General Wes Clark, former NATO commander, on Iraq and regional solutions.
** NORMAN HSU ARRIVES BACK IN CALIFORNIA, INDICTED ON NEW FEDERAL CHARGES IN NEW YORK. Disgraced political fundraiser Norman Hsu, one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest financial backers — her campaign has returned $850,000 raised by him after it became apparent he may have been using “straw man” donors to launder funds into the 2008 presidential venture — is back now in California following an expedited extradition from Colorado urged by Attorney General Jerry Brown.
As projected in the early morning report on NWN, Hsu was indicted on federal charges today in New York. He’s alleged to have swindled $60 million from investors and to have violated campaign finance laws. Obviously, this is going to be a big ongoing story.
** IT MAY NOT QUITE BE THE UNTOUCHABLES, BUT IT’S NOT BAD. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced this afternoon that the Division of Gambling Control caught two counterfeiters who were feeding fake $100 bills into slot machines at a Tribal Casino in Mendocino County.
Brown said: “These two bandits used home printers to make fake bills that tricked casino slot machines into paying out more than $100,000. Our Division of Gambling Control demonstrated great skill and incredible ingenuity in catching and arresting these counterfeiters.”
Jack Daniels Ewing, 27, and Mikael Inturbe, 27, were arrested today at the Sho-Ka-Wah Casino in Hopland, that’s in Mendocino County, on charges of conspiracy, counterfeiting and burglary. A four-month investigation revealed that the two-man team was bleaching real $1 bills and using home printers to make counterfeit $100 bills. Brown says the counterfeiters bilked at least 20 casinos in Northern California and Nevada out of more than $100,000.
** WHOOPS! HILLARY STILL LISTS NORMAN HSU AS ONE OF HER TOP FUNDRAISERS. There he is on the current list of her top fundraisers.
** MOVEON FIGHT CONTINUES AS U.S. SENATE PASSES AMENDMENT CONDEMNING PERSONAL ATTACKS ON PETRAEUS. The Senate has passed an amendment by Republican Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas to the defense authorization bill condemning attacks on the “honor and integrity” of General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq. This is the continuation of the furor over last week’s MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times attacking Petraeus as “General Betray Us.”
The vote was 72-25. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd voted no, as did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and California Senator Barbara Boxer. California’s senior Senator Dianne Feinstein voted yes, as did Virginia Senator Jim Webb. Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden did not vote. All Republicans voted yes, naturally, as this is part of a Republican strategy to isolate MoveOn.org.
Here’s what the Senate passed: It is the sense of the Senate –
(1) To reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, including General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq;
(2) To strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces; and
(3) To specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.
MoveOn, of course, vows to respond.
** GIULIANI AND THOMPSON IN STATISTICAL TIE IN FLORIDA. Two new polls, including one done by the well-known Mason-Dixon operation, show Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson in a statistical tie in Florida. In both polls, Giuliani has 24% to Thompson’s 23%, with Mitt Romney and John McCain well back just above 10 percent.
Florida is key to Giuliani’s strategy. The state is a rogue, in that it has moved its primary ahead of the schedule agreed to in both national political parties, with Florida now set for late January. But the Republicans are threatening relatively weak sanctions, while the Democrats are stripping all delegates and the major candidates have agreed not to campaign in the primary.
It’s not impossible that Giuliani could lose most of the other early states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. So Florida becomes critical for him. But right now, Thompson’s surge has moved him to the top there, at least with the Law & Order star sharing a piece of it with the former New York mayor.
** MCCAIN FUNDRAISING WOES REPORTED. According to the Washington Times, a “friend” of John McCain — and we should all have such friends, haha — says that the Arizona senator has raised only $3.7 million in the current quarter, less than the campaign’s $4.5 million target and far less than was raised in the second quarter of the year. If this is true, McCain’s recent relative comeback with his “No Surrender Tour” geared to the Petraeus report on Iraq may be for nought.
** IRAN TO THE FORE. Rudy Giuliani used the global spotlight of a trip to London, replete with an award from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and meetings with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, to declare that stopping Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon would be a top priority of his presidency. He labeled a proposed visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Ground Zero in New York an “obscenity.” The visit won’t happen while the firebrand is in town for the UN General Assembly.
France, under new management with President Nicolas Sarkozy, is in the midst of a firestorm of controversy after Sarkozy’s celebrity Socialist Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that war may be necessary to prevent an Iranian nuke.
Meanwhile, Russia says that a strike on Iran would be a profound mistake, and the Iranians themselves said that any attack from Israel would result in the most profound retaliation.
The lame duck Bush Administration has been rattling sabers with Iran for many months, to little apparent effect. Over the weekend, I had the chance to ask two very important Americans who figure into future policy, General Wes Clark, the former NATO supreme commander, victor in the Kosovo War, and Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, what they think about the situation.
Clinton primarily deferred to Clark, whom she somewhat jocularly described as a “friend of 25 years, not that we want to remember that.”
Clark, who was the commander of US Southern Command before assuming the command of NATO, and ran a spirited campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, said that Iran is a major threat in three ways.
First, in “utilizing regional proxies through training and direct assistance, all of which is destabilizing for the Middle East.” Second, “through having its tentacles deep inside Iraq.” Third, through its “attempt to build nuclear weapons capacity.”
“This is a serious challenge to the US, to the Middle East, and to all the world.”
I asked how this challenge is best met.
Through “a strategy of engagement,” Clark replied. “But all options must remain on the table. Iran must not be permitted to have nuclear weapons. First, we have to have a serious sustained dialogue with Iran. This administration is not doing that. We have to pursue all avenues of diplomacy and sanctions. But the window is closing.”
“If we haven’t done everything possible,” said Clark, “and that would be and is irresponsible, then the president will be faced with the military option, which must only be used as a last resort. This administration simply is not fulfilling its obligations to Americans and to the region.”
For her part, Clinton said that “I underscore the understanding General Clark has of this problem. We have tried to outsource our policy on Iran to the British and the Germans (who have undertaken back-channel negotiations on our behalf). This has been a big mistake. All we have done is have a series of sporadic announcements and meetings. It is imperative that our engagement with Iran begin as General Clark described.”
** HILLARY FUNDRAISER EXTRADITED TO CALIFORNIA TODAY, FEDERAL CHARGES IN THE WORKS. Top Hillary Clinton fundraiser Norman Hsu, wanted for years on fraud charges in California, who fled to Colorado only to turn up on a train ill from a possible suicide attempt which he bizarrely blamed on Barack Obama, will return today to California upon the insistence of Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Clinton agreed to return the $850,000 raised by Hsu for her presidential campaign amidst widespread concern that he simply laundered the money into her campaign via straw donors.
Meanwhile, federal officials are expected later today to charge Hsu with violating campaign laws and running a multi-million dollar pyramid scheme. The case is expected to be announced by the U.S. attorney in New York. Many investors gave millions of dollars to Hsu for a purported apparel business, but came up short on the return on investment. There are also rumors that Hsu received money from China for his various schemes, including the ventures into political finance.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CLOSETED IN CAPITOL MEETINGS. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is off the public radar today, closeted in meetings on his speicial legislative sessions on health care reform and water policy.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. American troops are now in the midst of a 128th 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 remain in record territory, in the $82 to $83 per barrel range.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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What secrets does Hsu have?
What secrets does Hsu have?
What I still haven’t seen explained re: the Hsu thing is what did HRC know, and when did she know it? Isn’t it possible the candidate/campaign wouldn’t know?
I don’t know. And if I did, it’s embargoed.
I was answering Ann’s question.
As for the Hillary and Hsu situation, it wasn’t at all hard to find out that Hsu had a warrant for his arrest. The most cursory check would have revealed that. When somebody presents you with nearly a million dollars, that’s something that comes to mind.
>Wilbur :
What I still haven’t seen explained re: the Hsu thing is what did HRC know, and when did she know it? Isn’t it possible the candidate/campaign wouldn’t know?
Sep 20, 2007 08:37 AM
If you are the campaign manager, what type of background check can you run? Do you have those tools available? I would be curious to see which campaigns are currently background checking their donors. Does the FBI or secret service check people for security reasons? Maybe this should be an accepted campaign function? Was this Hsu character flushed out due to an FBI check? Who turned him in?
Clark is a really good speaker, but why does he slump his shoulders?
It sounds like Clinton and Clark would attack Iran, too, if they are close to nukes.
I’d say that’s accurate.
I think people should calm down and listen to Mohhamed El Baredi of the IAEA and those CIA analysts who say that Iran is NOWHERE near getting a nuke. Al;so the words of GEN. Abazaid that we could live with a nuclear Iran as they are not suicidal. For once it might be nice to base policy on what experts know and not some pajama clad twit like Mike Ledeen who can’t even speak Farsi.
Re Iran’s “Threat” to Israel that if it is attacked it will fight back. Why the nerve of some people! Don’t they know they should just turn the other cheeck. I know that’s what we’d do. Just look at 9/11, er, oh never mind!
Good question. I’m sure he was drilled on posture no end at West Point, where he was first in his class. Perhaps it has to do with his wounds from Vietnam.
>Jonas Blane :
Clark is a really good speaker, but why does he slump his shoulders?
Sep 20, 2007 09:00 AM
Good question. I’m sure he was drilled on posture no end at West Point, where he was first in his class. Perhaps it has to do with his wounds from Vietnam.
>Jonas Blane :
Clark is a really good speaker, but why does he slump his shoulders?
Sep 20, 2007 09:00 AM
Remind of one time that I’ve cited Michael Ledeen. Aside from pointing out his false claim of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death.
It’s not just your straw man who says that Iran is a problem, which it potentially is. In fact, directly above this are two major Democrats saying it is a big problem, which you ostensibly read before posting here.
The politics of Iran are quite complex, and I’ve written a lot about them. If one faction or another gains an upper hand, things can go very differently.
> For once it might be nice to base policy on what experts know and not some pajama clad twit like Mike Ledeen who can’t even speak Farsi.
Oh, let’s see, how would the Clintons do that?
Well, when Bill ran for president in 1992, he had private investigators prying into the backgrounds of Mario Cuomo and Jerry Brown.
They also did a very serious takedown of the various women in Bill’s life, as you may recall.
And finding out that someone has a criminal record is much more child’s play than that. And, actually, very cheap. I do it myself.
Remember also that the Clintons had a previous huge problem with phony Chinese contributors.
>carole w :
If you are the campaign manager, what type of background check can you run? Do you have those tools available? I would be curious to see which campaigns are currently background checking their donors. Does the FBI or secret service check people for security reasons? Maybe this should be an accepted campaign function? Was this Hsu character flushed out due to an FBI check? Who turned him in?
Sep 20, 2007 08:52 AM
You check backgrounds?
Was the Hsu (informant) a rival campaign?
Clark shoulders:
Speaking from experience as a shoulder slumper, sometimes people slump because of neck or back pain/injury.
Incidentally, Richard, there is yet another major Democrat who thinks that Iran can pose a serious threat.
That woudl be your candidate, John Edwards.
Occasionally.
I think a few reporters have had Norman Hsu in mind for a while.
>carole w :
You check backgrounds?
Was the Hsu (informant) a rival campaign?
Clark shoulders:
Speaking from experience as a shoulder slumper, sometimes people slump because of neck or back pain/injury.
Sep 20, 2007 09:34 AM
“(HSU) bizarrely blamed on Barack Obama”
I missed that part of the story.
I like Clark and I would be very comfortable with him as a Vice President. Nice video.
I don’t equate Obama and Hsu. Obama has good karma.
From the Jerusalem Post: “Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in Jane’s Defence Weekly, which reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.
“The report comes on the heels of criticism leveled by the Syrians at the United States, accusing it of spreading “false” claims of Syrian nuclear activity and cooperation with North Korea to excuse an alleged Israeli air incursion over the country this month.
I am not sure how “a strategy of engagement” would be any more productive than “saber rattling” with this particular group.. I tend to favor the traditional Israeli approach to these threats
Absent serious engagement with Iran, we will be stuck bleeding in Iraq forever. Else we will retreat ignominiously from Iraq.
Absent serious engagement with Iran, we will be stuck bleeding in Iraq forever. Else we will retreat ignominiously from Iraq.
Sorry for the double- posting.
It sounds like he’s talking about Jonny Flashman. lol
Schwarzenegger touts healthcare plan, takes GOP to task again — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that a healthcare overhaul would not be derailed by “Mickey Mouse”-type concerns about covering illegal immigrants. He also compared California’s Republican Party to an obese person in denial, and predicted that Rudolph W. Giuliani would be his party’s nominee for president. Jordan Rau in the Los Angeles Times — 9/20/07
That’s what the Iraq Study Group warned.
>Jonathan Hemlock :
Absent serious engagement with Iran, we will be stuck bleeding in Iraq forever. Else we will retreat ignominiously from Iraq.
Sep 20, 2007 10:52 AM
That was reported after he was taken off the train.
>Brasky :
“(HSU) bizarrely blamed on Barack Obama”
I missed that part of the story.
Sep 20, 2007 10:06 AM
That was reported after he was taken off the train.
>Brasky :
“(HSU) bizarrely blamed on Barack Obama”
I missed that part of the story.
Sep 20, 2007 10:06 AM
Clark is excellent on TV.
>carole w :
I like Clark and I would be very comfortable with him as a Vice President. Nice video.
I don’t equate Obama and Hsu. Obama has good karma.
Sep 20, 2007 10:12 AM
I should imagine talks with the Iranians of any substance will not happen until the next President takes office. Bush is a historical artifact–in office until Jan. 2009 due to the constitution but without (to use the grand phrase of the founders) consent of the governed leaving him impotent and about as lame a duck as imaginable.
And Bush seems to be whistling in re the economy. With so much of our debt held in foreign hands, a slump could cause a sell off with some dire consequences. It is like the wheels of the Bush Presidency are falling off all at once.
Brasky, in re your comments yesterday on the water bonds, etc. Whether or not the legislature is capable of with dealing with the crisis in the delta, Perata and Schwarzenegger realize inaction is no longer an option. Of course doing something is politically difficult–that is why ineffective half-measures have been the norm heretofore. The recent judicial ruling that may reduce pumping from the delate I think was the wakeup call that is driving this process. (I’ll be polite and say nothing about the stance of my assemblyman, Fabian Nunez, in re no need for quick action).
“reduce pumping from the delate”–I meant delta.
Jamming the current measure through the assembly dooms it to failure. You might pass something if there was enough horse trading outside of this deal, in addition to making the deal itself more palatable.
Unless there are significant carrots and sticks, there is no way the assembly (and probably the senate) pass a water measure that mostly funds surface storage.
California Department of Public Health is recalling the free lunch boxes they handed out at health fairs, because they are…you can see it coming…contaminated with lead.
Aha.
There are actually two bills to compromise on water.
>Brasky :
Jamming the current measure through the assembly dooms it to failure. You might pass something if there was enough horse trading outside of this deal, in addition to making the deal itself more palatable.
There will be talks.
>Dana :
I should imagine talks with the Iranians of any substance will not happen until the next President takes office. Bush is a historical artifact–in office until Jan. 2009 due to the constitution but without (to use the grand phrase of the founders) consent of the governed leaving him impotent and about as lame a duck as imaginable.
And Bush seems to be whistling in re the economy. With so much of our debt held in foreign hands, a slump could cause a sell off with some dire consequences. It is like the wheels of the Bush Presidency are falling off all at once.
Sep 20, 2007 11:32 AM
McCain is done. More money and time won’t help. Where Giuliani, Thompson and Meat Romney all have to get voters to CONSIDER them, McCain has to get voters to RE-CONSIDER him. Much more difficult.
The leap-frog Republican primary race is nuts. I’d still like to see some polling in Wyoming. Don’t they now have first in the nation status?
“U.S. SENATE PASSES AMENDMENT CONDEMNING PERSONAL ATTACKS ON PETRAEUS”
The MoveOn ad was dumb, but frankly, no one cared — until now. Moveon stock goes up, senate stock goes down.
I assume this will be a trend now.
Note to self:
1) Carbon-copy US Senate on all political ads that attacks anyone.
2) Run ad against US Senate for being a bunch of pandering, mealy-mouthed, stupid wusses.
3) See #1.
Senators playing tit for tat with MoveOn will be like wrestling with a pig. At the end both will be filthy and exhausted, the difference being that the pig enjoyed the experience.
This symbolic slap should raise at least several hundred thou for MoveOn, and the ones “isolated” may turn out to be some of the Dems who chickened out and signed off on it to the consternation of many of their constituents.
Senators playing tit for tat with MoveOn will be like wrestling with a pig. At the end both will be filthy and exhausted, the difference being that the pig enjoyed the experience.
This symbolic slap should raise at least several hundred thou for MoveOn, and the ones “isolated” may turn out to be some of the Dems who chickened out and signed off on it to the consternation of many of their constituents.
Yup, checked my mail and MoveOn has already executed its response strategy including a petition which reads “I will not be quiet, I will fight back, and I will keep speaking out until Congress forces an exit plan for this awful war.” And of course a fundraising pitch to capitalize on the outrage.
The Senate resolution states that MoveOn “impugns the honor and integrity of … all the members of the United States Armed Forces.”
I am deeply offended by such b.s. slung by chickenhawks and cowards.
I guess the senators haven’t caught that pig yet…
Aha the predictable chickenhawk invocation.
Hap – contact your senator so they can author legislation to express your outrage.
Here is the latest on the split endorsement by the Black Caucus: The Capitol Weekly’s The Skinny column quotes Mervyn Dymally that his vote in favor of the Caucus endorsing Obama was simply “to appease an ‘abusive’ Assemblyman Mike Davis.” The column describes Davis as having dismissed Dymally’s allegations.
Brasky, I agree emphasis on water storage is wrong-headed. Key need is saving the delta, and improving means of moving water. Dams take decades to build and need to be a secondary consideration. Maybe the Governor is using them as bargaining chips?
Republicans are not going to vote for a bond package that does not include real money for above ground storage. Lucy has pulled that football away too many times.
The nutroots are over the top.
French Foreign Kouchner in an interview yesterday which was publishe dtoday in Le Figaro asserts he “is ready to visit Iran and continue with dialogue to solve the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment program… He added that Paris is willing to mediate between the West and Iran and stressed the importance of negotiations not lasting years. He also said his recent remarks about a possible war with Iran were misinterpreted, and that the French government has always maintained dialogue with Iran.”
This of course is a total turn around …and this is not the first time…he seems to have to do this a great deal…brilliant man, but not sure he has the temmperment or political sense for a FM….
Dana – look at Kandy Kid’s comments. Reeps have to get something on above ground storage, even if it’s little more than a token.
Enviros might approve something token on water storage, but not much more.
There just isn’t a lot of wiggle room between the two.
Arnold might be able to do something on the Delta administratively, especially after calling a state of emergency. I agree, a bi-partisan legislative solution would be preferable.