Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad champions Iran’s nuclear program,
but British Prime Minister Tony Blair rules out a military strike.
** GIULIANI AND MCCAIN OUT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEBATE, IN CALIFORNIA DEBATE. Republican presidential frontrunners Rudy Giuliani and John McCain won’t participate in the New Hampshire debate to be cablecast by CNN on April 4th.
They will participate in the May 3rd debate at the Reagan Library to be cablecast by MSNBC.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CLOSE SECOND IN “GLOBIE” AWARDS, NUNEZ AND PAVLEY HONORABLE MENTION. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger finished less than 30 votes out of more than 20,000 cast by Environmental Defense members behind the mayor of Seattle for his work on climate change. Mayor Greg Nickels got the nod for his work organizing American cities to pledge to cut greenhouse gases. Nickels has organized nearly 400 mayors representing 57 million Americans to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their communities by 7% under the 1990 level by 2012. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and former LA Assemblywoman Fran Pavley received honorable mention awards for authoring last year’s landmark California global warming law, which Schwarzenegger, of course, signed. “I do also want to congratulate Governor Schwarzenegger for his close second-place finish in the Globies,” Nunez said. “And while it may not be the first time he’s gone empty handed on awards night, I want to say on behalf of the legislature that Governor, we really, really like you.”
** HUNDREDS OF CONTRACTORS DEAD IN IRAQ, AS WELL. According to the AP, some 800 contractors to US forces in Iraq have also died. Contractors fulfill a variety of functions there, from paramilitary and security work to support functions.
** ARNOLD SELLS CALI. California will debut its $10 million tourism TV ad campaign during Sunday’s Oscarcast in Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake, and Portland. The advertising includes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, First Lady Maria Shriver, Clint Eastwood, Teri Hatcher, skateboarder Tony Hawk and chef Wolfgang Puck.
** DEMOCRATS TO TRY TO REVOKE BUSH’S AUTHORIZATION. Echoing comments made Wednesday in Carson City by Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to revoke the broad authority given President George W. Bush prior to the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The president did go on that aircraft carrier and say: “Mission accomplished!”
** VILSACK DROPS OUT. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is dropping out of the Democratic presidential race. Vilsack was running fourth in his home state of Iowa, site of the first-in-the-nation Iowa presidential caucus. He was one of the candidates I essentially ignored Wednesday at the presidential forum in Carson City, Nevada, given the format of one candidate appearing in the forum and another doing a press availability, simultaneously.
** BLAIR SAYS NO TO MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN. British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he’s against a military strike against Iran. Blair prefers diplomacy, as well as political and economic sanctions.
** Monitor computer memory prices on a daily basis. Chip prices are stable.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are up to $60 per barrel. US refinery capacity was running at only 85% last week.
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| Comments (51) |
I’ll miss Vilsack, he had cemented himself in my personal number three spot.
So Hillary moves up!
Now if she can get the Double-Crazy-Dream-Ticket of Gravel and Kucinich to bow out, she’d go even higher!
BTW – Reports are claiming (as of yesterday…) that 16,000 tickets have been requested for the Obama event deep in the heart of Texas today. Who wants to start a pool on how many actually show?
Who knew Vilsack was even running? If he had no strenth in his own state it was a waste of time all along.
He’s an impressive figure, but there simply isn’t much room for dark horses in this campaign.
I had barely heard about Vilsack.
As someone who is closely watching the videos all the candidates are putting online, I will say one thing about Vilsack.
Tom Vilsack understood what to do with his vLog better than the rest. It was a place to truly get to know him. It really was the personal conversation Hillary is pretending to have.
Also, this takes away cover from a lot of folks in Iowa (paging Tom Harken) who were using Vilsack to stay out of the Hillary/Obama/Edwards struggle.
Where will Harken go? He was with Dean in ’04, if I recall…right?
And what of Vilsack’s staff? True Iowans, who will be able to do great things in the state…
Yesterday I saw an Iowa poll with him running third at 14%. This year polls, not caucuses or primary voting, will winnow the field. As for home state strength, how is Edwards doing in North Carolina?
I have to admit that the only thing I paid attention to with regard to Vilsack was his position in Iowa polls.
I don’t know how Edwards is doing in North Carolina. Probably not as well as in South Carolina.
The timing of the contest is what’s key.
I admire Blair. I think history down the line will be very kind to him…I urged all my friends to see “The Queen” as in some ways it is as much about the first days of the Blair admin as it is about the Queen and the Monarchy. This stance is no surprise to me as I track his speeches which often contain some very profound thoughts…his favorite think tank in Britain is The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), and as far back as last spring 2006, he was calling for diplomatic moves toward Iran and Syria and yesterday there was an article in the FT that asserted Blair is “hinting” that within the Quartet approach to ending Israel-Palestinian conflict it is time to open the door to dialogue with Hamas (post Mecca agreement)…he has been very loyal to the President and it is time for the President to try to understand where PM Blair is coming from in his thinking on the ME.
Did Bill’s inattention to Vilsack in Carson City run him out of the race? Could that have been the last straw?
There is a news report that just hit my inbox that:
“Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut fired a shot across the bow of the
Senate’s Democratic majority, warning them he may bolt the party and
join the GOP if Congress votes to withhold funding for the war in Iraq.”
I am so tired of Lieverman…he had the nerve on a talk show of inferring people supporting the Biden Hagel resolution were unpatriotic while Hagel was sitting across him….Hagel put him in his place!
Like someone said in yesterday’s net chatter, Congress is in a Quagmire.
I am not sure they are in a “quagmire”…they are not going to do anything that will hurt the troops like Lieberman would like everyone to believe!…Biden, Levin, Webb, and Hagel are showing that THEY have far more depth and understanding of what is going on now in the ME than Lieberman and his good friend John McCain…moreover, the press should stop calling Hagel the anti-war candidate…he is anti Iraq war not some dippy pacifist…he understands the world we live in…and that for natl security reasons (defense, environmental, energy security) we may need to take up arms…Lieberman is grandstanding and fearmongering…someone should call him on it bigtime.
Woops! that Anon was ME!
Agreed that the symbolic non-binding Congressional motions and resolutions probably aren’t directly harming troops on the ground.
But rather than just act quickly and decisively within their only constitutional power, to de-fund the effort, which will genuinely force the hand of the commanders, including the CIC, they instead seem to be spending their time on the talking heads shows airing their mock outrage that Bush lied, and despite this, he isn’t bringing the boys home from Vietnam, I mean Iraq, fast enough, like we want him to. What doe they expect, that Bush is gonna just turn on a dime and pull outta there?
Maybe they are worried that this all might not be off the table in time to beat the ’08 presidential and congressional elections, and/or that this “surge” might actually work. In either case, they look like weenies. If the shoe fits..
Yes, Wilbur, it was being ignored by NWN that drove Vilsack out of the race. Actually, I think he got very little attention there at the Nevada forum.
“Actually, I think he got very little attention there at the Nevada forum.”
Perhaps if he’d made some salient remarks regarding the media’s most pressing issue of the day, where to bury dead gold-diggers….
Mr. Anon I think we get the same Financial Intel report (excerpts below) they did not tell me here to find the gold-diggers but I don’t like this report one bit…need to do some research to see how serious to consider this info!….
“Gold has climbed about 12 percent since hitting a two-month low of $601.70 on January 5 and is now within $60 of the 26-year high of $730 reached on May 11 last year.”
“The underlying factors are … geopolitical tensions, expectations of a weaker dollar and a generally strong appetite for commodities,” said Frederic Panizzutti, senior vice-president at MKS Finance.
Panizzutti said gold might be on the way to establishing a new trading range between $670 and $700.”
“On the one hand, the Federal Reserve, needs to keep pumping more money into the economy and keep interest rates low, to keep the financial party going. On the other hand, low interest rates and enormous hidden inflation have been steadily eroding the purchasing power of the dollar, causing foreign investors to slowly but steadily abandon the dollar. Today, our economy is balanced on a knife’s edge: If the Fed keeps stealth inflation high and keeps interest rates artificially low, foreign investors who hold trillions of our debt, will accelerate their dumping of the dollar, threatening to destroy the dollar and plunging our economy into recession.
However, if the Fed stops printing money and increases interest rates, it will be disastrous for businesses, families, and every level of government, which have accumulated enormous debt.The financial situation today is so precarious that even a small change could push our economy over the edge. Even doing nothing could mean a major recession in 2007.”
Bill, were folks in the press corps at the Nevada event giving feedback to the organizers about the format? I have to think some of the 2nd tiers who participated were frustrated at the press having to choose what to cover–speakers or post-event availibilities.
Hap, could it just be there is no solution to the Iraq situation and the politicos are skittish on that basis? Is there any reason to think the surge will achieve anything but provoke even more violence from the insurgency?
Bush has created a disaster and then has the gall to criticize that no one else has an exit strategy that avoids dire consequences. And meanwhile Chaney continues with the snarky insinuations.
As Bill has noted, one of the factors that is heating up this Presidential campaign season early is the imploding Bush regime–people are very desireous of leadership for the period after the current occupant of the White House leaves. Bush has been written off and no one looks to him any more for answers (or even a clue about why things turned out so dire).
woops, that was my smart-a** Anon.
I’ve been watching Michael Ware on CNN lay out his judgment that all the options are pretty bad, all the outcomes are pretty bad, it just sucks, the two choices are bloodbath and Iranian client state (1) sooner or (2) later. Sadly, he makes a lot of sense. Given a choice, i’d opt for the one that produces the fewest dead American G.I.s rather than delaying the inevitable for p.r. and pride purposes.
I think Cheney’s jumped the snark.
Whose the dead golddigger, Anna Nicole Smith?
I thought that the administration had authority to supplant war funding with existing defense allocations. Since Bush is an arrogant SOB, he will prosecute this war whether there is funding or not. So wouldn’t a vote to cut war spending really end-up defunding the defense resources NOT being used on the war?
Bush will then go hat-in-hand to Congress after he’s blown-through his 12 month budget in 4 months and asks for more dough. If he doesn’t get it, he can claim democrats are hurting the troops, both in and out of theatre.
Has anyone looked for fight that can be won that doesn’t put the military in the middle?
For instance, why is the Senate still confirming judges (eight since Jan 30)? Put those hearings on hold until the administration works with Congress on Iraq. There are 54 vacancies out of the 875 authorized federal judgeships, with more coming. There are must be dozens of other ways in which Congress can be a thorn in Bush’s side.
Dana – Maybe Congress can declare victory
I believe that all of the American politicians, including nearly all members of Congress, misunderestimated the difficulty of liberating oppressed folks, and got caught thinking that they would be so elated and ready to take charge that they would be able to step in and start running the post office, the police force, the wheels of government, and the like.
The truth is, they had been so repressed for so many generations that they needed the dreaded nation building that not even the neocons wanted any part of.
Now, we have a problem. I don’t believe it is unsolvable, but it sure is not going to be solved by blowing it off and hoping we don’t have to be constantly reminded about it on the news.
I talked with organizers of the Nevada forum about the format and they maintained that the candidates themselves did not want to stick around while the others spoke in the forum, hence the seemingly disjointed nature of the affair.
Of course, if you’re from a big media operation with more than one person there, it’s not an issue.
Actually, I saw everyone I wanted to see. The only thing that was difficult was the Hillary situation I wrote about.
Interesting strategy, Bill Brasky.
well I stopped reading after the fourth scary economic report… but the mortgage market blow up due to sub-prime loans, and dependent on how certain cross cuts play out (e.g.,shaky Hedge Funds linked to credit derivative contracts blow up, China stock market going south, Iran’s refusal too accept US dollars after next month, the possibility of a Russian led Gas Opec …) It appears an attack on Iran by the US or Israel would no doubt plunge us and the rest of the world into economic uncertainty maybe even chaos…..So why is Bruce Kovner writing the AEI those big checks?…I hope Kovner is reading something besides his own financial statement.
Mr. Bradley, Arnold may be at the Oscars on Sunday and in Ca Tourism ADS but he will be ON C_SPAN MONDAY!!!!! LIVE!!!! 10 am (PT) I just got my daily alert!
MOnday· National Press Club Address by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) (1pm) – LIVE C-span 1
Yes, I know. It may be webcast, too.
I shall see him on the big screen!
So Arnold is not at the Natl Gov’s Winter meetings ?…the rest of C-span is all the Govs speaking but no Arnold is on that schedule…
He’s doing the National Governors Association. I think he and Bill Richardson will have some announcement.
Vilsack finally found a way to get some attention: “Who dropped out?!”
It is quite interesting that Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain will appear at the Reagan Library debate but not the New Hampshire debate. They don’t seem as eager to begin engaging one another as the Democrats are.
The McCain campaign has let Giuliani move up without a struggle, so far.
Re: Brasky on delaying judges to put pressure on the administration…
Honestly, I think the Bushies would be just as happy to let the federal courts go unstaffed. The conservative movement has been trying to hobble the judiciary for years; the “Justice Sunday” types even make barely-veiled threats of physical violence, on a fairly regular basis. Try googling “jail for judges” some time.
Mr. Bradley:”He’s doing the National Governors Association. I think he and Bill Richardson will have some announcement”
an annoucement?…that’s intriguing….
Bill Richardson is the “star” of c-span’s “Road To The Whitehouse” this Sunday 6:30 pm PT
Hysterical!
> AthlonGuy :
Vilsack finally found a way to get some attention: “Who dropped out?!”
“I think the Bushies would be just as happy to let the federal courts go unstaffed”
True when Reeps controlled the legislative and executive branches. But a Reep nightmare would be a Dem president and Dem senate picking justices in 2 years, plus fast-tracking a two-year backlog. Their uber-nightmare would be under President Hillary. I think some Reeps’ heads would just explode in that scenario…
If the Dems win the White House and keep the Senate, they shouldn’t nominate anyone over 50 for a judgeship. Liberal non-smokers with a cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL and a BMI under 25 will be given top priority…
Just what I want to do on a weekend. Watch C-SPAN.
Googling “jail for judges”? That’s more laughable than claiming that some commenter on DU represents the Democrats as a whole. Jail for Judges is the personal hobbyhorse of one married couple of nutjobs (last I remember, he ran a small print shop) with room temperature IQs who are sure the courts are conspiring against them because they lost every lawsuit they brought. Since I’m sure you’d like to point out that the husband formerly was on the L.A. County Republican Central Committee, I’ll preemptively bring up that he was in a district where fewer people filed each time than there were seats available – sort of like how the LaRouchies pick up a few seats each time on large Democrat Central Committees. [Of course, the LaRouchies also have an Assemblyman.]
Nick
Just watched a piece on KCRA (Sacramento) about the Assembly Reeps balking at voting for moving the primary to Feb. Seems that they have some questions about the money. They don’t have enough votes to slow this train down, but it should make for an interesting debate when it reaches the floor.
Native San Franciscan Bill:
Were you at the Palace Hotel today to hear Hillary’s speech?
Minnie
Nope. That was a fundraising luncheon and this is a long campaign.
SS I’ve read their problem in voting yes is there is no provision in the bill to reimburse the counties the cost of moving this election….I WANT the primary moved up so somebody needs to go knock some heads together…it took I think over 6 months for the counties to get reimbursed last time around….dang fine print always causes problems
J…
I just pulled the bill up. It was amended earlier this month and has the following provision:
SEC. 6. It is the intent of the Legislature to fully reimburse counties for costs resulting from the presidential primary elections added by this act in an expeditious manner upon certification of those costs.
I’m not sure they could/would give the counties money up front, so don’t know how else they can handle it. I don’t think any bill that makes an appropriation on next year’s budget can go to the Governor until next year’s budget is signed. So putting an appropriation in the bill might hold its signing until sometime around July 1st, leaving them between a rock and hard place.
Yes, those Assembly Republicans strike again. For the moment.
The “J.A.I.L 4 Judges” crew is considerably larger and better funded than NickM wants to admit. But then, since when has honesty constrained partisanship?
http://www.slate.com/id/2146762/
Jail for judges?
Read the article I linked to. Or this one:
http://www.slate.com/id/2138057/