Irene Could Be Really Bad: Obama ends his vacation to Martha’s Vineyard early, Bloomberg orders the evacuation of 270,000 residents, Governor Christie says something frantic and New Jersey-esque, and Nate Silver estimates that the damage from Irene could realistically top $35 billion, or half of NYC’s annual budget.

C.R. Douglas Is a Gentleman: After being baited to mock Jean Godden’s age and “varicose veins” on 100.7 The Wolf, C.R. refuses to play along, and accurately notes that Godden “does aerobics at least four days a week.”

Casino Bombed in Mexico: Wealthy Mexicans flee and spark a “Texas Miracle.” Mexican President Calderon states painful, poignant truths; outrage ensues?

787 Finally Certified: Boeing’s Dreamliner is certified by the FAA a little more than four weeks in advance of the first obligated plane delivery to All Nippon Airways.

China Clamps Down on Twitter Equivalents: Not for international IP claims, but out of a growing concern over the government’s “inability to curb free expression on the Internet.”

Orca Not Maimed; Just Pregnant: A mopey whale west of San Juan Island was thought to have been struck by a boat, but now researchers think the 18 year-old orca is going to be a first-time mother. No word on the shotgun orca wedding yet.

Perry Is a Homophobe: If there were ever doubt, Perry has signed NOM’s pledge to send a Constitutional marriage amendment to the States as President.

Bank Employee Allegedly Robs Other Banks: A Pierce County man has confessed to robbing six banks, allegedly to fund his expensive Percocet addiction. “He said he was taking five to eight pills a day and was buying them on the street for $30 each, court documents state.”

Buffett Plays Long Game: America’s least ostentatious billionaire injects $5 billion in capital into the troubled Bank of America. I hope this means the $100 left in my account is safe…

And now, let’s listen to LBJ order some pants:

19 replies on “The Morning News”

  2. I really love it that we actually have a recording of a historical figure saying “bunghole.”

    I’ve heard that a number of times but it just now registered that he says his weight varies 10-15 pounds *per month*. Jesus, I know he was stressed about Viet Nam and such, but that ain’t healthy.

  6. Speaking of Irene, if they’re calling for evacuations, should MLB be going on with their games? SFGate reports that the A’s and Red Sox are getting underway with game 1 of a double header, with a hope that they’ll be able to get in at least five innings of game 2.

  7. What a hell of a tape – nothing Johnson did failed to include pushing, needling, nudging, persuading. To hell with his health, his body was meant to be run into the ground – politics was everything to him. My favorite bit from his early days was explained by his biographer Robert Caro, who’s spent decades researching him by now.

    He’d learned from two sources that, as a young congressional assistant living in Washington in the early 1930s, Johnson could be seen making his way to work each day at the crack of dawn, running up Capitol Hill. Why, Caro wondered, would he run? If the sun was rising, he wouldn’t have been late to work, and, even if he were, Johnson’s do-nothing, bon vivant congressman boss wouldn’t have much noticed. Caro paced the route, searching for answers, finding none. “I must have gone 20 times, I’m not exaggerating,” he says. Then it occurred to him: he’d never walked the walk at the break of dawn. And so, early one morning, he made the trek one last time. What he saw was a revelation. In the rising sun, the Capitol looked like its ideal Greek form, “gleaming, brilliant, almost dazzlingly white.” After weeks of wondering, Caro finally understood: “There it was, everything Johnson ever wanted in life; of course he would run.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/20…

  11. @10

    Just wondering at the wisdom of allowing tens of thousands to gather in a stadium and then flood the streets later with foot and auto traffic when there’s an imminent hurricane. I notice that games in Baltimore, NYC, and Philly have been canceled–is Boston in that much less danger than the other places? (That’s actually kind of a genuine question, since I don’t know the geography of the East that well.)

  12. @7, Caro’s biography of LBJ is nothing short of a triumph. The volume on Johnson’s childhood is ehhh, as are most childhood bios, but “Means of Ascent” about his 1948 campaign for Senate, is a knockout, and “Master of the Senate” is tells the story not just of LBJ, but of the Senate, and how the Senate and the two parties changed during the tumultuous mid-century years, grappling with issues like civil rights. I am so disappointed that he didn’t finish the 4th book. The series is a tour de force that I can’t recommend enough.

  13. @11: Yeah, it’s pretty far away from those other places (at least relatively speaking). Look at the link I posted. Boston’s way up to the northeast.

  14. @12, absolutely, Caro is a hero. Not just his LBJ work but the Robert Moses bio “The Power Broker” was a triumph. Every local yokel in Seattle who hopes to write about issues relating to our own public works projects must read it carefully. But there’s absolutely no evidence a single one of them has even heard of it, must less tried to read it.

    And what what what, you say Caro’s not going to finish the fourth LBJ volume? I hadn’t heard anything like that. You must be wrong, you must. He’s only 75 years old now – plenty of work left in him. In a January piece on his fact-checking of the Robert Moses musical (yes! there was one!) Caro said he was working away at Vol. 4, and in fact had to tear himself away from his Smith-Corona typewriter. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/theate…

    You see, I’ve been expecting reading that to be one of the crowning pleasures of my life – I’ll have to take up heroin or something if he’s not going to publish it at all.

  15. @15, I had just kind of assumed since it had been quite a while. I knew he liked to spend a lot of time on each book but it was getting a little ridiculous. Glad to hear he is still at work and I will buy it the instant he finishes!

  18. big l @16, delighted to hear it – I was scared something was up.

    And TVDinner, you are going to eat that book up with a spoon, I bet. It’s a bedrock work any planner would adore, as would any community organizer or public works staffer. If you should happen to run across Caro’s third LBJ volume there’s a staggering recounting in there of Moses’ Cross-Bronx Expressway project told through the lens of Johnson’s influence, too.

    It wasn’t long ago I first read Caro myself, and I’m envious of anyone experiencing him for the first time. Enjoy!

  19. @18, isn’t it amazing. I loved Caro’s recounting how Moses built his career through a “series of merciless vendettas against wealth and wealth’s power” – and to watch the worm turn as Moses gained more and more unfettered influence. Magnificent.

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