Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, seen here signing California’s landmark
climate change bill, makes post-partisan moves on the national stage today.
** COURT OF APPEAL SIDES WITH STEM CELL RESEARCH ADVOCATES. The California 1st District Court of Appeal this afternoon decided against the opponents of California’s landmark stem cell research initiative, Proposition 71, passed by California’s voters in November 2004. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said this in a statement from Washington: “Today’s ruling is a victory – I always believed the courts would uphold the will of California voters. Stem cell research holds our best promise to find a cure for debilitating illnesses, like Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. I’m also proud of California’s leadership – we have already awarded the first round grants to researchers to begin work on this potentially life-saving science.”
** SCHWARZENEGGER HIT FROM FAR RIGHT AND FAR LEFT. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was hit from the far right and far left today as he took his post-partisan centrism message to Washington. Way off to starboard, the Orange County Register blogs weighed in, denying the greenhouse effect and generally operating in what might be called full fulmination mode.“Everyone Should Just Ignore Arnold,” proclaimed columnist Steve Greenhut. Like that’s going to happen, right? The guy is one of the most famous and powerful men in the world. A small blog column is not going to change that.
Greenhut quoted right-wing fave Tom McClintock, a four-time loser in bids for statewide office, saying he’s never going to believe Schwarzenegger again. The governor’s erstwhile running mate believed Schwarzenegger when the then new governor, countermanding the advice of his Pete Wilson advisors of the time, who view McClintock as an unremitting pain in the ass, intervened to help the state senator stave off defeat in his re-election bid by raising badly needed money McClintock could never raise on his own.
Meanwhile, way off to portside, the governor’s favorite stalkers, the California Nurses Association, are running radio ads around the state attacking him for not backing singel-payer, government-run health care. They nailed him but good in the special election of 2005, after his infamous remark about “kicking the butts” of the special interests. Since then, however, with his return to the center, their efforts have been rather one-note. They pushed a single-payer health care bill, with few actual specifics involved, which Schwarzenegger promptly vetoed after they barely drew a few hundred people to a Capitol rally captured in its full glory in an NWN video. They turned a political reform initiative into an unending series of attacks on Schwarzenegger, contrary to earlier promises to go after both big political parties’ excesses. The initiative failed with barely 20% of the vote.
** MICHAEL BOSKIN AS GIULIANI’S TOP ECONOMIC ADVISOR. Tapping another big-name conservative from California, Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign today announced that Michael Boskin is now on board as senior policy advisor and as “Mayor Giuliani’s lead advisor on all economic matters.”
Boskin, now a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford, was chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors during the first Bush Administration. A product of the University of California at Berkeley, Boskin now serves on the boards of directors of software giant Oracle Corp. and the world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil.
Exxon Mobil is a somewhat controversial company, as you may have heard.
** REDISTRICTING REFORM UPDATE. California Common Cause’s Ned Wigglesworth says the group is not submitting a redistricting reform initiative today to the Attorney General’s office, but that attorney Barry Fadem probably is. Common Cause was part of the discussions around the initiative.
** MORE BRITS TO AFGHANISTAN. The British government has announced it is sending another 1400 troops to Afghanistan, on top of 800 more announced a few weeks ago. The additional announcment is nearly the number announced last week as the first part of a British withdrawal from Iraq. Soon, for the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there will be more British troops, 7700, in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Britain makes the move with most of the NATO allies not stepping up and a major Taliban offensive expected in the spring.
** CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING INITIATIVE TO BE SUBMITTED TO ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE. Frustrated by the Legislature’s slow pace in moving on redistricting reform — a project that ended in a comedy of errors last year between the two legislative houses, leading many observers to conclude that majority Democrats really didn’t want to do anything — Common Cause and other reform groups are submitting an initiative to Attorney General Jerry Brown for legal vetting prior to beginning signature gathering. If the Legislature doesn’t act, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is likely to support the measure.
** NEVADA REPUBLICANS STEP AWAY FROM PRESIDENTIAL CAUCUS. Althought they would like to get in on the fun now being enjoyed by their Silver State Democratic counterparts, Nevada Republicans probably won’t move their presidential caucus up to mid-January of next year. They might do a straw poll, however. Why not move the caucus? Well, unlike the Democrats, whose national party specifically selected an early Western state to break up the old Iowa/New Hampshire two-step, national Republicans have not done so, and would probably penalize Nevada Republicans. The earliest a Nevada Republican caucus could go under current rules is February 5th. It might be moved to early February.
** NUCLEAR FUTURE? Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace who has become quite controversial with some of his old environmentalist colleagues, writes today in the San Jose Mercury News about the wonders of a new generation of nuclear energy technology and its increased relevance in the greenhouse era. Moore was in Fresno late last week working with proponents of a new nuclear power plant outside the city.
** SIMON SAYS RUDY. Bill Simon, the investment banker who was the 2002 Republican nominee for governor of California, has been named director of policy for Rudy Giuliani’s nascent presidential campaign. Simon introduced Giuliani before his very well received speech to the California Republican Party convention earlier this month. Giuliani campaigned in California in 2002 for Simon, helping win a Republican primary over former LA Mayor Richard Riordan, who has also endorsed Giuliani. That primary was marked by the massive intervention of Democratic Governor Gray Davis against Riordan, who worried Davis as a moderate Republican.
Simon was an assistant US attorney during Giuliani’s famed stint as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, during which he prosecuted the Mafia and Michael Milken, not that the two were connected, mind you. Simon and Giuliani were having breakfast together in New York when the first plane struck the World Trade Center on 9/11. Simon is a likable conservative, a noted family man, son of a famed conservative stalwart, former Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, who played a major role in establishing the financing for some of today’s biggest conservative think tanks.
** GIULIANI REACHES OUT TO RIGHT. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will address the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday in Washington. Giuliani’s views are well to the left of that annual assemblage on social issues and some environmental matters. But he has to find some way to deal with his party’s right wing. And he may be their best shot at retaining the White House.
Giuliani, incidentally, with Florida possibly moving up as an early primary next year, recently brought former Governor Jeb Bush’s campaign manager onto his political team. Karen Unger was also Bush’s deputy chief of staff and appointments chief.
** SCHWARZENEGGER ADDRESSES NATIONAL PRESS CLUB. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will lay out his view of post-partisan centrism today in Washington in an address at the National Press Club. The themes will be very familiar to NWN readers. The speech will be carried live by C-SPAN at 10 AM Pacific time. Schwarzenegger again called for a “timeline” for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq yesterday on the CBS program Face The Nation.
** SCHWARZENEGGER AND WESTERN GOVERNORS ANNOUNCE CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT. The governors of five Western states — California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico — just announced a regional program to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The governors will formally sign a memorandum of understanding at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, D.C. The MOU commits the five states to develop over the next 6 months a regional target for greenhouse gas reduction and, over the next 18 months, to devise a market-based program to reach the target. The pact also commits the states to a multi-state registry to track greenhouse gas emissions in the West and to promote greentech.
“Western States are being particularly hard-hit by the effects of climate change,” noted Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano in a statement.
“This MOU sets the stage for a regional cap and trade program, which will provide a powerful framework for developing a national cap and trade program,” said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “This agreement shows the power of states to lead our nation addressing climate change.”
“With this agreement, states are once again taking the lead on combating global climate change – while Washington, D.C. sits on its hands,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. “This historic agreement signals our commitment to tackling the problem head-on at the regional level and building on efforts in our individual states.”
** Monitor computer memory prices on a daily basis. Some chip prices are down.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are around $60 to $61 per barrel on expectation of a report that US fuel supply is down. Refineries have lately been operating in diminished capacity.
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I’ll check out the Terminator speech.
It looks like cap and trade is the way Europe and most Americans are going on global warming.
Overlaid on top of some firm regulation.
Giuliani’s too liberal for Republicans. He will never make it.
It all depends on what’s most important to Republicans, I suppose. Giuliani can definitely win a California primary.
I just grinded some fabulous coffee beans from Old Soul (Kenya AA Fairview Estate) and I am settling down in a comfy chair to watch the Guv on C-span…my border collie and Standard Poodle are joining me1
I don’t see it.
Al Gore’s bit at the Oscar’s – having his ‘announcement’ cut off by the music cue – was quite funny; it seemed to leave open the possibility that he might be willing to be drafted for the 2008 race. Do you think he is serious about not running or could he emerge as a contender?
Can anyone answer my persistent question about whether pollution trading schemes have worked to reduce smog in the L.A. area? I’m skeptical and think that the market-based approach will lull people into thinking that big business / oil companies are doing the right thing, when in reality cap and trade is not enough to reverse the effects of climate change. The regional approach is a step in the right direction. But Schwarzenegger wants to revise the climate change bill to put market-based action and government regulation on equal footing. Polluting industries can’t be trusted to regulate themselves and are more concerned with the bottom line than the health of the planet. If a polluter can purchase a credit from a business that reduced emissions by some small amount (20 percent or so) and still pollute while paying a small fee, how much CO2 has really been reduced and how much does the cost really impact their bottom line? Is it more profitable to just keep polluting and buying someone else’s pollution credit? Again, has this worked in L.A. or elesewhere in a measurable way?
There is some great stuff here …”the left and the right do not have a monoply on conscience”
I love that Eunice is there for her daughter and so many of his big moments.
forgive my comment on a post i just read from a few days ago but you mentioned “… a vain billionaire angry because he failed to gain a presidential pardon for an activist who killed FBI agents..”
I believe you refer to Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader imprisoned for 31 years now for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation. You failed to mention that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found that it could not be proven that Peltier fired the fatal shots, and that his conviction was changed to ‘aiding and abetting’ the murders, even though his co-defendents had been acquitted based on self-defense! The federal judge, G. Heaney, said in 1986 that the FBI was equally responsible for the agents’ deaths. He also found massive prosecutorial misconduct in the original trial. He called for executive clemency. Activists (I am one of them) lobbied the Clinton’s during the 1992 election for a presidential pardon for Peltier; but Clinton claimed he never heard of Peltier in 2000 when pressure mounted for a pardon. Under threats from the FBI, Clinton caved in and let Peltier rot in prison for another 8 years. (Clinton pardoned the aptly named Marc Rich instead…) Geffen and dozens of artists from Joni Mitchell to Willie Nelson have spoken out over the years. Good for them! Free Leonard Peltier!
http://www.freepeltier.org
Well what can I say …he was PERFECT on immigration…advocating as he has in the past for comprehensive reform…and I think he is correct to be optimistic …most important thing he said was that he told Homeland Security …don’t write something you cannot administer…this was the major problem with the old CIRA after the Hagel/Martinez amendment was attached to what came out of Senate Judiciary Committee.
Whatever the Guv wants to run for ..I will vote him…I think he finally has his hair together too! Toodles
Too cute…I love c-span! what’s his next meeting that he must rush off to???? Shoot! I miss Lucas…you could always count on Lucas to pop in with the nitty gritty!
The dead FBI agents were “equally responsible” for getting themselves killed?
Not that anyone actually killed them, though, right?
Okey-dokey.
Schwarzenegger is signing the Western climate change agreement with the other governors right now.
BTW, on C-span 2 at the same time GUV was speaking there was a live briefing by Dr. Hansen of NASA on climate change…the parts I caught were rather alarming…the last questioner asked Dr. Hansen if his testimony to congress which is pending will be submitted to the White House for clearance…Dr. Hansen just said that he will try to appear as a private citizen so that he can say what he whats to say!
you misread my comments…
Judge Heaney said the FBI was equally responsible, not specifically the dead agents. But they drove onto the reservation at a time when there were many drive-by shootings done by anti-AIM GOONs (armed in part by the FBI) and no one knows who started the firefight in which the agents and AIM member Joe Stuntz were killed. The AIM members fired in self-defense, two were acquitted. Someone killed agents Coler and Williams but it was never proven who. Peltier’s rifle was found to not be the murder weapon, but ballistics tests were excluded from the original trial. Prosecutorial misconduct, a climate of terror on Pine Ridge, FBI harrassment of activists through COINTELPRO, were hallmarks of the era. Peltier should have been freed years ago; Bill Clinton was and is a coward for not granting a pardon.
Good speech by Schwarzeneger.
No, Paul, I did not misread what you wrote. I was amused by it.
Bloomberg News just issued a very important release. This article is very much worth reading and FYI, “Caxton Associates” is Bruce Kovner, AEI’s biggest funder and a board member. World Governments must cooperate, and must act with regulation and oversight …I doubt that we can just innovate our way out of the Global warming crisis…
“the smartest money in global warming stocks may be scurrying to the exit just when the enthusiasm for alternative-energy companies is at an all-time high.”
“D.E. Shaw & Co., Tudor Investment Corp., Citadel Investment Group LLC, Caxton Associates LLC, SAC Capital Advisors LLC and Pequot Capital Management Inc. reduced their stakes in solar- power and ethanol producers in the fourth quarter, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The hedge funds manage about $86 billion.”
“As an investment play,” global warming is “a bubble” and “social short-term craze,” said Ken Fisher, who oversees $35 billion as chairman of Fisher Investments Inc. in Woodside, California. ” excerpts/Bloomberg news
Woops that was me! sorry I did not provide link …that never works for me …but this is important news
Lot’s of people provide links. Few have time to look these things ups.
Mr. B,
that’s fine that you are amused that a judge who knows more about Peltier’s case than you called for his release and told the truth about the FBI. Allowing Peltier and other victims of COINTELPRO to remain jailed because they are called a threat to ‘national security’ by those who railroaded them serves no purpose other than setting a precedent for more prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful imprisonment of dissenters. I would love to debate you or anyone else about the Peltier case but won’t take up more of your blog space today.
have a nice day
well it will be on cable later …in print tomorrow…They can catch up then …Toodles!
What I’m amused by, Paul, is your selective presentation of “facts.”
For example, your continued distortion of the content of last year’s global warming bill.
Then today we have dead FBI agents who were killed by no one. But certainly not by Peltier. Because the ballistics test on one weapon didn’t show it.
What will be on cable later today?
Schwarzenegger gives a good speech. I thought he looked a little stiff reading it.
Thanks for the link to the great piece by enviro leader Patrick Moore supporting nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. I guess the argument sounds better when it comes from someone besides your moderate Republican Kandy Kid.
Curiously, real names have more credibility than Internet handles.
Okay I hope this works! it usually does not! This article should be should be read …there are some intriguing power/political implications to all this..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aqBr9N4m4Rko&refer=home
It worked!!!! Okay Now READ IT everyone!
What Kravis is doing is also fascinating…really fascinating…I am beginning to think that energy is going to dominate 08 even mor ethan the war
FT just reported French nationalists were killed in Saudi Arabia by extremists…new snafu in ME…
Yes Bill, in a political sense arguments are more compelling when they are presented by a named source, but as Ronald Reagan said, “Facts are stubborn things” and they stand on their own. So as others hold up the French health care system as a model for California, I would like to offer the French nuclear-based energy system (78% nuclear) as a global warming model for California too.
http://www.uic.com.au/nip28.htm
Well, I think we should be looking at, researching, having an honest pro/con debate about nuclear-based energy system…
Further, Finance and Econ are by no means my area of expertise, although I hope at some point in the next 3 years to shore that up in a Grad school program in Europe, but I think this Bloomberg report infers a lot of crosscuts are at work here …one, being that hedge funds may be more adverse to risk than previously…which may in part explain their behavior on new climate change tech investments ..The Hedge Funds have gotten caught up in this sub-prime loan mess thru mortgage backed securities…which is not good because Hedge Funds help make the Global Econ go round and round… there is another important report due on Thurs on construction spending..it is unclear if the report will say that the housing market has hit bottom….I am wondering if these Hedge Funds think that it has not…I am thinking that some of the most important political news this week may be financial/econ news…starting with this Bloomberg report…
This new Kravis deal is as I said fascinating both politically and positive from an enviromental stance…I want to come back as Kravis in my next life …now he as fun! I love this 3rd wife, she is a brilliant economist…he went this time with both beauty and brains! Good show Henery!I hope my link works this time too!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/148c0416-c5c5-11db-9fae-000b5df10621.html
Angelina Jolie a member ofthe Council of Foreign Affairs!…Richard Haas in an interview just made it clear he has no objection!…this is the best news in a long time for poor children in this world and the many refugees! They would finally have an advocate that is ALL heart and soul, brains and beauty and no doubt she will make a difference she is our new Princess DI! Like Di did with AIDS she will make the world see and act on the lives of poor children and our responsibility toward them…I just love her and what she is doing for kids. This is great news on a rainy day!
Well, KK, California would hardly need such a radical shift in its energy posture as that.
Angelina Jolie on the Council on Foreign Relations? Would she still be wearing that vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood as a pendant?
A nuclear power plant in Fresno? Is that for real?
should read Council on Foreign Relations …I hope she get on …I can’t wait for her film on Marianne Pearl (wife of Daniel Pearl)now if only the President would name Richard Haass as ME envoy…BTW, this group is a great resource for info…
http://www.cfr.org/
Giuliani’s chief economic adviser is on the board of Exxon Mobil?
Are you kidding me? lol
Angelina Jolie on the Council on Foreign Relations? Would she still be wearing that vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood as a pendant?
she dropped the blood when she dropped him …sometime ago
she is a serious, intelligent person a spiritual person …I have seen her testify on refugees …she does her homework …she is to be commended and supported, both as a person and in her work.
She’s a great star. I think stars are great fun. She’s using her celebrity for a good cause.
That said, she’s done some flaky things.
Incidentally, we have a lot of interesting topics on NWN today.
That was pre-MOM days…true they are interesting I am sure political consultants will be her esoon…I am going to study up on global econ and Europe/ME …Have a good day Mr. Bradley!
Bill Simon was a pretty bad candidate for governor.
The English, at least, can still be counted on.
If the NV parties end up with two different primary dates, the NV gov’t should bill the parties for the extra elections.
Re: that article on nuclear — I’m tentatively in the pro-green-nuke camp, but I’m dubious of his expense figures. My understanding is that nukes aren’t much cheaper than other forms of energy, unless you figure in explicit and implicit subsidies and externalities (like, the gov’t dealing with waste disposal). On real costs, nukes are, I think, comparable to other existing technology, and they have the drawback of requiring very large capital increments, and thus don’t pay for themselves very well. (That is: if you have a windfarm, you can put up a few windmills, and in fairly short order the profits from them will pay for a few more. With a nuclear plant, you have to invest a huge amount of money, spend five years building, and then it’s another 5-10 years before you’ve generated enough profit to finance another. The graph behind the link makes the point quite eloquently.) This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t invest in nukes at all — in fact, the same expert I linked to is pro-nuke, and his chart that I’ve linked to in the past, taking TX power usage data and showing how they could produce all their power needs without emitting CO2, assumes that baseline production is nuclear. But, we should be honest.
Re: KKR, Texas Pacific, and TXU — Bruce Sterling reported on that early this morning, on the Viridian Design mailing list. Definitely a big deal — “corporate green” is staging the largest buyout in history. Maybe “the great and the good,” the Davos set, are finally really coming to their senses, and deciding to cease accumulating wealth by dismantling our planetary life-support system. After all, there are so many ways to accumulate wealth that don’t involve precluding the existence of a next generation to bequeath it to…
BTW, didn’t Reagan actually misspeak, and say that facts are “stupid” things? I seem to recall that.
Gah! That link worked in the preview. Something in the PJM software is introducing spaces inside links…
Here’s a TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/2w7p9t
I like Bruce Sterling. He’s a very farsighted writer. How do you get on that list?