NWN interrupts its coverage of Tony Blair to bring you this message from Apple:
“By Friday, we expect to control the country.” It’s Friday. Actually, it’s iFriday.
** SETTING THE TABLE FOR THE BUSH-PUTIN NON-SUMMIT AT KENNEBUNKPORT THIS WEEKEND. President George W. Bush is up at the old Bush family coastal compound at Kennebunkport, Maine readying to receive his weekend visitor, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lurking in the background is the president’s far more diplomatic father, George Herbert Walker Bush, the former president/CIA director/UN ambassador whose old hands dominated the Iraq Study Group. (Reviled by the right, rejected by W, now seeing their recommendations slowly but surely adopted.)
In classic Russian fashion, Putin made ready for his social call by having the Russian Navy successfully fire off a submarine-launched missile. They’ve done those before, but have had a little trouble with the newer model. Make that a lot of trouble. With US-Russian relations in a bad patch, the meetings on July 1st and 2nd will be important. The US increasingly feels it needs to settle the Iraq War, and Russia can be helpful there. Britain, just as Tony Blair was in the midst of leaving, has floated a compromise with Iran, which would freeze further development of its nuclear enrichment program but allow current enrichment activities to proceed. That might allow Iran the space to continue dealing on Iraq.
The US also needs to determine precisely what Russia wants, and how much to confront and how much to accommodate. Under Bush, the US looked the other one while Russian forces ruthlessly largely crushed the rebellion in Chechnya. That helped gain bases in Central Asia — all but one of which, the one in Kyrgyzstan, are no longer — and critical help in the takedown of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It’s not clear that Bush, transfixed by Iraq and fresh from a crushing defeat on his immigration bill, and his team will have thought through all the angles on this summit that is not a summit. But perhaps his father the former president and his old hands have.
** D.C. TERM LIMITS ORGANIZATION LOSES IN CALI COURT OF APPEALS. US Term Limits, the Washington-based group running the campaign to stop a bid to change California’s term limits law lost again before the state appelate court in its effort to challenge Attorney General Jerry Brown’s ballot description of the measure likely to be voted on in the February 5th presidential primary election.
“We are grateful that, once again, the courts have told the out-of-state opponents of reform to stop their cheap political grandstanding,” said Gale Kaufman, chief strategist for the term limits change, which would cut the total time allowed in the Legislature from 12 to 14 years but allow members to serve all those years in one house. Currently, members can serve only six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate. The US Term Limits group wanted a description in the ballot pamphlet that emphasized the fact that some current members will be able to stay on longer. But the courts have held that Brown’s description is accurate, and seem to feel that what the group wants is something it can say in a campaign.
** LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. READY FREDDY IN THE GRANITE STATE. Fred Thompson waltzed right up to the edge of an official presidential candidacy last night at a state Republican fundraiser in Manchester, New Hampshire. Telling the crowd of several hundred that he expected they’d be “seeing a whole lot more of me,” Thompson called for small government, individual liberty, and free trade. Government has to recognize that there is “such a thing as human nature,” which can lead people to do terrible things but can also raise them to the heights.
Thompson hasn’t been running as well in New Hampshire polling as he has elsewhere. He currently leads in two of the four earliest states. Nevada, which has its own brand of living free, and South Carolina, a diehard state of the old Confederacy which still flies the rebel flag outside its capitol. Here in California, he runs well back. Thompson may be coming off as too conservative for the Golden State’s Republican voters.
** THAT CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY CONTROVERSY. Oh, that California Republican Party staffing flap. It has two big components. One is the hiring of non-citzens for top jobs, including as the party’s director a fellow from Australia named Michael Kamburowski who spent a month in jail on an immigration law charge and benefited from two marriages in gaining a green card. (Readers recall I had cared less about the other guy, the deputy political director from Canada, not thinking it worthy of an item while the San Francisco Chronicle made that a front page story.)
The other big component is the Grover Norquist factor. He’s the longtime controversial Washington conservative power broker and associate of disgraced stringpuller Jack Abramoff. Norquist, according to various press reports used his issue-related committees to funnel money from Abramoff clients to various PR campaigns. He was the longtime boss of new California Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring and of the short-lived party director from the land down under, who also had a particularly skimpy political background for such a key post. While Nehring no longer works for him — as he told me when I asked a few months ago — I did subsequently learn that Norquist is a client of Nehring’s new consulting firm.
With the state party leadership leaning hard to the right after last February’s convention, the party’s new leaders are sensitive to anyone forming the impression that they are part of a right-wing cabal with controversial Washington ties. Follow the sequence from Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
On Tuesday, I reported the following: In an op-ed piece in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Republican National Committee member Tim Morgan, the sole vote on the state party’s board against hiring Australian citizen Michael Kamburowski, decries the lack of thorough review in his appointment by state Republican chairman Ron Nehring as the party’s top staffer. Morgan says he was slated to head up a search effort for what is in essence an executive director but that new state chairman Ron Nehring immediately short-circuited the process. He also mentions that controversial Washington conservative power broker Grover Norquist came to California to help Kamburowski get the post, appearing before state party board members.
Jon Fleischman, proprietor of the conservative Republican Flash Report web site and Southern California vice chairman of the party, told me the decision was taken in a conference call, and that Norquist was not on the call. But he confirms that Norquist came in to California on Kamburowski’s behalf.
“Grover was out,” Fleischman told me this morning, “and traveled with Ron and Michael around California to meet with folks,” talking with key Republicans just prior to the decision.
Late that afternoon, I got a message from Jon: “I think I have made an assumption that wasn’t accurate. So I think I should clarify: I went to a meeting down in San Diego at which Grover spoke, and afterwards a few of us had lunch, including Kamburowski.
“I didn’t speak with Grover about Kamburowski, as I had already met him earlier that week when he along with Ron Nehring came up to Orange County. I knew that Grover was heading off to Sacramento and I assumed that it was with Nehring and Kamburowski. I assumed incorrectly. (There’s a saying, you know what happens when you assume…)”
Prior to that message, I’d heard that Nehring had told at least one reporter that Norquist hadn’t really been in California pushing for Kamburowski’s appointment. Although he was out, coincidentally, just prior to the decision. I decided to wait.
The next morning, the Chronicle reported, again on the front page, that the party may have violated federal law by not inspecting Kamburowski’s green card. Okay, didn’t look at his green card. Wow. Nehring strongly pooh-poohed the idea that Norquist had pushed for Kamburowski’s hiring. Then came this passage.
“But Jon Fleischman, publisher of the widely read GOP Web site FlashReport.org. and a member of the state GOP board of directors, told The Chronicle that he was invited to at least two meetings with Nehring, Norquist and Kamburowski in March, when the state’s chief operations officer job was open. Those included a March 12 meeting of Nehring’s “San Diego Center-right Coalition,” held at the offices of the San Diego Republican Party, which Kamburowski attended and later an intimate lunch the same day with Norquist and other top party insiders.
“Grover was there, as was Nehring and Kamburowski and some of the other people who worked for Grover, and we spent a little time talking to him,” recalled Fleischman.
“It was very clear, it was a ‘Come on down to this meeting, meet Mike Kamburowski, say hi to Grover’ and all mixed together,” he said. “It was clearly part of the credentials that were presented — the work (Kamburowski) had done for Grover. Clearly.”
“Other Republicans said Norquist and Kamburowski then went on to Northern California and Sacramento for similar meetings with other influential party insiders.
I asked Jon how this was all to be reconciled.
“There seems to be an over-fixation on whether Grover lobbied CRP officials to hire Mike Kamburowksi. As far as I am aware, he did not. Grover and I never spoke about it.
“That said, does anyone really care? If he had mentioned something to me, I would not have thought it odd. Grover Norquist and his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, have been a fixture on the GOP side of the aisle going back many years. Ron Nehring worked for ATR for years. I guess that might disqualify him from being a union-organizer, an advocate for tax increases?”
Meanwhile, Fleischman published a small column on his site called “Get Over It.” And his associate from the Young Americans for Freedom, Brandon Powers, attacked RNC member Tim Morgan for allegedly misusing party funds in various trips on party business, saying Morgan’s account was fictitious. Other senior Republicans described this as an attempt at distraction.
** LONDON TERROR SCARE. I’m caught up as anyone in the unfolding terror scare in London, and know nothing more than anyone else watching cable news. One bit of speculation on my part, and it’s only that, is that it may be an attempt to pressure the new British government to step away from Afghanistan, where British forces have actually become more involved as their involvement in Iraq slowly diminishes.
** DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL FORUM, AND A POLL. The Democratic presidential field had another forum last night at Howard University, focused mostly on African American issues. Hillary Clinton won widespread plaudits for another polished performance, and Barack Obama also scored well. Clinton, of course, leads in the national polls of Democrats, with Obama running second.
The Clinton campaign is saying she is raising more money this quarter than in the first, but less than Obama is raising. Obama is mum on the question of how much money he’s raised — as he was in the first quarter, when he let Clinton reveal her numbers first — but has announced that he now has 250,000 contributors. He’s more than doubled the number of contributors he had in the first quarter, which was easily a record.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST FROM FIRE SITE AT 10 AM. This morning Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the site of another large fire, this in Kern County in the southern part of the Central Valley, then at 10 AM conducts a press conference and live webcast. The Lake Tahoe fire, incidentally, is now over 70% contained.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. American troops are now in the midst of a 48th 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. A video put out by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq claims that all three men were executed after being captured. But, with the exception of the Californian found floating in the Euphrates River, that claim can’t be confirmed. The US high command in Baghdad has revealed that ID cards for the other two American prisoners were found in an Al Qaeda safehouse on June 9th.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Most crude oil prices are up over $70 per barrel. Prices are at a 10 month high.
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“I’m so glad I didn’t kill myself yesterday!” Mad TV rules.
Maybe the iPhone can defuse bombs, too. lol
I hope Jobs didn’t leave that out of the feature set.
“But a new Mason-Dixon poll says 52% of Americans say they won’t vote for Hillary. Perhaps most alarming, that number climbs to 60% among independents. ”
This isn’t a surprise to anyone, is it?
I would like to see crosstabs for women by party and age.
250,000 contributors for Obama. What a list! He can go back to them over and over again.
That number for independents negative on Clinton really sticks out like a flashing red light.
This time Schwarzeneger started early!
I don’t know Bill, I talk to a lot of people outside the political world and outside my party — there seems to be a lot of folks who roll their eyes as soon as you mention her name.
I’m not sure we’re disagreeing.
So, the California Republican Party is undergoing a power struggle and an immigration scandal. Bush’s approval rating are at an all time low (again!) and Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings at an all time high.
So what do legislative Republicans decide to do? Hold-up the budget and deny Schwarzenegger several appointees. “Schwarzenegger Faces GOP Revolt in Capitol”.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-republicans29jun29,0,1076353.story?coll=la-home-center
And where is Kandy Kid to tell us how the Democrats are dragging their heels on the budget?
I wonder how many fundraisers Arnold will do for the Republican Party NOW?
Oh, got it Bill. Hunches vs. science.
That story is something of a hype.
Schwarzeneger’s good friends in the La Times bureau. The ones that are left. lol
At least this much of the story is clearly hype:
“Paychecks to state workers could also come to a halt.”
Pete Wilson lost a federal labor law lawsuit over his stunt of issuing IOUs in lieu of paychecks during a budget hiatus in the 90s, and narrowly avoided a hefty fine against the state treasury. The state has money in the bank, and I expect that it will make payroll whether or not there is a budget.
That Great London Car Bomb Scare is predictably being played here as the end of the world. I suspect its being taken in stride over there where exposure to terrorist bombs in public places is not exactly news. I remember being in London in the mid eighties when signs asked you to report any unattended bags or packages and when guard searched pocketbooks at the entrances to places like the British Musuem. You see there were these people from the IRA and . . . oh you know.
It’s true that the Brits I’ve seen interviewed don’t seem to be fery freaked out. Like the Israelis, Londoners seem to have adapted to the fact that spit happens once in a while but you’re at considerably greater risk of dying in a plain old car crash, a risk re: which we don’t tweak very much.
Early reportage of an “unsophisticated” device, its clumsy placement at the scene (crash and run) and its detonator failure suggests this may not have been the work of AQ per se, but more homegrown wannabe independents.
Well, now we’re on to a second car bomb.
At least one of these bombs is very big.
The July 7, 2005 London subway bombings killed over 50 people and wounded 700.
The second car had been towed from the apparent target site, Trafalgar Square, over to a garage near Hyde Park last night because it was left illegally parked.
Not a pro move.
I’m not saying amateurs can’t harm lots of people, just that preliminarily this doesn’t look to be a big league play.
The boot was reportedly filled with gas.
Jonny Flashman is a lying idiot! I knew it. lol
The canisters were labeled “Patio gas,” which sounds like propane. Not a chlorine, sarin, etc. payload. It’s a nail bomb, crude but effective within a limited zone of destruction.
Count on a loyal Jag owner to call it the ‘boot.’ ;-}
It’s been an English sort of week …
But now, it’s time to “Live Free Or Die Hard.”
When do we get to see presdiential fundraising reports?
I’d love to see McCain’s and Obama’s numbers.
It’ll be like the first quarter. It will take several days to dribble out.
A film critic once described Willis’ facial expressions in the Die Hard films as those made by a plumber who can’t believe the toliet just exploded.
I imagine the CRP officals has the same expression when they saw the front page of the Chronicle.
I admit to being confused by Jon’s comments to Bill. Does it make the story any worse if Grover was lobbying for Kamburowski? Or does it make it worse because Jon hasn’t reconciled his stories to Bill?
Do over-performers leak theirs first and under-performers hold on to the bitter end?
That wasn’t how it worked last time.
I don’t see how the Los Angeles Times can “report” that Schwarzenegger and the Republican legislators are doing worse than ever. They wouldn’t give him a single vote for his infrastructure bonds spring of 2006 when he was fighting for his life. Finally, they tossed him a few votes.
I … vaguely remember that.
I was constantly harping on Schwarzenegger’s failure to get Republican votes.
Pretty damn non-random gearhead trivia: McLarens couldn’t find the setup in practice today today but Ferrari did. Scott Speed was an encouraging 3rd quickest today, Hamilton 4th, Alonso 8th. Qualifying at 5am Left Coast Time, so get some rest. I realize left turns bore you, Bill, but Montoya starts 5th in NH on Sunday. Look out, Ricky Bobby!
“It’s not clear that Bush, transfixed by Iraq and fresh from a crushing defeat on his immigration bill, and his team will have thought through all the angles on this summit that is not a summit. But perhaps his father the former president and his old hands have.”
Holy $hit. This administration is going to start outsourcing its foreign policy to Bush I?!
Maybe Bush II could then get a part-time job mowing lawns this summer…
Poor Mr. Bush is so far over his head that it’s not even funny.
Bill, you mischaracterized what Brandon Powers said about Tim Morgan.
The exact words on the travel expenses were “If Ron was looking for a way to reassert his leadership, I’d suggest he strip down Tim’s travel budgets that send him to posh resorts all over the country on the CRP’s dime. After all, it’s not like he’s bringing any RNC money back to California anyways.”
Tim Morgan is not being accused of any financial improprieties.
There’s a backstory to the Powers attack on Morgan – Shawn Steel is challenging Morgan for the CA GOP National Committeeman post this fall, and Powers is a committed acolyte of Steel, who has been significantly backed by Shawn.
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1015860&session=2005&view=contributions
BTW, I’m not exactly a Morgan partisan (I gave the nominating speech for his opponent in 2003).
Republican weasels make Democratic weasels sound like truth tellers. lol
Ann – you probably haven’t seen Maviglio’s attempts to get people to ignore the FPPC complaint against Don Perata (who managed to call everything up to and including women’s clothing a campaign expense).
LPs didn’t spin that fast.
Spoken like a true weasel. lol
Wilbur,
Perhaps I’m wrong, but seem to recall a fairly recent case in which the courts ruled that state workers were only entitled to minimum wage if there was no budget in place.
Prior Controller found some way around that, wonder if the current one will as well.
It’s not a summit as Mr. Bradley said…they are not even together 24 hours…Putin is then off to Guatemala to pitch a Black Sea resort town as a future Olympic venue…A summit is needed between US and Russia…besides Iraq…entire ME Cen Asia landscape, missiles defense system, Ukraine, Kosovo…the unraveling in the Balkans and now Georgia …should all be on a US-Russian agenda…but we will have to wait for Obama’s presidency…
I saw a MIGHTY HEART last night. It is a powerful film, a wonderful tribute to both Pearls, Daniel and Mariann…at the center of the brutal environment and act ….is this incredible love story between a man and a woman and the craft of journalism…I could hardly get out of my seat at the end…I just said to myself …if he had to die …to be murdered …thank God she was pregnant with his child…
Fortunately, Solon, you’re wrong about that.
>Sacramento Solon :
Wilbur,
Perhaps I’m wrong, but seem to recall a fairly recent case in which the courts ruled that state workers were only entitled to minimum wage if there was no budget in place.
Bill,
Care to place a small wager?
I would.
But I’d feel guilty.
Read today’s issue.
Bill,
Since I’m read the Controller’s press release, I think he has found a way around as did Mr. Westly. But, there is a ruling stating what I wrote and it came after Wilson…either late Connell or early SW.
Please continue this on today’s issue, where there is actually a reported item on this.
No thanks.
I guess I should have bet you they won’t just get minimum wage.
Mr. Bradley –
You miss the obvious about the “bomb scare.”
It wasn’t a scare. Part rather of a coordinated campaign. Hampered by lack of a reliable fuze (likely to be fixed soon by jihadis).
This bombing campaign is part of a naked, power struggle.
Only one people will rule the British Isles. Either the Muslim people (hence the bombing campaign) or the British people.
When the one jihadi, on fire carrying cans of gas ran into the Glasgow terminal, bystanders shouted at the police and fire crews “let him burn.” Since surely he would have burned THEM.
I assume shortly we will see various self-organizing vigilante groups making reprisals for Muslim atrocities in Britain. A pub or nightclub blown up? A mosque will go up in flames.
Certainly Brown said as little as possible to disguise his weakness. The terrorists in Glasgow and London were apparently known but not enough resources to surveil, others slipped house-detention orders.
Power abhors a vacuum. What conceptually the car-bombs of Baghdad now in London and Glasgow do is provoke the counter-terror if militias also present there. But it’s clear this is a decentralized effort by UK Muslims to wrest control from the non-Muslims through violence and have Sharia Law.
It’s a war of the peoples and will be very ugly all over Europe. [I had thought it would start in Sweden first, but there you go.] You can only have one rule: Islam or non-Islam, and Muslims have made it clear throughout Europe they will “dominate” as their signs said.
Putin-Bush? Irrelevant. Short of War which Iran seems desperately to want, Iran will get it’s nukes, put them on missiles, and likely to the great applause of the left, wipe out Israel. Iran certainly is declaring war on us: killing US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our weakness is provocative. However Iraq is likely still months if not a year away, and Musharaff hangs by a thread in Pakistan. Bin Laden controlling Pakistan’s nukes pretty much means saying goodbye to several US cities.
It’s not as if people are afraid of us. Iraq is a trivial sideshow. Iran a fire burning towards us. And Pakistan is burning at our feet.
Barbara — Mighty Heart was all about M Pearl’s rush to become a sainted, Oprah-esque victim with a disposable husband. Women do tend to love the victim status coupled with celebrity. Pearl was dating Jordan Eason head of CNN about a year after her kids birth, so I don’t think she was too shook up about her husband’s death.
She certainly didn’t have the movie depict his brutal killing, because he was a Jew, by Muslims. She rushed to forgive his killers. Dated a more powerful and higher-status guy as soon as she could (Eason btw was married at the time, with several kids). Daniel Pearl seems to have been quite disposable to her.
It would not matter if most Pakistanis are Dark Ages bigots, misogynists, who commit monstrous cruelty if this was 1875. Unfortunately the Jet Age means that the killer of Daniel Pearl can be on a plane and arriving in LA within a few days, ready to kill more Americans and Jews. All Mighty Heart does is suggest surrender to barbarity. But what do you expect? It’s a woman’s film and women don’t fight evil. They surrender because they can move up as concubines to the conquerors. See France 1940, etc.
“Barbara — Mighty Heart was all about M Pearl’s rush to become a sainted, Oprah-esque victim with a disposable husband. Women do tend to love the victim status coupled with celebrity. Pearl was dating Jordan Eason head of CNN about a year after her kids birth, so I don’t think she was too shook up about her husband’s death…….Pearl seems to have been quite disposable to her.”
You obviouly, came here to smear her …so you want to sit in moral judgement of her? …you? …you can’t hold a candle to her heart intellect or soul …while I do not know her …I relate to her …she is young pretty, very appealing woman with a baby (now a little boy) who experienced the loss of someone she deeply loved via murderous act…it will be an unfilled hole in her life forever…even if she is lucky enough to find love and happiness with another man.
There was no reason to provide the terrorists with an orgasm… showing the execution in the film would have done just that…Her reply to the lout interviewer who asked if she watched it? … is best said to you ….”Have you no decency….”
Finally, Re: “women don’t fight evil” I am a woman. I have fought a lot of “evil” in my life with a variety of weapons from guns to prayer…also using my intellect and even my own allure as a woman…I have even fought a lot of “Dark Ages bigots, misogynists” that sound a lot like you…
Do everyone a favor …Go back under your rock…Rockford…
Jim, I’m more like the reel “Jim Rockford” in that I deal primarily with fact. Early on Friday morning, what was actually known justified the London incident as a bomb scare.
Now, as for all this other stuff, I don’t indulge in apocalypticism.
For one thing, you’re already totally wrong about what is happening in Britain over the past three days.
Contrary to what you imagine, the five arrested are not British nationals bent on taking advantage of softy Brit liberalism to impose sharia law on the UK, they are actually from another part of the world entirely.
And you know, there’s all that other stuff.
Oh, I just noticed this part. That’s kind of a, oh, how do I put this?
Hmm. I don’t want to violate my own rules.
I suppose you don’t think Margaret Thatcher “fought evil.” Or you forgot.
>It’s a woman’s film and women don’t fight evil. They surrender because they can move up as concubines to the conquerors. See France 1940, etc.