Britain’s then new Prime Minister Tony Blair offers this
off-the-cuff eulogy of “the people’s princess” shortly after news
broke of the death of Princess Diana 10 years ago.
** AP REPORT: GOP SOURCES SAY CRAIG TO RESIGN FROM U.S. SENATE TOMORROW. Unsurprisingly, Republican Senator Larry Craig, caught up in a police sex sting operation in a Minneapolis airport men’s room, will according to party sources resign his seat tomorrow at a press conference in Idaho. The departure of Craig, a staunch “family values” conservative and opponent of gay rights, will help the Republicans hold on to the seat.
** NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICANS CRITICIZE FRED THOMPSON. The chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party ripped Fred Thompson, saying the timing of the announcement of his long-awaited presidentical candidacy, on September 6th, is intended to keep the former senator out of New Hampshire Republican debate on September 5th, cablecast on Fox News.
“They are clearly trying to avoid this event,” said Granite State GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen.
** LARRY CRAIG TO MAKE SATURDAY ANNOUNCEMENT. Idaho Senator Larry Craig, at the center of a firestorm of controversy after the revelation of guilty plea in a Minneapolis airport men’s room incident, will announce his future plans tomorrow. He is under very heavy pressure from fellow Republicans to announce his resignation from the US Senate.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CANCELS U.K. TRIP, POSTPONES INDIA TRADE MISSION. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just cancelled his late September trip to the UK to keynote the British Conservative Party conference. He has also postponed a planned fall trade mission to India.
In a statement, Schwarzenegger said: “While I am confident that we will be able to accomplish quite a bit before the end of the legislative session, I need to maintain the flexibility to call a special session.”
The former action movie superstar will speak to the Tory conference in Britain via satellite.
** RICHARDSON WILL SKIP ALL ROGUE EARLY PRIMARIES. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the former UN ambassador running fourth in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, says he will skip all rogue state primaries that try to jump ahead of or sandwich themselves in the midst of the four officially sanctioned earliest contests of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
** JOHN WARNER RETIRES IN VIRGINIA. Senator John Warner, the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee and Vietnam War US Navy secretary who has become a critic of the Iraq War, announced today at the University of Virginia that he will retire from the Senate at the end of his term. Warner, 80, was first elected in 1978, campaigning with his then wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. This seat is an excellent opportunity for a Democratic pick-up next year, with former Governor Mark Warner a strong prospect.
** SCHWARZENEGGER IN SAN DIEGO. In his event just webcast earlier from San Diego, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared with a panoply of leaders from business, civic institutions, the medical field, labor, and local government to reiterate his — and their — stand for a universal health care program in California. It was all quite familiar to NWN readers. Schwarzenegger took a few questions from local press (and one British reporter, who asked about greenhouse gases), and nothing new was brought forth. Schwarzenegger says he remains confident that something significant will be achieved, and as reported here yesterday, is back negotiating with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.
** DIANA, 10 YEARS ON. On this Friday of Labor Day weekend, it’s the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, an event that transfixed much of the world. I found much of the ’90s Diana worship somewhat mystifying, but no less real for that. I met her once, and she seemed very nice and charming, but aside from being aware that she was the most famous woman in the world, I don’t remember much about it. She used her celebrity for causes, of course, such as AIDS and land mines, and forged a powerful bond with the British public after her divorce, which surprised the royal family which assumed that her celebrity derived principally from all the globally broadcast pomp and circumstance of the Royal Wedding. How wrong they were can be seen again in last year’s best film, The Queen, for which Helen Mirren won a very well-deserved Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth and Michael Sheen a British Academy Award nomination for his role as Tony Blair.
What would have become of Diana? Her fairy tale arc of Sloane Ranger to Princess of Wales made her world-renowned in Act I. Her divorce and emergence as “the people’s princess,” in Blair’s famous phrase (actually crafted by spin doctor Alastair Campbell) made her even more of a global icon in Act II. Would Act III have seen her married to her boyfriend of the time, Dodi Fayed, which would have made the playboy son of an Egyptian billionaire stepfather to the future King of England?
That’s the scenario that tantalizes those who see conspiracy in the Princess Di’s death following that late night chase by papparazzi through the streets of Paris. But it all happened on the fly. I was acquainted somewhat with Fayed, and once stayed at his beach house. The son of the billionaire owner of Harrod’s, Mohammed al-Fayed, Dodi Fayed was a playboy, a thrower of big parties he didn’t always pay for, as you see in the link above, a film producer who brought cash to the table rather than a particular expertise.
He was a nice man, fun, short, plain, clearly someone who would be utterly thrilled to be running around with the glamorous and ultra-famous princess. He was also not a very strong personality. When the photographers became a problem that night in Paris 10 years ago, he wasn’t prepared to deal with it. A getaway car and driver were hurriedly arranged on the spot — rather than pre-planned as you might do if you have large resources and are squiring around the most famous woman in the world — and disaster ensued. But that can be life in the fast lane.
** CRAIG EXPECTED TO RESIGN SOON. CNN reports that well-placed Republican sources say that Idaho Senator Larry Craig, who pled guilty a few months ago to a charge of misconduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s room, will soon resign his seat in the Senate, perhaps today.
** SCHWARZENEGGER IN SAN DIEGO FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM, LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, now negotiating with Democratic legislative leaders on the shape of possible comprehensive health care reform, campaigns for a plan this morning in San Diego. At 10:30 AM, he will appear with San Diego business, civic, and labor leaders in a press conference webcast live.
** WESTLY DECRIES BUSH ADMINISTRATION IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN. Former California Controller and eBay honcho Steve Westly, now a greentech venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, blasts the coming Homeland Security crackdown on workers without valid Social Security numbers in a California Majority Report column. Westly says that what is needed in comprehensive immigration reform, and that the crackdown threatens key sectors of California’s economy, including coming seasonal harvests. It also threatens the workers, he argues, making it likely they will be forced further into an underground economy.
** CALIFORNIA POWER ALERT CONTINUES. A heat wave continues to strike much of the state. Today’s forecast peak electric power demand is 2000 megawatts below the record established in last year’s heat storm, in which levels were reached that had not been forecast for another five years. You can track peak electric power demand in near real time via Cal ISO (California Independent System Operator).
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. American troops are now in the midst of a 109th 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. After going up earlier, crude oil prices have risen to the $71 to $74 per barrel range on concern about a storm in the Atlantic.
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I don’t know if its a cultural thing but the British Military establishment – from Monty and Alexander on – have always held their American counterparts in a sort of condescending attitude of “what do you expect from the colonials?”. Read the Brit press and you’ll notice that Officer after officer in HMG’s Service faults the Yanks for poor fire disclipline and brutal behavior. They usually then add that their experience in Northern Ireland (and unsaid but present – the experience of running an empire with the “thin red Line”) makes them the experts on this sort of thing.
Course you don’t want to mention 1922 and Iraq when Churchill threw up his hands and found the Sunnis, Kurds, and Shia unmanageable!
Jim Webb would make a particularly good running mate for John Edwards as his populism fits in well with Edwards’ basic message.
Happy Labor Day everybody!
What has happpened with Webb? We don’t hear much about him.
Did you read the Los Angeles Times story about Nunez meeting with the editorial board yesterday claiming he has a deal with Schwarzenegger for a health care tax initiative?
Bill,
We had a lightning strike that has set a pretty good size fire by a place called Butler Peak, just west of the Big Bear Valley.
Sacto, start praying.
Well, that doesn’t sound so good in this seaon of drought and fires.
Yep, saw it.
The speaker’s been known to blow some smoke.
We’ll see what happens.
And, obviously, I am not checking out other people’s hyped stories on Labor Day weekend.
He’s a freshman senator who’s been laying low after the pistola incident.
>Ann :
What has happpened with Webb? We don’t hear much about him.
Sep 1, 2007 11:23 AM
The good news is we have high humidity here, the bad news is I have an excellent view of the fire from my house.
The good news is we have high humidity here, the bad news is I have an excellent view of the fire from my house.
Why do so many fires start around you?
Oh, yes, incidentally, Larry Craig resigned today.
As the saying goes … Doh!
… Oh, yeah, and the rogue presidential primaries are dead.
At least on the Dem side.
But I’ll get into that tomorrow.
I live in a big,dry forest and we have a bit of a water problem this year. I think Arnold has been talking about California’s water issues lately…(I can hear the big helicopters now).
Incidently, highway 18 from the Big Bear dam to the Snow Valley ski area is closed.
I hope Senator Craig has a quiet retirement. Maybe he could go fishing or something.
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Just overheard in the men’s room at the Cal/Tenn. game — Which stall is the Senator in?
Go Bears!
Whoa!
Cal 45, Tennessee 31.
That rocks the house.
Cal?
Jonas, “Cal” is UC Berkeley.
Bill,
Coach Tedford has done a great job turning the legitimate question about Cal football from “Can they break .500?” to “Can they beat perennial powerhouse teams?” If he can get us to the Rose Bowl, Tedford would deserve one of those Nobel Prize winner parking passes that are delightfully common on campus.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/features/2000/nobel/uc_nobels.html
I know what Cal is.
I wonder how many Nobel prize winner parking passes there are at Stanford.
I don’t think as many actually, and I’ve studied at both universities.
Cal looks like a pretty good bet for the Rose Bowl. If USC can hold up its end this year …
>Kandy Kid :
Bill,
Coach Tedford has done a great job turning the legitimate question about Cal football from “Can they break .500?” to “Can they beat perennial powerhouse teams?” If he can get us to the Rose Bowl,
Who is the guy who holds the umbrella for Blair?
Who is the guy who holds the umbrella for Blair?
That is the Labour Party’s “constituency agent.” Blair’s local campaign manager.
His name is, wait for it … John Burton.
John Burton!
They actually have somewhat similar personalities, too.
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