“Things Can Only Get Better,” the theme song of New Labour’s smashing 1997 victory.
December 30th through January 2nd.
NOTE: NWN is in New Year’s week publishing mode, which means that material will be moved every day, but not all that frequently. And we’ll see more holiday/entertainment video here.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END.With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
** NEW POLL: LIBERAL CONFIDENCE IN OBAMA EXTREMELY HIGH, CONSERVATIVE CONFIDENCE IMPROVING.According to a brand new Gallup Poll, liberal confidence in President-elect Barack Obama is beyond sky-high, at an amazing 93%. And confidence in him amongst conservative Republicans is up to nearly a third.
This comes despite a lot of carping on the left about some of Obama’s Cabinet picks, from the centrist range, and especially around his selection of Orange County pastor Rick Warren – an opponent of same-sex marriage – to deliver the invocation at his inaugural.
More than 9 in 10 liberal Democrats have expressed confidence that Obama will make a good president since Gallup began tracking these opinions after the election last November. Moderate and conservative Democrats show nearly as high levels of confidence. …
Perhaps because his choices may signal a more politically moderate approach to governing, conservative, moderate, and liberal Republicans have become more confident in Obama’s potential in recent weeks.
Now, a slim majority of moderate and liberal Republicans, 51%, say they are confident Obama will be a good president, up from 44% in November. Conservative Republicans remain largely skeptical of Obama’s abilities, but in recent weeks his stock has risen slightly among this group, from 23% to 29%.
The place the president-elect just left behind: Kailua.
** OBAMA TODAY – FRIDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and First Lady-to be Michelle Obama are back in Chicago today, following their working vacation in Hawaii. They’re packing this weekend and heading on Sunday to Washington, where they’ll take up residence at the historic Hay Adams Hotel prior to Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States on January 20th.
Why the move? Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, start school on Monday. And dad has a few meetings. He’ll meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to go over his big economic stimulus program and other matters. Then the three will meet with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may wish he could use this negotiation technique in California’s chronic budget crisis. The Terminator was named this week by the Library of Congress as an American movie classic.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – FRIDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is vacationing with First Lady Maria Shriver and their family through the weekend at their home in Sun Valley. On New Year’s Eve, his state budget director, Mike Genest, unveiled a proposal to deal with California’s budget woes over the next 18 months. It would cover a more than $41 billion budget deficit by making a variety of cuts, raising the sales tax, tapping the state lottery, shortening the school year, and borrowing almost $5 billion.
It got the now customary response from legislative leaders. Liberal Democrats sorta liked it, while disliking the cuts. Right-wing Republicans hate the tax hike, while proposing nothing meaningful themselves as an alternative. The game will continue next week.
** OBAMA TODAY – THURSDAY. After celebrating New Year’s Eve in at a party with friends in Kailua, President-elect Barack Obama and his family end their Hawaiian vacation this afternoon and return to Chicago.
They won’t spend much time in Chicago, as they are packing some things up and moving to Washington over the weekend. The Obamas will take up temporary quarters at the historic Hay Adams Hotel in the run-up to his inauguration on January 20th. Barack and Michelle’s daughters Malia and Sasha start school next Monday. And dad has something to do that day, too. He’s meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to go over the agenda.
In the meantime, despite percolating world crises and a terrible economic downturn, Obama managed to get some rest and relaxation before formally inheriting the mess from the Bush/Cheney Administration.
From today’s Honolulu Advertiser:President-elect Barack Obama will leave today after a 12-day, low-profile vacation in the Islands spent golfing, working out, taking his family on a few outings and memorializing his grandmother, who died two days before his historic election.
The holiday — meant as a quiet reprieve before his Jan. 20 inauguration — thrilled Obama supporters here, many of whom tracked down the president-elect for autographs, photos or even a quick glimpse, pat on the back or handshake. It also delighted the small Kailua neighborhood where Obama stayed.
“It’s been very exciting,” said Linda Oifer, who lives down the street from the Kailuana Place compound where the Obamas spent the holidays. She added that the extra security in the community, including a flood of Secret Service agents, hasn’t been much of a hassle. Any inconvenience, she said, was worth it since they got to wave to Obama almost daily as he passed by in his motorcade. Mike Kilpatrick, who also lives in the area, agreed. “It was no inconvenience at all,” he said. “We hope that he comes back.”
On his last full day in the Islands yesterday, Obama’s motorcade left his rental compound at 7:40 a.m. and arrived at the Semper Fit Center at Marine Corps Base Hawaii within 10 minutes. He worked out for about an hour, and stopped outside the gym afterward for about three minutes to greet at least 100 well-wishers, some of whom got themselves photographed with Obama.
“Thank you for your service, guys,” Obama told Marines in the crowd. …
During his stay in the Islands, which began Dec. 20, Obama has played several rounds of golf, worked out almost every day, and has taken his family to Sea Life Park, for shave ice at Koko Marina Center and to the Honolulu Zoo. On Christmas Day, he dropped by Marine Corps Base Hawaii for about an hour to share holiday greetings with mostly single Marines and sailors eating a holiday meal.
And on Dec. 22, Obama and his family finally got the chance to honor the memory of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who raised him in the Islands. After a private service, he scattered her ashes at Lana’i Lookout, the same spot where Obama scattered the ashes of his mother in 1995. …
Obama was born in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School. He has routinely made Christmas visits to the Islands but missed a trip in 2007.
Highlights of USC’s victory in the 2008 Rose Bowl.
** NEW YEAR’S DAY. A time to contemplate, to think back, to think ahead … to recover from a hangover and enjoy the biggest day of college football of the year. A week till the national title game between Oklahoma and Florida, but today has five big bowl games. Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. South Carolina. Gator Bowl: Clemson vs. Nebraska. Capital One Bowl: Georgia vs. Michigan State. Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. USC. Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech.
The biggest game is the Rose Bowl, featuring two teams that came close to the national championship themselves. Had USC, with a great defense led by national defensive player of the year Rey Maualuga and good offense led by quarterback Mark Sanchez, not fallen asleep in the first half against Oregon State, just five days after their trouncing of Ohio State in the much- touted “game of the year,” they’d be undefeated and ranked first in the country. As it is, they’re in the Rose Bowl, as usual, expected to beat the Big 10 champion, as usual. But in Penn State, they face a team that also nearly made it to the national title game.
Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, yesterday appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the post. Federal prosecutors want two more months to prepare an indictment.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL.Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA TODAY – WEDNESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday in Hawaii, and private work on his presidential transition.
This coming weekend, Obama and his family will move to Washington, where he will stay at the historic Hay Adams Hotel, in advance of his inauguration on January 20th.
Meanwhile, Israel has rejected a temporary ceasefire, instead launching fresh air attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy tunnels through which arms and other materiel are smuggled to Hamas terrorists. Israel appears to be prepping for a ground offensive, judging that days of air attacks have failed to take out the Hamas offensive rocket capability.
And Blagogate, which hasn’t touched Obama in the polls or in any direct way in the storyline of events, just had another twist. Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is going to ask for a few more months to put together his indictment of the the Illinois governor.
This comes on top of his surprise appointment yesterday of former state Attorney General Roland Burris to take Obama’s vacated Senate seat. With Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, the ex-Black Panther leader who easily defeated Obama in a 2000 Democratic primary, on hand to insist that Burris be seated to ensure that the Senate continues to have a black member. Many legal experts think that Burris will be seated, despite the wishes of Senate and other state leaders.
The Terminator has just been picked by the Library of Congress as an American movie classic. Here the titular character, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, has located his target Sarah Connor in an LA police station.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – WEDNESDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues his holiday vacation in Sun Valley with First Lady Maria Shriver and their children.
This shouldn’t surprise you, but it doesn’t look like any solution to California’s chronic budget deficit is coming this week, notwithstanding some breathless reports of major progress at the beginning of the week.
Schwarzenegger’s finance director, Mike Genest, will release a proposed budget this morning to deal with the projected $41 billion deficit over the next year and a half. It won’t be pretty.
But the week brought a new honor to the former action superstar. The film which yielded his signature role, The Terminator, directed by James Cameron, was picked yesterday for the permanent collection of the Library of Congress as an American movie classic. The Terminator was added to the National Film Registry along with several other films such as The Asphalt Jungle, Deliverance, A Face In The Crowd, and In Cold Blood.
Israel says it’s in “a war to the bitter end” against Hamas.
** OBAMA RELEASES STATEMENT DENOUNCING BLAGO MOVE.“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”
** BLAGO MAKES A MOVE. Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant seat in the US Senate, has appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat. After earlier signaling he would not make an appointment.
The press conference was apparently quite a show. On hand for the show this afternoon was Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, the old Black Panther leader who defeated Obama when he ran for Congress in the 2000 Democratic primary.
Rush insists that Burris must be admitted to the Senate, because otherwise there will be no black member with Obama’s elevation to the Presidency.
Senate leaders, and other Illinois state leaders, vow to block the appointment. But I’ve scanned material on this and it may be that there is no way to stop the appointment.
** BROWN SUES FEDS ON ENVIRONMENT. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced this morning that the State of California is suing the Bush Administration for trying to change the Endangered Species Act in its waning days by eliminating requirements mandating scientific review of federal agency decisions that may threaten endangered species and their habitat.
Brown filed suit late yesterday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. He charges that the US Departments of the Interior and Commerce are violating “the Endangered Species Act by adopting regulations that are inconsistent with that statute; the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider the environmental ramifications of the proposed new regulations; and the Administrative Procedures Act by not adequately considering public comments submitted by the Attorney General and numerous other organizations and concerned citizens.”
“The Bush Administration is seeking to gut the Endangered Species Act on its way out the door,” Brown said. “This is an audacious attempt to circumvent a time-tested statute that for 35 years has required scientific review of proposed federal agency decisions that affect wildlife.”
** BLAIR TO MEDIATE IN GAZA FIGHT. ISRAEL TO ACCEPT A TEMPORARY TRUCE? Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Mideast Quartet (US, UK, Russia, European Union) is going to the Middle East to attempt to broker a peace agreement.
Since his appointment in late 2006, Blair has made significant moves to strengthen the Palestinian Fatah government in the West Bank but has been hamstrung around the overall Israeli-Palestinian struggle. First the Bush/Cheney Administration moved for elections in the Gaza Strip, not realizing that Hamas would likely win. They did. Then Bush and Secretary of State Condi Rice insisted on taking the lead in overall peace negotiations. Which predictably went nowhere.
In order for negotiations to work, a ceasefire would have to be in place. Israel is contemplating one now. Of course, most of the aerial targets it can hit have already been hit. Britain, along with the EU, is stepping up its call on Israel to cease its military response to Hamas rocket attacks, calling it disproportionate and counter-productive.
** OBAMA TODAY – TUESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday vacation in Hawaii with his family. While he’s receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings and is continuing work on his presidential transition, he has no public appearances or statements planned.
He’s monitoring the Gaza crisis, which is a shooting war, and the Mumbai crisis, which could become a shooting war. The US is backing Israel, which is retaliating heavily for rocket attacks launched against it by Hamas.
While visiting Israel over the summer, Obama expressed solidarity for Israeli victims of rocket attacks. He has also condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The US backs Israel in the fight with Hamas over Gaza. Ironically, it was a miscalculation by the Bush/Cheney Administration that gave Hamas the opportunity to win elections there.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – TUESDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is vacationing and holding private talks about the state’s chronic budget crisis. He’d like to see a solution come together this week. He’d have preferred to have seen one before Christmas.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $109 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Israel prepares for a possible ground assault on the Gaza Strip.
** VOTERS SAY “FREE MARKET” … BUT WANT MORE REGULATION. The new Republican Rasmussen poll has discovered something obvious in American life. Most voters say they prefer the free market to socialism, by 70% to 15%.
But most also say they want more regulation of big business, not less, by 52% to 35%.
It’s not really the dichotomy it seems on the surface. America was founded on a suspicion of centralized authority.
But that extends to private authority as well as public authority. And private authority has been having a big run of it in America these past eight years.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Another short week in presidential and California politics. Probably. Though not in geopolitics.
President-elect Barack Obama continues his family holiday sojourn in the Aloha State, with no public appearances or statements on tap save for his weekly video/radio address.
But geopolitical crises may impinge.
On the geopolitical front, Israel is continuing its assault, begun just after Christmas, on Hamas-related targets in the Gaza Strip, retaliating for repeated rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory. Hundreds have been killed in the attacks, carried out by air. Now there are signs that Israel is preparing a ground offensive.
In the Mumbai crisis, Pakistan is moving tens of thousands of troops from its border with Afghanistan – where they are part of the US fight against a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda – to its border with India. Indian jets in the past week have probed Pakistani air defenses and several battalions of special operations troops have been dispatched to the Pakistani border, as India remains unsatisfied by Pakistani attempts to crack down on Islamist elements judged to be behind the attacks just before Thanksgiving.
Whether the move is a further slide to war or not, it is likely to have a serious effect on the renewed Afghan War, which hasn’t been going well for the past few years.
In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders continue to talk about a possible solution to the state’s chronic and deepening budget crisis.
We’ll see how that goes.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday vacation in Hawaii with his family. While he’s receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings, he has no public appearances or statements planned.
Obama spent seven hours yesterday attending a party at the home of a high school friend.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding private talks about the state’s chronic budget crisis. He’d like to see a solution come together this week. He’d have preferred to have seen one before Christmas.
Over the weekend, Schwarzenegger’s friend Robert Graham, the famed sculptor, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 70. A native of Mexico City, Graham was married to Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston.
Graham was known both for his monumental public sculptures, which grace the Olympic Games and the FDR Memorial, and for his female nudes. I have one of his bronzes, a gift from a good friend.
Schwarzenegger said this on Graham’s passing: “Maria and I were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Robert Graham. Robert was an amazing sculptor who forever shaped the presence of sculpture art throughout California and the world. His work was truly influential and he will forever remain an icon in this state. Our thoughts and prayers are with Robert’s wife Anjelica and his entire family during this difficult time.”
Not long before his death at the UCLA Medical Center, Graham was inducted into the California Museum’s California Hall of Fame on December 15th. Graham actually designed the “Spirit of California” medal for the California Hall of Fame.
The San Jose State grad’s work has been the subject of over eighty solo exhibitions and three retrospective exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan and Mexico, and is included in many national and international museum collections. He designed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Gates and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C., as well as the Joe Louis Memorial in Detroit, and monumental sculptures depicting jazz giants Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker in New York and Kansas City.
The UN Security Council has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $109 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Does a movie about the plot to kill Hitler sound like a big holiday hit? We’ll see with Valkyrie.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and his family continue their holiday vacation in Hawaii. Obama is receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings and planning his presidency.
This is a quiet day in American politics. And global crises are aiding in the quiet, although the Mumbai crisis is on a knife’s edge and Israel is continuing its attack in the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas has launched repeated rocket attacks in recent days.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and his family mostly slept through a major power outage last night during a big thunderstorm on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where Obama was born.
Obama has daily intelligence/national security briefings. Two items undoubtedly high up on today’s agenda: The tense Mumbai crisis. And the growing tit-for-tat attacks between Palestinians and Israelis. Yesterday saw one of the largest losses of life in decades. Terrorists in the Gaza Strip have been launching rocket attacks against Israel. The Israelis retaliated yesterday with air strikes against Hamas targets, killing nearly 200.
Pakistan today tried to downplay tensions with India in the wake of last month’s Mumbai massacre. But yesterday, thousands of Pakistani troops began moving from the country’s border with Afghanistan – where they play a key ostensible role in the struggle to tamp down a resurgent Al Qaeda and the Taliban – to the border with India. This move comes in the wake of India repeatedly probing Pakistani air defenses with sorties across the border and moving special ops troops up to the border.
It may be that Pakistan is moving the troops away from the struggle with Islamists as a way to get the US to pressure India to back down on its demands that all the links with the Mumbai terrorist siege inside Pakistan be pursued fully.
So Obama has more on his mind today than post-Christmas shopping and seeing the sights in one of the world’s most beautiful places.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, vacationing with his family in Sun Valley, has been negotiating via videophone with state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass about the state’s deepening, chronic budget crisis. They’re said to be getting close to an agreement.
Of course, we’ve heard this all sort of thing before. One of the staples of coverage of California’s chronic budget crisis is breathless talk of a solution being almost at hand. With lots of utterly disposable details. Let’s see what we think on Monday.
Incidentally, California’s not the only state in big trouble in the midst of the sharp economic downturn accelerated by the near-cratering of Wall Street. Ohio and other states and localities are asking for many billions in federal bail-outs.
** EMERALD BOWL: CAL VS. MIAMI. The Golden Bears of the University of California take on the Miami Hurricanes Saturday evening in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Cal, with its powerful ground game, led by sophomore speed merchant Jahvid Best, and strong defense, should be able to handle the fabled Miami program, a bit down on its luck these days. A Cal win will put them back in the national rankings and position the team for yet another run at dynasty USC for West Coast supremacy.
Caroline Kennedy, seeking appointment to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designee Hillary Clinton, spoke Friday with the Associated Press.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my Monday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $37.71 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
The drop of $110 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
The annual Doctor Who Christmas Special, entitled The Next Doctor, aired Christmas night in the UK to big ratings. The show airs next year in the US.
NOTE: NWN is in Christmas week publishing mode, which means that material will be moved every day, but not all that frequently. And we’ll see more holiday/entertainment video here.
** MUMBAI CRISIS HEATS UP. As I mentioned might happen in the Monday Morning Quarterback column, the Mumbai crisis is heating up. Pakistan is moving tens of thousands of troops from its border with Afghanistan, where they ostensibly help in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, to its border with India.
This comes after weeks of word of some Pakistani connections to the Thanksgiving attacks, the incursions of Indian jets into Pakistani airspace, and the move of some Indian special ops units to the border.
Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said. The move represents a sharp escalation in the standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors and will hurt Pakistan’s U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban taking place near Afghanistan’s border.
Two intelligence officials said the army’s 14th Division was being redeployed to Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border. They said some 20,000 troops were on the move. Earlier Friday, a security official said that all troop leave had been canceled.
** GALLUP POLL: OBAMA IS MOST ADMIRED. The new Gallup Poll shows that President-elect Barack Obama is the man Americans most admire in the world. In the 60-year history of this question being asked, Obama is only the second president-elect so designated. The first was Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.
** OBAMA TODAY – FRIDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday sojourn in Hawaii. No public appearances are expected, nor any announcements from the Obama transition team. Obama receives intelligence/national security briefings every day and is continuing to plan his presidency.
President-elect Barack Obama delivers his weekly video/radio address, focusing on support for the US Armed Forces in this Christmas and holiday season, and hope for struggling Americans in the economic downturn, pointing to the inspiration of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware during the American Revolution.
** OBAMA TODAY – THURSDAY. MELE KALIKIMAKA! President-elect Barack Obama wished “Mele Kalikimaka” (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) to wellwishers outside Marine Corps Base Hawaii yesterday, where he’s been working out every day of his working vacation in the Aloha State.
Obama and Michelle Obama, with their daughters Malia and Sasha, are celebrating Christmas today in Kailua, where they’re staying in a rented beachfront home. Kailua is a Windward Oahu town, a half-hour drive from the relative bustle of Honolulu. I’ve driven there, down the Pali Highway, then through a tunnel and out again to confront a beautiful panoramic view dominated by ocean and some of the best beachfront in the world. The Obamas are opening presents in the morning and having their traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and ham later in the day.
Obama also has his daily intelligence briefing. In that setting, even more than most of Hawaii, it’s easier to approach even the most distressing news with Zen-like composure.
From Obama’s video/radio address: Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty. This Christmas and holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted, knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table. In distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and -women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home. …
This season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans.
If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day. …
It was Christmas Day — Dec. 25, 1776 — that Washington and his troops fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River. Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season — the same lessons that guide us to this very day: That hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible. …
“Please Come Home For Christmas” by, oddly enough, the Eagles. (The programmed Christmas lights version.)
** OBAMA’S CHRISTMAS HONEYMOON.A brand-new CNN poll, released on Christmas Eve as President-elect Barack Obama vacations in longtime honeymoon spot Hawaii, shows increased, sky-high support for Obama’s presidential transition.
The widely-publicized kerfuffles around Rod Blagojevich and Rick Warren haven’t hurt a bit, as anticipated.
Eighty-two percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday morning approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition. That’s up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December. Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Obama’s handling his transition, down 3 points from our last poll.
The 82 percent approval is higher than then President-elect George W. Bush 8 years ago, who had a 65 percent transition approval rating, and Bill Clinton, at 67 percent in 1992.
“Barack Obama is having a better honeymoon with the American public than any incoming president in the past three decades. He’s putting up better numbers, usually by double digits, than Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, or either George Bush on every item traditionally measured in transition polls,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA TODAY – WEDNESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in Hawaii with his family for the holidays. He has no public events today. While he is continuing to work on transition matters, and is receiving a daily national security briefing, no Obama transition announcements are expected on Christmas Eve.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser: President-elect Barack Obama spent much of yesterday honoring the memory of the grandmother who raised him, and then scattering her ashes at Lana’i Lookout, the same spot where Obama scattered the ashes of his mother after her death in 1995.
The White House press corps traveling with Obama on his third O’ahu visit of the year was not allowed into First Unitarian Church for a one-hour service in memory of Madelyn Dunham, who died of cancer at age 86 just two days before Obama’s presidential victory. And media were not allowed to accompany Obama, his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, her husband, and Obama’s immediate family of wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia as they picked their way down to Lana’i Lookout and its wave-swept, rocky shoreline yesterday afternoon.
Obama scattered the ashes of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, at the same location after she died of cancer at the age of 53. During a family vacation in August, Obama returned to Lana’i Lookout to toss a lei into the ocean in memory of his mother.
While local and national media were kept at a distance yesterday, Lauray Gouveia of Kaimuki managed to snap several photos of the Obama entourage of about 12 people that visited the lookout for 20 minutes. Gouveia suffered her own health scare in May when she came down with pneumonia, and yesterday she sympathized with Obama’s emotions. “To lose someone that close, I felt his pain,” she said.
Gouveia wanted to be close to Obama and capture his image but would not allow herself to photograph him scattering his grandmother’s ashes.
“It’s too personal,” she said. “It’s pono. You’ve got to do the right thing.” …
Dunham and her husband, Stanley Dunham, raised Obama in their two-bedroom, 10th-floor apartment on Beretania Street while his mother traveled and pursued her graduate studies in Indonesia with his sister. Obama called his grandmother “Toot,” after the Hawaiian name for grandparent, tutu. Her husband was “Gramps.” The ashes of Stanley Dunham — a sergeant in Gen. George Patton’s 7th Army in Europe — are inurned in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
Madelyn Dunham was suffering from osteoporosis and cancer when she fell in her apartment and broke her hip in early October. Within days, Obama’s presidential campaign announced his sudden decision to cancel appearances so he could make the long flight home to visit Dunham. Family friends at the time said Obama did not want to relive his experience in 1995, when he arrived too late to say goodbye to his mother.
He had been raised by both of his maternal grandparents: Stanley — the gregarious and fun-loving pal, who struggled to sell furniture and then insurance on O’ahu; and Madelyn, the stern, no-nonsense banking executive who draped young Barack in equal parts Kansas values and grandmotherly love.
During his campaign for the presidency, Obama’s grandmother represented the last surviving close adult figure from his childhood, having already lost his mother, father and grandfather. In his first public comments after Dunham’s death, Obama told a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., that she was a “quiet hero.”
“Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this morning,” Obama said to supporters after her death. “She has gone home. She died peacefully in her sleep, with my sister at her side, and so there’s great joy as well as tears. I’m not going to talk about it too long because it’s hard to talk about. I want everybody to know, though, about her. Her name is Madelyn Dunham. She was born in Kansas in a small town in 1922, which means she lived through the Great Depression, she lived through two world wars.” …
Many of Obama’s political opponents on the far right claimed that his October trip to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother was actually an attempt by the candidate to cover up the “fact” that he is not an American citizen.
America is on the brink of a “surge” … in deeply troubled Afghanistan.
** OBAMA TODAY – TUESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama left Chicago over the weekend for a 10-day holiday trip to Hawaii. He will spend the holidays with family and friends and, with the Cabinet appointed, continue to do transition work during his stay in the Aloha State. Vice President-elect Biden will be in Delaware.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Team Obama will release its internal report on its dealings with embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell appointment to Obama’s Senate seat. Nothing dramatic is expected, and Obama won’t be commenting from Hawaii on the situation.
Obama is receiving national security briefings every day. He’s doing transition work, meeting with longtime senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who flew out to Hawaii with the Obamas and talking with other advisors and Cabinet members around the country on his emerging economic stimulus plan and filling out his administration. He’ll also hold a private memorial service for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died just before his election as president.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold another event around California’s chronic budget crisis Tuesday afternoon, at Shorebird Park in Sacramento. He talked at length on Monday with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg in search of a solution and will meet with them this morning.
Last week, the Pooled Money Investment Board voted to stop $3.8 billion in infrastructure financing over the next six months. Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for the State of California, calling the Legislature into a second Prop 58 special session to address this emergency. He also issued an executive order to prepare state government and its employees for the worsening state budget crisis with possible work furloughs and layoffs.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
A “natural gas OPEC” is being discussed now at a summit of major gas producers in Moscow.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Christmas Eve at $35.35 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on Christmas Day.
The drop of $112 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Forget Illinois: California is poised to be the top dog in Obama-era Washington. With roughly a half-dozen Cabinet and key administrative appointees and a powerhouse congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, California is shaping up to be the new Texas, the alpha state whose cultural and policymaking influence was inescapable through most of the last eight years.
President-elect Barack Obama’s energy secretary-designate is Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Hilda L. Solis, a Los Angeles-area Democratic congresswoman, was named last week as Obama’s choice for secretary of labor. The Council of Economic Advisers will be chaired by University of California-Berkeley professor Christina Romer; Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley will head the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, and Phil Schiliro, a longtime top aide to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), will serve as Obama’s chief liaison to Congress.
While California’s share of key administration positions has been on par with other big Democratic-leaning states Illinois and New York, when its unrivaled congressional clout is factored in, the state looms as a dominant force in a Democratic-controlled Washington.
Not surprisingly, I think this new CW is right.
In addition to Speaker Pelosi, and the Congressional clout of Henry Waxman chairing House Energy and Commerce, Howard Berman chairing House Foreign Affairs, and George Miller chairing House Education and Labor, you have Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer chairing Senate Intelligence and Senate Environment and Public Works. That is huge clout.
** GALLUP POLL: DEPRESSION NOT SUCH A CRAZY NOTION. A new Gallup Poll a few days before Christmas shows an increasing number of Americans thinking that an economic depression is in the cards.
Since March, the percentage of Americans largely ruling out the possibility of an economic depression in the next two years has shrunk from 40% to 25%, while the percentage saying it is “very likely” has grown from 23% to 35%. Although Americans who predict the worst for the economy remain in the minority, another 39% think a depression is “somewhat likely” to occur. Even if they don’t think a true economic depression — defined for respondents as a particularly severe recession lasting several years — is very likely, the majority of Americans consider the current economic situation in the United States to be the “biggest economic crisis” the country has faced in their lifetimes. Sixty percent hold this view, while another 16% call it a crisis, but not the worst in their lifetimes.
Merry Christmas, everybody! Incidentally, I don’t think there will be a depression.
** MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A short week this week heading into Christmas. President-elect Barack Obama is in Hawaii with his family, but continuing to direct an historically rapid transition operation.
His Cabinet is already appointed, so no announcements on that front this week. His last above-the-fold picks are director of national intelligence and CIA director, and I don’t expect those to be announced over the holidays.
Tomorrow Obama will release, with the approval of the federal prosecutor in the case, his report of his team’s contacts with embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Despite weeks of incessant cable, talk radio, and blogospheric chatter, I don’t expect this to be a problem for Obama – see the Weekend Edition item on this – nor have I all along.
On the geopolitical front, the world’s top natural gas producers (outside the US) gather in Moscow this week to attempt to prevent the same sort of downward spiral that oil producers have experienced. They may have a little better luck than OPEC.
In the Mumbai crisis, Indian jets in the past week have probed Pakistani air defenses and several battalions of special operations troops have been dispatched to the Pakistani border, as India remains unsatisfied by Pakistani attempts to crack down on islamist elements judged to be behind the attacks just before Thanksgiving.
In California, I don’t expect any breakthroughs this week in California’s chronic, deepening budget crisis. This is not a new assessment …
NWN is moving into Christmas week publishing mode, which means that, starting tomorrow, material will be moved every day, but not all that frequently. And we’ll see more holiday/entertainment video here.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama left Chicago over the weekend for a 10-day holiday trip to Hawaii. He will spend the holidays with family and friends and, with the Cabinet appointed, continue to do transition work during his stay in the Aloha State. Vice President-elect Biden will be in Delaware.
Obama is receiving national security briefings every day. He’s doing transition work, meeting with longtime senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who flew out to Hawaii with the Obamas and talking with other advisors and Cabinet members around the country on his emerging economic stimulus plan and filling out his administration. He’ll also hold a private memorial service for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died just before his election as president.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received an early valentine last night from the venerable CBS News show 60 Minutes. Schwarzenegger was depicted, as I expected, as a key global figure on climate change and energy policy. And his woes in dealing with California’s chronic budget deficit were presented as part of a deeper problem, a combination of economic and fiscal problems and the trouble dealing with hyper-partisan politicians.
He’ll hold another event around California’s chronic budget crisis this morning in Los Angeles. The former action superstar will appear next to the 405 freeway to highlight the delay in funding for infrastructure projects caused by the crisis.
Last week, the Pooled Money Investment Board voted to stop $3.8 billion in infrastructure financing over the next six months. Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for the State of California, calling the Legislature into a second Prop 58 special session to address this emergency. He also issued an executive order to prepare state government and its employees for the worsening state budget crisis with possible work furloughs and layoffs.
Following the press conference, Schwarzenegger will hold private meetings in Los Angeles.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
With oil prices slumping, the world’s natural gas producers will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to prevent a similar situation with their energy resource.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $105 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama introduces the team that will head up the nation’s major scientific departments in his weekly video/radio address.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in Hawaii today for the Christmas holidays with wife Michelle and their two daughters.He has no public events.
The new job target was set after a meeting last Tuesday in which Christina D. Romer, who is Mr. Obama’s choice to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, presented information about previous recessions to establish that the current downturn was likely to be “more severe than anything we’ve experienced in the past half-century,” according to an Obama official familiar with the meeting. Officials said they were working on a plan big enough to stimulate the economy but not so big to provoke major opposition in Congress.
Mr. Obama’s advisers have projected that the multifaceted economic plan would cost $675 billion to $775 billion. It would be the largest stimulus package in memory and would most likely grow as it made its way through Congress, although Mr. Obama has secured Democratic leaders’ agreement to ban spending on pork-barrel projects.
As I previously noted, the Obama team expects it to end up around $850 billion.
Meanwhile, the Blago scandal, at least insofar as it involves Obama and his team, doesn’t look like much. Notwithstanding the incessant cable chatter.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reports that the Obama review of contacts with the embattled Illinois governor doesn’t show all that much. Incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel evidently had only one recent conversation with Blagojevich, about his congressional seat, which Blago held before him. He talked with Blago’s chief of staff four times about the governor’s prospective appointment to replace Obama in the Senate. In which it was clear that there would be no quid pro quo (much less a financial deal) for a favored appointee, Obama’s longtime friend and top advisor Valerie Jarrett, who will be a major force in the new White House.
It’s important to keep in mind that the federal prosecutor going after Blago has already stated that there was no impropriety on the part of the Obama camp.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears Sunday night on 60 Minutes. I saw that CBS News had correspondent Scott Pelley and a crew following him around at last month’s Governors’ Global Climate Summit in LA and other events.
The 60 Minutes story will focus on Schwarzenegger’s role as a global figure on climate change and renewable energy policy.
Brown had said after the election that he’d defend the initiative, a standard practice. He changed his mind after he and his staff of lawyers researched the matter. As the LA Times reports …
The California Constitution protects certain rights as “inalienable,” Brown wrote. Those include a right to liberty and to privacy, which the courts have said includes a person’s right to marry. The issue before the court “presents a conflict between the constitutional power of the voters to amend the Constitution, on the one hand, and the Constitution’s Declaration of Rights, on the other,” Brown wrote.
The issue “is whether rights secured under the state Constitution’s safeguard of liberty as an ‘inalienable’ right may intentionally be withdrawn from a class of persons by an initiative amendment.”
Voters are allowed to amend other parts of the Constitution by majority vote, but to use the ballot box to take away an “inalienable” right would establish a “tyranny of the majority,” which the Constitution was designed, in part, to prevent, he wrote.
In an interview, Brown said he had developed his theory after weeks of consultation with the top lawyers in his office. “This analysis was not evident on the morning after the election,” he said.
** PALIN SCANDAL.Alaska State Troopers have arrested the mother of Bristol Palin’s boyfriend on drug charges. Sherry L. Johnston was arrested Thursday after troopers served a search warrant on a Wasilla home. The 42-year-old Johnston has been charged with six felony drug counts. The charges involve the drug OxyContin, a strong prescription painkiller. Johnston is the mother of 18 year-old Levi Johnston. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced in September that her 18year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant and Johnston is the father.
** OBAMA TODAY — SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama leaves Chicago today for a 10-day holiday trip to Hawaii. He will spend the holidays with family and friends and, with the Cabinet appointed, continue to do transition work during his stay in the Aloha State. Vice President-elect Biden will be in Delaware.
Here’s Obama’s weekly video/radio address, excerpted: Over the past few weeks, Vice President-elect Biden and I have announced some of the leaders who will advise us as we seek to meet America’s twenty-first century challenges, from strengthening our security, to rebuilding our economy, to preserving our planet for our children and grandchildren. Today, I am pleased to announce members of my science and technology team whose work will be critical to these efforts.
Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs – today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology. Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they can’t do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way: leaders like President Kennedy, who inspired us to push the boundaries of the known world and achieve the impossible; leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process.
Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient. …
Dr. John Holdren has agreed to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. John is a professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, he’s received numerous honors and awards for his contributions and has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change. …
John will also serve as a Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology – or PCAST – as will Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Eric Lander. Together, they will work to remake PCAST into a vigorous external advisory council that will shape my thinking on scientific aspects of my policy priorities.
Dr. Varmus is no stranger to this work. He is not just a path-breaking scientist, having won a Nobel Prize for his research on the causes of cancer – he also served as Director of the National Institutes of Health during the Clinton Administration. … Dr. Eric Lander is the Founding Director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and was one of the driving forces behind mapping the human genome – one of the greatest scientific achievements in history. …
Finally, Dr. Jane Lubchenco has accepted my nomination as the Administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is devoted to conserving our marine and coastal resources and monitoring our weather. As an internationally known environmental scientist, ecologist and former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Jane has advised the President and Congress on scientific matters, and I am confident she will provide passionate and dedicated leadership at NOAA. …
I am confident that if we recommit ourselves to discovery; if we support science education to create the next generation of scientists and engineers right here in America; if we have the vision to believe and invest in things unseen, then we can lead the world into a new future of peace and prosperity. Thank you, and happy holidays everybody.
President-elect Barack Obama appointed the new secretaries of labor and transportation and other posts yesterday in Chicago.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $42.36 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend
The drop of $105 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama named top financial regulatory appointees yesterday at a press conference in Chicago.
** SWIFT HITS. Blago speaks! Blago ain’t resigning. Not a shock. Is he innocent as charged? … Deep Throat dies. The FBI honcho who spoon-fed Bob Woodward his career died last night in Northern California’s Santa Rosa. Mark Felt was 85.His portrayal in All The President’s Men by Hal Holbrook was a big fave here, especially his take on newspapers. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered yet another special legislative session to deal with the state’s deepening, chronic fiscal crisis. And said he will order work furloughs. The Leg is gone for the holidays, natch, after the great innovation of calling a tax a fee failed to break the gridlock. I never thought of that one before … Prop 8 proponents are trying to invalidate 18,000 same-sex marriages. Attorney General Brown will defend the marriages in court. Brown wants the state Supreme Court — which first declared same-sex marriage constitutional — to toss Prop 8.
** FRANKEN TAKES THE LEAD.Al Franken has taken the lead for what looks like an eighth new Senate seat for the Democrats. The intense scrutiny of “voter intent” resumed this morning by the five-member board charged with directing Minnesota’s recount in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, and the first 90 minutes of ballot rulings turned the challenger’s slight deficit into a growing triple-digit lead.
This would bring the Dems to 59 seats in the Senate. One short of that needed to block all GOP stalling tactics. Now recall why Obama insisted that apostate Senator Lieberman not be tossed out of the caucus.
** OBAMA’S REMARKS ON THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AS HE COMPLETES HIS CABINET.Before we begin, I’d like to say a few words about the necessary step taken today to help avoid a collapse in our auto industry that would have devastating consequences for our economy and our workers. With the short-term assistance provided by this package, the auto companies must bring all their stakeholders together – including labor, dealers, creditors and suppliers – to make the hard choices necessary to achieve long-term viability. The auto companies must not squander this chance to reform bad management practices and begin the long-term restructuring that is absolutely necessary to save this critical industry and the millions of American jobs that depend on it, while also creating the fuel-efficient cars of the future.
Whenever I have been asked how I measure the strength of the American economy, my answer is simple: jobs and wages. I know we will be headed in the right direction again when we are creating jobs, instead of losing them, and when Americans are gaining ground in terms of their incomes, instead of treading water or falling behind. In recent weeks, I’ve announced members of my economic team who will help us make progress in these areas.
Today, I’m announcing several other appointees who will play an integral role in our efforts to turn our economy around: Congresswoman Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor; former Congressman Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation; Karen Mills as Administrator of the Small Business Administration; and Mayor Ron Kirk as United States Trade Representative. Together with the appointees I’ve already announced, these leaders will help craft a 21st Century Economic Recovery Plan, with the goal of creating two and a half million new jobs and strengthening our economy for the future.
If jobs and incomes are our yardsticks, then the success of the American worker is key to the success of the American economy. For the past eight years, the Department of Labor has not lived up to its role either as an advocate for hardworking families or as an arbiter of fairness in relations between labor and management. That will change when Hilda Solis is Secretary of Labor. Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labor will once again stand up for working families.
Hilda has always been an advocate for everyday people. When she received an award several years ago, she said, “Fighting for what is just is not always popular, but it is necessary.” And that is exactly what she has done throughout her career, blazing new trails every step of the way. Whether it’s creating green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced or expanding access to affordable health care or raising the minimum wage in California, Hilda has been a champion of our middle class. And I know that Hilda will show the same kind of leadership as Secretary of Labor that she showed in California and on the Education and Labor Committee by protecting workers’ rights – from organizing to collective bargaining, from keeping our workplaces safe to making our unions strong.
Standing up for our workers means putting them back to work and fueling economic growth. Our economy boomed in the 20th Century when President Eisenhower remade the American landscape by building the interstate highway system. Now we need to remake our transportation system for the 21st Century. Doing so will not only help us meet our energy challenge by building more efficient cars, buses, and subways or make Americans safer by rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges – it will create millions of new jobs in the process.
Few understand our infrastructure challenge better than the outstanding public servant I am asking to lead the Department of Transportation – Ray LaHood. As a Congressman from Illinois, Ray served six years on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, leading efforts to modernize our aviation system by renewing our aging airports and ensuring that air traffic controllers were using cutting edge technology. Throughout his career, Ray has fought to improve mass transit and invest in our highways. But he has not only helped rebuild our landscape, he has helped beautify it by creating opportunities for bikers and runners to enjoy our great outdoors. When I began this appointment process, I said I was committed to finding the best person for the job, regardless of party. Ray’s appointment reflects that bipartisan spirit – a spirit we need to reclaim in this country to make progress for the American people.
To strengthen our economy, we must also strengthen the small businesses that are its backbone. I can think of no one better to lead this effort as Administrator of the Small Business Administration than Karen Mills. With Karen at the helm, America’s small businesses will have a partner in Washington, helping them create jobs and spur growth in communities across this country. A venture capitalist who invests in small businesses, Karen understands the challenges faced by both small business owners and the workers they employ. With a background in the private sector and experience helping Maine’s governor promote growth across the state, I am confident that Karen will lead an SBA that will not only help small business owners realize their dreams, but help our nation rebuild our economy.
We also know that the success of American businesses, small and large, depends on their ability to sell their products across the globe. That is why we must engage in strong, robust trade and open doors for American products. In our global economy, we must compete and win if we are going to strengthen our middle class and forge bonds with other nations that can contribute to peace and stability around the world. But I also believe that any trade agreement we sign must be written not just with the interests of big corporations in mind, but with the interests of our whole nation and our workers at heart.
Ron Kirk understands this better than just about anyone. As Mayor of Dallas, Ron Kirk helped steer one of the world’s largest economies. He has seen the promise of trade, but also its pitfalls. And he knows there is nothing inconsistent about standing up for free trade and standing up for American workers. During his tenure as Mayor, Ron brought different groups together to create jobs, invest in the community, and spur economic growth. As a leader, negotiator, and principled proponent of trade, Ron will help make sure that any agreements I sign as President protect the rights of all workers, promote the interests of all Americans, and preserve the planet we all share.
With these outstanding appointees, I have filled out our economic team, and done so at an earlier point than any President in history, because we face challenges unlike any we have faced in generations. Daunting as the challenges we are inheriting may be, I’m convinced that our team and the American people are prepared to meet them. It will take longer than any of us would like – years, and not months. It will get worse before it gets better. But it will get better – if we’re willing to act boldly and swiftly. And that is what we will do when I am President of the United States.
** BLAGO SPEAKS! At noon Pacific.
Meanwhile, New York financial icon Bernie Madoff, who is merely accused of bilking investors of $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme ignored by the feds for years, is mostly ignored by the media.
Perhaps the ex-NASDAQ head’s being in New York makes him seem too inaccessible … A little humor.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a 10:15 press conference at a high school in Fresno to talk about California’s chronic and deepening fiscal crisis.
This is in the backyard of the state’s two balky GOP legislative leaders, who apparently believe that Dr. No is not only a Bond title.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private meetings in Chicago before additional appointments.
The Blago scandal had kept going and going. It had been an advantage to be in Chicago, but not with this circus. However, yesterday, Blago stopped talking after his lawyer said he won’t be appointing to the Senate. And the teapot tempest started to settle down.
Obama has an 11:15 AM Pacific press conference today, at which he is set to name Peoria Rep. Ray LaHood as transportation secretary, LA Rep. Hilda Solis as labor secretary, and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as US trade representative.
LaHood, an Obama friend, will be only the second GOP pick for the Cabinet. Solis is a favorite of the Latino left, an ex-California state senator. Kirk, a ranking black politician, is a “free trader,” where Solis is a “fair trader.”
The daughter of naturalized citizens, Solis’s father organized immigrants at a battery recycling plant in the San Gabriel Valley for the Teamsters Union. In the California Legislature, where she represented East LA, she championed “environmental justice” to stop the dumping of toxic waste in poor neighborhoods.
Now regarding the Detroit crisis … President Bush has finally arrived at a plan to save Detroit. For a while. The soon-to-be-ex-president says it’s not realistic to let the car companies go into bankruptcy. So he’s giving $17.4 billion in loans to keep them going.
However, the new president will have to solve the car crisis. Shocking …
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private talks today.
Not surprisingly, the latest try to solve the budget crisis failed yesterday.
Schwarzenegger’s big infrastructure plan ground to a halt Wednesday as a top state board decided the state no longer has the cash to proceed. And with the state’s chronic fiscal crisis going ever onward — thanks largely to GOP intransigence on any taxes at all — California’s Democratic legislative leaders tried yesterday to enact a partial budget solution that essentially flips existing gas taxes for other new taxes, in a play to make it revenue neutral, thereby side-stepping the two-thirds vote. How so? The gas taxes have to go to transportation programs. The dollars from other sources — an increased sales tax, and a new oil severance tax and income tax surcharge — can go to the general fund. However, there’s a trick. The slashing of the gas tax would be more than made up by a new 39 cent a gallon “fee.” Is it all legal? Who knows? Schwarzenegger balked.
What’s missing? Legal certainty that the gas tax/fee flip, which amounts to an increase for voters, works. And what Schwarzenegger wants for economic stimulus.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says oil producers must continue to invest in capacity, despite a global move towards lower carbon economies.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading at $35 to $36 per barrel. This is far below the four-and-a-half-year low. OPEC’s try to bolster the price with a big production cut isn’t working so far.
The drop of over $112 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama announced his picks for Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior at a press conference yesterday in Chicago.
** SWIFT HITS. LA Rep. Hilda Solis is the pick to be the new secretary of labor. Yesterday, Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken, a labor favorite, looked like the pick. With LA Rep. Zavier Becerra declining to be the international trade representative, that helped change things. … Retired Admiral Dennis Blair is the pick to be director of national intelligence. I think I predicted that a few weeks ago. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he won’t sign the budget plan cobbled together by Democratic legislative leaders as it doesn’t stimulate the economy enough by fast-tracking public works programs, using more contractors and allowing him to furlough state workers. There’s also a real legal concern about the sleight of hand displacement of gas taxes by a bigger gasoline “fee,” without calling it a tax, though Schwarzenegger didn’t emphasize that. (See below for more discussion.) …
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private meetings in Chicago, as the Blago scandal keeps going. It had been an advantage to be in Chicago, but not with this circus.
He also has a 7:45 AM Pacific press conference, at which he is set to name Mary Schapiro, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as SEC chair, Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Daniel Tarullo, one of his economic policy advisors, to the Federal Reserve Board.
These picks are key with the Wall Street scandals.
After private consideration, Obama is looking at an $850 billion economic stimlus plan.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday celebrated the historic first win of a redistricting reforminitiative, with allies seen in this NWN video of a year ago at the campaign kick-off.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private talks in the Capitol. At 2:30, he celebrates the season by lighting the Menorah on the West Steps of the Capitol.
Not surprisingly, the latest try to solve the budget crisis failed last night in the state Assembly and Senate, which did not meet.
Schwarzenegger’s big infrastrcture plan ground to a halt yesday as a state board decided the state no longer has the cash to proceed. And with the state’s chronic fiscal crisis going ever onward — thanks largely to GOP intransigence on any taxes at all — California’s Democratic legislative leaders will tried yesterday and last night to pass a partial budget solution that essentially flips existing gas taxes for other new taxes, in a play to make it revenue neutral, thereby side-stepping the two-thirds vote. How so? The gas taxes have to go to transportation programs. The dollars from other sources — an increased sales tax, and a new oil severance tax and income tax surcharge — can go to the general fund. However, there’s a trick. The slashing of the gas tax would be more than made up by a new 39 cent a gallon “fee.” Is it all legal? Perhaps. Will Schwarzenegger go for the plan? Not yet.
What’s missing? Legal certainty that the gas tax/fee flip which amounts to an increase for voters, works. And economic stimlus. They’ll try again today.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading at $38 per barrel. This is below the four-year low of $39.80 per barrel reached yesterday. OPEC’s try to bolster the price with a big production cut isn’t working so far.
The drop of over $109 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama appointed Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as secretary of education at a charter school yesterday in Chicago and took a few questions.
** OIL PRICE DROPS BELOW $40 DESPITE OPEC’S BIG MOVE. Well, there it is. Oil closed at $39.80 today, lowest price since 2004. Despite OPEC cutting production by millions of barrels per day. See this morning’s item, and video. Whoops …
** QUICK HITS. The Blago scandal ratchets down a notch with the Illinois governor saying he won’t appoint the president-elect’s Senate successor. … Obama will appoint retiring Illinois Rep. Ray Lahood, a Republican, as his secretary of transportation. That will be two Republicans in his Cabinet, the other being Defense Secretary Bob Gates. … Harley Shaiken looks like the likely pick as secretary of labor. Shaiken, the director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley is well-liked by liberals and labor and respected by the corporate sector … In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and reformist and labor allies celebrated the passage of Prop 11, the first winning redistricting initiative in the country. Schwarzenegger decried the Capitol’s current gridlock and hyper-partisanship driven by gerrymandering and hinted at another initiative. … Schwarzenegger’s big infrastrcture plan ground to a halt today as a state board decided the state no longer has the cash to proceed. … And with the state’s chronic fiscal crisis going ever onward — thanks largely to GOP intransigence on any taxes at all — California’s Democratic legislative leaders will try tonight to pass a partial budget solution that essentially flips existing gas taxes for other new taxes, in a play to make it revenue neutral, thereby side-stepping the two-thirds vote. How so? The gas taxes have to go to transportation programs. The dollars from other sources — an increased sales tax, and a new oil severance tax and income tax surcharge — can go to the general fund. However, there’s a trick. The slashing of the gas tax would be more than made up by a new 39 cent a gallon “fee.” Is it all legal? Perhaps. Will Schwarzenegger go for the plan? Not yet.
** OBAMA STILL SKY-HIGH, G.O.P. DOWN IN NEW POLL. The new Gallup poll has good news for the president-elect, and bad news for the GOP. The Blago scandal is not adversely impacting the new president. While 1 in 4 think his staff may have acted illegally, they’re virtually all Republicans.
Just one in four Americans approve of the job the Republicans in Congress are doing, an approval rating just below that given to President Bush. Americans are somewhat more charitable in their ratings of the Democrats in Congress.
The 25% approval rating for the Republicans in Congress establishes a new Gallup Poll low, surpassing the 26% measured about this time last year. Gallup first began asking about approval of the Congressional parties in 1999.
Congressional Democrats’ approval rating is also low from an historical perspective, but does represent a significant improvement from 30% measured a year ago, their lowest rating to date.
Bush’s 29% job approval rating in the Dec. 12-14 USA Today/Gallup poll matches his average since Election Day. It remains slightly above the 25% rating he had in the final pre-election poll. However, it continues Bush’s 27-month streak of approval ratings below 40% — his last approval rating above that mark came in September 2006. Bush has now matched Harry Truman’s string of sub-40% approval ratings which began in late October 1950 and continued through the end of his presidency. Bush will surpass Truman’s record if his approval ratings remain below 40% for his last month in office.
In his second term in office to date, Bush has averaged 36.5% approval. That is the same as Truman’s second-term average. However, Richard Nixon has the distinction for the lowest term average of 34.4% from the beginning of his second term to his resignation amidst the Watergate scandal. …
The overall unpopularity of the current government incumbents stands in contrast to the high ratings given to president-elect Barack Obama. The Dec. 12-14 poll finds 75% approving of the way he is handling his presidential transition. … Obama has been rated significantly more positively than both Bush (who averaged 63% approval) and Clinton (66%) during their transitions.
I’ve learned from another source that Russia, which is taking part in the OPEC sessions in Algeria, is willing to cut its production by 300,000 to 350,000 barrels per day.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private meetings in Chicago, as the Blago scandal keeps going. It was an advantage to be in Chicago, but not with this circus.
He also has an 8:45 AM Pacific press conference, at which he will reveal his picks for interior secretary and agriculture secretary.
Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, a strong proponent of ethanol who made a brief bid for the presidency in 2007, will be named today as President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for agriculture secretary, a senior Democratic official said. …
When President-elect Barack Obama announces his appointment of Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as interior secretary today, he will be placing a legislator better known for brokering deals between warring interests than for outlining an ambitious agenda of conservation. Salazar, a fifth-generation Coloradan whose family settled in the West before the United States’ founding and has ranched and farmed on the same land in the San Luis Valley for more than a century, has earned a reputation as a centrist during his four years in the Senate. He has pushed to temper energy exploration in the West even as he has backed offshore oil drilling and subsidies for ranchers on public land.
Several experts who have worked with Salazar over the years, including gas and mining officials, farm groups and national environmental leaders, said they expect him to support Obama’s energy and environmental agenda rather than attempt to set his own policy course. …
Vilsack was the top choice for Ag all along. He’s another ex-presidential campaign rival of Obama in the new administration. He has the added distinction of having also been a national co-chair for Hillary Clinton.
Salazar is a compromise pick at Interior. Northern California Congressman Mike Thompson was backed by centrists and otdoors organizations. New Mexico Congressman Ral Grialva was the choice of enviros.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Human Embryonic Stem Cell Center. At 11 AM, he joins university, state and local officials and philanthropists to announce a donation from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to the Institute for Regeneration Medicine at UCSF.
At 12:45 PM, he’s at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento to discuss the passage of Proposition 11 and the future of political reform in California. Prop 11 is the first-ever winning redistricting reform initiative, which passed this year, 51% to 49%.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
OPEC ministers are gathering in Algeria this week to talk about cutting production to bolster oil prices. Also on hand is Russia, which seeks observer status and a joint committee on oil production.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading between $43 and $44 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on December 5th .
The drop of $104 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama announced key members of his energy and environmental leadership team yesterday in Chicago. Two Californians are on board.
** LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER SENATOR KENNEDY.Nevadan Harry Reid, the Senate’s leader, is lobbying New York Governor David Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. With the exception of two years following her father’s election to the presidency — while his college roommate held the seat for too young brother Teddy — a Kennedy has been in the Senate for 56 years. With Ted having terminal brain cancer, that period will be extended nonetheless. Caroline Kennedy, whose endorsement was key for the president-elect, will, in time, be the first woman to head the family’s political operations.
** CALIFORNIA BUDGET CRISIS: AND AGAIN. The state Assembly goes into session this afternoon to try, again, to shake loose some Repblican votes for a package of cuts and new revenues. I don’t know all that’s in the package, but the revenues inclde a three-year increase in the sales tax, a new oil severance tax of 9.9%, and a nickel-a-drink tax on alcohol. There might be a lockdown, something which should have been tried earlier. Absent action, the state’s new public works projects grind to a halt.
** POIZNER ON FACEBOOK. California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the apparent Republican frontrunner for governor in 2010, announced the start of his gubernatorial exploratory committee’s online social networking presence. He’s on Facebook, where he hopes to use its powerful social networking tools. Poizner, who made a fortune in Silicon Valley by inventing the device that enable cell phone tracking, has the endorseents of most GOP legislators.
** IN TIME FOR THE COLD SEASON … California Attorney General Jerry Brown today joined with 32 other state attorneys general in announcing a $7 million settlement with Airborne, Inc. that forces the company to stop advertisements that “dramatically misrepresented” its dietary supplements as cold remedies.
“Airborne dramatically misrepresented its products as cold remedies without any scientific evidence to back up its claims,” the former governor said. “Under this agreement, the company will stop advertisements that suggest that its products are a cure for the common cold.”
So I guess it’s not the magical elixir after all.
** DIFI IS THE NEW CHAIR OF THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE PANEL.BROWN IS THE LEADER FOR 2010.Senator Dianne Feinstein will be the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as I expected. The current chair, West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller, shifted to head the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, overseeing key industries such as telecommunications, tobacco and fisheries. Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, shifted from heading that panel to chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee, which had been chaired by West Virginia’s Robert Byrd, who is 91.
And John Kerry is the new head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, replacing Vice President-elect Biden. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, is now touring world hot spots.
I worked with a key member of Senate Intelligence. One doesn’t take on the leadership of this panel on a short-term basis. What DiFi’s leadership of Senate Intelligence means is that former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown is the frontrunner for governor of California in 2010, as anticipated here.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private meetings in Chicago.
He has an 8:45 AM Pacific press conference, at which he is expected to appoint Arne Duncan as secretary of education. He’s the head of the Chicago schools.
Mr. Duncan, a 44-year-old Harvard graduate, has raised achievement in the nation’s third-largest school district and often faced the ticklish challenge of shuttering failing schools and replacing ineffective teachers, usually with improved results. He represents a compromise choice in the debate that has divided Democrats in recent months over the proper course for public-school policy after the Bush years.
In June, rival nationwide groups of educators circulated competing educational manifestos, with one group espousing a get-tough policy based on pushing teachers and administrators harder to raise achievement, and another arguing that schools alone could not close the racial achievement gap and urging new investments in school-based health clinics and other social programs to help poor students learn.
Mr. Duncan was the only big-city superintendent to sign both manifestos. He argued that the nation’s schools needed to be held accountable for student progress, but also needed major new investments, new talent and new teacher-training efforts. In straddling the two camps, Mr. Duncan seemed to reflect Mr. Obama’s own impatience with what he has called “tired educational debates.”
Incidentally, it’s looking like LA Congressman Xavier Becerra, the top pick for trade rep, is opting to stay in Congress.
Obama also meets with key members of his economic team. Attendees will include: Vice President-elect Biden, Secretary of Treasury designee Timothy Geithner, National Economic Council Director designee Lawrence Summers, Office of Management and Budget designee Peter Orszag, Council of Economic Advisors Chair designee Christina Romer, Domestic Policy Council Director designee Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner, Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice-President designee Jared Bernstein, President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board Chair Paul Volcker, Member designee of the Council of Economic Advisers and Staff Director designee of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board Austan Goolsbee, and White House Chief of Staff designee Rahm Emanuel.
A Russian naval squadron is on its way to Cuba for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in the Capitol.
The long-awaited — as in two years — GOP “plan” (see below) on the state’s chronic and deepening fiscal crisis doesn’t do a lot, if anything, to solve things. Shocking, I know.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading between $45 and $46 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on December 5th .
The drop of $102 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
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