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The Ledes

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: “Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

“The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released.” ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

The Wires
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The Ledes

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Washington Post: “As a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper drifted dangerously close to a major Baltimore bridge that carried more than 30,000 cars a day, the crew of the Dali issued an urgent 'mayday,' hoping to avert disaster Tuesday. First responders sprang into action, shutting down most traffic on the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge just before the 95,000 gross-ton vessel plowed into a bridge piling at about 1:30 a.m., causing multiple sections of the span to bow and snap in a harrowing scene captured on video.... Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) hailed those who carried out the quick work as 'heroes' and said they saved lives, but the scale of the destruction was catastrophic and will probably have far-reaching impacts for the economy and travel on the East Coast for months to come.” ~~~

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

     ~~~ A Washington Post liveblog of developments is here: “Six people [-- bridge construction workers --] were presumed dead Tuesday evening, authorities announced as they shifted from a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort.... The governor declared a state of emergency, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) announced that the city has deployed its emergency operations plan. Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore was 'suspended until further notice.'”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of 2024 Oscar winners here.

Ryan Gosling performs "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards: ~~~

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

CNN: “Jon Stewart is heading back to 'The Daily Show.' The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as an entertainment and cultural force, will return to host the show each week on Mondays starting February 12, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced Wednesday. Stewart, who returns as the 2024 presidential election season heats up, will also executive produce the show and work with a rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays.”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Wednesday
Jan302013

The Commentariat -- Jan. 31, 2013

Frank Phillips of the Boston Globe: "Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has picked William 'Mo' Cowan, his former chief of staff, to serve as the state's interim US senator until the successor to John F. Kerry is chosen by the voters in a June 25 special election." ...

... "The Barney Brush-off." Charles Mahtesian of Politico: the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which supported former Rep. Barney Frank for the interim appointment, was not amused by Gov. Patrick's choice. ...

... Martin Finucane of the Boston Globe: "If former US senator Scott Brown decides to run against US Representative Ed Markey in the special election for Senate, the two would be locked in a statistical tie, a new poll finds. The Republican Brown would get 48 percent of the vote, while Markey, a Democrat, would get 45 percent of the vote, if the election were held today, according to the poll released by Public Policy Polling. But the gap between the two fell within the survey's margin of error, plus or minus 3.6 percentage points." ...

... David Uberti of the Boston Globe: "Democrat John Kerry, delivering a long and emotional farewell speech in the Senate Wednesday, warned that political gridlock in Washington threatens America's reputation abroad." ... You can read the text of Kerry's long & emotional speech here. ...

... This could be the best bit:

AND, in other Senate News.... Jonathan Tamari of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez [D] denied allegations reported online that he used prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, issuing a statement Wednesday afternoon after the FBI raided the offices of a friend also tied to the accusations. 'Any allegations of engaging with prostitutes are manufactured by a politically-motivated right-wing blog and are false,' said a statement from Menendez's office. The Democrat was forced to respond to the issue after FBI agents raided the offices of a financially troubled West Palm Beach, Fla. eye doctor Tuesday night who has faced accusations involving ties to Menendez." ...

... Here's more from Frances Robles of the New York Times. "... Dr. [Salomon] Melgen, who is best known for his association with Democratic politicians, including Senator Menendez, owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $10 million. The raid came just four days after a conservative Web site alleged that the F.B.I. was looking into accusations that Mr. Menendez and Dr. Melgen frequented under-age prostitutes in the Dominican Republic." ...

... Via Politico, the accusing Website is Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller. CW: with Kerry's resignation, Menendez became chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Nice to know even though a new kid is heading this important committee, he's one who is experienced in foreign relations. ...

     ... UPDATE. Pete Yost of the AP: "Sen. Robert Menendez's office says he reimbursed a prominent Florida political donor $58,500 on Jan. 4 of this year for the full cost of two of three trips Menendez took on the donor's plane to the Dominican Republic in 2010. Details of Menendez's trips emerged as his office said unsubstantiated allegations that the senator engaged in sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic are false."

Gail Collins looks back at Hillary Clinton's career.

Donna Cassata of the AP: Chuck Hagel "is the lone witness at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday that could be crucial in determining whether he will win Senate confirmation to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Obama's second-term national security team. Two former committee chairmen -- Democrat Sam Nunn and Republican John Warner -- will introduce the nominee."

Charles Pierce notes that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is "runnin' a'skeered" on accounta not being quite crazy enough for his witless constituency, & who just got through accusing Hillary Clinton of murder, is "going to get a crack at Chuck Hagel on Thursday, which may bring about the mother of all public tantrums."

Like if you put a speed limit on a highway, pretty soon they're going to take your car away from you. -- David Corn of Mother Jones on the NRA's "slippery slope" argument

Peter Applebome of the New York Times: "In riveting testimony [in Newtown, Connecticut,] repeatedly interrupted by standing ovations, parents, public officials, law enforcement officers and school employees issued a full-throated call on Wednesday night for strengthening the nation's gun laws in the wake of the massacre of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December."

** Dana Milbank: Wayne LaPierre, who portrays himself as a Renaissance man (really, he does!), sure acts like a lying, bullying, violent cartoon villain. ...

... Susan Page of USA Today: "The powerful National Rifle Association will urge lawmakers to vote against mandating universal background checks for gun buyers, NRA President David Keene told USA TODAY on Wednesday. That raises questions about the enactment of many gun-control measures in the wake of last month's shootings in Newtown, Conn." ...

... CW: If you had asked me what headline I had dreamed of seeing coming out of Wednesday's Senate hearings on gun safety, this would be it: "Gabrielle Giffords' husband smacks down Wayne LaPierre." So thank you, Greg Sargent, and thank you, Mark Kelly: "During the hearing, LaPierre repeatedly voiced the talking point that there's no need to expand the background check system because criminals don't cooperate with background checks. Kelly responded: "... My wife would not have been sitting here today if we had stronger background checks." Read the entire response. ...

... Meanwhile, Kelly broke the news to people in the hearing room of a shooting in Phoenix that took place during the hearing. Kelly's remarks are here. Alex Johnson of NBC News has the story: "Three people were shot and wounded Wednesday, one of them with life-threatening injuries, when a gunman opened fire at a Phoenix office complex, authorities said. The two other people had less severe injuries, police said, correcting their earlier report that all three had been critically injured." ...

... "Guns Don't Kill People, Video Games Do." Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "United States Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, mak[es] the case that ... video games are 'a bigger problem than guns' because unlike guns, 'video games affect people.'" Includes video.

... Charles Pierce takes a look at the illogical fears, perceptions & prejudices of American evangelicals, all of which would be mere sociological observations about intellectual pathologies if not for the fact that "We have allowed our politics -- and one of the only two political parties we allow ourselves -- to be hijacked by a kind of religiosity that depends on its adherents being even bigger suckers than the rest of their fellow citizens."

Thomas Edsell, in the New York Times, has a very good piece refuting right-wing "experts"' claims that America's poor are really lucky duckies who are buying a lot of cheap electronics & investing in well-priced cosmetic surgery.

Steve Benen: Congressional Republicans are doubling down on the sequester, insisting it is inevitable. Ferinstance, Paul "Ryan, who used to believe sequestration would 'devastate' the economy, added, '[W]e can't lose those spending cuts.'"

Michael Shear & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "While aides say Mr. Obama is open to some negotiation over the contours of the immigration changes he laid out Tuesday in Las Vegas, senior administration officials are convinced that there is little risk in pushing hard for Mr. Obama's immigration priorities, betting that Republicans will think twice about voting down a bill championed by a president who is highly popular among the very voters they covet. The principles Mr. Obama embraced this week differ in some central ways from the effort under way in the Senate...." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "Until Obama was reelected, party competition translated into Republican efforts to block virtually everything the president wanted to accomplish. On immigration, at least, the parties are now competing to share credit for doing something big. It's wonderful to behold.... By going slightly to the progressive side of the senators, Obama may ease the way for Republicans to strike a deal since they will be able to claim they stayed to the president's right." ...

... Here's the Rachel Maddow segment on how to become a legal immigrant now, to which contributor Diane referred in today's Comments:

Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect: "Unlike citizens in every other advanced democracy -- and many other developing ones -- Americans don't have a right to vote. Popular perception notwithstanding, the Constitution provides no explicit guarantee of voting rights.... A right-to-vote amendment would raise the standard of constitutional review for voter-identification laws and other measures that deplete the pool of voters."

Ryan Cooper has a terrific piece in the Washington Monthly on Shirley Sherrod who is still working to help poor Georgia farmers. CW: Obama should nominate her for agriculture secretary. Seriously. ...

... Cooper also has a short post contrasting Sherrod with that other person suddenly thrust upon the national stage: Miss Alaska Governor Pageant Winner 2006.

Ramsey Cox of The Hill: "A group of Democratic senators came to the floor Wednesday to urge the passage of a bill that would help women fight for equal pay. Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (Wash.) called for the Senate to take up the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would require businesses to show the range of compensation for all positions, allowing women to see if they are on the lower end of the pay scale. Employers would also not be able to retaliate against employees for discussing how much they make with coworkers."

Sam Baker of The Hill: "The Obama administration took new steps Wednesday toward implementing the individual mandate in its signature healthcare law, downplaying the scope of the unpopular provision by stressing rules that allow exemptions from the requirement to purchase insurance."

Right Wing World

Jillian Rayfield of Salon: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney shoots down latest right-wing conspiracy theory: there in "Rahm Emanuel's Chicago," somebody will be tearing down Ronald Reagan's childhood home -- an apartment building his family lived in for about a year when Reagan was three -- to put up a parking lot ---- for the Obama presidential library. A blogger who runs a blog called "Friends of President Reagan's Chicago Home" also wrote that he had local information disputing the conspiracy story. CW: Sorry, sane people, facts are not going to interfere with a good plotline, one I wish were true.

One of [politicians'] favorite ways to increase their power is by creating programs that dispense subsidized government benefits, such as Medicare, Social Security, and outright welfare (Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, and the like). These programs make people dependent on government. And once people are dependent, they feel they can't afford to have the programs taken away, no matter how inefficient, poorly run, or costly to the rest of society. -- Kenny Cuccinelli, former ward of Kate Madison ...

... Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: Virginia AG & gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli's new book, to be released February 12 & "a must-read for every patriot," according to its Amazon blurb, "uses language akin to Mitt Romney's famous '47 percent' comment."

... ** Robert Schlesinger of U.S. News: "Votes from 'center cities' should be discounted when considering who won a mandate in last November's elections, according to GOP megadonor Foster Friess. Apparently urban votes are insufficiently in tune with the pro free market movement which is sweeping the country and, in his view, handed the GOP a mandate in the 2012 elections even though they took national losses across the board.... When I asked him if he was saying that votes from "center cities" should be discounted, his answer, in full, was: 'Yes.'" ...

... CW: Yes, Foster Aspirins-as-Contraceptives Friess is an idiot, but as Schesinger correctly develops his commentary, Friess is speaking inartfully for the actual views of prominent & ordinary Republicans. They think giving "urban people" 3/5ths of a vote is way too much. All of the voter suppression efforts we've seen/are seeing are not just good for Republicans; they are good for the country. Voter suppression isn't a dirty trick; it's patriotic. "Urban people" should not have the right to vote. See also Jamelle Bouie above.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Former [New York City] Mayor Edward I. Koch, who has been hospitalized since Monday with lung problems, was placed in the intensive care unit on Thursday afternoon, his spokesman said."

AP: "... violent storms raked the Southeast, leaving two people dead before the vast storm front moved on to pummel the East Coast.... Along a path pocked by shattered homes and businesses, the storm unleashed tornadoes and dangerous winds, easily flipping cars and trucks in Georgia. The heavy rains moving across the East Coast also raised flash flood fears and forced water rescues in Virginia and Maryland near the nation's capital. In the Northeast, utilities reported power outages affecting about 74,000 in Connecticut and feared more outages elsewhere as the potent storm races out over the Atlantic. Forecasters said snowfall was possible in varying amounts from the Great Lakes region through the Northeast."

Market Watch: "The number of people who filed new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000 in the week ended Jan. 26, putting them at a one-month high...."

Reuters: "American incomes rose in December by the most in eight years, a positive sign for consumer spending that could help the economy sustain momentum early this year. Personal income for Americans rose 2.6 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was the biggest increase since December 2004 and well above analysts' expectations for a 0.8 percent gain."

New York Times: "Israeli warplanes carried out a strike deep inside Syrian territory on Wednesday, American officials reported, saying they believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry on the outskirts of Damascus that was intended for the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon."

Reuters: "U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes. A three-member U.N. panel said private companies should stop working in the settlements if their work adversely affected the human rights of Palestinians...."

Reuters: "French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday backed the idea of sending a United Nations peacekeeping force into Mali, saying France would play a role in any such plan. The U.N. Security Council is to begin discussing the possibility of deploying U.N. troops in the stricken West African nation, envoys said of an idea it had previously been uncomfortable with before France's recent military intervention."

AP: "Police are hunting for an 'armed and dangerous' 70-year-old man suspected in a Phoenix office complex shooting that left one person dead and two wounded. Arthur Douglas Harmon allegedly opened fire at the end of a mediation session Wednesday morning at a three-story office complex in north-central Phoenix, police said."

AP: "A gunman holed up in a bunker with a 5-year-old hostage kept law officers at bay Wednesday in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away, authorities said. SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman's rural property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener's safe release."

Chicago Tribune: "With outrage over Hadiya Pendleton's slaying spreading from City Hall to the White House, the 15-year-old became a symbol Wednesday of escalating violence in Chicago while fueling the national debate over guns and crime. A little more than a week after performing with the King College Prep band in Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities, Hadiya was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon in a park about a mile north of Obama's Kenwood home. Two other teens were wounded."

Reader Comments (16)

Want to be the first in the neighborhood to say it:

All hail Ida May Fuller! On January 31, 1940, Ms Fuller became the first recipient of a Social Security check (and forever a taker poster child). The amount of the check was $22.54.

January 30, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Interesting info, totally unrelated to the current news. I had a visit from a COMCAST service rep today. Nice guy, lowered by bill and gave me a bunch of "free" stuff, new cable boxes etc. I asked him when COMCAST would be broadcasting Al Jazeera English. He just looked at me and then said well there are certain things we don't want to be associated with. It won't be broadcast now and probably will be part of an International package we offer in the future. Don't know if COMCAST makes its own rules locally? Perhaps just Sacramento won't get Al Jazeera. I guess my original skepticism was well founded.

January 30, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@CW-If Tom Vilsack plans to leave, I think Obama definitely should nominate Shirley Sherrod as Secretary of Agriculture. That would be putting his money where his mouth is--and he needs to do more of that! She has become a national role model. I think it is terrific that--instead of going on Dancing with the Stars--Sherrod has continued in her pursuit of justice for poor family farmers. It is to her credit that she has not sought headlines in the MSM. She is, thank you Jeezus, not a corporate shill!

January 30, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Hey what d'ya know, more God-loving psychopaths playing Devil's advocate. Rage at us regular folk for poisoning society with our filthy sins and then retreat to their chambers for some good ol' psychological mind-fucking of innocent children, all in the name of the Almighty.

Catholic priests defile our youth while bankers filch the savings of their parents. Two untouchable institutions that govern themselves.

Sweet.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered Commentersafari

I meant to link this earlier. This pathway to a greencard chart was shown by Rachel Maddow on Tuesday's show. Exactly how much "tougher" does it have to be. It has to be an enormous waste of resources to boot. I sincerely wish the Rand, Inhofe, Cruz, Koch, Rove, and Issa families as well as a host of others were put through this trial by fire when their ancestors immigrated. Jeebus, I'd love to have been the immigration official that put them through hell....with a Virginia probe.

http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/immigration-flowchart-roadmap-to-green-card.pdf

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Among many other places, Adairsville, GA got hit by the weather, bad, last night, and was one of the damaged locations written up in press accounts. It is in Bartow County, in Georgia's 11th Congressional District, whose Representative Phil Gingrey voted "No" on the January 15 Hurricane Sandy Bill (The $51 B second round). It will be interesting to see how Rep Gingrey and other, similar voters, deal with the devastation in their districts. Let us hope they look after their own constituents. (I'm not picking on Gingrey, just saw a news piece on Adairsville and looked up the district and the vote. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll023.xml )

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Re: Doctor my eyes... " Why, yes, yes I have accompanied my good friend, Dr. Tarpon Mangle on his altruistic trips to the Dominican Republic. We conducted vision clinics for the young people there. I spent many a happy moment assisting the good doctor with his exams. A complete eye exam starts with full physical of course, funny how a breast check-up can uncover a near-sighted condition. Many of the kids saw a small part of America they've never seen before, the giving, generous part.
I'm proud of my friendship with Doctor Mangle and his outreach programs to the under-aged in the Dominican." Senator Mendez.
Ricardo Cabeza here; trying to do a little spin job for the Senator.
Let's get real here. do you really think randy, old goats are going to fly hundreds of miles for over-aged prostitutes? The sad truth is in third world countries selling sex is one of the few ways of making a living for a young person. The life of a prostitute is short and brutish, the flower of youth withers fast and it's pimps and madams of the houses and clubs that profit. The exploitation will never stop until there's a viable alternative for the children of the third world.
As for the guys that take part; as Kate Madison says, your brain is lodged in the the smallest part of your body. Too bad about the craps; scratch till you bleed.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

@ Patrick: I was wondering exactly the same thing.

Last night watched the gun hearings. Hearings like this can be dreary especially if the congressperson whose turn it is uses that time to grandstand. The grandstander of the hearing was Ted Cruz who began his questioning with the ubiquitous thanking everyone and his brother and then lugubriously addressed Mark Kelly assuring him that he and his family pray for them EVERY day.(how long? Not long) Unfortunately the camera stayed on Cruz; I would have loved to have seen Kelly's expression. So after this initial sucking up Cruz gets into high gear and since he's beholden to the NRA for all that campaign money he's on their side. This guy even has graphs which he proudly displayed speaking as though no one could dispute his findings (Whitehouse and that nice officer sitting next to Kelly and Kelly himself did a good job of that). But listening to Ted try to make his case I could sense that he fancies himself becoming much more than a Senator mit graphs––those little beady eyes are cruising for the PRIZE. How long? not long.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

(NYT, Robles, 1/30):"The senator’s office said Wednesday night that Mr. Menendez had reimbursed Dr. Melgen $58,500 for two flights that he had taken aboard his private jet in 2010."

There is no way that anyone would pay that (retroactively) , one or two years after the fact, unless he saw the sheriff right on his heels. That's a whole lot to pay for a couple of trips to the DR. Public servants don't make enough to go with the high rollers unless it is their treat. Watch the money, as well as the sex traffic issues, as this unfolds.

(And, FYI, when a trip like that is official business and passes the ethics test, the required reimbursement is only the cost of the standard Y-class fare. It is probable that Senator Menendez sees a huge downside to declaring these trips "business," which MCs normally try to do in almost all circumstances. It is impossible to believe that he thought he was buying, at the time, plane trips at $29K a pop. Put a fork in his ...., he's done.)

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Just saw Stephen Colbert's take down of CNNNN's Erick Erickson's climate change foxtrot on Crooks and Liars. Priceless!

ERICK ERICKSON (1/23/2013): "Seems like it's a problem we probably have to get used to, as opposed to something we can cure."

COLBERT:
"...Yeah. What's the point of going to all that trouble if me and Erick Erickson won't be around to enjoy it? Sure, our grandkids will, but I don't want to be one of those grandpas who spoils the grandkids with a habitable planet."

"It's the same reason I will not buy life insurance. I get hit by a bus, and my family gets rich? Sorry, I don't want anybody happy at my funeral."

"Yes, we just need to get used to it. Erickson has finally hit the fifth stage of conservative climate change grief: denial, denial, denial, denial, and acceptance."

"So it's high time we stop trying to solve the problem, and resign ourselves to each day getting worse," Colbert explains. "Because ladies and gentlemen, when Erick Erickson says "get used to it", he means get used to city-swallowing storms, mass extinctions, deadly heat waves, crippling floods, and droughts that make a desert out of Oklahoma."

"And, that's just how it is now," declared Colbert. "Our problems are just too big to cure. So join me and Erick. Give up. Crawl into bed with a cheesecake and wait for death. And now, sure, the only thing worse than global warming itself might be knowing you're destroying the planet, and doing nothing, but if guys like me and Erick have our way, you'd better get used to it."
***************************
Erick Erickson's tiny brain does not live in his little dick; it resides in his puny pinhead, which is located deep inside that tippy tightass--you know--where the sun don't shine. Just another rich, stupid MSM corporate shill.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Will the horrors never cease?

Word just in: liberal bloggers (MB? Charlie Pierce? Driftglass?) are conspiring to defame the great Ronald Reagan.

Get this, fellow Americans, they and other dirty commies like them (Akhilleus? JJG? PD? Diane? Ken? Kate?) are planning on ripping out a mens' room toilet in a bus station in Kansas where Saint Ronald once took a crap and replacing it with a bidet! From FRANCE!

Call Rushbo!

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Damn....apostrophe in wrong place!

I was so worked up by the furor over the story about tearing down a building that Reagan spent a few months in while he was still in diapers that I forgot the rules of grammar.

Not to mention the fact that the Obama library will surely need a parking lot. Where do you think the Romneys will park all their Caddies when they come to visit, hmm?

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

This link brings up some disturbing info on how the NRA is governed: http://www.progressive.org/what-judiciary-comm-should-ask-wayne-lapierre

It's governed by and for the gun snd ammo manufacturers. LaPierre wants legalization of fully automatic weapons. Ya gotta buy a LOT of ammo to feed one of them critters. Did anyone else notice the all of a sudden it's not about hunting; it's defending against HOME INVASIONS, as that loony female lawyer brought up.

I'll give the women credit for equal opportunity. The female Repugs have shown the can be just as batty as the menfolk.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Delicious irony in Benen's post this morning:

"[F]or the eight years I was president," Reagan wrote in his memoirs, "I never let my dream of a nuclear-free world fade from my mind." If so its the only thing that didn't fade from his mind.


http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/31/16790861-on-nukes-hagel-is-in-good-company#comments

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@Akhilleus: Not to fret over misplaced apostrophes––please! Not when we have greater issues on our mind like was Beyonce actually singing? Does the good wizardry of Dr. Oz really cure the corns on your feet? Did Reagan actually have a halo around his head? All these pressing concerns prevents one from putting a ' after an s instead of an ' before as though anybody gives a fig. I'm still strung out from the death of Sybil on Downton Abby–––so who knows what mistakes I'll make.

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

There's an amusing photo essay over on New York magazine re Chuck Hagel: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/sad-chuck-hagel-faces.html

January 31, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG
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