Famed anti-establishment comedian and provocateur George Carlin died yesterday in LA at 71 of a heart attack. His role was pushing the boundaries. If you’re easily offended, don’t watch him discuss religion.
** SCHWARZENEGGER TO BE FIRST GUEST ON THE POST-RUSSERT MEET THE PRESS. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be the first guest of new Meet The Press host Tom Brokaw for this coming Sunday’s show. He will be recording the interview shortly. California First Lady Maria Shriver, a former NBC correspondent and anchor, was a close friend of the late Tim Russert, and as reported appeared on the memorial edition of Meet The Press the Sunday before last and spoke at his Russert’s Kennedy Center memorial service last Wednesday. Schwarzenegger first appeared on the show in 2004. But he nearly appeared before that, a story for another time.
** SCHWARZENEGGER AND THE LEGISLATURE. In another sign that things are simply not as copacetic as they once were between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature, the former action superstar criticized state Senate Democrats when he spoke this morning at the Catholic health care conference in San Diego. After it passed the state Assembly, they killed his omnibus package late last year, he said, because they favored single-payer health care. Which, as he noted, actually costs more. Schwarzenegger and termed-out Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata have found ample ground for disagreement over the past half-year or so, much of it around water. Perata has been loathe to find compromise between environmentalists, who eschew dams, and conservatives, who eschew conservation. … Also, no progress on the chronic state budget crisis. Naturally.
** JOHN MCCAIN, NATURALLY, HAS DISAVOWED CHARLIE BLACK’S QUOTE ABOUT A TERRORIST ATTACK ON AMERICAN SOIL BENEFITING HIM POLITICALLY. Perhaps he knows that it would not.
** ANOTHER CURIOUS QUOTE FROM THE BELTWAY. Speaking this morning to Republican insiders at breakfast the Capitol Hill Club, former Bush consigliere Karl Rove, who allowed as how he was going to stroll over to the White House after breakfast to chat with the president, let loose with this little jewel of resentment. “Even if you never met him,” said Rove of Barack Obama, “you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”
Hmm. Well, I don’t know much about country club life, or what a fellow like Obama would be doing there (unlike, say, John Kerry), but I know a lot about political consultants. And this one sounds to me like a guy who is frustrated and is hoping to re-run his greatest hits from 2004.
** ACTUALLY, I DOUBT IT. From Fortune’s new profile of John McCain, entitled “The Evolution of John McCain”: We saw how that might play out early in the campaign, when one good scare, one timely reminder of the chaos lurking in the world, probably saved McCain in New Hampshire, a state he had to win to save his candidacy – this according to McCain’s chief strategist, Charlie Black. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,” says Black. “But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.” As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,” says Black.
Why would another terrorist attack on US soil be bad for the Republicans? Because it would mean they had failed in the one area in which they still have great credibility. I think that’s rather obvious.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING ON FIRES. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will give a briefing on California’s burgeoning fire situation just before noon at the Wild Fire Base Camp outside the Northern California town of Fairfield, which is between Sacramento and San Francisco. He has National Guard helicopters and aircraft involved in the firefighting effort. The event will be webcast live at 11:40 AM at www.gov.ca.gov.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Albuquerque, New Mexico to tour a business and meet with working women.
John McCain is in Fresno, California, for a speech on energy promising huge federal incentives to inventors and car companies, and a fundraiser. He also has a fundraiser tonight in Santa Barbara. Prior to tomorrow’s environmental event, at the site of the one of the most famous oil spills in history.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING ON HEALTH CARE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gives the keynote address at the 2008 Catholic Health Care Assembly in San Diego. Schwarzenegger is slowly resurrecting elements of his omnibus health care plan from last year, largely through executive action. (No, not that kind of executive action.) The speech is at 9:30 AM and can be seen on www.gov.ca.gov.
Barack Obama speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Saturday in Miami.
** MY LATEST PODCAST. The road ahead.
** OBAMA V. MCCAIN: THE AD WARS ARE ON. What Obama and McCain are doing in their first rounds of general election TV advertising. Along with the where and the why. From my other blog.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged 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 quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. 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.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil hit a record of nearly $140 per barrel last Monday before dropping. Crude oil is trading up today, in the $136 to $137 per barrel range, in the wake of the unprecedented oil producers and consumers summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on June 22nd.
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I think your read that a domestic terror attack is a big problem for the reeps is correct. It would be a real WTF moment (on top of gas prices, war casualties, etc).
Now a European attack would probably help McCain. They got weak and soft (unlike BushCain) and left themselves vulnerable to terrorists because they refused to fight them over there to prevent them from following them home (or however that works). Paris would be a good target, if you’re the conspiracy type.
Also, the unexpected arrival of a new threat could help. The threat would have to be completely unexpected (no buried station chief reports from a decade prior) so that the public felt that no one could possibly predict this new blight (space aliens or French Canadian singers perhaps). Then good-old, rock-steady McCain will be there to protect us.
“It’s like a little dumbbell, right?”
Except that its 50% easier because there’s no weight on the downstroke.
There you go. Yet it is …
Charlie Black is dead wrong about that. As are most of the folks on cable news.
I think it would be the coup de grace for McCain and his allies.
>Brasky:
I think your read that a domestic terror attack is a big problem for the reeps is correct. It would be a real WTF moment (on top of gas prices, war casualties, etc).
“As are most of the folks on cable news.”
Those people are idiots. I can’t watch cable news unless they are actually REPORTING something. Then, sometimes, they do a good job.
But 90% of what they do ISN’T reporting. What they do is color commentary and they do a rather bad job of that.
You know the guys who go on and on about some inane biographical fact about the guy who’s at the end of the bench when all you want them to do is shut the Hell up so you can listen to the game? That’s what cable news does. Hour after hour, channel after channel, day after day of THAT.
Back in the olden days of TV, when they didn’t have anything of value to broadcast, they would just shove a test pattern up there. Nowadays, they give the time to “news commentators.” They fill the dead air that exists between stories about religious cults and actresses entering rehab.
And I’d rather watch a documentary on cheese making or have root canal or listen to Celine Dion than watch that crap.
But other than that, I have no opinion on the matter.
The intro music to Meet The Press is great. Many times I’ve tuned in for that first 1:20 minutes to hear Tim Russert’s intro, then turned the TV off. The music was of course done by John Williams, from Indiana Jones, Star Wars, ET, Jaws, and all that.
Meet The Press 12-23-07
McCain is interestingly absent from that synopsis of the race.
That’s very nice, Hap. I have been saying this for a couple of years, i.e., since the time I considered Obama just a guy who gave a really neat speech.
Bush is not a good wartime president. He is a bad wartime president. He is not stupid. He is intelligent. Nevertheless, he clearly has no idea what he is talking about, as I learned to my chagrin after supporting the invasion of Iraq.
Lighten up Sandy…
You also trashed the surge as I recall..
‘Hanoi Hilton’ operator endorses McCain
The BBC reports that Tran Trong Duyet, who ran the infamous Hoa Lo prison in North Vietnam — more commonly known as the Hanoi Hilton — would support John McCain if he were a U.S. voter.
In Duyet’s telling, the Hanoi Hilton was nothing like its fearsome reputation. “But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners.”
…
So is Mr Duyet implying that that Senator McCain lied about his treatment at the Hanoi Hilton?
“He did not tell the truth,” he says. “But I can somehow sympathise with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election.”
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7459946.stm
Paul,
Thanks. And who would have ever thought that he would lie about that stuff. Guess he had all the time in the world to make it up as he sunned by the pool as a guest of the North Vietnamese government. Perhaps he penned his thoughts and planned his outrageous tale as he sipped on martini’s while waiting for his daily steak and lobster to be served. You think???
How ungrateful a chap he must be. For years the kind, wonderful, leaders of North Vietnam take care of this subhuman and the moment he’s released the stories begin to fly. Go figure.
What new video today?
A very exciting one.
You’re kidding, right?
?Paul Burton:
‘Hanoi Hilton’ operator endorses McCain
The BBC reports that Tran Trong Duyet, who ran the infamous Hoa Lo prison in North Vietnam — more commonly known as the Hanoi Hilton — would support John McCain if he were a U.S. voter.
In Duyet’s telling, the Hanoi Hilton was nothing like its fearsome reputation. “But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners.”
…
So is Mr Duyet implying that that Senator McCain lied about his treatment at the Hanoi Hilton?
“He did not tell the truth,” he says. “But I can somehow sympathise with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election.”
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7459946.stm
Jun 23, 2008 – 10:44 pm
Actually, what I said is that the surge should work from a military standpoint, at least for a time. But that the real test is what sort of political settlement it enables.
Which I think holds up very well.
>Hap Hazard:
You also trashed the surge as I recall..
Jun 23, 2008 – 10:18 pm
“Actually, what I said is that the surge should work from a military standpoint, at least for a time. But that the real test is what sort of political settlement it enables.
Which I think holds up very well.”
The surge was like an artificial heart, which works remarkably well at keeping a patient alive while you wait for a suitable transplant. Sadly, the artificial heart (and now artificial assist hearts)is not a suitable replacement for a real heart and long-term use always results in the death of the patient.
Again, who knows what would have happened if Bush hadn’t broken Iraq when he invaded it and we had “surged” from Day 1.
Now political differences seem nearly intractable and I’m concerned about the long-term prognosis for Iraq.
Incidentally, NWN passed 65,000 comments sometime in the past week.