President-elect Barack Obama appeared yesterday in his new home of Washington, calling for rapid action on a deteriorating economy in a post-partisan spirit. But his message was muddied by Dianne Feinstein’s objection to Leon Panetta as CIA director.
** DIFI LAYS DOWN SOME SMOKE AFTER HER UNSUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENT ON THE PANETTA PICK AS C.I.A DIRECTOR. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, executed a time-honored naval maneuver this afternoon after her muddying of the waters yesterday for President-elect Barack Obama.
After finally accepting Obama’s pick of fellow Californian Leon Panetta – the former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, senior congressman, and Iraq Study Group member – as the next CIA director, she allowed as how Roland Burris should be seated as the next senator from Illinois. Well, yes, as I mentioned a week or more ago. But nice of her to change the subject after her embarrassing performance on the CIA directorship.
** FEINSTEIN SAYS OBAMA APOLOGIZED TO HER ABOUT FUTURE C.I.A. DIRECTOR PANETTA. New Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, backtracking again after her blast of yesterday, told the press in Washington that President-elect Barack Obama apologized for not telling her in advance that fellow Californian Leon Panetta will be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
I mentioned that she would get over it.
** THE BUSH DYNASTY TAKES A BREATHER. Although dad George Herbert Walker Bush talked him up as a future president during New Year’s week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has decided against running for the seat of retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez, calling it “just not the right timing.”
Good call, considering that Barack Obama took Florida out of the Republican presidential column two months ago.
** FEINSTEIN GOES ALONG WITH PANETTA AT C.I.A., BUT WANTS TO NAME DEPUTY DIRECTOR. As I expected here and in my new Huffington Post column, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is going along with the appointment of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. But she wants her first choice for the post – current CIA Deputy Director Steve Kappes – to stay on as deputy director of the agency.
As I point out in the column, it won’t be hard to link Kappes to excesses of the recent past.
** POIZNER ANNOUNCES GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE. A day after former eBay CEO Meg Whitman quit her corporate board memberships in anticipation of a race for the Republican nomination for governor of California, the apparent frontrunner, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, announced his campaign steering committee. Here’s the roster: William Bloomfield, Katherine Boyd, Elliott Broidy, Hon. Jim Brulte, Brad Freeman, Susan Groff, Brian Harvey, Jeff Henley, Buck Johns, Linda Law, Paula Kent Meehan, Steve Merksamer, Burt McMurtry, Deedee McMurtry, Frank G. Myers, Susan Myers, Charles Munger Jr., Mick Pattinson, Ron Plotkin, Lenny Sands, Mary Belle Snow, Hon. Michelle Park Steel, Marc Stern, Hon. Van Tran, Frank Visco, Hon. Mimi Walters and Buzz Woolley.
** CIA: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK. Let’s parse Barack Obama’s pick of Leon Panetta to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s stirring up some controversy, even among Democrats. Which is probably a good sign about this very capable, amiable, non-arrogant fixture of decades on the California political scene. And while we’re at it, let’s give some depth to his background beyond the usual shorthand “former Clinton chief of staff,” which doesn’t really explain him at all, as he comes out of the almost forgotten liberal Republican tradition.
Panetta’s fellow Californian Dianne Feinstein, the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is miffed that word of the appointment got out before she was notified, saying that she’s always thought the post should go to an intelligence professional. It also turns out that she may have had her own candidate, a career CIA insider, a sign that Feinstein’s grasp of the political atmospherics today is, let’s say, not strong. …
In any event, the contention of Feinstein — a highly-briefed senator who was absolutely convinced of the existence of Iraqi WMD, incidentally, speaking of getting it dead wrong — that an intelligence professional is always better than a non-professional ignores some of America’s most important history. In the 1950s, CIA Director Allen Dulles was widely acknowledged as one of the world’s pre-eminent spymasters. But it’s hard to say how good he was, because most of what he did was shrouded in secrecy.
One thing that was not shrouded in secrecy was the Bay of Pigs, that famously dunderheaded plan to invade Cuba in 1961 which Dulles and some warhawk generals conned the young JFK into approving. After that, Kennedy vowed to “smash the CIA into a thousand pieces.” After calming down, he made his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the overseer of the intelligence community and brought in another Californian with no intelligence background, businessman John McCone, to run the CIA. McCone proved to be a highly effective CIA director, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There’s no reason to think that Leon Panetta can’t be a very good CIA director following another period of notable CIA failures and scandals. … From my new column.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … C.I.A.: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama meets with his economic team to go over the federal budget situation. It’s in massive deficit, of course, after eight years of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and is going to get into even bigger deficit with the need to stimulate the bad economy.
Obama has some personnel matters to attend to, including finding a replacement for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson at commerce secretary. There’s some word that it might be LA Congressman Xavier Becerra, who turned down the post of US trade representative. More about that later.
Obama also has some ruffled feathers to smooth around his reported coming appointment of former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, and California Congressman Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. The appointment leaked before anyone talked with incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who is clearly miffed and says she wants an intelligence professional in the job. The record of “professionals” and “amateurs” as CIA director is not what she suggests, as I’ll be getting into in an upcoming column.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues, with the UN saying a quarter of the more than 500 killed so far were civilians.
Obama, receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings, is also monitoring the Israel-Hamas clash in the Gaza Strip. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who many on the far right imagined was a fellow traveler, is in the region to try to broker a ceasefire.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public appearances. Schwarzenegger is working on getting a budget deal prior to next week’s state of the state address.
Not surprisingly, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is suing to prevent the complex Democratic plan to raise taxes as fees.
** 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.
Then there is geopolitics. … From my Friday Huffington Post column.
** 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 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.
** 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.
** 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 in the $50 to $51 per barrel range. Crude oil is up about $15 per barrel since Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas began just after Christmas.
The drop of $97 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 previous 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.
Read 
| Comments (72) |
The Gaza stuff looks bad for Israel.
Post-partisan, that sounds familiar.
It’s time for them to go.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 8:07 am
The Gaza stuff looks bad for Israel.
Barack gave out good messages yesterday on his first day in Washington as President-elect. Anybody who thinks this economy is getting better without the government intervening needs his or her head examined.
Does Feinstein represent more than her ego re the Panetta appointment?
Who does Feinstein want instead of Panetta? Some old CIA hand to cover up all the screw-ups?
Bill, I look forward to the column in re intelligence. Maybe you can clarify how the roles of CIA Director and Director of National Intelligence interact now that they are separate. The small insight I have on turf wars for the world of intelligence was gleaned from the description of the interagency tensions that broke out during the agency’s creation I read in the 1997 edition of the CIA’s Factbook on Intelligence. I guess to this day agencies jealously guarding their perogatives flavors efforts to bring coordination to the intelligence gathering undertaken by multiple arms of the government. I swear I once read even the Agriculture Dept. has intelligence gathering as among its activities, with agents stationed at embassies worldwide. Here is a link to the section of the Factbook referred above: http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/fact97/genesis.htm
Larry’s comments yesterday made sense–our intelligence gathering has been broken for a while, visably so even to someone like me who knows almost nothing about this stuff. Just as he has made clear that he plans to adjust/fix Military posture, procurement and preparedeness, I hope in the area of intelligence gathering that Obama can bring long overdue reforms to fruition.
P.S. my Mom is enjoy her Christmas present–Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda. She says it is a very good read. I may have tumbled onto it in one of the comments here. If so, thanks for the recommendation whoever mentioned it!
Maybe diFi is miffed because a professional would have limited contacts on Capitol Hill and would thus be dependent on her for support in Congress. Panetta has his own network of support on the hill and has a reputation of adhering without compromise to his own moral compass.
I just noticed that Meg Whitman filed no less than 8 election committees, including ones for Governor, Senator and Dog Catcher.
I’m not sure she’s qualified for any of those….
Great column on Panetta, Feinstein, and the CIA. I wonder if Feinstein doesn’t want to cover up her own screw-ups.
A fool and her money …
Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I just noticed that Meg Whitman filed no less than 8 election committees, including ones for Governor, Senator and Dog Catcher.
I’m not sure she’s qualified for any of those….
“A fool and her money …”
Make that at least TWO FOOLS and their money…
“Great column on Panetta, Feinstein, and the CIA.”
Agree – a fantastic piece. For those unfamiliar with that actual political history of California (instead of the Right Wing faux version), it might be hard to imagine a time when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. Liberal Republicans are now about as plentiful in California as the native Grizzly.
I also think that whomever was nominated to the CIA would face significant resistance to any reforming of that agency. As an outsider, Panetta can frame this resistance as coming from the “Old Boy Network”, rather than based on substantive policy issues. This puts greater pressure on the CIA to accept the reforms. Also, as a former COS, he understands how organizations interact and can make suggestions to the President on how to bypass incalcitrant factions of the CIA by utilizing other resources (State Department, Army Intelligence, NSA, etc.)
“POIZNER ANNOUNCES GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE”
See what I mean about TWO fools and their money?
It’s going to be a wildly exciting gubernatorial race …
Thanks.
California political history — thus the context for what is going on, and why — is mostly missed by today’s pols and media.
As for CIA, I think there are some very good people there and someone like Panetta can help them a lot.
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am edit
“Great column on Panetta, Feinstein, and the CIA.”
Agree – a fantastic piece. For those unfamiliar with that actual political history of California (instead of the Right Wing faux version), it might be hard to imagine a time when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. Liberal Republicans are now about as plentiful in California as the native Grizzly.
I also think that whomever was nominated to the CIA would face significant resistance to any reforming of that agency. As an outsider, Panetta can frame this resistance as coming from the “Old Boy Network”, rather than based on substantive policy issues. This puts greater pressure on the CIA to accept the reforms. Also, as a former COS, he understands how organizations interact and can make suggestions to the President on how to bypass incalcitrant factions of the CIA by utilizing other resources (State Department, Army Intelligence, NSA, etc.)
I wouldn’t put it that way, but she may be caught up in the cult of intelligence.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am edit
Great column on Panetta, Feinstein, and the CIA. I wonder if Feinstein doesn’t want to cover up her own screw-ups.
She filed eight committees?
Sounds like the squid principle.
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am edit
I just noticed that Meg Whitman filed no less than 8 election committees, including ones for Governor, Senator and Dog Catcher.
I’m not sure she’s qualified for any of those….
I think she had her own agenda on the appointment.
># Sullihan Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:09 am edit
Maybe diFi is miffed because a professional would have limited contacts on Capitol Hill and would thus be dependent on her for support in Congress. Panetta has his own network of support on the hill and has a reputation of adhering without compromise to his own moral compass.
I couldn’t really get into that without making it even longer.
Panetta will clearly have his own power base and line to the president that another pick might not.
>Dana Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:05 am edit
Bill, I look forward to the column in re intelligence. Maybe you can clarify how the roles of CIA Director and Director of National Intelligence interact now that they are separate. The small insight I have on turf wars for the world of intelligence was gleaned from the description of the interagency tensions that broke out during the agency’s creation I read in the 1997 edition of the CIA’s Factbook on Intelligence. I guess to this day agencies jealously guarding their perogatives flavors efforts to bring coordination to the intelligence gathering undertaken by multiple arms of the government. I swear I once read even the Agriculture Dept. has intelligence gathering as among its activities, with agents stationed at embassies worldwide. Here is a link to the section of the Factbook referred above: http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/fact97/genesis.htm
She apparently did have her own pick.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 9:13 am edit
Who does Feinstein want instead of Panetta? Some old CIA hand to cover up all the screw-ups?
Yes.
># Len Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 8:43 am edit
Does Feinstein represent more than her ego re the Panetta appointment?
The economy isn’t picking up.
># Capitol Boy Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 8:38 am edit
Barack gave out good messages yesterday on his first day in Washington as President-elect. Anybody who thinks this economy is getting better without the government intervening needs his or her head examined.
Really?
># Jonas Blane Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 8:09 am edit
Post-partisan, that sounds familiar.
This could be quite interesting. Good column!
I’ll be curious how the military reform effort proceeds.
>Bill Bradley Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I couldn’t really get into that without making it even longer.
Panetta will clearly have his own power base and line to the president that another pick might not.
“She filed eight committees? Sounds like the squid principle.”
Out of curiosity, I looked-up the qualifications for dog catcher. Here’s a job description from the City of Berkeley: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/hr/classspecs/9005.htm
One highlight:
“Identifying symptoms and behaviors associated with rabies, distemper, parvo, upper respiratory infections, parasites, and other common domestic animal diseases”
I have some questions for Ms. Whitman:
True or false – most rabid animals are not aggressive.
How can porcupines help indicate that an animal is rabid?
What is the incubation period of rabies in dogs?
Whitman. She’s out of her mind if she thinks she can beat Brown. Her best consultants already abandoned her. What other “clue” does she need?
Hah!
>** THE BUSH DYNASTY TAKES A BREATHER. Although dad George Herbert Walker Bush talked him up as a future president during New Year’s week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has decided against running for the seat of retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez, calling it “just not the right timing.”
Good call, considering that Barack Obama took Florida out of the Republican presidential column two months ago.
Feinstein needs to get her big ego out of the way. She already frakked up Barack’s message on his first day in Washington as the President-elect.
** FEINSTEIN GOES ALONG WITH PANETTA AT C.I.A., BUT WANTS TO NAME DEPUTY DIRECTOR. As I expected here and in my new Huffington Post column, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is going along with the appointment of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. But she wants her first choice for the post – current CIA Deputy Director Steve Kappes – to stay on as deputy director of the agency.
As I point out in the column, it won’t be hard to link Kappes to excesses of the recent past.
Enough with Feinstein and her big ego. We don’t want her to be the Governor. If she wants to be the Senate Intelligence chair, maybe she needs to be more, you know, intelligent.
She had a STUPID agenda.
Bill Bradley Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I think she had her own agenda on the appointment.
># Sullihan Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:09 am edit
Maybe diFi is miffed because a professional would have limited contacts on Capitol Hill and would thus be dependent on her for support in Congress. Panetta has his own network of support on the hill and has a reputation of adhering without compromise to his own moral compass.
Bill, your Huffington piece on Panetta was one of your best, and one of the most important.
Wasn’t it the same Pat Buchanan, in order to comply with the demands of Strom Thurmond, that engineered the firing of Panetta in the Nixon Administration? And in the interest of fairness, Sen Tom Kuchel did not just support N.Y. Gov. Rockefeller against neighboring Arizona Sen. Goldwater in the 1964 California primary, he in fact led the campaign. His face and voice was the one used in Rockefeller’s TV and radio ads. And the turning point in the 1968 primary was when three other conservative candidates running against Kuchel jointly announced their withdrawal and endorsement of Rafferty. the most famous of the three? Why none other than Howard Jarvis, who had run against Kuchel in the 1962 primary as well. You can judge someone by the enemies they make.
Thanks, Sullihan, I appreciate it.
And thanks for the great material!
Well, it was divorced from the current political reality.
># marcos leon Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pm edit
She had a STUPID agenda.
Bill Bradley Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I think she had her own agenda on the appointment.
># Sullihan Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:09 am edit
Maybe diFi is miffed because a professional would have limited contacts on Capitol Hill and would thus be dependent on her for support in Congress. Panetta has his own network of support on the hill and has a reputation of adhering without compromise to his own moral compass.
I think she made a big mistake with Team Obama …
># Capitol Boy Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm edit
Feinstein needs to get her big ego out of the way. She already frakked up Barack’s message on his first day in Washington as the President-elect.
** FEINSTEIN GOES ALONG WITH PANETTA AT C.I.A., BUT WANTS TO NAME DEPUTY DIRECTOR. As I expected here and in my new Huffington Post column, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is going along with the appointment of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. But she wants her first choice for the post – current CIA Deputy Director Steve Kappes – to stay on as deputy director of the agency.
As I point out in the column, it won’t be hard to link Kappes to excesses of the recent past.
Well, I’m not sure I know those answers, either …
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 12:47 pm edit
“She filed eight committees? Sounds like the squid principle.”
Out of curiosity, I looked-up the qualifications for dog catcher. Here’s a job description from the City of Berkeley: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/hr/classspecs/9005.htm
One highlight:
“Identifying symptoms and behaviors associated with rabies, distemper, parvo, upper respiratory infections, parasites, and other common domestic animal diseases”
I have some questions for Ms. Whitman:
True or false – most rabid animals are not aggressive.
How can porcupines help indicate that an animal is rabid?
What is the incubation period of rabies in dogs?
Thanks! It will be interesting to monitor, which I of course will …
># Dana Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 12:33 pm edit
This could be quite interesting. Good column!
I’ll be curious how the military reform effort proceeds.
>Bill Bradley Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I couldn’t really get into that without making it even longer.
Panetta will clearly have his own power base and line to the president that another pick might not.
FOR WHOME THE BELL TOLLS: Have you not read the disproportionate death toll?
Have you not read the disproportionate death toll? Since (Sept 2005) only (9) nine Israeli’s have been killed by Hamas rockets, and prior to Christmas (2008) over 1,400 Islamic Palestinian of the Gaza Territories had been killed in response, a factor of (155::1) One-hundred-fifty-five to one. After a week’s aerial asymmetrical bombardment framed vaguely as “rising tensions in the Middle East” by news anchors, the death toll already stands at nearly (500) five-hundred, (70) seventy children and (27) twenty-seven women, with (2,650) Two thousand-six-hundred-fifty wounded, (270) two-hundred-seventy women, (650) six-hundred-fifty children, so much for Israel’s claim that their targets are Hamas militants.
But the facts reported by Western Reporters and unchallenged by any major Western network can be paraphrased as: Israel wanted a sustainable ceasefire; Israel needed to prevent Hamas from rearming; Hamas targets were hit; Israel was sending in aid and letting the injured out; Israel was doing everything they can to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
The (USI/MIC) United States of Israel propaganda coming out of the City State of (NYC) New York City, “Little Israel, for its domestic consumption war has always been a factor, and does not surprise any foreign media agency. What is surprising is its effeteness, American’s have been so indoctrinated by the biased media and their own alliances that they somehow condone killing of innocents based on the crazy assertion that “If you voted for them (Hamas) you deserve too be killed” and agree with and must not question the principle that the ends justify the means a view which is incoherent with basic morality and logical thinking.
What is this tedious anti-Semitic blather?
Speaking of tedious blather, Dianne Feinstein is one of the most tedious figures in American life.
“Well, I’m not sure I know those answers, either …”
Obviously, you’d make a lousy dog catcher.
True or false – most rabid animals are not aggressive.
False – it’s more common for rabid animals to become docile, rather than aggressive.
How can porcupines help indicate that an animal is rabid?
Animals that normally leave porcupines alone may attack the creatures if they are infected with rabies and the disease makes them abnormally aggressive. The quills can easily be seen on the head, face and neck of an infected creature.
What is the incubation period of rabies in dogs?
One to three months after infection. Once symptoms appear in the animal, it is almost impossible to cure.
Feinstein made mistakes with both her response to the Panetta balloon AND her use of the word “apology” in her description of the follow-up conversation with Obama. She should have had the smarts and class to quietly accept the call from Obama and fall in line. Prediction: She won’t get her preferred deputy CIA director either.
From the Capitol Morning Report today:
It appears the tussle between Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and possible candidate for governor, and Thomas Hall of Santa Monica has taken a new turn: On Dec. 22, Hall filed eight campaign committee statements in Whitman’s name with the Secretary of State, including “Meg Whitman for Dog Catcher.”
A year ago, Hall (who did not return our phone call yesterday) bought several internet domain names Whitman might have used for a possible run for statewide office, such as whitmanforgovernor.com. Whitman complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization, but lost Dec. 1. Then on New Year’s Eve, Whitman sued Hall in federal district court for cybersquatting.
We spoke with Whitman’s consultants at Randle Communications and they said Whitman has not filed campaign statements. We also spoke with Roman Porter, executive director of the Fair Political Practices Commission and he said they take seriously the requirements for accurate disclosure; Porter said the penalty for falsifying reports can be as high as perjury.
Who is Hall? Tough to say, but the phone number he listed with the FPPC is the same as that of the Maverick Group, which would suggest that this is Hall’s Plaxo page.
“What is this tedious anti-Semitic blather?”
Ignore it — Bill will likely pull-down this post. He’s a tinfoil hat fluoride conspiracy nut.
Oh, it was Hall who filed the papers. Got it thanks.
Still think Whitman would be hard pressed to make it as dog catcher…
This arrogant Feinstein person needs to take a serious chill pill
Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Feinstein made mistakes with both her response to the Panetta balloon AND her use of the word “apology” in her description of the follow-up conversation with Obama. She should have had the smarts and class to quietly accept the call from Obama and fall in line. Prediction: She won’t get her preferred deputy CIA director either.
For the record, I agree with Feinstein that the default position of the US Senate must be to seat Burris as IL senator. Blago is innocent until proven guilty, and it’s his duty to appoint someone to the seat*. There’s no evidence to suggest that Burris did anything remotely illegal to procure the appointment. In two years the people of Illinois will decide whom they want in the seat.
* This was a really smart move by Blago. By appointing someone with “not one iota of taint,” he provides exculpatory evidence for his own trial!
Well, that’s nice of her but as I said, it’s pretty obvious.
She’s drinking the Dr. Pepper now.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:52 pm edit
This arrogant Feinstein person needs to take a serious chill pill
Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Feinstein made mistakes with both her response to the Panetta balloon AND her use of the word “apology” in her description of the follow-up conversation with Obama. She should have had the smarts and class to quietly accept the call from Obama and fall in line. Prediction: She won’t get her preferred deputy CIA director either.
Nah.
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:49 pm edit
“What is this tedious anti-Semitic blather?”
Ignore it — Bill will likely pull-down this post. He’s a tinfoil hat fluoride conspiracy nut.