A brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division, seen in this Army promotional video,
has moved into Iraq.
** “SURGING.” A brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division has moved into Iraq as part of the new surge strategy. Actually, it was already scheduled to go into Iraq, just later in the year.
Meanwhile, Virginia Senator John Warner, the longtime chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who lost the chairmanship when the Senate went Democratic — actually, when former U.S. Navy Secretary James Webb defeated Warner’s Virginia colleague, George Allen — is coming out against President George W. Bush‘s policy. He doesn’t want troops involved with sectarian fighting, which is the whole point of the latest Bush strategy.
** HILLARY CHAT BEGINS. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton just finished the first of her live interactive Internet video chats on her web site. It ran from 4 PM to 4:30 PM Pacific time. She’s doing another one tomorrow and Wednesday at the same time. You can go there now and register. They begin accepting questions at 2 PM Pacific time.
For those who have convinced themselves that Hillary is a charmless bore — and you know who you are — well, think again. She’s pretty good at this.
** CALIFORNIA’S DETERMINATE SENTENCING LAW STRUCK DOWN. The U.S. Supreme Court this morning struck down California’s determinate sentencing law, which allows judges to add on additional years to sentences. Many believe this has contributed to the overcrowding crisis in the state’s deeply troubled prison system. This increases the urgency of a new sentencing commission which has been called for, in various forms, by Democratic legislative leaders and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. New Attorney General Jerry Brown is studying the decision now.
** RICHARDSON ET AL. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced yesterday that he is seriously exploring a race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Richardson has a very impressive background, having served as congressman, as U.S. secretary of energy, and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If elected, he would be the first Latino president of the United States (not counting Matthew Santos on The West Wing, of course). I believe he will be the first major Latino presidential candidate.
His candidacy has been expected for quite awhile. Hillary Clinton also announced her exploratory candidacy over the weekend, via a very chatty and warm video on her web site. Obviously her candidacy is even more expected, as she is the Democratic presidential frontrunner.
This raises an interesting question, since these politicians are going to formally announce candidacies, as well. What is the news here? I think the news is if someone is not running. I hate when politicians make 17 different versions of the same announcement of something I already know they are doing in the first place.
** SCHWARZENEGGER HEALTH CARE WEBCAST AT 2 PM. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues his campaign for his comprehensive health care plan today with a roundtable at Seagate Technology in Fremont. He meets privately for an hour with business leaders, then opens it up to the press and public in a live webcast at 2 PM. The theme? That there are $14.65 billion in “hidden taxes,” cost shifts for subsidizing the uninsured.
** MCCAIN’S MEDIA TEAM. As Senator John McCain‘s frontrunning presidential campaign further gears up, a couple of people with strong California ties have come on board. Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer of the Stevens & Schriefer Group and Fred Davis of Strategic Perception have joined Mark McKinnon and the firm of Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm as McCain media consultants. Davis will serve as McCain’s chief creative consultant and Schriefer will oversee the day-to-day media operations.
Fred Davis works out of Southern California and was the lead media consultant in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s re-election campaign. Remember the foot? Stevens has worked extensively in Hollywood as a writer and producer on the TV series Commander-in-Chief, Mister Sterling, K Street, and Northern Exposure.
** Monitor computer memory prices on a daily basis. Prices are mostly stable.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have risen to $52 to $53 per barrel on colder weather in the Northeastern US.
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Hillary is a strong candidate. The people who knock her don’t get it.
Thanks for the comment re: sanctions. You refer of course to the the Oil for Food regime imposed as part of the Iraq sanctions. The conventional wisdom is that Saddam Hussein ripped off the oil proceeds, but Iraqis say they were unable to get supplies, parts, equipment to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure because the US and UN security council blocked them.
A 2001 Reuters report noted that: “Iraq said last month it had received less than half of the medical supplies it had ordered under the U.N. oil- for-food programme, accusing the United states and Britain of delaying arrival of supplies,” while Kofi Annan accused the US of hampering the so-called ‘Oil-For-Food Programme.’[Annan was falsely accused of profiting from the program.]
The Reuters story says that: “Over 15,000 Iraqis died in December (2001) due to diseases that Baghdad blames on the regime of United Nations sanctions imposed 11 years ago … The Health Ministry was quoted by [newspaper] Al-Jumhuriya as saying 7,007 children under the age of five had died of diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition diseases, while 8,329 people had died of heart and kidney problems, diabetes and cancers… It said the latest figures brought to 1,629,593 the number of people who have died since the imposition of sanctions in 1990, to December 2001.”
Bill Richardson defended the sanctions – even after confronted with the numbers of Iraqi children killed as a result of them – in an interview in 2005 with Amy Goodman: “#Governor Richardson: Well, I stand behind the sanctions. I believe that they successfully contained Saddam Hussein. I believe that the sanctions were an instrument of our policy. # Amy Goodman: To ask a question that was asked of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright, do you think the price was worth it, 500,000 children dead? # Governor Richardson: Well, I believe our policy was correct, yes”
Like the other Democrat Party war mongers, Richardson is a cold-blooded opportunist.
Sad that you believe every anti-American thing out there.
The Oil for Food program was very corrupt.
Isn’t America the most evil thing on the planet? Unlike that nice Saddam Hussein man. lol
Hey, the Supremes solved the prison crisis for us today! The guards won’t like it. Yay!
Hillary is the most seasoned campiagner running for President… but she is odds on favorite because of the enduring popularity of her husband, Bill.
RE: “Sad that you believe every anti-American thing out there.”
That is an illogical conclusion and bizarre, slanderous, reading of my comments. I believe George Bush is anti-American, but I don’t believe him.
We were dealing with the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians. I suppose you would argue that the UN is anti-American for daring to mention that civilians were killed by US imposed sanctions and reporting that 34,000 civilians were killed in Iraq last year. The medical journal Lancet is obviously anti-American for producing a study showing that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the 2003 invasion.
Caring about Iraqi children and opposing the Bush regime is so anti-American. But the ‘pro-American’ media pundits who helped the great deceiver spin his web of lies can always be counted on to attack anyone who challenges their propaganda.
Given your relentless spin, that’s almost amusing.
Sullihan, Hillary is also a front runner because of her fundraising prowess. I heard one commentator state her not taking public funds clears the way for her to potentially if she is the nominee raise upwards of HALF A BILLION for the campaign. Good lord, Bush 43 set new highs for fundraising but half a billion? How much would that work out per vote?
Geena Davis played Mackenzie Allen.
I confess, I was one of the half-dozen people who actually watched every episode of C-in-C. I was in early-stage West Wing withdrawal, and it was the closest thing to a substitute available at the time.