U.S. Senator and former Navy Secretary Jim Webb’s response to the State
of the Union drew unusually high marks, even on Fox News.
** BUSH’S STATE. So, the State of the Union. I’m somewhat talked out on the topic. There is, of course, a long form on this. And there is a short form. Here is the short form. It won’t mean much.
President George W. Bush has descended to Nixon resignation levels of job approval. His Iraq policy, what has come to be the centerpiece of his presidency, has collapsed and overwhelming numbers of voters disapprove of his latest attempt to rejigger it. It is even more unpopular in California than it is in the nation as a whole, and that, believe me, is saying something.
I think people have largely tuned Bush out. And with the race to succeed him as president accelerating early, and Democrats in the majority in both the Senate and the House, there is plenty to occupy the space in the popular consciousness that the president ordinarily occupies.
It was good to see that he’s at last discovered the perils of relying on oil, an energy source dominated by interests largely inimical to the United States, and that he’s calling for big cuts in gasoline consumption. He aims to accomplish this through increasing the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles and developing new alternative fuels, largely renewable in nature, here in America.
These moves will also help deal with another threat he mentioned in his State of the Union address, “global climate change.” As Bush uttered these remarks, it was at least mildly amusing to note the persimmon look on the face of the man who has presided over much, if not most, of the energy and national security policy in the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney.
Most of Bush’s State of the Union agenda, however, will be stillborn. And while it is good to see Bush at last acceding to the obvious — make America more secure by making it less dependent on a volatile, highly complex region of the world — it is sad to see the state to which he has descended. He’s an intelligent, able man. There’s no reason to think he doesn’t want to do good. And yet here he is, his presidency a ruin, ably skewered by Jim Webb‘s self-penned speech which took up a fraction of the time.
As for Webb, he is getting high marks, even on Fox News, where Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke praised his remarks, while not unreasonably wondering about his scenario for an Iraq withdrawal. As anticipated here for months, a vice presidential prospect is born. The Democrats running the Congress now, Nevada’s Harry Reid and California’s Nancy Pelosi, knew what they were doing when they picked him.
** THOSE FAR RIGHT-WING CHARGES AGAINST OBAMA. No, I haven’t ignored those silly right-wing charges against Senator Barack Obama. You know, the ones from the Moonie-owned Insight Magazine, uncritically parroted by our friends at Fox News, and repeated around the somewhat witless right-wing blogosphere that Barack Hussein Obama was secretly raised a Muslim by his father (who he actually barely knew), educated in an anti-Western madrassa in Indonesia, and, by implication, though this seems a level of wit somewhat beyond the accusers, is the 21st century equivalent of the Manchurian Candidate.
Well, here is the deal. It’s all nonsense. CNN sent someone to his school and found it was nothing like what was so garishly layed out by Insight, the badly named outlet, and Fox News, which, though conservative, has the wit to know better. There is going to be a lot of this crap. I won’t deal with all of the errant nonsense that will be emanating from the multitude of “media sources” now online. Who has the time for endless nonsense? Here is a rule of thumb, though. If it seems especially garish, it’s almost certainly nonsense until shown to be otherwise.
** DAVOS DOWN. California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom are participating in this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Nunez, who authored California’s landmark climate change bill last year with LA Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, is addressing the forum on climate change and renewable energy issues. Newsom is there to talk about environmental and urban challenges. Davos is perhaps the most famous international forum going these days. NWN, regretably, will be unable to offer video footage of Nunez or Newsom in Switzerland because I decided against loaning my video camera to Nunez advisor Steve Maviglio. I had a friend lose her cell phone, which I ended up replacing, returning from a trip to Europe. That’s not going to happen again.
One New West friend described Davos as “the Playboy Mansion of economic summits.” By which he means you can meet the most amazing people there in fairly casual settings. But apparently not in a grotto.
Other notable Californians are not attending this year, however. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was invited to give a keynote address, but his physician has put the kibosh on too much air travel, due to his need to recover from his pre-Christmas skiing mishap and subsequent leg surgery. And Warren Beatty, a Davos regular, is busy this year with undisclosed whatnot.
** DIFI FOR EARLY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY. California’s senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein, has endorsed the early California Presidential primary on February 5th. Meanwhile, New Hampshire officials continue to whine about Nevada going second after Iowa, and threaten to jump their primary ahead of the January 19th Nevada Presidential caucuses. Nothwithstanding the fact that their own state law doesn’t really allow it, since Nevada is a caucus state, not a primary state.
** FROM THE GIULIANI FILE. Here is that infamous purloined Rudy Giuliani for President campaign strategy document.
** SCHWARZENEGGER WEBCASTS AT 1:30 PM AND 2:15 PM. Top officials of the Schwarzenegger Administration will hold a press conference, webcast live at 1:30 PM today, on President Bush’s energy proposals. Participants include Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Dan Skopec, undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, David Crane, senior advisor to the Governor, and Dr. Robert Sawyer, chairman of the California Air Resources Board.
** CONAN THE GREEN. AGAIN. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has won another of those environmental leader awards. This one, for his role in fighting the greenhouse effect and climate change, is from the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, an annual environmental conference in New Delhi, India. Dr. Alan Lloyd, Schwarzenegger’s former secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency and before that the longtime head of the California Air Resources Board, received the award on the governor’s behalf. The governor isn’t jetsetting around as much right now with his leg injury.
I remember back in 2002 telling people that I thought the action movie superstar was something of an environmentalist. They thought I was kidding.
** KERRY ON. Well, actually, no. I was on the air and several alerts came in on my e-mail that 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry will not run again for president next year, but instead will seek another term in the Senate from Massachusetts. He probably would not have won anyway, but his goose was undoubtedly cooked — as we’ve discussed here on NWN — last November when he made his infamous joke about poor students getting “stuck in Iraq.” Naturally, it happened in the hyperpartisan environs of a Phil Angelides for Governor rally in LA …
** Monitor computer memory prices on a daily basis. Prices are stable.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are around $54 per barrel. Traders are reportedly uncertain if OPEC will try to cut production again to prop up the price. It may be, however, that Saudi Arabia wants a lower price, to put further pressure on Iran, whose production costs are higher and whose economy is in increasing disarray.
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The Russianized English is a little hard to deal with at first, but it is a very good novel.
I don’t remember Mike being revived, actually, just not dead.
“have over the idea of legalizing multi-partner marriages”
That’s probably another reason my guy like this book! …I had forgotten most of the story until all this tweaking of my memory in these posts … what a title! It’s one of the reasons I am always looking up at the moon…
Now after this discussion I have to go back and re-read the book…and then contemplate.. even if it is only fantasy…my guy’s revival…of some sort…
Mr. Bradley: Mike being revived, actually, just not dead.
this is getting to wierd for me to continue …but if I believed everything I read …or what I have been told …that could be a parallel too …to my story …not Heinliens
I don’t get it.
I never much liked Heinlein.
Insight is saying it got the “Obama went to a madrassa”story from people close to Hillary.
Was this a Wes Clark redux (it was his campaign that fed Matt Drudge the fake Kerry intern story)?
I don’t buy that. The Clinton people are not that slipshod and in any event, that is not a primary attack.
How hard was it to figure out that CNN — a network close to the Clintons — would likely send a crew to check out the school?
Not very.