringeworthy moments raised questions about Perry’s durability, his seriousness and ability to compete on a stage with Barack Obama.... Perry’s nationally televised face-plant revived dormant talk — and hopes — about the possibility of new candidates entering the race. With almost no one willing to defend a performance marked by meandering or inaccurate answers, botched canned lines and the damaging adoption of the left’s critique of conservatives on immigration, it’s hard to imagine how things could have gone much worse for Perry.... Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor, summed it up with one word: 'yikes.'” ...

... New York Times Editors: "Thursday night’s Republican debate was a particular cacophony of illogic as all of the candidates pandered to a base that is frighteningly unrepresentative of most Americans who want their elected officials to work for the greater good." Later in the editorial, the writers equate Rick Perry with Dr. Strangelove. ...

... Gail Collins feels sorry for Republicans because their field of presidential candidates is so lousy and their frontrunner, Rick Perry, is seriously not ready for primetime. ...

... More Bad News for Perry. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Thursday’s Google/Fox News debate in Florida was the most watched Republican event so far, according to Nielsen." ...

... Peter Catapano covers the field of reactions to the crowd's booing a gay soldier serving in Iraq & to Rick Santorum's answer to the soldier's question, an answer I would call a good demonstration of how Santorum got its well-earned definition. ...

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

... BUT the major Republican candidates (along with the minor ones, excepting those above -- Huntsman, Santorum & Johnson), who had nothing to say on Thursday, are still remarkably tongue-tied. Via Emily Friedman of ABC News:

No response. -- Mitt Romney

No response. -- Rick Perry

No response. -- Ron Paul

There was booing and cheering throughout the debate – Michele didn’t comment on any of it. -- Michele Bachmann's spokeswoman

If you don’t have time to explain your whole position on that, you can very easily be taken out of context so I don’t even want to comment on that. -- Herman Cain

Decline to comment. -- Newt Gingrich

      Update: via Steve Benen: yesterday on Fox "News," Rick Santorum condemned the booing of an American soldier, tho he maintains he never heard it.

* Where even Republicans may not want another uninformed, inarticulate Texas governor to lead their party. Oh, and they don't wanna talk about teh gays.

News Ledes

President Obama spoke at a Congressional Black Caucus function this evening.

Miami Herald: "... businessman Herman Cain won a surprise victory at the Republican Party of Florida’s nationally watched presidential straw poll Saturday in a sign that frontrunner Rick Perry is in deep trouble. Cain’s landslide victory, with 37 percent of the vote, exceeded the combined total for Perry and Mitt Romney, who only garnered 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively."

New York Times: "A day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh returned to this battered country calling for a cease-fire, his forces escalated attacks on the opposition on Saturday, leaving more than 40 people dead across the capital."

New York Times: "President Obama on Saturday broke with his usual practice of golfing with three junior aides and for the first time teed up with former President Bill Clinton, who has written a new book on the government’s role in the 21st-century economy."

New York Times: "The public assault by the Obama administration on the Pakistani intelligence agency as a facilitator of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan has been met with scorn in Pakistan, a signal that the country has little intention of changing its ways, even perhaps at the price of the crumpled alliance."

AP: "UBS chief executive Oswald Gruebel has resigned over a $2.3 billion rogue trading loss.... The move ends days of speculation about whether Gruebel could retain his position following the latest scandal to hit Switzerland's biggest bank."

AP: "Finance ministers and central bankers are pushing for bold action by the Group of 20 nations to get the global economy back on track, while wavering over helping Greece avoid a destabilizing default." The G-20 is meeting for three days in Washington, D.C.

AP: "NASA's dead six-ton satellite fell to Earth early Saturday morning, starting its fiery death plunge somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean. Details were still sketchy, but the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center and NASA say that the bus-sized satellite first penetrated Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. That doesn't necessarily mean it all fell into the sea. NASA's calculations had predicted that the former climate research satellite would fall over a 500-mile swath."

AP: "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday proposed Vladimir Putin as presidential candidate for 2012, almost certainly guaranteeing Putin's return to the office four years after he was legally forced to step aside.... Putin, who currently serves as prime minister..., [during a speech that followed Medvedev's endorsement, made] a surprising suggestion that Russia's wealthy should pay higher taxes than average citizens."

AP: "Facing discontent within his German flock, Pope Benedict XVI made a gesture of meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse as he called for Roman Catholics in the former communist East to rediscover their faith. The pontiff celebrated Mass with some 30,000 people early Saturday, unhindered by an incident on the edge of the security zone in which a man fired an air gun at a security guard about an hour before the service, Vatican and local officials said."

Daily Beast: "While publicly pressuring Israel to make deeper concessions to the Palestinians, President Obama has secretly authorized significant new aid to the Israeli military that includes the sale of 55 deep-penetrating bombs known as bunker busters, Newsweek has learned.... The GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators — potentially useful in any future military strike against Iranian nuclear sites — were delivered to Israel in 2009, just several months after Obama took office."

New York Times: "Stony-faced, the chief executive and chief financial officer of Solyndra, the bankrupt solar company, took the Fifth Amendment on Friday before a House subcommittee as they were verbally pummeled by committee members until Democrats complained that the badgering was becoming unseemly."

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