Outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney (the least popular veep in history) and Vice President-elect Joe Biden sniped at each other on the Sunday shows.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS. From my new column.
** BANKS WON’T SAY WHERE THE BAILOUT MONEY WENT. Some refused to answer. Other say they can’t answer. When the Associated Press asked most of America’s biggest banks what they did with the hundreds of billions of dollars in federal bailout money they’ve received, it got either no answers or a runaround.
Great oversight!
** CALIFORNIA IN THE CATBIRD SEAT IN OBAMA’S WASHINGTON? The Politico, that fast-emerged font of new media Beltway conventional wisdom, says that California is in the catbird seat in Barack Obama’s new Washington, ready to brand the capital in the Obama era the way Texas did in the Bush/Cheney era.
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.
The press conference will be webcast live at 9:45 AM at www.gov.ca.gov.
** CALIFORNIA CRACKING. From my December 10th column.
** 12 KEY THINGS ABOUT THE MUMBAI CRISIS. From my December 5th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW. From my December 3rd 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.
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.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included.
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 around $42 per barrel.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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| Comments (46) |
Cheney acts like he’s not an idiot. I don’t get it.
Evil and stupid is no way to go through life.
Good luck trying to stop gas prices going down.
Won’t long-term contracts help them?
How long is the press going to keep blinding itself to the fact that Schwarzenegger is one of the main people whose self-delusion and self-serving politics have turned a chronic deficit into a ruinous one? Credit where credit is due.
lol
Definitely Schwarzenegger’s fault.
World economic crisis. His fault.
Weak Democratic leaders. His fault.
Crazy Republicans. His fault.
Aren’t you the fellow who keeps forgetting that Gavin Newsom lost Prop 8 for you?
Frakking PC.
Prospero Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
How long is the press going to keep blinding itself to the fact that Schwarzenegger is one of the main people whose self-delusion and self-serving politics have turned a chronic deficit into a ruinous one? Credit where credit is due.
CB,
As is a girly man!
The media is crazy about things like Blago. After all the yammering, it’s a local issue not an Obama issue. The dude might even be innocent.
You don’t get it because he doesn’t get it.
<<<<<<Jonas Blane Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Cheney acts like he’s not an idiot. I don’t get it.
Where’s Schwarzenegger?
I hope California’s clout is used for more than bailing out California…The gall of that Cheney. He wrecks the country and our image around the world and disses Biden. Get lost.
My hope is that America begins to heal over these holidays as we head into the Obama Era.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
Indeed.
He was only 5 minutes late.
># Ann Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am edit
Where’s Schwarzenegger?
He might be innocent of this.
># Len Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am edit
The media is crazy about things like Blago. After all the yammering, it’s a local issue not an Obama issue. The dude might even be innocent.
The 60 Minutes story was too positive. However, it’s a complicated situation, albeit one in which some like to blame Schwarzenegger.
># Prospero Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 am edit
How long is the press going to keep blinding itself to the fact that Schwarzenegger is one of the main people whose self-delusion and self-serving politics have turned a chronic deficit into a ruinous one? Credit where credit is due.
Yes.
># Capitol Boy Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 am edit
Won’t long-term contracts help them?
That sounds like it’s from a movie …
># Capitol Boy Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am edit
Evil and stupid is no way to go through life.
CB:
Gavin certainly helped, but Prop. 8 was won by (1) a brilliant (if diabolical) campaign by the Yes side, (2) a lousy campaign by our hopeless leftists, who don’t know how to talk to anyone in the electorate except themselves, and (3) the decision, very early on by the Yes side, to leave Domestic Partnership rights alone. Their extremists wanted to eliminate any rights at all, and it was a pitch-perfect political decision by the campaign to tell them no.
AS didn’t create the economy, but I really think he doesn’t realize that smoke and mirrors are smoke and mirrors — and that the funhouse is now burning down. Yes, the legislature helped, but someone has tell Don Quixote that a windmill is really a windmill.
He’s apparently, much evidence to the contrary, pretty intelligent.
># Jonas Blane Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am edit
Cheney acts like he’s not an idiot. I don’t get it.
MUCH evidence to the contrary.
It sounds like a spin on “Animal House.”
Bill Bradley Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
That sounds like it’s from a movie …
># Capitol Boy Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am edit
Evil and stupid is no way to go through life.
“BANKS WON’T SAY WHERE THE BAILOUT MONEY WENT.”
The bank-robber’s maxim needs to be rewritten
“Why do you rob Congress?”
“Because that’s where the money is.”
“Great oversight!”
I just read the article. Fracking amazing.
There is one SURE way to find out where that money is — ask for it BACK.
ATTENTION TRIATHLON: Learn to read. I told you you are not welcome here this week. Don’t post again this week. You’re wasting my time.
I thought Prop 63 was supposed to get the nutjobs off the street…
We’re being robbed blind and people are talking about Rod Blagojevich and Rich Warren.
It’s easier.
lol
Brasky Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I thought Prop 63 was supposed to get the nutjobs off the street…
Isn’t it amazing?
That article’s been sitting there to be done for weeks, you know.
># Brasky Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am edit
“Great oversight!”
I just read the article. Fracking amazing.
There is one SURE way to find out where that money is — ask for it BACK.
It does.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am edit
It sounds like a spin on “Animal House.”
Bill Bradley Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
That sounds like it’s from a movie …
># Capitol Boy Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am edit
Evil and stupid is no way to go through life.
He was the star of the Yes on 8 campaign.
Lots of political people are doing “Whether ya like it or not!” impressions.
># Prospero Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am edit
CB:
Gavin certainly helped, but Prop. 8 was won by (1) a brilliant (if diabolical) campaign by the Yes side, (2) a lousy campaign by our hopeless leftists, who don’t know how to talk to anyone in the electorate except themselves, and (3) the decision, very early on by the Yes side, to leave Domestic Partnership rights alone. Their extremists wanted to eliminate any rights at all, and it was a pitch-perfect political decision by the campaign to tell them no.
AS didn’t create the economy, but I really think he doesn’t realize that smoke and mirrors are smoke and mirrors — and that the funhouse is now burning down. Yes, the legislature helped, but someone has tell Don Quixote that a windmill is really a windmill.
Bill, you’re right about that. But Schubert & Co. used the quote to its best effect: scaring the bejeezus out of folks. Yes, it had arrogance to it — but it was spoken to a crowd of supporters in a moment of true political victory. But for Schubert and his wily cronies, it would be one more three-second bit among millions of them that every politician from here to infinity has in their catalogue. I’m pretty sure if you were running for office, Schubert could find something like that, either on video or that you’ve written that could make you look like — well, whatever he needed you to look like. All of us who have worked with politicians know what it’s like to see your boss saying something that, if clipped, would be disastrous. Remember Obama’s comment about the clinging to guns and religion?
I don’t think Gavin is anywhere near being in Obama’s class — and I don’t think he’s got — yet — what it takes to go statewide. But I really think he’s taking a lot of heat that our own leaders are much more deserving of. And (with grudging respect) I think blaming Gavin understates the contribution that Schubert and Flint earned.
I’m ready to let this one go, and move on to better things. Best wishes to all for 2009 — we deserve a great one.
Aren’t you forgetting Newsom having the wedding of the 1st grade teachers at San Francisco City Hall. That’s handing Yes on 8 all it needed.
Best wishes to you, too, for the holidays and for a terrific 2009!
># Prospero Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 pm edit
Bill, you’re right about that. But Schubert & Co. used the quote to its best effect: scaring the bejeezus out of folks. Yes, it had arrogance to it — but it was spoken to a crowd of supporters in a moment of true political victory. But for Schubert and his wily cronies, it would be one more three-second bit among millions of them that every politician from here to infinity has in their catalogue. I’m pretty sure if you were running for office, Schubert could find something like that, either on video or that you’ve written that could make you look like — well, whatever he needed you to look like. All of us who have worked with politicians know what it’s like to see your boss saying something that, if clipped, would be disastrous. Remember Obama’s comment about the clinging to guns and religion?
I don’t think Gavin is anywhere near being in Obama’s class — and I don’t think he’s got — yet — what it takes to go statewide. But I really think he’s taking a lot of heat that our own leaders are much more deserving of. And (with grudging respect) I think blaming Gavin understates the contribution that Schubert and Flint earned.
I’m ready to let this one go, and move on to better things. Best wishes to all for 2009 — we deserve a great one.
“Whether ya like it or not” is to Newsom as “Yeehawwww! is to Dean.
Star Tribune is reporting Franken up by 48. Rejected absentees aren’t included.
FORMER SOVIET AIR FORCE OFFICER A GUANTANAMO DETAINEE?
A (41) Forty-One Year Old Former Soviet Air Force Officer nicknamed “The Merchant of Death” by the (US/MIC) United States Military Industrial Complex, a one Viktor Bout is looking at becoming an unwilling American Citizen, for the supplying of needed weapons to groups and countries engaged in the struggle to remove the boot heel of (US/MIC) oppression or their surrogates is facing. The groups include Taliban militia, al-Qaeda and Charles Taylor, a former leader of Liberia who is facing war crimes charges, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which has led a four-decade war against Bogota.
Viktor Bout is about to be extradited to the (US/MIC), and that means as a terrorist, an a life sentence, after a term of good-old rendition in either (Git-MO) Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or one of the others around the world, you can almost bet on that. It looks as if the (US/MIC) needed a bargaining chip as no wants or warrants had ever been issued by the (US/MIC) calling for his detainment or arrest.
This smells of (US/MIC) hypocrisy at the least, does anyone remember the Iran-Contra Crisis? Does anyone remember a (USMC) United States Marine Corps Lt. Col. Ollie North? Weapons-Drugs to inner City Ghetto-Cash- to support illegal operations under the table for the (US/MIC) and did said individual end up in any detention center in any country?
Two Officers from opposite sides of the fence doing the necessary jobs that are required by their governments, but in a clandestine manner, and only the Russian is looking at rendition, and imprisonment for life, even an American (U-2) Pilot shot down over the former Soviet Union ever faced such harsh treatment anyone remember a one Gary Francis Powers?
Well, boys and girls its time that the Cold War Duce is in full swing, its time for the New Russian Counter Intelligence Agency to repay the favor, and begin aggressive Counter Intelligence Operations across the globe, the New Cold War Is On!
Obviously Triathlon has stumbled upon the conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Just a little helpful tip — if you stop drinking fluoridated water, the CIA is no longer able to read your thoughts.
Purity of essence!
What new video today?
Afghanistan crisis, and natural gas prices.
You really can’t read, can you.
You also don’t know the Russians hate Viktor Bout.
Like I said, you are not to post here again this week.
Every post will be deleted, or blocked.
You’re wasting my time.
>TRIATHLON Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 pm edit
FORMER SOVIET AIR FORCE OFFICER A GUANTANAMO DETAINEE?
It’s looking like Senator Al Franken.
We’ll never see the end of the gag sketches he did in bed with Arianna …
># Brasky Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm edit
Star Tribune is reporting Franken up by 48. Rejected absentees aren’t included.
Indeed.
># Wilbur Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm edit
“Whether ya like it or not” is to Newsom as “Yeehawwww! is to Dean.