Senator Hillary Clinton’s not exactly secret weapon, former
President Bill Clinton, took on some conspiracy-minded hecklers
from the left who claimed 9/11 was “an inside job.”
** TURKS REJECT IRAQI PROPOSAL, BUT SAY NO INVASION BEFORE NOVEMBER 5TH. As anticipated with this morning’s news of a much shorter than scheduled meeting in Ankara between Turkish and Iraq leaders on the question of taking down Kurdish separatist guerillas bases in northern Iraq, Turkey rejected the Iraqi proposal as essentially worthless.
The Iraqis had offered to close down PKK offices and restrict the travel of PKK leaders outside Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Which is completely irrelevant to the crisis. Turkey demanded that the Iraqi round up and hand over 150 to 200 PKK leaders that the Turks say are behind numerous terrorist attacks in their country. The Iraqis, who can’t even secure their own capital, have no ability to do that.
But the commander of Turkey’s armed forces, in a late-breaking development, said that there will be no major invasion of northern Iraq before his country’s prime minister meets with President Bush in Washington on November 5th. Meanwhile, the Turkish military buildup along the Iraqi border continues, as do artillery and air strikes inside northern Iraq.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CABINET MEETING SETS SOCAL FIRE EMERGENCY POLICIES. Emerging from a much longer than scheduled meeting of his Cabinet, executive staff, and several other emergency managers, advisors, and state officials, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a live webcast many of you watched here that “This week has been the sprint. Now begins the marathon.”
During the meeting, Schwarzenegger and his Cabinet and various outside advisors, helped by his Democratic chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, who has helped the governor work the levers of power this week, and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, came up with a variety of policies to put rebuilding of lives and communities on a fast track.
Among the measures Schwarzenegger is putting in place are an easing of payroll tax deadlines for small businesses hit by the emergency, filing extensions for individuals, the waiving of waiting periods for unemployment insurance, direct assistance in the replacement of key individual documents, expedited cleanup and debris removal, and state and federal loans and guarantees for damaged businesses and the creation of 3000 disaster relief jobs, and a promised crackdown by Insurance Commissioner Poizner on scam artists.
The customary polished performance by the Schwarzenegger team this week was, however, marred at the end of the event when the webcast cut out while Schwarzenegger was being asked about how timely air assets were brought into play.
Some conservative politicians in the hardest hit areas — which coincide with areas having the most laissez faire development patterns and lower than elsewhere investment in firefighting resources — are, perhaps not surprisingly, criticizing the deployment of aircraft early in the crisis.
It’s a complex area, which of course is being simplified, and they may have a point or two. Though some of the criticisms are clearly outlandish, as with the “failure” of Schwarzenegger to accept help from Russia.
Schwarzenegger had his head of the California National Guard delving into specific questions of how to quickly and safely deploy aircraft and air crews when the webcast went down.
Incidentally, the San Diego Chargers will play the Houston Texans Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, as scheduled. Qualcomm served as the biggest evacuation center during the week.
** NEW RECORD OIL PRICE AT CLOSE. After hitting a new intraday trading record of over $92 per barrel, crude oil closed at a record $91.86 per barrel. That’s nearly a dollar and a half higher than yesterday’s new record close.
This comes amidst grave concern about the geopolitical situation, which we is reported on regularly here, and with the dollar hitting record lows.
** 1:15 PM Update: SCHWARZENEGGER CABINET WEBCAST NOW EXPECTED AROUND 1:30 PM. It seems the governor, his Cabinet, and outside advisors and officials have all had a lot to talk about with regard to the Southern California fire crisis.
** AT EUROPEAN UNION/RUSSIA SUMMIT, PUTIN COMPARES U.S. ANTI-MISSILE SHIELD TO CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. Harkening back 45 years to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida, Russian President Vladimir Putin today likened that situation to the US plan to create an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. The impasse over that issue continues, with Russia rejecting a thin US compromise proposal to build the project in Poland and the Czech Republic but not turn it on unless necessary.
At the summit in Portugal, Russia made more progress toward joining the World Trade Organization.
** DIFI WANTS A BILLION FOR SOCAL FIRES AND END TO BUILDING IN FIRE ZONES. SCHWARZENEGGER CABINET UNDERWAY WITH SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION LIKELY. US Senator Dianne Feinstein this morning announced that she is seeking an additional $1 billion in federal funds to help rebuild. She has also said that it’s time to stop building in fire zones.
As Friday morning draws to a close, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special Cabinet session on the Southern California crisis is underway. The live webcast, reported below, is still scheduled for 12:30 PM. A special legislative session to deal with rebuilding is on tap.
** THOMPSON POSTPONES SOCAL PORTION OF SWING. Fred Thompson’s campaign announced this morning that he is cancelling his events next week in Southern due to the fire. He’ll carry on further to the north on Tuesday and Wednesday.
** NEW RECORD OIL PRICE. Crude oil prices hit yet another record in trading early today, rising over $92 per barrel on fresh signs of global insecurity.
** TURKISH CRISIS: A BAD SIGN. Talks in Ankara between Turkish and Iraqi government leaders have broken up after only 90 minutes. They had been scheduled to last for three hours.
Turkey may have demanded that Iraq apprehend and hand over Kurdish rebel leaders.
The Iraqis hoped to dissuade the Turks from launching a major cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to take out safe haven bases there for Kurdish separatist guerillas who have been launching terrorist attacks inside Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish attacks by jet fighter-bombers, helicopter gunships, and artillery on Kurdish separatist targets inside Iraq have continued for several days.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CABINET MEETING ON SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRES AND LIVE WEBCAST. With the worst apparently past, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is convening a meeting of his Cabinet, which consists of the heads of the various big state agencies and departments, along with top emergency officials, to go over how to handle the next phase of dealing with the Southern California fires and their aftermaths. State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi will also participate in the meeting.
The meeting begins late this morning. Around 12:30 PM, Schwarzenegger and company will hold a press conference that will be webcast live via this link.
A few officials in areas where the local response is being criticized, namely San Diego and Orange Counties, are complaining that bureaucratic hangups prevented fast air support from being employed to fight the fires. Chief among them is Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who complained on Russian television — as you see in the item and link below from yesterday — that Schwarzenegger and federal authorities wouldn’t accept the offer of a massive firefighting aircraft from the Russian government. Rohrabacher, as he explains in the Moscow TV interview linked to below (it’s in English), has advocated for years on behalf of the Ilyushin-76.
Senator Barack Obama, talking to supporters Monday as he filed
for the New Hampshire primary, still trails Hillary Clinton in the
Democratic presidential race.
** FIELD POLL ON CALIFORNIA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES. The Field Poll of California voters is being issued to its media subscribers, of which NWN is not one, in installments over several days. Today and yesterday come numbers for the California presidential primary. Hillary Clinton has a very big lead on the Democratic side, Rudy Giuliani a still sizeable lead on the Republican side. Clinton and Barack Obama have healthy leads over all Republicans. John Edwards leads all Republicans as well, but his margin over Giuliani is only six point.
On the Republican side, it’s Giuliani 25%, Mitt Romney 13%, John McCain 12%, and Fred Thompson 12%. Giuliani’s down 10 points from the August Field Poll, though he showed no such slippage in last week’s San Jose State Poll.
Thompson, as revealed on NWN, has a big California trip next week for the first time since declaring his candidacy here last month on The Tonight Show.
On the Democratic side, it’s Clinton 45%, Obama 20%, and Edwards 11%.
Bear in mind that all these primary numbers can and frequently do change very rapidly in the actual election year.
Clinton and Obama both holds big leads over all the Republicans. It’s Clinton 52%, Giuliani 38%. (Giuliani is the most competitive Republican in California.) Obama 51%, Giuliani 35%. Edwards 46%, Giuliani 40%.
Former Senator and Law & Order star Fred Thompson, shown
here talking about a Mexican border fence, needs to get it going
in the California Republican presidential primary.
** CLIMATE CHANGE REGULATION. The California Air Resources Board yesterday adopted some early action measures previously discussed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. These include requiring aerodynamic improvements on big trucks.
The ARB also adopted standards for qualifying California forests for the burgeoning carbon offsets market. Investing in programs that reduce greenhouse gases is an important path forward. NWN, for example, is carbon balanced. But standards for real offsets have been unclear.
** SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRE UPDATES. Click here for the locations of and updates on the fires of Southern California.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia is fast re-emerging as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel.
You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is quite interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window. Moscow time is 11 hours ahead of Pacific time.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil prices are up to the $91 to $93 per barrel range on concern over situations in Iraq and Iran.
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My feed cut out, too.
I had Russia Today playing on a laptop for three hours this morning without a hitch.
That was terrible. Wait around with his web site saying the webcast is starting. It cuts out when it gets interesting.
Not a high point.
That is unimpressive. I am glad I didn’t wait around for the Governator again.
What’s this? After doing a pretty decent job with disaster response, FEMA staged a fake press conference with fake reporters?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Even when they get it right they can’t get it right? Is it the water cooler?
They just wanted people to KNOW …
Actually, the level of questioning at these things is frequently dreadful. But that’s another issue.
I expect the Turks to continue serious attacks inside Iraq all the way through the Bush meeting. They will keep pressuring the feeble Iraqi government, the KRG, and the White House.
I expect the Turks to continue serious attacks inside Iraq all the way through the Bush meeting. They will keep pressuring the feeble Iraqi government, the KRG, and the White House.
I expect the Turks to continue serious attacks inside Iraq all the way through the Bush meeting. They will keep pressuring the feeble Iraqi government, the KRG, and the White House.
Sorry for the double -posting.
Sorry for the double -posting.
“NEW RECORD OIL PRICE AT CLOSE… and with the dollar hitting record lows.”
At this height, oil prices should be pulled down of their own accord, but the geopolitical situation keeps kicking them higher and higher. Meanwhile, gas could reach record highs for Thanksgiving (biggest travel day of the year) and folks back East have to take delivery their first batch of home heating oil.
Are you better off than 8 years ago? I’m going with a big “NO” on that one.
Let’s say there were terrorists striking America from inside Canada. President Bush calls the Canadian prime minister and asks the Canadians to get the terrorists. The prime minister says “no.” I bet, in that situation, Marines would be mobilized before the president put the phone back on the receiver.
I know the Turkish situation is complicated, but it seems to me they are being very restrained.
We would have invaded a long time ago.
Actually, crisis helps Iran economically.
But not to worry, because our entire effort in Iraq is funded by oil revenue from Iraq.
Well, that was the plan …
>Brasky :
“NEW RECORD OIL PRICE AT CLOSE… and with the dollar hitting record lows.”
At this height, oil prices should be pulled down of their own accord, but the geopolitical situation keeps kicking them higher and higher.
Actually, crisis helps Iran economically.
But not to worry, because our entire effort in Iraq is funded by oil revenue from Iraq.
Well, that was the plan …
>Brasky :
“NEW RECORD OIL PRICE AT CLOSE… and with the dollar hitting record lows.”
At this height, oil prices should be pulled down of their own accord, but the geopolitical situation keeps kicking them higher and higher.
I think that’s right.
>Jonathan Hemlock :
I expect the Turks to continue serious attacks inside Iraq all the way through the Bush meeting. They will keep pressuring the feeble Iraqi government, the KRG, and the White House.
Oct 26, 2007 04:56 PM
“We would have invaded a long time ago.”
And, I would hope, put Celine Dion in Gitmo.
“Actually, crisis helps Iran economically.”
Ah yes, The Old “Impose Sanctions on Iran, Oil Prices Go Up, Iran Laughs All the Way to the Centrifuges R’ Us Store” Trick. Clever.
The Good news: The Slide Fire is now 20% contained.
The Bad news: The Tv show Vegas was only on for an hour. The show was back on track with a nice surprise:)
I think Sam and Cooper have some interesting chemistry.
The Arnold cabinet meeting:
That press conference felt uncomfortable.
It seems like the world situation is getting out of control
I found that aside that certain “Conservative” pols who didn’t want to spend money on firefighting eqt. or restrict building in dangerous areas are complaining that they didn’t get enough aid really amusing. Or too much. Welfare conservatives willing to let others spend! That’s where we’ve gone!
I’m trying to think of a pithy analogy. Haven’t quite come up with it yet.
I’m trying to think of a pithy analogy. Haven’t quite come up with it yet.
Almost.
>Jonas Blane :
It seems like the world situation is getting out of control
Oct 27, 2007 06:05 AM
And it had a little Magnum reunion, too. But no Higgins! I haven’t seen it yet, but it sounds fun.
>carole w :
The Good news: The Slide Fire is now 20% contained.
The Bad news: The Tv show Vegas was only on for an hour. The show was back on track with a nice surprise:)
I think Sam and Cooper have some interesting chemistry.
The Arnold cabinet meeting:
That press conference felt uncomfortable.
Oct 26, 2007 08:33 PM
Not as good as the banana in the tail pipe.
>Brasky :
“Actually, crisis helps Iran economically.”
Ah yes, The Old “Impose Sanctions on Iran, Oil Prices Go Up, Iran Laughs All the Way to the Centrifuges R’ Us Store” Trick. Clever.
Oct 26, 2007 06:08 PM
Those new subdivisions make fighting fires much easier – start with having roads. Wildfires in uninhabited areas are much more likely to burn for a prolonged period before any actual fire suppression can be brought to bear on them.
Are you for real, man?
What, no crack pot reply?!
Capitol Boy, did you happen to read any of the articles about the Big Bear area fire crews using a bulldozer on the mountain to create paths for the firefighting vehicles? It’s a highly dangerous job, and they lost one of their members a few months ago when the dozer flipped over. They do it because you can’t get firefighting heavy equipment near a fire otherwise, except for the helicopters and planes. Roads let you go to the fire, instead of waiting until it comes to you.
Oh, and guess what is the first thing firefighters do to stop a wildfire? They create a fire break. Read the Slide Fire portion of this article for a description of how. A paved two-lane road is (at least) a 16-foot wide fire break.
This one’s not a link so it won’t trip the monitoring software:
http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/MEDIA/ashore/issues/winter00/fightingwildfires.htm
Are these guys crackpots too?
Capitol Boy, did you happen to read any of the articles about the Big Bear area fire crews using a bulldozer on the mountain to create paths for the firefighting vehicles? It’s a highly dangerous job, and they lost one of their members a few months ago when the dozer flipped over. They do it because you can’t get firefighting heavy equipment near a fire otherwise, except for the helicopters and planes. Roads let you go to the fire, instead of waiting until it comes to you.
Oh, and guess what is the first thing firefighters do to stop a wildfire? They create a fire break. Read the Slide Fire portion of this article for a description of how. A paved two-lane road is (at least) a 16-foot wide fire break.
This one’s not a link so it won’t trip the monitoring software:
http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/MEDIA/ashore/issues/winter00/fightingwildfires.htm
Are these guys crackpots too?
Nick M,
I live in a new development. I can’t drive from point A to B because the “New Roads” are always double parked with construction vehicles.
What happens when the city REQUIRES a 30 foot defensible space between houses then, the developer builds with in five feet of your property line? We needs new laws and we need someone to ENFORCE them. Do you work for a contractor or make love to one?
New laws don’t do much good when the building inspector is on the take. They’ll sign off on violations of those too.
We could definitely use some crackdowns on corruption. Maybe a few Public Integrity units should start reviewing tapes of Lakers home games to see who’s in the club seats among people required to file Form 700s.
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