** GIULIANI IN “SILICON VALLEY.” Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had a fundraiser this afternoon in Burlingame, billed by supporters as a Silicon Valley event. (Actually, in point of fact, Burlingame is not in the Valley, it’s on the San Francisco Peninsula, north of the Valley.) He’ll also do some fundraising in Beverly Hills, following on the heels of birthday fundraising in New York (he turned 63 on Memorial Day), where he was dogged by 9/11 victim families and firefighters union officials, who, striking at the heart of his candidacy, assail him for his leadership on and immediately after 9/11. But that is another matter.
Giuliani attacked the former first lady, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, was a great favorite of California’s high tech elite, for supporting increases in capital gains taxes and rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthiest.
Giuliani is just the first of three major presidential candidates to appear in Silicon Valley, or thereabouts, in just over 24 hours.
Democrat John Edwards is doing a town hall meeting at Google right now. Hillary Clinton herself will address the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which provided a backdrop for one of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s events in favor of his comprehensive health care plan, last week. And Barack Obama will be arriving this weekend.
** VILLARAIGOSA IS A NATIONAL CHAIR OF HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN. As revealed yesterday on NWN, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this afternoon endorsed Hillary Clinton at an event on the UCLA campus. Villaraigosa will serve as one of the national chairs of her presidential campaign.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. A 19th day of searching by thousands of US troops south of Baghdad for the two remaining surviving American soldiers captured in an ambush by Al Qaeda has ended. The prisoners have still not been located.
** ARNOLD IN CANADA. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tour continues. He visited a stem cell research lab in Toronto and announced that UC Berkeley’s Stem Cell Center and Canada’s International Regulome Consortium will coordinate research. He and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty then announced the creation of the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, which will coordinate and fund cancer stem cell research of both Canada and California researchers, universities and private industry. The Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR) will donate the first $30 million, that’s Canadian dollars, to fund the new consortium.
Then Schwarzenegger addressed the luncheon of the Toronto Economic Club, where he received the Newsmaker of the Year award. This afternoon, he meets with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Hunter in the national capital of Ottawa.
** REPUBLICAN SCUFFLING ON IMMIGRATION CONTINUES. The McCain campaign wonders if Mitt Romney, now a staunch foe of illegal immigration after previous ambiguous statements, will respond to President Bush’s characterization of criticism of the immigration bill as “empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.” Probably not.
** INFORMAL BUSH-PUTIN SUMMIT SET FOR MAINE. With relations between America and Russia deeply strained as Russia reasserts its role as a great power and cracks down on dissent at home, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on July 1st and 2nd at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
** CALIFORNIA AND ONTARIO ACCORD ON CLIMATE CHANGE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, continuing his jaunt through Canada, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for the American state and the Canadian province to develop ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. As Ontario is Canada’s chief car-producing province, it may not be as amenable to California’s overall cap on greenhouse gas emissions. But the premier of the Canadian province has committed it to follow California’s new low carbon fuel standard, in which the carbon content of transportation fuels sold in the state is to be reduced 10% by 2020.
“We are going to work with Ontario to develop a similar low carbon fuel policy in their region,” says Schwarzenegger, “which is even more powerful because Ontario is known as the ‘Detroit of Canada,’ the hub of all the automobile manufacturing. So what we are doing here today would be like establishing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard in Michigan. Just imagine the progress we will make in our fight against global warming.”
** WHO KIDNAPPED THE BRITS IN BAGHDAD? A top aide to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr says their militia did not kidnap five Brits from the finance ministry, as many suspect. It would seem an odd move, since Sadr is back from Iran and his movement, which has begun cooperating with US forces, seems poised to play a significant role in a new Iraqi government that may be at least partially worked out in negotiations between the US and Iran. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t do it, for reasons yet unfathomable.
** A NEW/OLD TACK. With the lawsuit to overturn California Attorney General Jerry Brown’s ballot description having predictably failed, and with new polling indicating positive prospects for the initiative to change term limits next February, the backers of the current term limit law in the Golden State, headed by Washington-based US Term Limits, are turning to a golden oldie tactic. Attack the politicians. They intend to attack the state Legislature as corrupt and do-nothing. It’s not a popular institution, though it’s not as unpopular as it was, so it’s not an unsound thing to do. But with the relatively minor distinctions between the current version and the proposed version — 14 years allowable in both houses today (only six in the Assembly, eight in the Senate) vs. 12 years allowable in both houses in the new version, but all 12 could be served in the same house — voters may shrug at the fuss. That’s especially true if Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is very popular, weighs in on behalf of the change.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. Thousands of American troops are now in the midst of an 18th day of searching for the remaining two US soldiers captured by Al Qaeda in an ambush south of Baghdad. They have had no luck so far. But the activity may be preventing Al Qaeda from having the time and space to film the captives in a propaganda bonanza.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Most crude oil prices have dropped to the $63 per barrel level.
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Apparently, Wikipedia says Ambrose passed on in 2002…jeez.
Yes, Band of Brothers author Stephen Ambrose passed on recently.
Sean Connery was General Urquhart in A Bridge Too Far, a Richard Attenborough film which also starred Robert Redford, Dirk Bogarde, and Gene Hackman as the leader of the heroic but ill-fated Polish paratroopers.
PS: And Lee Marvin and The Dirty Dozen. Once upon a time, actual war heroes like Lee Marvin actually played war heroes in war movies!
La Times political blog looks dead. It was snarky trivia and PC bullshit from the beginning. Good riddance.
The truth is that the LA Times blog did not represent an individual agenda, it represented an institutional agenda.
All the California political journalists I know with the Times have a similar point of view. They all believed that Phil Angelides had an excellent chance of winning last year, notwithstanding the reality of the situation, and similarly thought that Arnold Schwarzenegger was at least a closet right-winger.
We’ll see if that attiude survives the many things which suggest it should decidedly not.
The Angelides campaign was a very unhealthy project.
I am going to recommend a book…a very clever book…it is “OIL ON THE BRAIN” by Lisa Margonelli. I bought it for “airplane reading” but started reading it today and forced myself to stop …very very clever book ! Toodles!
I hope that US keep on fighting the terrorists.
It will.
“the Tampa Bay Devil Rays — the Phil Angelides of Major League Baseball….”
Ok, I almost spit coffee on myself with that one. Hi-lar-i-ous.
I don’t follow baseball enough to get that reference.
Sean Connery got himself promoted in “A Bridge too Far.” In the other film based on a cornelius Ryan book, “The Longest Day” hwas just a regular Tommy.
Jim Basset, Author of “Harm’s Way” was Bowdoin ’34 and very active in the local Bowdoin Club. We used to go to his house for barbeques (my father was a senior when Basset was a Frosh). After the book came out I asked himk how much of it was based on his experiences as a reporter in the SW Pacific during the Big One and he swore he made most of it up.
I always like the film a lot myself even though most critics have panned it.
There’s a great story about “They were Expendable” which involved Ford, Montgomery, and the Duke. Wayne did not serve in WWII which rankled Ford no end and he rode the Duke about the shooting. Whenever Wayne had to salute Ford would tell him he was doing it all wrong. “Watch Bob (Montgomery), he’ll show you how to do it!”
Montgomery had served and was a highly decorated PT Boat skipper in the Solomons campaign. I think he was in the same unit as JFK.
Anyone remember 36 Hours with James Garner?
No, what’s that?
Richard, I’d never claim In Harm’s Way as a great film, it’s awfully soapy in spots, but it has stood the test of time. Wayne looks awful in it, by the way. It’s hard to imagine one of today’s biggest stars allowing himself to be photographed like that.
Re They Were Expendable. It’s funny that Ford liked to tweak Wayne so much, since they worked together so often.
But that film was made in 1945, while the war was still on. It’s a fascinating time capsule. We knew we were going to win, but hadn’t won yet, and it celebrates the early sacrifice necessary for future victory.
Montgomery is great in it. In addition to his PT boat heroics in the Pacific, he commanded a destroyer at D-Day.
Bill — 36 Hours is about an American military officer (James Garner) who is involved in the planning of the D-Day invasion. He’s captured by the Germans, who convince him that it’s several years after the war and he’s just awoken from a long coma. They tell him the war is over and the Germans lost. All the Germans of course speak perfect “American” English (a la Battle of the Bulge). They then try to get the D-Day invasion plans. Haven’t seen it in years, but it was great.
Hey, where are all the Democrats — no one mentioned PT 109!
Let’s not forget the greatest WWII movie — The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
36 Hours sounds like a good one to check out. I can add it to the stack of dvds.
PT 109 was not a very good movie. Remember that Warren Beatty, who was JFK’s pick to play himself, turned it down, telling the White House it wasn’t a good script.
No, 109 wasn’t well done. I just can’t imagine that some dem didn’t mention it anyway.
No comment on Mr. Limpet?
Oh, I would be remiss not to mention:
The Big Red 1
Go for Broke!
Mister Roberts
And:
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Sergeant York
York took place in WWI, but released in 1941 — great propaganda film transitioning America from isolationism to WWII.
Incidentally, NWN passed 31,000 comments sometime last week.