This is purported footage, courtesy of Al Jazeera, of a Hamas attack on Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.
** IS ISRAEL INCHING TOWARD A CEASEFIRE? Israel has begun a daily three-hour ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to allow residents to get basic supplies. The Israeli cabinet debated for hours today whether to halt the offensive against Hamas or expand it into the most urbanized areas. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condi Rice is urging Israel to accept a ceasefire being worked out by Egypt.
** LENGTHY ECONOMIC WOES PREDICTED. The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said today that the US economy is expected to shrink 2.2% in 2009 and grow 1.5% in 2010. The CBO’s new forecast also said the unemployment rate will rise to 8.3% in 2009 and 9% in 2010.
** SCHWARZENEGGER SAYS HE’LL RE-START BUDGET TALKS WITH BOTH PARTIES. At his press conference this afternoon, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – who as expected vetoed a Democratic plan to substitute fees for tax hikes – said he’ll re-start talks with both parties on a solution. Schwarzenegger says he wants to streamline the regulatory system to get infrastructure funds into the economic pipeline right away.
He will have a Big Five meeting tomorrow with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders from both houses. Are Republicans ready to deal with the obvious, the need for some new tax hikes? We’ll see.
** RUSSIA CUTS OFF EUROPE. Russia today cut off all natural gas flows through Ukraine. That cuts off the biggest flow of natural gas into Europe in the height of winter. Why? Ukraine hasn’t paid for all its gas, and has been stealing some of the gas flowing through its country. And because Russia wants to force changes in Ukrainian politics, especially to turn the country away from the US.
One-fourth of Europe’s natural gas comes from Russia. But the proportion in some nations, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, is much higher.
** BIG SUPPORT FOR MAJOR GOVERNMENTAL ROLE IN THE ECONOMY. The new Republican Rasmussen poll of US voters finds a large margin in favor of the federal government intervening directly in the national economy.
A majority of voters (54%) believe a major government economic recovery plan is necessary to restore the U.S. economy to good health. Just one-third (33%) say the economy can recover on its own, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.
** OBAMA PICKS TROUBLE-SHOOTING ENVOYS. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder has word of President-elect Barack Obama’s picks for regional trouble-shooters around the globe. Transition officials confirm that President-elect Obama has asked Dennis Ross, Richard Haass, and Richard Holbrooke, to serve as his chief emissaries to world hot spots.
It’s expected that Ross will get the Iran portfolio, that Holbrooke, the hard-headed architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, will take the tough (and tougher) Southwest Asia portfolio, which includes India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that Haass will deal with the Middle East. Each men’s turf is still in flux, so the assignments might change. Other envoys will be added to this list; they’ll deal with Africa and South America.
All three have the chops; all three are considered realists; all three have direct experience as envoys; Haass was the U.S. government’s chief negotiator in Northern Ireland; Ross shuttled between Mideast capitals during the Clinton administration, and Holbrooke, as mentioned, brought warring sides together in the Balkans. Haas served under Presidents Clinton and Bush and is currently the president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
** BAD NEWS FOR PALIN. A new poll out of Alaska has Governor Sarah Palin trailing Senator Lisa Murkowski in a prospective 2010 Republican primary, 57% to 33%. Where is the love?
President-elect Barack Obama met with economic advisors yesterday in Washington.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues transition work in Washington in advance of his inauguration on January 20th. He has lunch today at the White House with President Bush and the other living former presidents: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter.
New Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, as I expected, has decided to go along with Obama’s appointment of Leon Panetta to be the new director of the CIA. She will apparently get her way on having her pick for director, current CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappes, stay on as Panetta’s deputy.
And while he still has a few hoops to jump through, it looks like former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris will be seated as Obama’s replacement in the Senate.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. At 2 PM this afternoon he holds a Capitol press conference on California’s chronic budget crisis.
The event will be webcast live on www.gov.ca.gov.
Not surprisingly, late yesterday Schwarzenegger vetoed the Democratic budget plan which would raise taxes as fees. Schwarzenegger is concerned about the legality of the move and dissatisfied with Democratic moves to assuage his concerns for an economic stimulus. Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines has also held out the prospect of Republican votes for a tax hike in exchange for a hard budget cap.
** 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.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END. … From my Friday Huffington Post column.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS. … 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 $45 to $46 per barrel range.
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 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.
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| Comments (64) |
It was just a matter of the margin.
># Sacramento Solon Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:58 pm edit
Pat,
You deserved to lose…and then get loose…after making such a wager. Old Solon would have advised you better…and charged you just a wee bit for the tip!
Happy New Year!
Pat, how could you bet on Penn State over USC?!
># Pat Skipper Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:31 pm edit
Tri, I have trouble taking people who can’t spell “losing” seriously. “Loosing” was what I did to my belt after the Christmas feast. “Losing” is what I did when I put a bet on Penn State to beat SC.
You’re welcome. It was especially interesting given the source.
># Brasky Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:07 pm edit
” BIG SUPPORT FOR MAJOR GOVERNMENTAL ROLE IN THE ECONOMY”
Thank you for this. If anyone knows of similar polls knocking deregulation and/or showing support for government in the economy, please post them.
You’ve leaped into the deep end …
>TRIATHLON Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 1:27 pm edit
(USI/MIC) “FREE AND FAIR” COVERAGE: Starved and Suffocated.
She’s a lot better known than he ever was.
># larry Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 1:25 pm edit
Sullihan wrote:
As for the divine Sarah, she either reinvents herself so that people think there is some substance behind those glasses, or there is only an Amercian Express type ad in her future. Remember “You know me, I ran for vice president of the United States …”?
Hey, I remember Bill Miller, too.
Yes, that is true.
You can imagine how pleased I am not to have that link on my site …
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 12:29 pm edit
Is it true that Pajamas Media is sending Joe the Plumber to cover the Gaza conflict??!!
I think there will be some big congressional hearings.
># marcos leon Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 11:51 am edit
That doesn’t sound so good but I never expected Obama to produce show trials. I like the Panetta pick.
Oh, I don’t see that at all. You seriously underestimate how popular she is on the right and in some parts of the country.
># Sullihan Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 11:50 am edit
Long life and good health to Lisa Murkowski!
As for the divine Sarah, she either reinvents herself so that people think there is some substance behind those glasses, or there is only an Amercian Express type ad in her future. Remember “You know me, I ran for vice president of the United States …”?
“Actually, he did talk about foreclosure assistance”
But he didn’t count it as a leg…
What new video today?
Obama and the other presidents, and Russia cutting Europe’s natural gas.
The housing stuff is part of the economic stimulus leg.
># Brasky Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 9:26 pm edit
“Actually, he did talk about foreclosure assistance”
But he didn’t count it as a leg…
“The housing stuff is part of the economic stimulus leg.”
Really? I thought that was “jobs, jobs, jobs.” OK.
Still seems to me that we have a lot of “number one issues” surrounding the budget. Wouldn’t be surprised if Los Angeles traffic lights get in there somehow…
Incidentally, NWN passed 77,000 comments sometime in the past week.