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The Ledes

Friday, May 17, 2024

AP: “Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Thursday, May 16, 2024

CBS News: “A barge has collided with the Pelican Island Causeway in Galveston, Texas, damaging the bridge, closing the roadway to all vehicular traffic and causing an oil spill. The collision occurred at around 10 a.m. local time. Galveston officials said in a news release that there had been no reported injuries. Video footage obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU appears to show that part of the train trestle that runs along the bridge has collapsed. The ship broke loose from its tow and drifted into the bridge, according to Richard Freed, the vice president of Martin Midstream Partners L.P.'s marine division.”

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

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

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.”

Contact Marie

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Page Links
Sunday
Mar182012

The Commentariat -- March 19, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is titled "A Useful Idiot" and discusses Bill Keller's advice to the president on how to decide whether or not to go to war. The NYTX front page, which is full of new stuff, is here. You can contribute here.

** Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker on the Supreme Court, healthcare derangement syndrome & Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Just read it. It is a horror story masked as news commentary and a smack-you-down cautionary tale to all It-Doesn't-Matter-Who's-President lefties.

In a review of Noam Scheiber's new book The Escape Artists, John Cassidy runs a replay of President Obama's middle-of-the-road economic moves. CW: will Second-Term Obama be any bolder? Not likely.

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Sometime before midnight Saturday, a pair of rights groups — one Afghan, the other American — quietly posted online a report on how American authorities have continued to send detainees to Afghan prisons even though coalition forces ordered a halt to such transfers last year because of concerns about torture. The report ... added important new details about what goes on in prisons run by Afghanistan’s police and intelligence service, and about how some American agencies may be abetting torture."

James Dao of the New York Times profiles Robert Bales, the soldier accused of the unprovoked, coldblooded murders of 16 Afghans.

CW: I think this article by Sarah Hepola of the New York Times, the gist of which is -- Why is there no nw Gloria Steinem? -- is inherently stupid (it's in the Style section, so that's not surprising), but if you forget about Hepola's central thesis, she does get in some interesting history.

Paul Krugman: Republicans continue to make up lies about the Affordable Care Act. CW: I think we should recognize that they do this out of cruelty to those who will benefit or are benefiting now from provisions of the act. There is simply no good policy or political excuse for it.

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Congress is preparing to renew its bitter fight over government spending, as both parties eagerly await the arrival Tuesday of a new budget plan authored by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.)."

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The House plans to vote Tuesday on a bill that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a 15-member panel established as part of the health-care law that would convene in 2014 and make recommendations to Congress on how to change Medicare." Republicans call the panel "an 'unelected rationing board.' ... (Despite the GOP jab, the 2010 law explicitly bans the board from making any recommendation 'to ration health care.') The repeal legislation enjoyed notable Democratic support until last week, when GOP leaders announced plans to link it to another proposal to limit certain medical malpractice awards." CW: the board is supposed to save costs; I don't think ConservaDems know what they're doing here.

N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: "When the Supreme Court holds three days of hearings on the constitutionality of the law next week, supporters and opponents will be reaching for broader political targets. Backers see a moment to educate and sell Americans on a law that continues to confuse and divide them, and that has become a key issue in the presidential campaign. Opponents will direct their energy toward Congress, the potential next front in the fight if the court upholds the law."

Right Wing World

Way Before There Was Santorum.com -- Santorum? Is that Latin for asshole? -- Then Senator Bob Kerrey overheard asking another senator. Read this & 13 more "memories" about Santorum that Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has collected

Public Policy Polling: "Mitt Romney is headed for a blowout victory in Illinois on Tuesday. He leads with 45% to 30% for Rick Santorum, 12% for Newt Gingrich, and 10% for Ron Paul."

Sarah Wheaton & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: In an us-agin-them speech, Rick Santorum told rural voters that Mitt Romney appeals to GOP voters in urban areas -- the same areas that favor Democrats.

Local News

Miriam Raftery of the East (San Diego) County Magazine: "Michael John Kobulnicky, 50, a leader in the San Diego Tea Party and former regional director of the Southern California Conservative Party, is under arrest for allegedly kidnapping and raping a local woman.... According to police, Kobulnicky offered a ride to a woman walking on Linda Vista Road around 7 p.m. on February 25. But instead of taking her home, he drove to Fiesta Island. There, the 205-pound, 6 ft. 3-inch tall suspect is accused of pulling the victim out of the vehicle and sexually assaulted the 56-year-old woman, then leaving her on the island.... According to his website, Kobulnicky  supports Christian values...." ...

... More from Lauren Steussy of NBC San Diego. "Surveillance footage of the area near the assault gave police evidence to pursue a suspect. They released a picture of the suspect to the public, and many identified the suspect as Kobulnicky." Here's part of the Tea Party statement, which should reassure you that the brutal sexual assault of women is not a Tea Party policy:

One of the things each volunteer of the Tea Party stands for is that each person is responsible for his or her own actions. This is individual responsibility.... This horrendous act of violence was perpetrated by an individual. It did not take place at a Tea party function nor would any Tea Party member or volunteer condone this act.... These allegations should never have become political in nature.

News Ledes 

New York Times: "Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the owners of the Mets, on Monday settled the lawsuit brought against them by Irving H. Picard, the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, for $162 million. The agreement is binding. Picard had accused Wilpon and Katz of ignoring warnings that Madoff was running a fraud during their many years of investing with him. They had said they were unaware of any 'red flags' and had charged that Picard fabricated and distorted evidence against them."

New York Times: "Heavy fighting erupted early Monday between armed defectors and the Syrian Army in a wealthy and well-protected area of Damascus, according to anti-government activists and residents who described the clashes as the most intense in such a strategic area of the capital since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began a year ago." Al Jazeera story here. Al Jazeera's liveblog on Syria is here.

Guardian: "Charges against an American soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians are expected to be filed within a week, and any trial would be held in the United States, according to a legal expert with the US military."

New York Times: A man opened fire outside a Jewish school in southwest France on Monday morning, killing four people, three of them children, and wounding another.... Witnesses said that a man fled the scene in Toulouse on a motorbike."

AP: "President Barack Obama raised $45 million for his re-election bid in February, bringing his total to about $300 million for this election cycle, his campaign said Monday."

As a follow-up to yesterday's Ledes, CNN reports that Mitt Romney won all 20 GOP delegates from Puerto Rico. "With about 83% of total ballots accounted for early Monday in Puerto Rico, Romney had garnered more than 98,000 votes -- or 83% of the total -- based on unofficial results obtained from local party and election officials. Rick Santorum was a distant second, at 8% with slightly more than 9,500 votes." CW: evidently telling Spanish-speaking people they have to learn English if they want to become a state (even though there's no such Constitutional requirement) is not a winning strategy.

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