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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

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Tuesday
Nov062012

Presidential Race

PRESIDENT OBAMA RE-ELECTED!!!

Associated Press and/or network calls as of 7:00 am ET:

CBS News Live Election Coverage. Click the start arrow to activate:

PBS is now livestreaming election coverage here.

Univision is livestreaming Spanish-language coverage of the election results here.

The Washington Post's updated election maps are here. (Link updated.)

The New York Times currently has its results on the front page.

Politico's election results maps are here.

Latest Associated Press election-related videos:

   

BTW, the New York Times is taking down its paywall for 24 hours beginning at 3 pm ET today.

News Ledes

President Obama's acceptance speech:

     ... Here's the full transcript.

So election officials in Miami-Dade County, Florida, have decided to quit counting votes tonight.

Colorado approves recreational marijuana. Massachusetts okays medical marijuana.

Maine apparently also okays marriage equality.

     ... Here's the text of Romney's concession speech.

CW: hmm, I was looking for video of Romney's concession speech, & this is what I found:

At 12:15 12:45 am ET, Mitt Romney still not conceding although all networks have called the election for President Obama. ...

     ... Update: Romney to speak at 12:55 am ET. Won't tell press what he'll say. ...

     ... Update 2: Romney has called the President to congratulate him; will concede.

Maryland voted yes on gay marriage, the first state to do so (gay marriage in other states has been decided by courts or by state legislatures).

AP: "President Barack Obama won re-election Tuesday night despite a fierce challenge from Republican Mitt Romney, prevailing in the face of a weak economy and high unemployment that encumbered his first term and crimped the middle class dreams of millions. 'This happened because of you. Thank you' Obama tweeted to supporters as he secured four more years in the White House."

NBC reports that Fox "News" has also called Ohio for the President, but Karl Rove is on-air trying to talk the network out of its decision. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is refusing to concede Ohio.

HERE'S THE WINNING MAP:

Hartford Courant: "President Obama was projected to win Connecticut's seven electoral votes, even as hundreds of people stood in line to vote after the polls closed in some of the state's major cities."

Chicago Tribune: "Thousands of people with tickets to President Barack Obama’s election result party will soon begin arriving at McCormick Place."

Reader Comments (21)

Sayeth the Daily Kos: AP calls it for Sherrod Brown, which means the conservative billionaires pissed away $40 million in that contest alone.

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Massachusetts delivers!!!!!!!!

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJulie in Massachusetts

On the other side of the Atlantic, watching Al Jazeera's election coverage for the first time. Between live coverage of the votes coming in they're reporting the real issues and calling the Repugs on it. No flim-flam this party/that party shit. Documentaries on voter restriction, lawyers and civil rights leaders making testimonies on what they've seen on the ground. Making us look like a Developing country running our elections. We need Al Jazeera nationwide.

It's 4 a.m., I've got class at 8. Beer bottles abound. Fuck Romney and that fucking white horse his Satanic wife rode in on!

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered Commentersafari

@Marie: Check with your comptroller to see if your $100 can go to the Red Cross relief effort!

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCalyban

@Calyban. I shall consult with my Office of the Exchequer, & I am quite sure my people will come thru. E-mail me @ constantweader@gmail.com (you can just click the link at the bottom right of this page) & I'll see if I can make the donation in your name.

Marie

November 6, 2012 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Marie: Your Chancellor does not need to make the donation in my name. I'll send my own matching contribution in my name.

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCalyban

Seems Jon Husted is fucking incompetent. Hunt's need another toad.

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Told ya so!

Now....what the fuck is Romney's problem? "Fix" on Ohio voting machines didn't work? What a pathetic asswipe!

November 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Awesome job, Mr. President!

Connecticut, once again, booted WWE Linda, who has now spent $100 million between her two attempts to buy a Senate seat! Yea us in CT!!!

The Supremes are Remembered!

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMushiba

May I just say:

Kiss your closest female voter. Smacker the cheeks of your nearest latino/asian/african/Kenyan AMERICAN voter. Without them, our country is Koch'ed.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered Commentersafari

OK now.......... comes the hard part. We all have to keep reminding Obama he IS a Democrat. No more Supremes from Harvard. An experienced, working, non-Wall Street, non-Catholic would be nice.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterRoger Henry

@safari. We also have to thank those white male autoworkers in Ohio and their union leaders who found a way to thank President Obama for saving their jobs. These guys are natural Democrats, & as Howard Dean said a decade ago, it's time Democrats figured that out. One good way to do it, of course, is saving their jobs. Nice work, Mr. President.

Marie

November 7, 2012 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Wow! Great night all around! Still a few hangers-on who haven't yet been ousted YET. Laughing myself silly reading Charlie Pierce's tweets all evening. Latest one is: "57 percent in. Bachmann leading by less than a thou. Baby Jeebus, I'm calling in my marker."

And, I'm so happy that Romney's political career is history! I think I'm about to say "thank you, Baby Jeebus" myself!

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Akhilleus, where are you? We are all waiting to hear from you.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTommy Bones

After reading a description of Karl Rove's meltdown on Fox,by Taylor Marsh, I want to see it! Could not find a video of it yet. I did see the clueless performance of their bimbo anchorgirl as she sashayed down the hall to confront the numbers guys. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Rachel or Cenk will show it.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered Commenteralphonsegaston

@alphonsegaston: this video doesn't have Megyn Kelly huffing off to the geek room with her, "Well! We'll just see about that." But it does have Rove & Chris Wallace expressing bafflement. I don't think they look nuts. And I do think that Wallace is worse than Rove; Rove is a partisan, Wallace is supposed to be a news anchor. It's not as surprising that Rove would question the predictions as it is that Wallace would question not only his own prognosticators but all of them.

Marie

November 7, 2012 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Silver shines again.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterwaltwis

Ahhhh...peace at last. It's wonderful.

"Re-elected", mirabile dictu.

I realize there's a lot to do now but let's just enjoy seeing the Rat scurry around inside his (electoral) trap for just a bit. Ohh look at that, he's gnawing on his own tail. Wow. That's gotta hurt. I guess it wasn't his turn after all. Must be quite a shock to a privileged self-righteous rich prick.

I admit I was feeling a touch of anxiety when I heard that Romney was on the phone to Ohio, screaming, no doubt, about why they didn't steal him enough votes. I had a moment of deja vu remembering the networks calling Florida for Gore in 2000 then having to walk that back.

I don't think for a single millisecond that Republican voter suppression and vote stealing wasn't at work. Had this been a fair and honest election all the way through with plenty of early voting days and no 8 hour lines, the election would have been over by 9:00 or 9:30 EST. As it was, the huge turnout helped immensely in countering the election rigging efforts.

The MSM bloviators were beside themselves trying to dissect Obama's winning strategy, which, to them, consisted solely of negative ads painting Romney a bad guy who was unqualified to be president, to which I would say, that was simply the truth. And yes, there was plenty of "well, he would never have won without all those non-whites", as if "those people" weren't really Americans. Here's your lifetime membership in the GOP inner circle of dickheads, Chuck Todd. Moron.

Like Alphonse I would love to see Turd Blossom flipping out, trying to figure out how his wonderfully delicious evil scheme wasn't working. After all, big brain that he is, he predicted (along with all of the right-wing geniuses) a landslide for Romney. I think his grand total gave the Rat 303 pieces of electoral cheese to gnaw on.

Poor Taggy-Rat. His investment in rigged electronic voting machines didn't pay off. Now he'll have to get a real job. (Well, actually, he won't. Like the rest of the little Rats he's set for life. He can buy himself a President Obama blowup doll and punch away if he wants.)

But starting tomorrow, someone, anyone, needs to start a movement for a national voting rights act and a voting commission to standardize elections and take them out of the hands of right-wing gangsters, because what did they learn last night?

Steal early, steal often. If we thought this election was a disgrace, 2014 and 2016 will look like kangaroo court elections. Voters will be handed pre-filled in cards as soon as they step into the polling place.

Oh, I loved watching NBC and CBS assholes smirking at David Axelrod when he came on early telling them exactly what states the president would be picking up. At least someone had the grace to acknowledge that he knew what he was talking about after those exact states went into the blue column.

And sayo-fucking-nara to racist pin-up boy Scott Brown. Get in your pick up and drive straight off Rowes Wharf. Asshole. The begrudgers don't always win. Thank you Elizabeth Warren! Thank you Massachusetts!

Finally, here's to all of us. To the president, his people, the voters, and the US of A. We dodged a huge one, my brothers and sisters.

I thought I'd sleep well tonight, but here I am at 1:17 in the AM still juiced about this thing.

And remembering the Supremes.

'night all.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterakhilleus

And a very good morning to you all. It's raining; the guests have left, the dog is back in the house and I'm going to bed. The rain and the hour notwithstanding, the sun doth truly shine on the land.

Good night to all ye faithful.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

A few days ago, Charlie Pierce seemed to offer his lukewarm rationale as to why he was voting for Obama, the BUTS were blunt and not particularly encouraging. However today, he has written a terrific post, which puts responsibility for the success of our democracy where it belongs, where it is rightly shared: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/barack-obama-2012-14524219

Things do look much better in the light of today! So many positive upsets occurred throughout the country and in local elections that I can put up (sort of) with Michele Bachmann's narrow Congressional win! Though I rejoice that Allen West lost! As did Moredick, Akins, Joe Walsh, Scott Brown, Linda McMahon, and oh yeah NO MORE ROMNEY!

...and to TAGG, TWIG, DIP, NIT or BLIP (sic)...don't even consider you have a third generation dynastic right of picking up the mantle!

P.S. New Hampshire, I'm pleased to be your next door neighbor!

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

YIPPEEEEE! HOW SWEET IT IS! And I thank all you good people for making it bearable and fun and clever and informative and...especially to you, Marie, for giving us the space to express and for all the work you do to make it possible. We done good.

November 7, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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