Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, speaking in Las Vegas this past January
in this NWN video, announces the importance of Nevada in the
Democratic presidential race. Nevada Republicans, meeting in Carson City
over the weekend, matched the Democrats by moving their caucus to January 19th.
** DAVID HALBERSTAM DIES IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA TRAFFIC ACCIDENT. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist David Halberstam, one of my favorite writers, was killed earlier today in a car crash south of San Francisco.
Halberstam, who had spoken over the weekend at one of my alma maters, the University of California at Berkeley, on the always timely topic of turning journalism into history, something at which he was especially adept, was being driven by a Berkeley student. They had crossed the Dumbarton Bridge and were making a left turn across highway traffic heading towards Menlo Park, a somewhat hazardous turn I’ve made a hundred times, when their vehicle was broadsided by another. Halberstam, riding in the passenger’s seat, was dead on the scene, victim of massive internal injuries. The student was also injured.
Among his many fine books was one of the best books I’ve ever read, “The Best And The Brightest,” a classic tale of hubris, of how some of the greatest minds in America managed to steer the nation into the morass of the Vietnam War. I learned, to the extent that I have learned, how to write a brief yet telling profile from reading Halberstam.
** IRAQ WAR PULLOUT MEASURE HAS BIG LEAD IN CALIFORNIA POLL. Democratic pollster Jim Moore, one of the best in the business, has more numbers for California. In this case, regarding the advisory measure proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata for next February’s presidential primary ballot. Perata wants Californians to vote for a referendum calling for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. In Moore’s poll, the measure is ahead by a big margin, 62% to 31%, among all voters. Among California Democrats, the measure leads 86% to 11%.
** NEW CALIFORNIA PRESIDENTIAL POLL. Democratic pollster Jim Moore has a new poll for the California Democratic presidential primary. Hillary Clinton is in the lead with 31%. Barack Obama is second with 21%, closely followed by John Edwards at 19%. Bill Richardson is fourth with 3%.
** AMERICANS DON’T LIKE BUSH. While 78% describe their personal financial situations as good or better, only 33% approve of President George W. Bush’s handling of the economy.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST OF CRIME VICTIMS EVENT. In a possible harbinger of a deal on the prison system crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears at the conclusion of a brief “march” of crime victims groups sponsored by the state’s prison guards union at 11:45 AM on the ever picturesque West Steps of the State Capitol. That’s where Schwarzenegger was sworn into office in late 2003. Insiders say there will be no deal on fixing the prison system until the union gets at least a pretty good deal on its new contract. But not the deal they really wanted. After all, the prison guards union endorsed Schwarzenegger’s hapless Democratic opponent, Phil Angelides, its oldest and closest ally in Democratic politics, but backed away from its threat to spend milliions against Schwarzenegger last fall.
** MOST RIDICULOUS DRUDGE HEADLINE OF ALL TIME. It’s a crowded field, but here, from today, is a good candidate.
WIPE OUT GLOBAL WARMING: CROW PROPOSES LIMITS ON TOILET PAPER
I propose it for a number of reasons, but for now let’s settle with the fact that Drudge began with two claims to “fame.” His inveterate dumpster diving (he worked in a studio gift shop, and sifted through studio garbage for stories) and his belief that extreme weather events were important. He was right about the latter, although perhaps for reasons best explained by a psychiatrist.
** YELTSIN DEAD AT 76. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, for better or for worse the architect of post-Soviet Russia, has just died at the age of 76. Of what is described by Russian officials as heart failure. As science fiction master Robert Heinlein frequently noted, all forms of human death can be described as heart failure. Which is not to suggest that Yeltsin was murdered. Actually, given his extreme alcoholism and the generally tense circumstances of his life, it is something of a miracle that Yeltsin lasted this long. There is a lot to say about Yeltsin. Which NWN will get into in the not terribly distant future. I remember the time he visited the US and, after disappearing for a few hours, was found dead drunk underneath a Texas freeway overpass. But there are many other things to remember him for. Such as when he personally confronted, in a Moscow street, reactionary elements in the military seeking to reinstall the Communist state.
** NEVADA REPUBLICANS GO SECOND IN PRESIDENTIAL SWEEPSTAKES, TOO. As I’ve been reporting for weeks, Nevada, which is second in the nation for the Democratic presidential race, over the weekend became the second in the nation contest for the Republican presidential nomination. Meeting in Carson City over the weekend, the Nevada Republican state central committee, in a unanimous voice vote, decided to move its presidential caucus to January 19th, matching the Democrats.
** SECOND MCCAIN POLICY SPEECH, ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT. Senator John McCain gives his second major policy speech rebooting his campaign, this morning. He is expected to say that the greenhouse effect leading to climate change “is not a Hollywood construction.”
** WHICH CITY IS THE GLOBAL CAPITAL FOR BILLIONAIRES? MOSCOW. The BBC gives a glimpse behind the reality of Russia, in which 36 men own one-fourth of the nation’s economy. And how did Moscow, which at the beginning of the 1990s had no millionaires, somehow in the intervening 15 years grow 60 billionaires? Well, that is an interesting question, isn’t it?
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Most crude oil prices rose to the $63 to $64 per barrel range on concern that widespread charges of fraud in last weekend’s Nigerian presidential election will lead to more violence affecting the country’s oil output.
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| Comments (55) |
This “Real Wedding Crashers” turd NBC is trying out as a possible replacement for Studio 60 might actally be worse than that embarrassing Faux News “comedy” show. Which is saying a lot.
Networks are closing in the darkest depths of lowest common denominator.
They earlier tried a crime show called The Black Donnellys which did much worse than Studio 60 in that timeslot.
Yes, Sergei, I have noticed the global warming island and will have that this morning.
I haven’t seen any mention of this but does anyone know if Halberstam was wearing a seatbelt? I mean after the Corzine crash it would be instructive to know.
Awesome website…
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