New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~
~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.
To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.
Link Code: <a href="URL">text</a>
OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.
OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.
Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.
Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.
Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.
Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:
~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.
CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~
~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play.
New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.
Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.
New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~
~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”
NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
... Libby Spencer of No More Mister Nice Blog: "I especially loved the guy in Texas who pulled a gun on a line cutter. He wasn't arrested because he had a concealed carry permit. Assume threatening to kill someone for trying to get between you and your new flat screen teevee is justifiable under the castle doctrine. Or something. Are state's rights great or what?"
If it looks like Grandpa's old gray bathrobe and costs $500, it's in Neiman's Christmas Book:
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO TO THE CATALOG. (Turn the pages of the catalog at the lower corners.)
Charles Blow: "The Internet has been lit up with the incongruity of the party of Lincoln’s becoming the party of secessionists.... We are moving toward two Americas with two contrasting -- and increasingly codified -- concepts of liberty. Can such a nation long endure?"
Kevin Drum: in their efforts to make both parties look like winners (see yesterday's link to a NYT article by Jonathan Weisman), legislators are proposing at least one truly "crazy idea" -- eliminating marginal tax brackets for the rich; i.e., if you earn more than $X, you pay the highest rate on all your earnings. This would work a severe hardship on the upper middle class & have very little effect on the super-rich. CW: I told ya so.
CW: Before the Petraeus Affair hit the fan, I never gave David Petraeus a second glance. But now I'm thinking he looks really sexy. Since he is reportedly an egomaniac, he probably is not actually very sexy. Acknowledging there is no accounting for taste, I welcome second opinions.
Patty Murray -- My Kind of Hero. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "In a town consumed by talk of the apocalyptic consequences of failing to resolve the budgeting crisis, Murray [D-Washington] has been arguing that missing the [fiscal cliff] deadline for a deal -- going over the cliff -- could actually make getting a deal easier.... As chair of her party's Senate campaign arm, the architect of surprising Democratic gains and the incoming chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, Murray now occupies a place of special influence in the Senate."
Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "The biggest scoop of his [reporter Ed Kennedy's] career -- Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender ... ruined his career. And a determined group of prominent journalists wants ... Kennedy to be posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a recognition of a singular moment of courage when a star correspondent defied political and military censorship to file one of the biggest stories of the century."
Right Wing World
Derangement. Even though President Obama mentioned God in this year's Thanksgiving address, it wasn't good enough for the lunatic leaders of Right Wing World, who ginned up plenty of outrage over "Obama's Godless Thanksgiving." Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs rounds up the raunch.
Jonathan Chait of New York has a lovely takedown of "right-wing intellectual" and Commentary editor John Podhoretz. Chait doesn't do much work; he just cites Podhoretz's hilariously contradictory Commentary commentary from before & after the election.
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Secession fever has struck parts of Texas, which Mitt Romney won by nearly 1.3 million votes. Sales of bumper stickers reading 'Secede' -- one for $2, or three for $5 -- have increased at TexasSecede.com. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it was time for Texas and Vermont to each 'go her own way in peace' and sign a free-trade agreement among the states. A petition calling for secession that was filed by a Texas man on a White House Web site has received tens of thousands of signatures, and the Obama administration must now issue a response."
News Ledes
Reuters: "President Barack Obama, in a bid to show support for small businesses, took his daughters on an early Christmas shopping trip on Saturday as the U.S. retail sector swings into high gear this holiday season. Promoting 'Small Business Saturday,' the third annual event that encourages consumers to support independently-owned local shops, Obama took his daughters Sasha and Malia to 'One More Page Books' in Arlington, Virginia...."
Politico: "The State Department's Washington D.C. headquarters caught fire Saturday morning, a department spokeswoman announced." A spokesperson said the fire, caused during routine maintenance work, was quickly extinguished.
New York Times: "Hector Camacho, a boxer known for his lightning-quick hands and flamboyant personality who emerged from a delinquent childhood in New York's Spanish Harlem to become a world champion in three weight classes, died on Saturday in San Juan, P.R., after being shot while sitting in a parked car. He was 50."
New York Times: "The official sales numbers [For Black Thursday/Friday] will not be reported for a few days, but analysts are expecting a strong sales day, with results comparable with last year's gain of about 3 percent, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which is a metric for total American retail sales across all payment forms, including cash and check. The earlier hours from a few select chains seem unlikely to increase the size of the spending pie, but they may reapportion it."
Reuters: "Angry youths hurled rocks at security forces and burned a police truck as thousands gathered in central Cairo to protest at Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's decision to grab sweeping new powers. Police fired tear gas near Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak at the height of the Arab Spring. Thousands demanded that Mursi should quit and accused him of launching a 'coup'."
AP: "House Republicans still smarting from their poor showing among Hispanics in the presidential election are planning a vote next week on immigration legislation that would both expand visas for foreign science and technology students and make it easier for those with green cards to bring their immediate families to the U.S."
New York Times: "Larry Hagman, whose portrayal of one of television's most beloved villains, J.R. Ewing, led the CBS series 'Dallas' to enormous world popularity, died Friday in Dallas, where Mr. Hagman had been filming the sequel to his famous show. He was 81."
** Paul Krugman: Marco's Rubio's "the age of the earth is a mystery" "didn't come out of the blue. As speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Mr. Rubio provided powerful aid to creationists trying to water down science education. In one interview, he compared the teaching of evolution to Communist indoctrination tactics.... Mr. Rubio's complaint about science teaching [was] that it might undermine children's faith in what their parents told them to believe. And right there you have the modern G.O.P.'s attitude ... toward everything: If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence.... Modern American conservatism is highly correlated with authoritarian inclinations -- and authoritarians are strongly inclined to reject any evidence contradicting their prior beliefs.... Don't shrug off Mr. Rubio's awkward moment. His inability to deal with geological evidence was symptomatic of a much broader problem -- one that may, in the end, set America on a path of inexorable decline." ...
... CW: I believe this is why it is difficult to get a fair jury trial. I sometimes watch crime shows where they poll the jury afterward, & often the jurors' "reasons" for deciding guilt or innocence seem to be merely justifications for preconceived views of the accused. My advice: if you're innocent, get a liberal jury. If you're guilty, get a conservative jury; then just look innocent -- & you'll get away with murder. ...
... P.S. Now apply this theory to the GOP attack on Susan Rice:
The Washington PostEditors write a scathing critique of the "bizarre attack" & "half-baked conspiracy theories" of 97 House members who signed a "remarkable" letter against Susan Rice. The Post editors come mighty close to accusing the signators of racism & sexism, nothing that 80 percent of the conspiracy theorists are white men & nearly half are from former states of the Confederacy. Good for the Post. P.S. The Post editors are NOT liberals.
As Long as We Can Say "We Won!": Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Congressional negotiators ... are examining ideas that would allow effective tax rates to rise for the wealthy without technically raising the top tax rate of 35 percent. They hope the proposals will advance negotiations by allowing both parties to claim they stood their ground." CW: never mind what makes sense. ...
... NEW. Jamelle Bouie in the Washington Post: "... it would be unwise for President Obama to agree on a lame-duck package; he'll have the most leverage after Jan. 1, when the United States begins to descend the fiscal slope and tax rates return to their Clinton-era levels." As for the debt ceiling, President Obama should invoke the Fourteenth Amendment. "A provision in the amendment -- originally meant to ensure payment of Union debts after the Civil War -- [reads] ... 'The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,' the crucial passage says, 'shall not be questioned.'"
Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) told a local television station in Georgia on Wednesday that he will no longer support [Grover Norquist's] Taxpayer Protection Pledge to never vote for any tax increases under any circumstances." CW: Chambliss claims he abandoned his pledge because of love of country, but I kinda wonder if just maybe this had something to do with it: "16 incumbent Republicans and one incumbent Senator who signed Norquist's pledge lost on election night. In total, at least 56 Republican House incumbents or candidates who signed the pledge and 24 Republican Senators or hopefuls lost." Chambliss definitely is not a principled guy.
Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: economists say the Obama administration didn't do enough to help people with underwater mortgages (no kidding!), & these mortagors continue to drag down the economy. Big surprise -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is the heavy. CW: six months (or more) ago, I linked to a story that provided pretty compelling evidence that Geithner didn't want to help home mortgagers because every feasible plan to reduce their mortgage payments would cost his banker buddies. Expect Timmy to get a BIG payoff when his government "service" stint ends.
Robert Reich: if you care about the U.S.'s workforce, don't shop at Wal-Mart today. Reich, a former Labor Secretary, puts startling stats about the decline of the American workforce all in one place. Read it & weep. ...
... Jordan Weisman of the Atlantic, in a very good post, publishes some stats & recounts how Wal-Mart (& other big-box retailers) screw their workers in so many ways. CW: American consumers really must demand higher prices! I mean that. Right now, taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart, Target, Michael's, etc., by paying more into the social safety net programs to cover food stamps, Medicaid & other types of coverage for low-wage earners. These people work; they should earn a living wage & not have to be humiliated by dependence on the rest of us. ...
Art via Salon.
... ** Andrew Leonard of Salon: "For wily veterans of a decade of Black Friday doorbuster sales, 2012 was the year that the last semblance of a boundary between the actual day of Thanksgiving and the formal commencement of the holiday shopping season finally collapsed.... Consider the example of the Kelley family in Fort Myers, Fla., so determined to sacrifice nothing of their quality of life while in quest for the perfect deal that they showed up in front of the local Best Buy's doors on Monday, equipped with a dinner table.... The merger of festival and fantastic flat-screen TV deal makes sense: The United States is the greatest consumer society that has ever existed on this planet." CW: I am especially moved by this story inasmuch as my husband is sending me to that self-same Fort Myers Best Buy to pick up a cheap computer. I assume this is a fool's errand & the cheap computers are long-gone, but it is an errand I refused to run last night after slaving over a hot stove & two ovens all day. ...
... CW Update: I went, I saw, I conquered!
... AND if you think Black Friday Thursday sucks for consumers, think of those low-wage retail workers who have no choice but to leave their families & go to work on Thanksgiving, a supposed national holiday. Pat Garofalo of Think Progress reports. ..
... In Fashion Retail News. Donovan Slack of Politico: "Anna Wintour's 'Runway to win' initiative -- which had famous designers like Tory Burch and Marc Jacobs creating bags, shirts and other gear for the Obama campaign -- brought in a lot more dough than some predicted. Campaign manager Jim Messina tells Bloomberg Businessweek that the venture, which had been mocked by some pundits, raised 'just north of $40 million.'"
SEC s/b SEX. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "In a salacious 77-page complaint that reads like Penthouse Forum meets The Insider meets the Keystone Kops, one David Weber, the former chief investigator for the SEC Inspector General's office, accuses the SEC of retaliating against Weber for coming forward as a whistleblower. According to this lawsuit, Weber was made a target of intramural intrigues at the agency (which has a history of such retaliation) after he came forward with concerns that his bosses may have been spending more time copulating than they were investigating the SEC."
Ned Berkowitz of ABC News: "... Jill Kelley ... was apparently so eager to make a multi-billion dollar Korean business deal that she was willing to cancel anniversary plans with her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, according to emails reviewed exclusively by ABC News. Emails between Kelley and Adam Victor, president and CEO of TransGas Development Systems, also appear to confirm the New York businessman's claim that Kelley wanted a huge fee for brokering the transaction." ...
... CW: You know all those medals David Petraeus's valet pins on his jacket? I highlighted them on the Commentariat a couple of days ago. Don't be too impressed. Turns out you can get a medal for partying. And Petraeus was handing 'em out. Daniel Politi of Slate: "Gen. David Petraeus was the first to recommend that Jill Kelley receive the Joint Chiefs of Staff's second-highest honor to a civilian, reports the Tampa Tribune. The award was approved by Adm. Mike Mullen, who was the Joint Chiefs chair at the time. The reason for the award? Kelley 'distinguished herself by exceptional service while supporting the mission of the United Central Command, building positive relationships between the military and the Tampa community, supporting community outreach, and advancing various military endeavors,' according to the award citation." Here's the Tampa Trib article. Do these people have any idea how ridiculous they are?
Michael Collins of the Knoxville News-Sentinel: "U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais said Wednesday that he never intentionally misled voters about his past and stressed that he has no plans to resign over recent revelations that depict a private life starkly at odds with his public image as an anti-abortion, family values congressman.... DesJarlais said he is not the same man who supported his first wife's decision to have two abortions. The physician-turned-congressman said he also deeply regrets sexual relationships with multiple women, including two patients, three co-workers and a drug company representative while he was chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, [Tennessee].
Republican lawmakers in Michigan, a state which eliminated tax credits for children last year, have proposed a tax credit for unborn foetuses of 12 weeks gestation
"So, when the nutters took control of Michigan, one of their first actions was to take away tax credits for families with children (those moochers needed to be punished). Now they want to give tax credits to zygotes and the unborn. Typical. Their fantasies must be feed and they get extra satisfaction if they can flip the bird to reality while they do it. Extreme, crazy and dangerous, they are doing wonders for the Republican brand."
Hope Yen of the AP: "Emboldened by rapid growth in e-commerce shipping, the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service is moving aggressively this holiday season to start a premium service for the Internet shopper seeking the instant gratification of a store purchase: same-day package delivery.Teaming up with major retailers, the post office will begin the expedited service in San Francisco on Dec. 12 at a price similar to its competitors." ...
... CW: I predict that if retailers switch over to the P.O.D., it will be a real pain for customers. The P.O.D. won't deliver packages to my door that don't fit in the box. They won't tell me they have a package that doesn't fit in the box. Instead, I get a notice of non-delivery & a fabulous opportunity to call someone at a handling center somewhere like Chicago who doesn't know squat, after which I spend the next 48 hours tracking down my $20 package, a process that usually requires me to "be firm" with some postal worker(s).
Local News
Monica Davey: "... one party will hold the governor's office and majorities in both legislative chambers in at least 37 states, the largest number in 60 years and a significant jump from even two years ago.... Twenty-four states will be controlled by Republicans.... At least 13 states will be Democratic.... (The situation in New York, where the potential for single-party control by the Democrats rests on the makeup of the Senate, is still uncertain.)" Look for the passage of "bold partisan agendas."
Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "It took until 15 days after the election, but all valid votes in Arizona have now been counted, including a record number of provisional ballots that fueled suspicions of voter suppression among Latino voters and raised questions about the integrity of the electoral process in the state.... Results announced on or just after election night remained unchanged, though it took days for three Congressional races to be decided. All of them were won by Democrats, who will replace Republicans as a majority in the state's Congressional delegation come January."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Mark Thompson, the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, testified on Friday in a closed-door inquiry investigating why the British Broadcasting Corporation canceled a contentious report into sexual abuse, a Times spokesman said."
Reuters: "Protesters stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's party in Alexandria on Friday, throwing chairs and books into the street and setting them alight, after the Egyptian president granted himself sweeping new powers."
AP: "The prospect of failure loomed over a European Union leaders' summit intended to lay out the 27-country bloc's long-term spending plans. While heavyweights like Britain and France are pulling in opposite directions, smaller members, too, are threatening to veto a deal to make themselves heard."
Guardian: "Egyptian opposition groups are calling for mass protests amid mounting anger at President Mohamed Morsi's surprise decision to give himself, and the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt's new constitution, extraordinary new powers."
Guardian: "Argentinian politicians and global debt campaigners have responded with fury to a US court judgment that risks plunging the country back into default. Elliott Capital Management and Aurelius Capital Management, regarded as "vulture funds" by Buenos Aires, won a ruling in a New York court on Wednesday that could force Argentina to hand over $1.3bn (£816m) in repayments and interest to the tiny minority of bondholders who refused to sign up to a hard-fought writedown of its debts after the country defaulted in 2001."
Reuters: "The U.S. shopping frenzy known as 'Black Friday' kicked off at a more civilized hour, with shoppers welcoming decisions by retailers such as Target Corp and Toys R Us Inc to move their openings to Thursday night."
Early American History. (Okay, it's an ad, which makes it authentically American):
... Kids do the darnedest things. An alternative history of Thanksgiving:
More Recent American History -- A Family Remembrance:
President Obama pardoned a couple of turkeys yesterday:
... even though the President really has no judicial jurisdiction over birds:
Still, we might want to cut these birds some slack:
Forty-six million turkeys won't be so lucky:
... Which reminds of this riveting moment from Thanksgiving 2008, now etched in our collective national memory. Some people who hold high office are not competent enough to pardon a turkey:
So, once gruesome reality is behind us, Chris Christie demonstrates how to prepare the turkey:
Likely, the bird came out like this. (Here's a how-to, though a friend of mine tried it & couldn't get the tinfoil to stay in place):
Guardian: "A secret 10-day emergency process culminated in the appointment of Royal Opera House chief executive Lord (Tony) Hall to the £450,000-a-year job of running the BBC, as the corporation turned to a former veteran to help begin the process of recovering from the Jimmy Savile and Newsnight crises."
AP: "A Jacksonville police officer has quit after admitting he told colleagues that he would volunteer to assassinate President Barack Obama>. Sam Koivisto told the Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/10zfc6q) on Wednesday that his comments had been blown out of proportion and that he'd planned to retire in five months anyway."
AP: "Israeli authorities arrested an Arab Israeli on Thursday on accusations he planted a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 27 people and threatened to sabotage efforts to broker a cease-fire to end the fighting in Gaza, police said."
New York Times: "With a constitutional assembly on the brink of collapse and protesters battling the police in the streets here over the slow pace of change, President Mohamed Morsiissued a sweeping decree on Thursday night, granting himself broad new powers above any court and ordering the retrial of his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak." Al Jazeera story here.
AP: "Victims of Superstorm Sandy in New York and elsewhere in the Northeast were comforted Thursday by kinder weather, free holiday meals and -- for some -- front row seats to the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade."
New York Times: "A ceasefire agreed under intense Egyptian and American pressure between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to halt eight days of bloody conflict seemed to be holding on Thursday, averting a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip without resolving the underlying disputes."
AP: "The worst U.S. drought in decades has deepened again after more than a month of encouraging reports of slowly improving conditions, a drought-tracking consortium said Wednesday, as scientists struggled for an explanation other than a simple lack of rain."
AP: "European leaders were staking out their strong positions as they gathered Thursday for what promises to be a turbulent and lengthy summit on the 7-year budget for the 27-country European Union." ...
... New York Times: "... as leaders from across Europe gather in Brussels on Thursday to haggle over more than a trillion dollars in spending over a seven-year period starting in 2014, widespread public anger over perceived extravagance [at the E.U. itself] when national governments are slashing their own budgets has helped fuel a mood of hostility toward the world's most ambitious and, until the debt crisis exploded three years ago, most successful experiment in economic and political integration."
AP: "Internal emails among U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watchedOsama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony. The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader's death. The emails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department."
Reuters: "Thanksgiving is now the start of the annual holiday shopping endurance race, as more stores open on Thursday's national holiday to seek a bigger share of spending that is expected to grow slowly this season. Target Corp has joined Wal-Mart and Gap Inc in being open at least part of the day, and some retailers will be open throughout the day, a trend that began to take hold in 2011. Traditionally, retailers enticed shoppers with 'doorbuster' deals early Friday morning. Then they shifted to midnight following Thanksgiving."
AP: "Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation from Congress might end his once-promising political career but it doesn't mark the end of troubles for the civil rights icon's son. Just two weeks after voters re-elected him to a ninth full term, Jackson on Wednesday sent his resignation letter to House Speaker John Boehner, citing his ongoing treatment for bipolar disorder and admitting 'my share of mistakes' while confirming publically for the first time that he's under a federal probe and cooperating with investigators."
AND CW: old codgers like me will remember where they were 49 years ago today.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO TO THE CATALOG. (Turn the pages of the catalog at the lower corners.)
CW: Before the Petraeus Affair hit the fan, I never gave David Petraeus a second glance. But now I'm thinking he looks really sexy. Since he is reportedly an egomaniac, he probably is not actually very sexy. Acknowledging there is no accounting for taste, I welcome second opinions.
Share Article 
