Father charged in daughter's hypothermia death

From USA Today:

An Idaho father has been charged with second degree murder for the death of his daughter after he ordered her and her brother to walk nearly 10 miles through the snow to her mother's house on Christmas after his car got stuck in a snowdrift, Idaho's Magic Valley Times-News reports.

Robert Aragon, 55, faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted.

Watch Times-News reporter Andrea Jackson's video report of the tragedy and the father's reaction in court on Monday.

Sage Aragon, 11, whose snow-covered body was found by rescue dogs at 2 a.m. beside a barbed wire fence, died of hypothermia, the newspaper reports.

Her 12-year-old brother, Bear, who got separated during the long trek in freezing weather, was found alive in a public restroom, wearing only his long underwear. The newspaper, quoting a county sheriff's office, says the boy had discarded his jacket, pants and shoes because of hypothermia-related delusion.

Aragon, who had custody of the children and lives in Jerome, Idaho, told authorities he thought their mother was going to meet the kids on the road, court papers show, the newspaper reports.

The Times-News quotes Aragon's cousin Kenneth Quintana, who was a passenger in the vehicle, as saying the father "didn't send those kids out there to die."

"He just wanted their mother to spend Christmas with them," Quintana says.

(JoLeta Jenks holds a family photo of her children, Bear and Sage. Photo by Ashley Smith/Times-News/AP)

Posted by Doug Stanglin at 02:17 PM/ET, December 30, 2008 in Crime, Health/Science, Human interest, Local news, Offbeat | Permalink

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

Igor Panarin

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.

Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."

Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.

Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.

The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."

In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.

"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."

At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.

Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.

For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.

The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.

Wildlife experts ponder gender of Santa's reindeer

By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press Writer

Posted: 12/19/2008 02:59:45 AM MST

Click photo to enlarge

In this Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 file photo, the original Santa Claus and... ((AP Photo/Paul Vernon))

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LUBBOCK, Texas—There may be a perfectly good reason why Santa doesn't get lost on his annual Christmas globetrot: His flying reindeer just might be female and don't mind stopping for directions.

The gender of Rudolph and his or her sleigh-hauling friends—the subject of goofy Internet chatter every year around this time—is now being pondered by renowned wildlife experts at Texas A&M University.

"Santa's reindeers were really females, most likely," said Alice Blue-McLendon, a veterinary medicine professor specializing in deer who cites the depictions of Santa's helpers with antlers as the primary evidence. It turns out reindeer grow antlers regardless of gender, and most bulls typically shed their fuzzy protrusions before Christmas.

But Santa's sleigh helpers might also be castrated males, known as steers, said Greg Finstad, who manages the Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Young steers finish shedding their antlers in February and March, just as non-expecting females do. Bulls generally lose theirs before Christmas, while expectant mothers retain their antlers until calves are birthed in the spring. This allows them to protect food resources through harsh weather and to have enough for developing fetuses, he said.

Sledders most often use steers because they maintain their body condition throughout the winter, he said. Bulls are tuckered out from rutting season when they mate with as many

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as a dozen females in the months leading up to December. That leaves them depleted and too lean to pull a sleigh or sled through heavy snows, Finstad said.

Many females are pregnant after rutting season, which lasts from summer and into the fall. That would mean long hours of backbreaking work for an expecting Rudolph, as well as Donner, Blitzen, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet and Vixen.

"You don't hook up your pregnant females to a sled," Finstad said. "That is not good animal husbandry."

But other aaspects of the Christmas story support the all-girl sleigh team theory, Blue-McLendon said.

For example, would a boy reindeer really sport a shiny red nose that almost glows?

"Females like accessories," said Blue-McLendon, who in 2003 led the school's cloning of a white-tailed deer. "I think that fits because females like bling. We like shiny stuff."

As for the reindeer games, forget the rough antler-smashing stuff. Blue-McLendon suggests a female Rudolph would be more up for "games of wit."

And as for the name, Rudolph could certainly still work.

"Why not?" Blue-McLendon said. "I know women named Charlie."

Burress was driving without insurance before crash

From Yahoo Sports

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)—Add this to the growing list of Plaxico Burress’ problems: getting in a car crash and not having insurance on his nearly $140,000 Mercedes-Benz.

The suspended New York Giants wide receiver was sued last week in Florida’s Broward County Circuit Court for rear-ending a woman in May.

Compounding the Super Bowl star’s defense, according to a document provided by the woman’s attorney, is the fact his car insurance lapsed three days before the crash. A letter from Allstate says Burress neglected to pay his premiums.

Burress’ attorney, Adam Swickle, declined comment.

Burress is still serving a team suspension for shooting himself Nov. 29 in a nightclub with an illegally carried handgun. Burress shot himself at the Latin Quarter when he accidentally pulled the trigger on the .40-caliber Glock that was in his pants after fumbling a drink.

Teammate Antonio Pierce took the 31-year-old who caught the winning pass in the Super Bowl to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center for treatment.

Burress pleaded not guilty and was released on $100,000 bail. He is due back in court March 31.

He was placed on the team’s suspended/non-football injury list, and the NFL Players Association filed a grievance. The union said the Giants violated the collective bargaining agreement when they placed Burress on that list, suspended him for the final four games of the regular season and fined him an additional week’s salary for conduct detrimental to the team.

We Knew Obama Was A Fascist. But Why Did He Have to Go and Be a Luddite Fascist?

From Al Fin:

Obama has appointed another total moron -- this time as science advisor. John P. Holdren -- climate alarmist, carbon hysteric, and global warming orthodoxer -- is to be appointed science advisor for the incoming administration of the narcissist-elect. When taken together with other Obama appointments, Holdren's selection spells total disaster for US industrial competitiveness. How stupid is Holdren?

In 1980 Dr. Holdren helped select five metals — chrome, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten — and joined Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Harte in betting $1,000 that those metals would be more expensive ten years later. They turned out to be wrong on all five metals, and had to pay up when the bet came due in 1990. _NYT

Yep, that's right. Holdren was part of the "everyone is doomed to die of starvation, peak oil, and resource depletion before the year 2000" crowd, along with the Club of Rome, Paul Ehrlich, and the other predecessors of carbon hysteric Al Gore. Selecting this merry band of Luddites, dieoff.orgiasts, and all around faux environmentalists casts a dim light on Obama's judgment and capacity to reason. But then, we all knew that Obama didn't write his books. And we all knew he wasn't really the messiah, right? And none of us actually was influenced by Oprah's endorsement of the narcissist-elect, nicht wahr? Of course not.

Prepare for the reign of boobs, fools, crooks, and pompous nitwits. Beneath all the media fawning and foaming at the mouth, underneath the death-dealing regulations and choking taxation, and despite the pro-union and pro-trial lawyer stabbing in the back of business enterprise, pockets of competence will survive. Look for those pockets and find ways to expand them. We will need foci of recovery, when US voters eventually come to their senses and force the spiked boots off of the neck of the private sector.

The Fate Of The Navvies

From Martin Kelly:

As soon as I clicked Laban Tall's link, I thought 'I know this man'.

Not him personally, but I've met a thousand Paddy McGees, and have even been related to a few of them; the devout Catholic shop steward, probably oldest Old Labour, probably likely to do anything to help anyone else and possessed of an innate sense of fairness, born of a very deep and universal sense of right and wrong, that makes them as stubborn as mules in the face of real or perceived injustice. Many are like Ents, rooted to the ground on which they were born. I would imagine Martin Meenagh knows quite a few of the type as well.

Mr. McGee is now dead, having been decapitated on his doorstep in Manchester. The motive for the killing may have been a neighbourhood noise dispute. His killer violated his mortal remains, dumping his head in a bin. A man is reported to be in custody.

Decapitation is not a particularly Anglo-Irish way of despatching your foes, or hasn't been for at least a few centuries. James Higham has posted a piece which begins, "These names - Bilal Abdulla, Mohammed Asha, Kafeel Ahmed, Hasib Hussain, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mohamed Atta, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Khaled al-Harbi, Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, Osman Larussi, Yacine Benalia, Kamel Rabat Bouralha, Imam Samudra - they're all Jewish names, aren't they?" I titled my own thoughts on the 2006 airliner plot, "I Couldn't See Paddy O' Shaughnessy". Yet one cannot draw conclusions until all the facts are known.

Paddy McGee was one of the last of a particular civilisation - the navvy. They were as stubborn as hell, but many had good hearts and did good things. He didn't deserve to go to God that way. I only hope he didn't suffer.

O Lord, grant eternal rest unto your son Patrick, and may perpetual light shine upon him, may he rest in peace; and may his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

4 Comments:

Martin Meenagh said...

May eternal light shine upon him, and may he rest in peace. You're right--I did know a few like Paddy McGee. Some still work for the gas companies. My uncle, who died one christmas a while back and whom I admired for his big, John Wayne style strength, was one of them. My mother has the same spirit.

I would differ from you a little. I vividly remember my little sister, when she was 12 or so, suggest a chilling game to a friend of hers, which was to guess where the next druggie's head would turn up in Corby. It was under a bush.

There was a brief moment when, inspired probably by films and the capacities of the machetes that somehow came into rage in the early ninteties, when beheading did make a comeback. It's of a piece with any sort of rise in bladed-edge crime that involves things bigger than pen-knives or flick-knives.

All very sad. I'll go to Laban Tall's place and read. Thank you for the sad link.


Martin

9:45 AM

James Higham said...

I like the Ent analogy.

6:49 PM

Bruce Hall said...

Yes, it is a sad incident. But in a world of hope and change, those kinds of incidents may happen in order to protect the noble principle of diversity and cultural respect.

Of course, in America, it is far less likely to happen when the offended one who is attempting to restore his honor with a large knife encounters a Glock... something unlikely to happen in Great Britain.

11:39 PM

Martin said...

Martin,

The point you make about bladed crime is good - yet unfortunately Glasgow has one of the worst rates of bladed crime in the world, and I can't recall any incident like this happening here. Could it be that the Corby incidents were some kind of sick local vogue?

Bruce,

It's delightful to hear from you, and I do hope both you and your family are well.

You make a very powerful point; one which has been bothering me for some time.

It is a matter of historical inevitability that during the course of the next four years, the Obama administration will make a concerted, sustained assault on the Second Amendment. This will become the civic equivalent of some horrible Great War battle; just as the donkeys leading the lions killed hundreds of thousands trying to take objectives 30 yards wide, the Obamites will conduct this campaign without regard for the cultural and social cost.

They will do this because an armed citizenry is anathema to their socialism, their brand of which is radically different to that probably espoused by the late Paddy McGee. In their world, the armed citizen is a danger to their authority over the group. They cannot suffer this, so instead of taking out the citizen, they take away his right to bear arms.

This is precisely what has happened in the UK over the last century. The other great Jesuit educated Scottish writer, the guy who wrote detective stories about some guy called Padlock Holmes or some name like that, used to have his protagonist say stuff to his sidekick like 'Watson, bring your revolver'.

Yet there will come a point where this must clash with multiculturalism. I can see a point coming where fear of 'racism' will lead the New Labour socialists to propose that minorities be allowed to arm themselves for their own defence; in which case, some citizens will definitely be more equal than others, and folks who might certainly not qualify for a concealed carry permit in Michigan will be wandering round London and Glasgow quite legitimately tooled up.

6:18 AM

Something is rotten in Norway - 500,000 sq-km of sea ice disappears overnight

From Watts Up With That?

I had planned to do a post yesterday evening about how sea ice area and extent had returned to very near normal levels. But I was tired, so I saved off the graphs from the NANSEN arctic sea ice site.

This morning I was shocked to discover that overnight, huge amounts of sea ice simply disappeared. Fortunately I had saved the images and a copy of the webpage last night. Here is the before and after in a blink comparator:

NANSEN sea ice extent comparison to 1979-2000 average, Dec 10 to Dec 11 2008

There is no mention on the NANSEN website as to this change. So either it is an automation error or an undocumented adjustment. Either way, since this is for public consumption, NANSEN owes the public an explanation.

And there is more, see additional blink comparator graphs I’ve added below:

NANSEN sea ice extent, Dec 10 to Dec 11 2008

NANSEN sea ice area comparison, Dec 10 to Dec 11 2008

NANSEN sea ice extent comparison to 1979-2000 average, Dec 10 to Dec 11 2008

After examining the above, it appears the issue only manifests itself when comparisons to the 1979-2000 monthly average are made. The adjustment starting point appears to start around September 10th - at the summer minimum for both area and extent.

This could be a data processing error, though if so, it is so blatantly obvious to anyone who follows the NANSEN presentation that it immediately stands out. Many people commenting on this blog and others also saw the change without the benefit of my handy-dandy blinkj comparator above.

That fact that it occurs on a weekend could be viewed as suspicious due to fewer eyes on the website , or an indication that they have sloppy quality control there at NANSEN and this was published via automation with no human inspection prior to the update.

Steven Goddard writes via email:

Also interesting is that they extended the date of the ice minimum by about a week. I have found no mention or explanation of the changes on their web site. Nansen uses a different baseline from NSIDC, including the entire period from 1979-2007, whereas the NSIDC baseline only goes through 2000. Yet their graphs are now nearly identical, as shown in the overlay below.

NSIDC “extent” is shown in thin turquoise, and Nansen “area” is shown in red. (I unfortunately can’t do an apples for apples extent comparison, because I don’t have a snapshot of the Nansen December 10 “extent” graph.) I wonder what could have motivated such a change? Over the last couple of years there have been several times that ice measurements have changed at various web sites, but the changes always seem to be downwards. I can’t remember a single time when ice area or extent was revised upwards.

The explanation (if one is offered) will be interesting to say the least.

UPDATE:

I received this email from Stein Sandven at Nansen in response to my query:

Dear Anthony,

The ice area calculation has been too high since about 22 October, causing too steep slope of the 2008 curve. We corrected for this yesterday and recalculated the ice area for 2008. The slope of the 2008 curve should now be correct and can be compared with 2007 and the previous mean monthly ice area.

Best regards

Stein

For my opinion though it seems to be an incomplete answer, generating even more questions.

Girl Accused of Seeking Hit on Father

By Aaron C. Davis

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 12, 2008; Page B01

A 15-year-old Hagerstown girl suspected of being part of a clique of teens who liked to suck one another's blood approached a friend on a crowded high school bus in October and asked him to kill her father, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors in Washington County in Western Maryland allege that she told the friend, a male classmate, that he could find her father at 5 a.m., climbing into the work truck he parked in the alley behind their rowhouse.

And that was where, on Halloween morning, her father's body was found in a pool of blood. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the head and neck.

This week, the girl was ordered held without bond on charges of soliciting murder.

In recent court hearings, however, this has become clear: The suspect charged in the man's death was not the male classmate she is accused of soliciting for the killing but another of the girl's friends, a 19-year-old accused of confronting the father because of the belief -- unsupported, prosecutors say -- that he was abusing his daughter.

John Dunlap, assistant state's attorney for Washington County, said police and prosecutors began investigating the man's daughter and her friends because the man "had no problems with nobody."

"The only thing he had a problem with was his daughter and her group of friends," Dunlap said. They were a goth "crew, sucking each other's blood, cutting each other."

The Washington Post is not identifying the girl because she is charged as a juvenile. The father is not being identified because he and his daughter share a last name. The male classmate has not been charged.

The 19-year-old, Alec S. Eger, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Eger's public defender did not immediately return a phone call and e-mail seeking comment. The girl's attorney could not be identified last night. Because she is charged as a juvenile, her case file and attorney's name are not public. Calls to her mother's home were not immediately returned.

In court Wednesday, Dunlap said prosecutors have an independent witness on the bus who will testify about hearing the girl try to arrange the killing of her father.

The girl says on her MySpace page that she now lives with her mother: "I used 2 live with my father until he was killed on halloween of this '08." A more recent posting says: "wats gonna happen now that everything is settling down? everything is becoming clear nd i got the best ppl in the world. i luv you guys. don't stop bein u. nd don't give up on ur self or me."

Prosecutors have said the girl told the classmate on the bus that her father abused her. Dunlap said police found no evidence of abuse. He said there had also been no calls to police reporting abuse at the residence.

Prosecutors have not said whether she allegedly offered the classmate anything in exchange for the killing.

According to charging documents, Eger confessed. The documents say he told police that he was carrying two knives, one on his belt and one in his pocket, when he went to confront the man "about allegedly abusing his daughter, a friend of" Eger's.

Eger said that the man grabbed one of the knives and that the two began to struggle, according to the documents. Eger told police that he pulled out his other knife and stabbed the man repeatedly in the head, neck and possibly the chest until the victim "went down," the documents say.

When Eger determined that the man was not breathing, the documents say, he pulled the body near the man's parked truck, removed his wallet from his pants, took $20 to $40 in cash and threw the wallet, knife and his bloody shirt in a nearby dumpster.

On his MySpace page yesterday, the victim's 20-year-old son described himself as "lost for words":

"I love you dad and miss you, you are the best father anyone could ask for. may God watch over you now."

Staff writer Matt Zapotosky and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

White House Considers Use of Funds to Aid Automakers

WASHINGTON — In a shift, the White House said Friday morning that it would consider using money from the $700 billion financial bailout to rescue troubled automakers, one day after the Senate abandoned its efforts to pass legislation offering a government rescue to the companies.

Video

Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for President George W. Bush, issued a statement criticizing Congress’s failure to pass an automotive rescue plan that had been negotiated betweem Democratic lawmakers and the White House. Two of the Big Three, General Motors and Chrysler, have said they are so short of cash that they may not be able to survive through this month without aid, and the third, Ford Motor, is also struggling with weak sales.

“It is disappointing that while appropriate and effective legislation to assist and restructure troubled automakers received majority support in both houses, Congress nevertheless failed to pass final legislation,” Ms. Perino said in the statement. “Given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary – including use of the TARP program -- to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers.” She said that allowing the economic harm caused by such a collapse would be “irresponsible.”

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal, but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.

The failure in Congress to provide a financial lifeline for G.M. and Chrysler was a bruising defeat for President Bush in the waning weeks of his term, and also for President-elect Barack Obama, who earlier on Thursday urged Congress to act to avoid a further loss of jobs in an already deeply debilitated economy.

“It’s over with,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on the Senate floor, after it was clear that a deal could not be reached. “I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”

Mr. Reid added: “This is going to be a very, very bad Christmas for a lot of people as a result of what takes place here tonight.”

The Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said: “We have had before us this whole question of the viability of the American automobile manufacturers. None of us want to see them go down, but very few of us had anything to do with the dilemma that they have created for themselves.”

[except, of course, the onerous CAFE requirements and the government involvement in the financial meltdown]

Mr. McConnell added: “The administration negotiated in good faith with the Democratic majority a proposal that was simply unacceptable to the vast majority of our side because we thought it frankly wouldn’t work.”

Moments later, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes need to bring up the auto rescue plan for consideration. The Senate voted 52 to 35 with 10 Republicans joining 40 Democrats and 2 independents in favor.

The White House issued said it would consider alternatives but offered no assurances.

“It’s disappointing that Congress failed to act tonight,” Tony Fratto, the deputy press secretary, said. “We think the legislation we negotiated provided an opportunity to use funds already appropriated for automakers, and presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable. We will evaluate our options in light of the breakdown in Congress.”

Markets reacted quickly in Asia. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index closed down 5.6 percent after the proposal failed and other markets registered substantial retreats as well.

Immediately after the vote, the Bush administration was already coming under pressure to act on its own to prop up G.M. and Chrysler, an idea that administration officials have resisted for weeks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers called on the administration to use the Treasury’s bigger financial system stabilization fund to help the automakers, but there may not be enough money left to do so.

About $15 billion remains of the initial $350 billion disbursed by Congress and Treasury officials have said that money is needed as a backstop for existing programs.

Democrats instantly sought to blame Republicans for the failure to aid Detroit, while a number of Republicans blamed the union. But on all sides the usual zest for political jousting seemed absent given the grim economic outlook.

“Senate Republicans’ refusal to support the bipartisan legislation passed by the House and negotiated in good faith with the White House, the Senate and the automakers is irresponsible, especially at a time of economic hardship,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement.

She added: “The consequences of the Senate Republicans’ failure to act could be devastating to our economy, detrimental to workers, and destructive to the American automobile industry unless the President immediately directs Secretary Paulson to explore other short-term financial assistance options.”

Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, and a supporter of the auto rescue efforts, said: “I think it might be time for the president to step in.” Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, also urged the White House to act.

So far, the Federal Reserve also has shown no willingness to step in to aid the auto industry.

Democrats have argued that the Fed has the authority to do so and some said the central bank may now have no choice but to prevent the automakers from entering bankruptcy proceedings that could have ruinous ripple effects.

G.M. and Chrysler issued statements expressing disappointment.

G.M. said: “We will assess all of our options to continue our restructuring and to obtain the means to weather the current economic crisis.”

Chrysler said it would: “continue to pursue a workable solution to help ensure the future viability of the company.”

Earlier in the day, G.M. said that it had legal advisers, including Harvey R. Miller of the firm Weil Gotshal & Manges, to consider a possible bankruptcy, which the company until now has said would be cataclysmic not just for G.M. but for Chrysler and the Ford Motor Company as well.

Ford, which is better financial shape than its competitors, had said it would not seek the emergency short-term loans for the government, but urged Congress to help its competitors because the fates of the Big Three are so closely linked.

The rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, by a vote of 237 to 170, would have extended $14 billion in loans to the G.M. and Chrysler and required them to submit to broad government oversight directed by a car czar to be named by Mr. Bush.

But even before the House vote, Senate Republicans voiced strong opposition to the plan, which was negotiated by Democrats and the White House.

At a luncheon with White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, on Wednesday they rebuffed his entreaties for support.

And on Thursday morning, Mr. McConnell dealt a death blow to the House-passed bill, giving a speech on the Senate floor in which he said that Republican senators would not support it mainly because it was not tough enough.

“In the end, it’s greatest single flaw is that it promises taxpayer money today for reforms that may or may not come tomorrow,” Mr. McConnell said.

Mr. McConnell, however, held out slim hope for a compromise suggesting that Republicans could rally around a proposal by Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, to set stiffer requirements for the automakers.

Mr. Obama, whose transition team consulted with Congressional Democrats and the White House on the efforts to help the automakers, urged Congress to act in his opening remarks at a news conference on Thursday in Chicago.

“I believe our government should provide short-term assistance to the auto industry to avoid a collapse while holding the companies accountable and protecting taxpayer interests,” he said. “The legislation in Congress right now is an important step in that direction, and I’m hopeful that a final agreement can be reached this week.”

But in Washington, there was little appetite among Senate Republicans for yet another multibillion-dollar bailout of private companies. Still, with the Democrats and the White House eager to reach a deal, Mr. Corker’s proposal became the subject of intense negotiations well into the evening.

Under his plan, the automakers would have been required by March 31 to slash their debt obligations by two-thirds — an enormous sum given that G.M. alone has more than $60 billion in outstanding debt.

The automakers would also have been required to cut wages and benefits to match the average hourly wage and benefits of Nissan, Toyota and Honda employees in the United States.

It was over this proposal that the talks ultimately deadlocked with Republicans demanding that the automakers meet that goal by a certain date in 2009 and Democrats and the union urging a deadline in 2011 when the U.A.W. contract expires.

G.M. and Chrysler have said the two companies would likely not survive through this month without government aid, and the companies had already agreed to carry out sweeping reorganization plans in exchange for the help.

The negotiations over Mr. Corker’s proposals broke up about 8 p.m. and Mr. Corker left to brief his Republican colleagues on the developments.

The Republicans senators emerged from their meeting an hour later having decided they would not agree to a deal. Several blamed the autoworkers union.

“It sounds like the U.A.W. blew it up,” said Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana.

Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee and a leading critic of the auto bailout proposal, said: “We’re hoping that the Democrats will continue to negotiate but I think we have reached a point that labor has got to give. If they want a bill they can get one.”

The last-ditch negotiations made for a dramatic scene on the first floor of the Capitol, where high-level lobbyists for G.M. and Ford, as well as Stephen A. Feinberg, the reclusive founder of Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns 80 percent of Chrysler, gathered with senators and legislative staff in an ornate conference room.

A Democratic aide said that there were no lobbyists present who represented Chrysler.

At times, various participants huddled in corners of the cavernous hallway outside the conference room, shielding their documents and whispering into their cellphones, as a throng of reporters and photographers waited nearby.

Some of the lobbyists and banking committee staff members huddled by two towering windows, looking out on a frigid rain that had been falling all day.

Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal

Carlos Javier Ortiz for The New York Times

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald discussed the charges against Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois at a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday.

By MONICA DAVEY and JACK HEALY

Published: December 9, 2008

CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, called his sole authority to name Mr. Obama’s successor “golden,” and he sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of Health and Human Services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said.

He also suggested, they said, that in exchange for the Senate appointment, his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year, and he tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund.

If Mr. Blagojevich could not secure a deal to his liking, prosecutors said, he was willing to appoint himself.

“If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,” the governor said in recorded conversation, prosecutors said.

A 76-page affidavit from the United States Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Illinois says Mr. Blagojevich (pronounced bluh-GOY-uh-vich) was heard on wiretaps over the last month planning to “sell or trade Illinois’ United States Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and personal benefits for himself and his wife.”

The charges are part of a five-year investigation into public corruption and allegations of “pay to play” deals in the clubby world of Illinois politics. In addition to the charges related to Mr. Obama’s Senate seat, they include accusations that Mr. Blagojevich worked to gain benefits for himself, his family and his campaign fund in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions.

The authorities recorded Mr. Blagojevich speaking with advisers, fundraisers, a spokesman and a deputy governor, using listening devices placed in his office, home telephone, and a conference room at the offices of a friend, prosecutors said.

Federal authorities said Mr. Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris, was also named in the complaint. Both men are expected to appear in federal court for the first time later Tuesday.

At a news conference, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, said that Mr. Blagojevich had gone on a “political corruption crime spree,” and that his actions had “taken us to a truly new low.”

“The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.

He added that the complaint “makes no allegations about the president-elect whatsoever.” In one passage of the complaint, Mr. Blagojevich is quoted cursing Mr. Obama in apparent frustration that “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation.”

An official at the governor’s office had no immediate comment on Tuesday. A telephone message left at Mr. Obama’s transition office was not returned.

Mr. Blagojevich, 51, is serving his second term and has portrayed himself as a reformer. His predecessor, George Ryan, a Republican, was convicted of racketeering and fraud in 2006, and is now in prison.

But members of Mr. Blagojevich’s administration have been under investigation for more than a year. And this spring, the governor’s office was upended by the corruption trial of Antoin Rezko, a political fundraiser, when witnesses said Mr. Blagojevich had participated in kickback schemes that led to Mr. Rezko’s conviction. Mr. Blagojevich was never charged in that case.

Until Tuesday, though, few here could have imagined that the decision on replacing Mr. Obama would have resulted in explosive criminal charges against the governor.

Under Illinois law, Mr. Blagojevich has sole authority to fill the seat being vacated by Mr. Obama, who was elected to the Senate in 2004. Mr. Obama’s resignation from the Senate took effect Nov. 16.

According to the criminal complaint, while talking on the telephone about the Senate seat replacement with his chief of staff and an adviser, Mr. Blagojevich said he needed to consider his family and their financial struggles. “I want to make money,” he said, according to prosecutors. He then added, they allege, that he wanted to make $250,000 to $300,000 a year.

Mr. Blagojevich even contemplated stepping into the Senate himself, prosecutors said.

“I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain,” Mr. Blagojevich said in a recorded conversation with an adviser, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit from prosecutors, Mr. Blagojevich told an adviser last week that he might “get some (money) upfront, maybe” from one of the candidates hoping to replace Mr. Obama. That person was identified only as “Candidate 5.”

In an earlier recorded conversation, prosecutors say, Mr. Blagojevich said he was approached by an associate of “Candidate 5” with an offer of $500,000 in exchange for the Senate seat.

The authorities also say Mr. Blagojevich threatened to withhold state assistance from the Tribune Company, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday. According to the authorities, Mr. Blagojevich wanted members of the Tribune’s editorial board, who had criticized him, to be fired before he extended any state assistance.

Jack Healy contributed from New York.

Jay Leno Could Use These

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