In remarks to the Summit of the Americas on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, President Barack Obama proposed a fresh start, including relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama finished up at the Summit of the Americas earlier today on the island of Trinidad and has departed Port of Spain Piarco International Airport en route to Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One.
Earlier this morning, he participated in various summit meetings with the 30-odd heads of state in attendance, then held a news conference at the Hilton Hotel on Trinidad.
Obama noted that he has serious differences with such hemispheric leaders as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cuban President Raul Chavez (who was not allowed to attend), and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Ortega delivered a 50-minute stemwinder blasting the US for its past of conducting a thinly disguised proxy war in the 1980s against Ortega and the then Sandinista revolutionary movement after it ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Asked to comment about Ortega’s speech, Obama noted only that it was very long. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not comment on the Ortega statement, twice declaring how much she enjoyed the summit’s cultural presentation.
Obama is scheduled to land at Andrews Air Force Base at 3 PM Pacific. There he will embark aboard the Marine One helicopter and return to the White House.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no public events today.
Schwarzenegger flies to Detroit later in the day. On Monday, he delivers the keynote address to the annual international conference of the society of automotive engineers. At that event, he will call for fundamental changes in automotive technology to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
The California Republican Party executive committee voted on Saturday to oppose all six state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special elections ballot. This includes not only Prop 1A, which has a new state spending limit, budget rainy day fund, and extension of temporary tax hikes for budget balancing purposes, but also the last three inititiatives, all of which are Republican ideas. Namely, to move tax revenues out of special funds for early childhood development and mental health, as well as a cap on legislative pay during budget deficit years.
The chairman of the state party initiatives committee that urged opposition to all initiatives is a fellow named Mike Spence, head of the far right California Republican Assembly, who had some unintentionally amusing exchanges here on NWN when he alleged that then Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez was “a Marxist.”
Given that it is currently under the sway of a far right faction, the only surprise would have come had the CRP not voted to oppose the initiatives.
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. …
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is participating in the Summit of the Americas held in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
The time on the island of Trinidad is the same as Eastern Daylight Time.
After introductory remarks, Obama has already attended the first plenary session of the 34-nation summit and done the official picture taking with the other heads of state.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama attends the summit’s working lunch.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama attends the summit’s second plenary session.
At 5 PM Pacific, Obama attends the summit’s official dinner and cultural show.
Trinidad was a longtime British colony. It’s southernmost island in the Caribbean Ocean, and is just seven miles off the northeastern coast of Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a one-time paratroop colonel who seized power in a coup, gives President Barack Obama a book about foreign exploitation of Latin America.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a darling of the far left who was notably anti-American during the Bush/Cheney years, exchanged a warm handshake and greeting with Obama yesterday and presented him with a book about Latin America, detailing, among other things, a list of grievances against Yanqui imperialism.
Chavez, a rather dictatorial figure who does nonetheless win elections in Venezuela, is probably an even more problematic character for Obama to deal with than the Castro brothers in Cuba.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the federal budget and some ideas for new efficiencies in a budget that is nonetheless greatly expanding in the near term.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell hold a press conference on Saturday to announce that California is the first state in the nation to be approved for a share of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund dollars within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The press conference is at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. …
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. …
American freighter captain Richard Phillips, rescued last Sunday from Somali pirates by U.S. Navy Seals, arrived home yesterday in Vermont.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed at $50.33 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
Cuban President Raul Castro welcomed recent overtures from President Barack Obama and said he is ready to talk about all aspects of life on the Cold War flashpoint island, a statement hailed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE STATE OF PLAY ON STATE OF PLAY.
** RAPPROCHEMENT WITH CUBA? As the Summit of the Americas begins on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, Cuban President Raul Castro is nowhere to be seen. As a non-democracy, Cuba is the only nation in the Hemisphere not taking part in the summit. But speaking at a summit in Caracas with his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Castro said he is willing to discuss all aspects of his country’s policies, including human rights and the remaining political prisoners, with the Obama Administration.
Obama took what he described yesterday in Mexico City as “the first step” by ending restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba by Cuban-Americans with relatives on the island nation. The next move, he says, is up to Cuba. And so far at least, that move is strictly rhetorical.
Still, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed the move by Castro, who replaced ailing but still active brothel Fidel a couple of years ago.
The head of the Organization of American States said today he will push for Cuba’s reinstatement. Cuba was ousted 47 years ago from membership.
While I’ve never been caught up in the cha-cha-cha Marxist romance of Cuba, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a long time ago and the reality is that we have closer relations with countries that are at least as problematic in their practices.
** SCHMIDT LAYS OUT HIS VIEWS ON THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND WHY REPUBLICANS SHOULD EMBRACE GAY MARRIAGE. As mentioned in an item early this morning, Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s former presidential campaign director and manager of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s big re-election win as California’s governor, spoke today to the Log Cabin Republicans national convention in Washington.
Schmidt, who I profiled on the Huffington Post after he took over the McCain campaign last year, is a hardball political consultant but not a hardline conservative. He encouraged Schwarzenegger to champion the climate change issue and push for the state’s biggest infrastructure investments in two generations. Schmidt, former counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, is a moderate on social issues, and not merely because his sister is a lesbian.
Speaking publicly for one of the first times since the end of the presidential campaign, John McCain’s campaign manager Steve Schmidt painted a dire portrait of the state of the Republican Party, arguing that the GOP has largely been co-opted by its religious elements.
“If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party,” Schmidt declared. “And in a free country, a political party cannot be viable in the long term if it is seen as a sectarian party.”
The remarks came in a passionate, roughly 20-minute speech before the Log Cabin Republican’s national convention, in which Schmidt laid out the case for a far more open party — one which did not consider gay marriage to be a “litmus test” issue. And while he made it a purpose not to offend social conservatives — they “remain an indispensable part of the Republican coalition,” he said — Schmidt did not hide his concerns that religion had become the predominant thread of the GOP. …
Looking beyond the issue of marriage, Schmidt’s diagnosis of the GOP’s ills was fairly ominous. “Our coalition,” he declared, “is shrinking and losing ground to segments of the population that is growing, whether it is with suburban voters, working class, college educated voters, Hispanics, or left handed Albania psychics, the percentage voting republican has declined precipitously.”
Schmidt warned, particularly, that losses among Hispanic voters threatened to “cost the Republicans the entire southwest,” a development that would make winning 270 electoral votes a near impossibility. “Had Sen. McCain not been the nominee in 2008,” he said, “I am convinced we would have lost the state of Arizona.”
The road back would be arduous, he added, even if politics are inherently cyclical. “I think Republicans ought to embrace this ‘Lord of the Flies’ period,” he said at one point, “when there is no clear leader in the party. And the problems of the party are not going to be corrected by any single big day event, you know, tea parties for instance. The problems of the party will be fixed over time and as we go through this period of time. There needs to be an opportunity for new leaders to emerge.”
And while the chance for an Obama-backlash was apparent — “should the recession grow deeper or longer” — and the likelihood of a “national disaster or any number of other contingencies” remained, Republicans, Schmidt added, should not “take comfort from knowing our party’s success could come at the expense of the country or rely on blunders of the administration.”
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, seen in this NWN video, sued the Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 for ignoring greenhouse gases.
** E.P.A. – GREENHOUSE GASES ENDANGER PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE. The US Environmental Protection Agency today issued a long-expected finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. EPA scientists mostly decided as long as two years that such was the case, but were blocked from issuing such a finding by Bush/Cheney political appointees.
This move clears the way for regulation by the EPA and/of legislation, after a 60-day public comment period. It also further clears the way for the EPA to grant the long-sought waiver under the Clean Air Act for California to implement its vehicle emissions law, enacted in 2002. The EPA noted in today’s finding that vehicles are a principal sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Obama Administration would like to do an omnibus bill on greenhouse gas reductions, but will be hard-pressed to do so in the next year. The California program, which will encompass many other states able to follow California’s lead under the Clean Air Act, is a backdoor way to set up greenhouse gas regulation over most of the country via state regulation.
Obama endorsed the California approach in 2007, while a seeming darkhorse candidate, in Iowa, as previously reported. He pledged during the campaign to make sure the EPA granted California its waiver, which had been automatic prior to the greenhouse gas issue, something the Bush/Cheney Administration denied was a problem.
President Barack Obama, yesterday in Mexico City, pledged help for Mexico in curbing the flow of guns and money to the drug cartels, but will not push for reinstatement of the US assault weapons ban.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. …
** SCHMIDT URGES LEGALIZATION OF GAY MARRIAGE IN WASHINGTON SPEECH. In a speech today to the Log Cabin Republicans national convention in Washington, former John McCain for President campaign director Steve Schmidt is urging the legalization of same-sex marriage. The Log Cabin Republicans are the principal organization for gays and lesbians in the Republican Party.
Schmidt, who is married to a former Navy nurse, managed the landslide re-election victory of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom he continues to advise, and ran the war room in former President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign.
He’s previously urged the legalization of same-sex marriage, but today he is arguing that the Republicans need to get on the side of history and push aside old prejudices. I’ll have more about this.
President Barack Obama, speaking yesterday in Mexico City in advance of today’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago – from which Cuba is excluded – noted steps he’s just taken to liberalize relations with Cuba and said it’s time for Cuba to make some moves.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama travels this morning from Mexico City, where he held a summit meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, to the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where he will take part in the 34-nation Summit of the Americas.
The only nation not represented in this collection of democracies is Cuba. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has already announced that he will not sign the summit’s communique in protest of Cuba’s exclusion.
Vice President Joe Biden is today again in Missouri.
Biden attends a morning meeting at the University of Missouri in St. Louis on making college affordable to the middle class. In the afternoon, Biden makes an announcement, also in St. Louis, of a new program to prepare Missouri youth for future jobs.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks this morning at the California March for Water rally at San Luis Reservoir in Los Banos, a community near the Central Coast.
This is the final day of the water march organized by the Latino Water Coalition, a bipartisan group backed by growers and Latino community organizations.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $17 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
President Barack Obama discussed the deep bonds between America and Mexico in remarks this afternoon at Los Pinos, the presidential residence in Mexico City.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.
** QUICK HITS. In a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City, President Barack Obama called for US Senate ratification of a treaty on cross-border weapons trafficking that has languished for the past decade. Mexican drug cartels, armed with American weapons, pose a grave threat to government security forces, frequently out-gunning them in confrontations. … Having unsuccessfully tried to engage repeatedly with former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, state Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner paid attention to the fact that he’s in a primary today by attacking former eBay CEO Meg Whitman for her management of the firm. eBay is now trying to unload the Internet telephony service Skype, which Whitman pursued as a key part of her corporate strategy. … In addition to Obama playing up the administration’s high-speed rail plan, as discussed in an earlier item today, which greatly benefits California, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who did a tour yesterday with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, today offered $260 million to help with California’s water woes. But the usual impasse – dams vs. conservation – remains.
** OBAMA’S REMARKS UPON ARRIVAL AT LOS PINOS, THE PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE IN MEXICO CITY.
Well, thank you very much. This is an extraordinary honor and an extraordinary pleasure to be here in Mexico with all of you today. I want to thank President Calderón and his wonderful First Lady and the delegation for their hospitality and facilitating this trip. And I want to thank the people of Mexico for the warmth with which I’ve been received, especially the young people who are here today. Thank you very much.
There is a reason why the first visit that I had with a foreign leader after my election was with President Calderón. It was a reminder, as John F. Kennedy said, that the bonds between our two countries cannot be broken. We are joined by a border, but our bonds are so much more than that. In my hometown of Chicago, the population is at least one-third made up of people of Mexican heritage. All across America, all across the United States, we have benefited from the culture, the language, the food, the insights, the literature, the energy, the ambitions of people who have migrated from our southern neighbor.
And my hope is, is that the United States has had something to offer to Mexico, as well. So our relationship, our friendship is strong, but as President Calderón said, we can make it stronger.
At a time where all of us are dealing with an extraordinary global recession, where unemployment is on the rise, where credit has begun to shrink, where businesses are struggling, it is more important than ever that we work together not only to restore economic growth in Mexico and the United States, but also to make sure that growth is sustainable, and to make sure that growth is from the bottom up, so that each and every person — every young person here in Mexico, as well as every young person in the United States — has an opportunity to live out their dreams.
At a time when the Mexican government has so courageously taken on the drug cartels that have plagued both sides of the borders, it is absolutely critical that the United States joins as a full partner in dealing with this issue, both through initiatives like the Merida Initiative, but also on our side of the border, in dealing with the flow of guns and cash south.
And at a time when Mexico is not just a regional leader, but now a global leader, as shown by its outstanding participation in the G-20 summit and other multilateral organizations, it’s critical that we join together around issues that can’t be solved by any one nation — issues like climate change, issues like poverty, issues like terrorism. These are issues in which the United States and Mexico will have to stand side by side in order to promote common security and common prosperity.
And so it is wonderfully fitting to see the children of Mexico, as well as, I suspect, a few children of the United States here together, waving flags of both countries, because we are reminded that ultimately the reason that we serve in government, ultimately the reason that bilateral relationships like this are so important, is because it allows us to promote a better future for our children.
That’s what we’re fighting for, for their dreams, for their opportunities, for their futures. And I’m very much looking forward to developing the kind of relationship between Mexico and the United States that will allow all the children here and all the children in both countries to thrive for years to come.
So thank you very much, Mr. President, Madam First Lady, and to all of you, for welcoming me in such a gracious way. Thank you.
President Barack Obama arrived in Mexico City this afternoon.He will pursue a weapons trafficking control treaty with Mexico that has languished in the U.S. Senate since the late 1990s.
** OBAMA CALLS FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL. Before leaving the White House for Mexico City, President Barack Obama joined longtime rail enthusiast Vice President Joe Biden to promote high-speed rail in the economic recovery program and to identify 10 high-speed rail corridors targeted for federal dollars.
The program is $8 billion initially and another $1 billion per year for the next five years. The high-speed rail corridors identified by the Obama Administration are California, Pacific Northwest, South Central, Gulf Coast, Chicago Hub Network, Florida, Southeast, Keystone, Empire and Northern New England.
Here’s an excerpt from Obama’s remarks this morning: What we’re talking about is a vision for high-speed rail in America. Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination. Imagine what a great project that would be to rebuild America.
Now, all of you know this is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It is now. It is happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.
In France, high-speed rail has pulled regions from isolation, ignited growth, remade quiet towns into thriving tourist destinations. In Spain, a high-speed line between Madrid and Seville is so successful that more people travel between those cities by rail than by car and airplane combined. China, where service began just two years ago, may have more miles of high-speed rail service than any other country just five years from now. And Japan, the nation that unveiled the first high-speed rail system, is already at work building the next: a line that will connect Tokyo with Osaka at speeds of over 300 miles per hour. So it’s being done; it’s just not being done here.
There’s no reason why we can’t do this. This is America. There’s no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else beyond our borders. Building a new system of high-speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already overburdened aviation system –- and everybody stands to benefit.
The brand new Marist Institute poll finds 52% of US voters saying that America is again moving in the right direction. The right track/wrong track numbers went very negative during the closing months of the Bush/Cheney Administration and continued negative through Obama’s transition and into the early days of his administration as the financial and economic crises continued.
There is a big partisan gap at work. 80% of Democrats and 51% of independents say America is moving again in the right direction. But only 20% of Republicans concur.
President Barack Obama is off to Mexico today for a summit with President Felipe Calderon, then he goes to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is off to Mexico today for a summit with President Felipe Calderon.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden delivered remarks on transportation projects in the economic recovery program this morning at the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg. Obama then left the White House for Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where he boarded Air Force One.
Obama is now en route to Mexico City on Air Force One.
Obama is scheduled to land at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City at 11:10 AM Pacific.
Obama meets with President Calderon at Los Pinos in Mexico City at 12:10 PM Pacific. Los Pinos is the Mexican presidential residence.
Obama and Calderon hold a press conference at Los Pinos at 1:45 PM Pacific.
Obama meets with US Embassy staff at the Intercontinental Hotel in Mexico City at 2:40 PM Pacific.
The president attends a working dinner with Mexican leaders at Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City at 6 PM Pacific.
This is Obama’s third international trip as president, following a brief visit to Canada and then the eight-day tour of Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Iraq.
The summitry with President Calderon comes amidst increasing instability in Mexico caused by powerful drug gangs that are challenging government security forces and by the global economic slump. The US is the biggest market for Mexican drugs and the biggest source of weaponry for the cartels. Mexico, one of the world’s largest economies, is receiving special assistance from international lenders as a result of the G-20 summit in London.
Obama has named Alan Bersin, who was US attorney during Bill Clinton’s presidency and served as California education secretary for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the new US border czar.
Following his appearance this morning with Obama on transportation funding, Vice President Biden is off to Missouri. He speaks at Whiteman Air Force Base and goes to a factory in Jefferson City, where he discusses the economic recovery program.
USS Bainbridge, carrying rescued American freighter captain Richard Phillips, arrived at Mombasa, Kenya late yesterday.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private meetings and discussion today in Los Angeles.
He has no scheduled public events.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
Pelosi said she is as unhappy as most American are with the Wall Street bailouts, and wants to get to the bottom of the elaborate financial mechanisms which nearly undid the US economy.
Pelosi wants a panel modeled after the Pecora Commission, which was established by the US Senate in 1932 to investigate the Wall Street crash of 1929.
She said the move coincides with legislation she will soon send to President Obama on financial institution regulation and reform, “so we have transparency…discipline and accountability to the American taxpayer.”
Pelosi made the unexpected announcement in response to a question from Commonwealth Club CEO Gloria Duffy just one day after Obama’s speech on the economy at Georgetown University. In his speech, Obama said oversight and regulation of Wall Street would be one of five pillars in his “new foundation” for the American economy.
** TEA PARTY AT CALIFORNIA’S CAPITOL. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere.
Fox News personality Neil Cavuto, who does an ostensibly business-oriented show for the channel, was on hand, as was radio host and Ronald Reagan son Michael Reagan (I’ve been on his increasingly hysterical show a few times) and hystrionic blogger Michelle Malkin, along with California personalities like Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association chief Jon Coupal and state Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring, who walked alone back to his office.
The message? Well, if you’re paying attention, you know the message. America is going socialist and surrenderist. Obama is a Manchurian candidate. Schwarzenegger is a closet socialist. The federal government is both totalitarian and weak – a tough combination to pull off – and the end is nigh.
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. An audience for Fox News. And to incite that audience into paroxysms of believed illegitimacy regarding the Obama presidency.
As I mentioned to a top Republican consultant with whom I had an early lunch before checking out the Capitol tea party, this is a time-limited strategy, as half the audience will be dead in the next 10 years. A proposition with which he rather ruefully agreed.
** TEACHERS UNION LAUNCHES NEW TV AD FOR PROPS 1A AND 1B.The campaign committee backed by the California Teachers Association this morning launched the first TV ad of the California special election campaign. Devised by ace Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman, who led the campaign that wrecked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election agenda in 2005, this ad promotes two core initiatives essential to the state budget compromise devised by Schwarzenegger and his Democratic and Republican allies in the Legislature.
Entitled, fittingly enough, “Mess,” the ad tells voters that passing Propositions 1A and 1B will prevent a bad situation from getting worse. It tells voters that Props 1A & 1B will establish long-term budget reforms to stabilize state spending and repay education some of the money that was cut in the recent budget crisis. The ad begins running today in selected markets around California.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA AND MEXICO: AMERICA’S NEXT CRISIS?
** ABOUT THOSE INFLATION FEARS … There are persistent fears in some circles that America is on the verge of inflation. Why? Because of all the government spending to counter the economic downturn.
Consumer prices dipped unexpectedly in March, leaving prices over the past year falling at the fastest clip in more than a half-century. The recession is expected to keep a lid on inflation as widespread layoffs dampen wage pressures and weak demand keeps companies from raising prices.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent last month as a drop in energy prices offset the biggest rise in tobacco prices in more than a decade. It was a better performance than the 0.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index that economists had expected. Over the past 12 months, consumer prices have fallen 0.4 percent, the first 12-month decline since a similar drop for the year ending in August 1955.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that production at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in March, the fifth straight monthly decline. That matched February’s drop and was worse than the 1 percent dip analysts expected.
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Somali pirates launched an unsuccessful attack late yesterday against an American cargo ship in the Indian Ocean.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
The Obamas, as you may have heard, and as promised to daughters Sasha and Malia, have a new dog. And here he is. His name is Bo (my nickname, incidentally, in a long-ago incarnation), he is a Portuguese water dog, and he is a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy. And he is “a large, rambunctious dog,” as promised by Obama in his interview with Barbara Walters, who urged a very small boutique sort of dog on the first couple, which Obama described as “a little yappy dog.” The first lady’s brand-new garden is in some jeopardy, as Bo’s breed likes tomatoes.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office and meets with senior advisors.
At 8:55 AM Pacific, he talks about tax relief for working families and restoring fairness to the tax code in remarks made at the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg. The event will receive roadblocked coverage on all cable news nets.
Elsewhere during the morning, Vice Presidetn Joe Biden talks with the Service Employees International Union executive council and meets with Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis.
Obama and Biden have their weekly luncheon in the Oval Office.
Biden meets with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the afternoon.
And Obama meets with US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, in the Oval Office.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the former Colorado senator, for an aerial tour of the Sacramento Delta via helicopter this morning.
At noon, Schwarzenegger and Salazar hold a press conference at the former Mather Air Force Base outside Sacramento to announce economic stimulus projects to develop water infrastructure in California and elsewhere as part of the Interior Department’s investments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Tonight Schwarzenegger will be in downtown LA for the Los Angeles Times’ “Budgetary Exchange” hosted and moderated by LA Times editorial page editor Jim Newton. There he will discuss the state budget compromise-related initiatives on California’s May 19th special election ballot.
Schwarzenegger is steering clear of the “American Tea Party” events – anti-tax, anti-government, and anti-Obama – promoted by the Fox News network, the right-wing blogosphere, and the national Republican Party.
Fox News personality Neil Cavuto is in Sacramento today to preside over a Tea Party event at the Capitol.
Right-wing radio host Michael Reagan (son of the former president, and I’ve been on his show a few times) and far right blogger Michelle Malkin, one of the more hysterical figures on the scene, will join Cavuto on the West Steps of the Capitol for the right’s hoped-for anti-tax/government/Obama extravaganza.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
President Barack Obama, in a major address this morning, said the economic recovery plan is on course but the road will be long and difficult.
** QUICK HITS. This was a travel day for me. … President Barack Obama made a major address on the economy today, saying the economic recovery program is on course but the road will be difficult. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke concurred. .. Somali pirates seized four more vessels today in the Indian Ocean. None of them, however, were American or French, contrary to many threats after the US Navy rescue of a captured American freighter captain. … The UN Security Council condemned North Korea’s missile launch from early April. … North Korea retaliated against the condemnation by expelling International Atomic Energy Authority inspectors. Apparently the Hermit Kingdom feels it’s not getting enough attention from the missile launch, which failed in its mission of placing a satellite in orbit. … Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, the frontrunner in the 2010 California gubernatorial race if he runs, joined Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and public safety officials today at an event promoting the Proposition 1A initiative for state spending limits and a rainy day fund on the May 19th special election ballot. … Some private polling shows the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the California special election ballot in pretty good shape.
** OBAMA’S “A NEW FOUNDATION” SPEECH. Excerpts from President Obama’s economic address this morning at Georgetown University: Today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. I want to talk about what we’ve done, why we’ve done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we’ve made, and be honest about the pitfalls that may lie ahead. And most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America’s future – a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation, and fleeing profit, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century. That is the America I see. That is the future I know we can have. …
All of these actions – the Recovery Act, the bank capitalization program, the housing plan, the strengthening of the non-bank credit market, the auto plan, and our work at the G20 – have been necessary pieces of the recovery puzzle. They have been designed to increase aggregate demand, get credit flowing again to families and businesses, and help them ride out the storm. And taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress. Because of our recovery plan, schools and police departments have cancelled planned layoffs. Clean energy companies and construction companies are re-hiring workers to build everything from energy efficient windows to new roads and highways. Our housing plan has helped lead to a spike in the number of homeowners who are taking advantage of historically-low mortgage rates by refinancing, which is like putting a $2,000 tax cut in your in pocket. Our program to support the market for auto loans and student loans has started to unfreeze this market and securitize more of this lending in the last few weeks. And small businesses are seeing a jump in loan activity for the first time in months.
This is all welcome and encouraging news, but it does not mean that hard times are over. 2009 will continue to be a difficult year for America’s economy. The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain before it ends. The market will continue to rise and fall. Credit is still not flowing nearly as easily as it should. The process for restructuring AIG and the auto companies will involve difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. All of this means that there is much more work to be done. And all of this means that you can continue to expect an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts. …
…
It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st century financial system that is governed by 20th century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy. It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40% of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based too much on inflated home prices, maxed out credit cards, overleveraged banks and overvalued assets; or an economy where the incomes of the top 1% have skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their income decline by nearly $2,000. …
For as some were chasing ever-bigger bonuses and short-term profits over the last decade, we continued to neglect the long-term threats to our prosperity: the crushing burden that the rising cost of health care is placing on families and businesses; the failure of our education system to prepare our workers for a new age; the progress that other nations are making on clean energy industries and technologies while we remain addicted to foreign oil; the growing debt that we’re passing on to our children. And even after we emerge from the current recession, these challenges will still represent major obstacles that stand in the way of our success in the 21st century.
There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.
It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build. That is our future. …
I’ve talked a lot about the fundamental weakness in our economy that led us to this day of reckoning. But we also arrived here because of a fundamental weakness in our political system. For too long, too many in Washington put off hard decisions for some other time on some other day. There’s been a tendency to score political points instead of rolling up sleeves to solve real problems. There is also an impatience that characterizes this town – an attention span that has only grown shorter with the twenty-four news cycle, and insists on instant gratification in the form of instant results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits, there’s all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died away and the media coverage has moved on, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way.
This can’t be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high. I know how difficult it is for Members of Congress in both parties to grapple with some of the big decisions we face right now. It’s more than most congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime.But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility – to ourselves, to the men and women who sent us here, and to the many generations whose lives will be affected for good or for ill because of what we do here.
There is no doubt that times are still tough. By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope. And beyond that, way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America’s future that is far different than our troubled economic past. It’s an America teeming with new industry and commerce; humming with new energy and discoveries that light the world once more. A place where anyone from anywhere with a good idea or the will to work can live the dream they’ve heard so much about. …
It is that house upon the rock. Proud, sturdy, and unwavering in the face of the greatest storm. We will not finish it in one year or even many, but if we use this moment to lay that new foundation; if we come together and begin the hard work of rebuilding; if we persist and persevere against the disappointments and setbacks that will surely lie ahead, then I have no doubt that this house will stand and the dream of our founders will live on in our time. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
President Barack Obama at yesterday’s White House Easter Egg Roll.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office and meets with senior advisors.
At 8:30 AM Pacific time, he delivers a major address at Georgetown University on the economy.
Obama will say that encouraging news does not mean that hard times are over, and will call for a new foundation for the financial system.
Obama’s speech will be roadblocked on all cable news nets.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown joined forces in 2007 to sue the Bush/Cheney Administration over climate change, in this NWN video.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and law enforcement officials at the City of Alamedia Fire Station to urge a yes vote on Propositon 1A on California’s May 19th special election ballot.
Prop 1A, a product of the hard-fought state budget compromise, establishes a new state spending limit and rainy day fund and extends temporary tax increases needed to balance the state budget.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
President Barack Obama prefaced this morning’s speech about his economic recovery program with remarks hailing the successful operation retrieving a hostage American freighter captain and pledging a halt to the pirate threat in the Indian Ocean.
** QUICK HITS. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown backs the state budget compromise on California’s May 19th special election ballot and will probably campaign with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other backers in the bipartisan coalition this week. … State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful who aims to run against Brown next year, is trying once again to debate him, this time touting his plan to balance the budget through cuts alone. First he has to get past Republican presidential campaign official and ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell. … SEIU, which represents half the state workforce, has come out against the state budget initiatives on the May 19th ballot, because of the new state spending limit. No word on what they’ll do in the campaign. … That special Minnesota court overseeing the recount in the Gopher State’s very tight US Senate race has, as expected, declared Democrat Al Franken the winner over incumbent Norm Coleman. But Coleman, pursuing delaying tactics urged by national Republicans who want to deny another Democratic vote in the Senate, will appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where he will almost certainly lose.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. …
** REID HAS $5 MILLION IN THE BANK AND NO CLEAR OPPONENT AMIDST REPUBLICAN DISARRAY IN NEVADA. US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid looks vulnerable for re-election next year in Nevada. But with another $2 million raised in the first quarter of this year, he has over $5 million in the bank. And no clear opponent.
In fact, Nevada Republicans, who lost the Silver State last November in the presidential race, are in some disarray there. Senator John Ensign, who’s run the Senate campaign committee, hasn’t recruited a top candidate in his home state and is off to Iowa to seemingly explore a longshot presidential bid. And Governor Jim Gibbons is a terrible set of scandals, including a messy divorce in which he is linked to several of his friends’ wives, including a former Playboy model turned casino hostess.
** OBAMA LIFTS CUBA RESTRICTIONS. President Barack Obama this morning made an expected announcement a little earlier than expected. He’s lifting restrictions on travel to Cuba and on money transfers to relatives in Cuba. This comes in advance of his trips to Mexico and Trinidad later this week.
American freighter captain Richard Phillips yesterday after his rescue from Somali pirates by the U.S. Navy.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
Another big week in presidential politics, and a more active week in California politics.
With the successful rescue from Somali pirates of the American captain of a briefly hijacked freighter by the US Navy, President Barack Obama has some options to contemplate to deal with the challenge to international shipping in the Indian Ocean. Somali pirate activity stepped up dramatically last week, and largely outside the area currently patrolled by the warships of several nations.
The Pentagon has presented Obama with a plan to go after Somali pirate bases on land and to provide economic assistance to the impoverished failed state. Obama will also consider forming an alliance with other maritime powers such as China, Russia, Britain, and France to protect shipping.
On Tuesday, with some likely bad news coming this week on corporate earnings in the last quarter, Obama gives a major speech on the economy.
The rest of the week takes on a Latin American flavor.
On Wednesday, Obama is likely to roll out a new, liberalized policy on relations with Cuba.
On Thursday and Friday, Obama goes to Mexico for a summit meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Mexico is in danger of destabilization by powerful drug cartels, whose major markets and source of weapons is the US.
On Friday, Obama goes to Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas.
Things pick up a bit in California politics with the state Legislature back in session. The policy committees in both houses have until May 1st to move legislation forward.
But major action, as distinguished from activity, in the Legislature appears frozen, perhaps by uncertainty over the outcome of the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his allies – an unusual coalition of business leaders, a number of labor unions, Democratic legislative leaders, and a few Republican legislators – methodically continue building their campaign for the initiatives this week.
There will be action of some sort in the rather desultory 2010 California governor’s race. I said this last week but was distracted by presidential politics but, there will be a couple of “California 2010″ reports this week.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence briefing early this morning in the Oval Office and then attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn with his family.
At 8:35 AM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden both speak at the Department of Transportation to mark the occasion of the 2000 transportation infrastructure project funded by the Obama economic recovery program, a project out in Michigan.
This will be Obama’s first public appearance since the successful rescue by the US Navy of American freighter captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.
Obama then holds private meetings and discussions, receives his daily economic briefing, and meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Late this afternoon, Obama and Biden meet with Defense Secretary Bob Gates in the Oval Office. One obvious thing on the agenda: What to do about the Somali pirate threat to US and international shipping.
The stand-off in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia ended dramatically yesterday when US Navy Seal (Sea Air Land) commandos operating off the fantail of USS Bainbridge – after getting aboard the ship without the pirates’ knowledge by parachuting into the ocean and making their way to the destroyer – killed three Somali pirates in a lifeboat holding that American freighter captain.
The lifeboat was long since out of gas, negotiations were at an impasse as the Obama Administration refused to pay ransom or grant the pirates safe passage, and the pirates’ allies in other vessels had been turned back by the Navy. After going over the options for action, Obama gave the order on Friday to use lethal force against the pirates if Phillips’ life appeared to be in danger.
Somali pirates have reportedly vowed revenge on the Americans and the French.
Taking a hard line, as they have repeatedly, the French on Friday staged another commando raid on a hijacked French yacht. The vessel was quickly secured by French forces with all the pirates dead. Unfortunately, a French hostage also died in the firefight.
Congresman Donald Payne, a New Jersey Democrat on a fact-finding trip in Mogadishu, came under mortar fire as he was flying out earlier today. Neither he nor anyone in his party was injured.
The Obamas attended Easter services yesterday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the Fresno City College health sciences center and holds a press conference this morning with Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearingen and other local officials to announce the Allied Health Initiative, a $32 million public-private partnership intended to add lab techs, imaging specialists, and pharmacists to California hospitals and health care facilities. The program is modeled after the California Nurse Education Initiative of 2005 which has helped increase the number of registered nurse grads by some 50%.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
State of Play is a remake of the great BBC miniseries, with the setting moved from London to Washington. The conspiracy thriller stars Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, and Ben Affleck, and opens throughout the US on April 17th.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is attending church on Easter Sunday and has no public events. He and First Lady Michelle Obama went to the first Georgetown dinner party of his presidency last night at the home of White House senior advisor and longtime Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett. And, in news, sure to take up plenty of time and space in the conventional media, the Obama’s have selected the first dog. It is a Portuguese water dog – a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy – which First Daughters Malia and Sasha have named Bo. The dog is named in honor of the first lady’s late father, whose nickname was “Diddley.”
There now, don’t you feel so informed on this fine Sunday morning?
Meanwhile, the pirate stand-off in the Indian Ocean continues. The lifeboat of the briefly hijacked Maersk Alabama cargo ship is out of gas, drifting with four pirates and the American ship captain aboard.
The Navy has prevented a flotilla of pirate vessels from linking up with the lifeboat, which was the key point. The pirates still want a big ransom and to be set free in exchange for the hostage release. But none of that is happening so far. The lifeboat gets very hot during the day and very cold at night, but is well-stocked with food and water.
Central Command chief General David Petraeus is in overall charge of the operation.
Maersk Alabama, guarded by Navy Seals, docked yesterday in Mombasa, Kenya, offloading its cargo of emergency relief supplies.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in California for Easter Sunday.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses global challenges through the prism of Easter and Passover.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama has no public events today.
Meanwhile, a stand-off continues in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia.
The American captain of that briefly hijacked cargo ship Maersk Alabama remains in the hands of pirates who escaped in a lifeboat. The US Navy is on the scene, so the pirates won’t be making landfall and turning the botched hijacking into a potential Al Qaeda hostage situation. But the situation remains unresolved, and the Navy is consulting with the FBI on ending it.
The lifeboat ran out of gas yesterday. The captain dove overboard and briefly escaped, but was recaptured by the three remaining pirates. A number of pirate vessels are heading to the vicinity, but at least one has turned back. The Navy will block any link-up between the lifeboat with the American hostage and the pirate vessels.
Taking a hard line, as they have repeatedly, the French yesterday staged another commando raid on a hijacked French yacht. The vessel was quickly secured by French forces with all the pirates dead. Unfortunately, a French hostage also died in the firefight.
The Pakistani capital of Islamabad remains on high alert following Taliban threats and hundreds of arrests.
Obama is also monitoring the situation in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, where the US Embassy was all but shut down as 350 arrrests were made across the city of suspected jihadist terrorists. The Pakistani Taliban have threatened major attacks in Islamabad if US aerial drone attacks against Al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban safe havens in Pakistan are not halted.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of California for Easter weekend with his family.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed at $52.24 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up over $18 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
The captain of the briefly hijacked Maersk Alabama, Richard Philips, is still being held by Somali pirates in a lifeboat off the Horn of Africa. The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, which carries two dozen helicopters and assault aircraft and a large contingent of Marines, is en route to the scene, as are pirate vessels.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.
** BIG SWEEP OF JIHADIST TERROR SUSPECTS IN PAKISTANI CAPITAL. Well, this is why, as reported yesterday, the US Embassy in Islamabad stopped all but emergency operations yesterday. According to Pakistani media, security forces today swept up some 350 suspected jihadist terrorists. The arrests came in the wake of what Pakistani authorities say was a major, though yet unspecific, terror plot.
** VILLARAIGOSA JOINS SCHWARZENEGGER AND OTHERS IN BACKING SPECIAL ELECTION INITIATIVES. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at an event this morning in LA to endorse all six state budget compromise-related initiatives on California’s May 19th special election ballot.
“At a time when cities are struggling to provide basic resources and services to their residents, it has become clear that California can no longer rely on an unstable budget system that constantly threatens funding for local government to balance the books,” said Villaraigosa. “These budget reform measures address this problem by establishing a rainy day fund that will require the state to save during the good years and will also help prevent further deep cuts to education, health care and public safety. I ask all Angelenos to join us in support of Props 1A-1F to bring stability back to California’s budget system.”
Villaraigosa, a potential Democratic candidate for governor, gives Schwarzenegger and his allies more back-stopping on the left side of the spectrum. Some on the left oppose the state budget compromise because it creates a state spending limit and cuts programs. Some on the right oppose it because it has temporary tax hikes.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca also endorsed the initiatives, as did the LA Chamber of Commerce.
President Barack Obama, meeting with top financial officials this morning in the White House, said the economy is showing “glimmers of hope” but remains under “severe stress.”
What happened? The three governors, all with White House aspirations in 2012, at least for the Republican nomination, got a load of huzzahs from the Beltway conservative apparat and right-wing radio hosts and bloggers around the country. But in their own states, in the real world of politics, they got a bipartisan hammering.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florida Governor Charlie Crist went a different route, eagerly endorsing the economic recovery act from the beginning and campaigning for it with President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama, joined yesterday by Secretary of Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, announced new benefits for military veterans.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings this morning and meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Continuing his focus on the domestic economic crisis, he then meets with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. They’ll discuss the stress tests on America’s troubled banks, which will apparently remain
Meanwhile, a stand-off continues off the coast of Somalia.
The American captain of that briefly hijacked cargo ship remains in the hands of pirates who escaped in a lifeboat. The US Navy is on the scene, in the form of USS Bainbridge and a half-dozen other ships, so the pirates won’t be making landfall and turning the botched hijacking into an Al Qaeda hostage situation. But the situation remains unresolved, and the Navy is consulting with the FBI on ending it.
The lifeboat ran out of gas many hours ago. The captain dove overboard and briefly escaped, but was recapture by the three remaining pirates.
A number of pirate vessels are heading to the vicinity.
The American captain of a cargo ship briefly hijacked by pirates tried swimming away from their lifeboat off the coast of Somalia but was recaptured.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a number of private meetings and discussions around the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th California special election ballot.
At 1 PM, he’ll be at the Leland Stanford Mansion in Sacramento to participate in a ceremony to return three paintings, confiscated by the Nazis during the time of the Holocaust, to the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer.
The three paintings, all of them centuries old, were the subject of a “judenauktionen,” a coerced sale of Jewish assets by the Nazis in 1935. The paintings have been part of the Hearst Castle collection for decades and until recently, their history was unknown.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up over $18 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
President Barack Obama, back in the White House, offered help this morning in the form of lower mortgage rates.
** CALIFORNIAN BECOMES FIRST DEMOCRATIC MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO BREAK WITH OBAMA ON AFGHAN WAR.Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey today became the first Democrat in Congress to break with the Obama Administration on Afghanistan, blasting its proposed $83.4 billion spending plan for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Said Woolsey in her statement: “As currently proposed this funding will do two things: It will prolong our occupation of Iraq through at least the end of 2011, and it will deepen and expand our military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely. I cannot support either of these scenarios. Instead of attempting to find military solutions to the problems we face in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama must fundamentally change the mission in both countries to focus on promoting reconciliation, economic development, humanitarian aid and regional diplomatic efforts.”
Actually, as folks who read this site and my columns are well aware, Obama is also doing all those things.
Woolsey is from Petaluma, in Sonoma County north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her district includes all of Marin County. She holds the seat formerly held by Senator Barbara Boxer. Prior to winning a divided Democratic primary, she was a member of the Petaluma City Council.
** SUMMERS SAYS ECONOMIC “FREEFALL” WILL END SOON. Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers, now head of President Obama’s economic policy council, speaking today at the Economic Club of Washington, says that the economy is beginning to pick up, though there will be rough patches ahead.
“I think the sense of a ball falling off the table — which is what the economy has felt like since the middle of last fall — I think we can be reasonably confident that that’s going to end within the next few months and you will no longer have that sense of freefall,” said Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council.
The recovery is likely to be slowed by “substantial downdrafts” in the economy.
“Economies don’t go from losing 600,000 jobs a month to a terribly happy path overnight,” Summers said in remarks to the Economic Club of Washington, noting that there are “still substantial strains in credit markets.” The economy lost 663,000 jobs in March, leaving the economy down 5.1 million jobs since the start of the downturn in December 2007.
The decorated economist said it remained unclear how long it would take for the economy to return to strong, sustained growth, though he did cite “anecdotal” signs of improvements in credit markets that would allow inventory cycles to return to normal. The U.S. unemployment rate, at a quarter century high of 8.5 percent, is likely to edge higher because unemployment typically lags an economic rebound and needs the economy to grow at a rate of 2.5 percent to remain stable.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. …
** TINY PROTEST RALLY GREETS SCHWARZENEGGER AT ADAMS FUNDRAISER LAST NIGHT. Right-wing LA talk radio mavens John & Ken called for a big protest at last night’s fundraiser for Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams headlined by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Adams is being pilloried by the far right for providing one of the needed Republican votes for the state budget compromise.
But in reality, only 15 or 20 protesters showed up in Glendora.
Former state Republican Party chairman Mike Schroeder, a close ally of far right Flash Report publisher and Southern California Republican vice chairman Jon Fleischman was there to offer recall papers to Adams. However, with such a tiny showing, it’s hard to take the effort very seriously.
President Barack Obama spoke about nuclear weapons, geopolitical challenges, and green energy to an enthusiastic crowd in Prague’s historic Hradcany Square on Sunday. Today, back in the White House, he’s focused more on domestic matters.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: KEY TAKEAWAYS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama, back in Washington after his eight-day international trip and summits with the G-20, NATO, European Union, and Turkey, has a busy public day with events mostly having little to do with geopolitics, turning the focus back to the domestic economy.
At 6:30 AM Pacific, he holds a housing refinance roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Expect roadblocked coverage on cable news nets.
Later in the morning, Obama delivers remarks on improving veterans health care at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and receives his daily intelligence briefing. Then he and Vice President Joe Biden – who holds an economic recovery implementation meeting this morning with pertinent Cabinet members – have their weekly working lunch.
This afternoon, Obama meets with senior advisors about the economic situation, then has private meetings in the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Tonight, he and First Lady Michelle Obama (who this afternoon plants a White House garden), host the first ever White House Seder to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover in the Old Family Dining Room
Nothwithstanding the domestic focus, though one can argue that the White House Seder is a balance to Obama’s reaching out to the Islamic world on his international trip, Obama will have at least a few international happenings on his mind today.
A shipping company spokesman discusses the American captain who remains in the hands of Somali pirates onboard a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean.
The American captain of that briefly hijacked cargo ship off the coast of Somalia remains in the hands of pirates who escaped in a lifeboat. The US Navy is on the scene, in the form of USS Bainbridge and a half-dozen other ships, so the pirates won’t be making landfall and turning the botched hijacking into an Al Qaeda hostage situation. But the situation remains unresolved, and the Navy is consulting with the FBI on ending it.
Iran may make an announcement today about its nuclear enrichment program. This may have a lot to do with internal Iranian politics, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in a difficult re-election campaign.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger meets in the Capitol this morning with members of the California’s Economic Recovery Task Force to go over plans for using the funding from the Obama Administration to stimulate the economy.
Tonight he speaks at at the Los Angeles Urban League 36th Annual Whitney Young Awards Dinner where he will discuss the importance of community organizing and deal with the state’s dysfunctional budget process.
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From April 6th column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up over $18 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
A US-flagged cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates has been re-taken, averting a potential hostage crisis.
** QUICK HITS. The Obama Administration is joining with the UN and other major powers (the permanent Security Council members plus Germany) in direct negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. This is a major shift in US policy from the Bush/Cheney Administration which had insisted on Iranian capitulation on uranium enrichment prior to discussing Iran’s nuclear program, which obviously did not work. … The captain of that US-flag cargo vessel briefly seized by Somali pirates apparently remains in a lifeboat with a few of the pirates. The standoff continues as the a US Navy task force rapidly approaches. … Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, the 2010 gubernatorial frontrunner, got 14 other states and the City of New York to join in pressuring the US Environmental Protection Agency to make good on President Obama’s campaign promise to at last grant California its customary waiver under the Clean Air Act to allow the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction program to be implemented. The other states are following California’s path on legislation, as has happened before on air pollution issues. … San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democratic gubernatorial hopeful who trails by a wide margin in fundraising, is again outside the state, this time on a fundraising trip to Miami, Washington, and New York. Newsom has spent about 10 months outside California during his mayoralty.
** GALLUP POLL: OBAMA JOB APPROVAL CONTINUING AT HIGH LEVEL. The new Gallup Poll has President Barack Obama’s job approval rating at 62%, down just slightly from its high just after his inauguration despite an expansive and controversial agenda, lots of attacks from Republicans, and a fair amount of media criticism.
One thing that a lot of pundits are seizing on is a big gap in approval by party. In this poll, it’s 90% among Democrats and only 27% among Republicans. But what the Beltway pundits aren’t noticing, or at least mentioning, is the contraction of the Republican Party. The purer, and smaller, it gets, the more negative it gets. We’ve already seen the phenomenon in California, as I’ve discussed many times before.
The national Republican Party, like the California Republican Party, is an essentially right-wing party now. There are very few moderates in its elected ranks.
** AMERICAN CAPTAIN REPORTEDLY IN PIRATE HANDS, NAVY TASK FORCE ON THE WAY. The reports on the thwarted Somali hijacking of the American-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama are still pretty sketchy, but the AP is reporting that the captain of the vessel went over the side with three of the pirates when the ship was re-taken, and is currently in a lifeboat with them. The other 19 Americans in the crew are safe.
A Navy destroyer, USS Bainbridge, is en route to the scene along with six other Navy vessels. Between that and air cover, it may be difficult for the remaining pirates and their reported captive to make landfall.
** SCHWARZENEGGER GROUP HAS WHITE PAPER ON FLASH REPORT DISTORTIONS. California Budget Reform Now, the group formed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other backers of the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot, has a paper about the multiple distortions published by the far right Flash Report. I’d noticed a number of the distortions, which are quite predictable given the Flash Report’s hyper-partisanship and extremist ideology, but this has them all in one place. I’ll get into more specifics in future coverage of the special election.
** ACTOR SAYS SCHWARZENEGGER IS IN NEW TERMINATOR MOVIE.Actor Terry Crews told MTV News that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a cameo appearance in Terminator: Salvation, the fourth film in the Terminator series, opening across the country on May 21st.
Crews, who also appears in Terminator: Salvation, and in The Expendables, a film currently in production directed by Schwarzenegger pal Sylvester Stallone in which the governor will have a cameo as himself, says that he hasn’t seen the finished product of Schwarzenegger’s involvement. Crews also appeared with Schwarzenegger in The Sixth Day.
Here’s how it can work, through the use of technology. Actor and former Mister Austria Roland Kickinger filmed a role earlier as a prototype T-800 terminator, the kind we’ve seen Schwarzenegger portray in the first three Terminator films. I know Kickinger from when he played the young bodybuilding Schwarzenegger in the cable biopic See Arnold Run, of which I was a producer.
The director of the new Terminator film then takes Kickinger’s live action performance as the Schwarzenegger-style T-800 and, with tech designed by Industrial Light & Magic’s Ben Snow, digitally maps Schwarzenegger’s face onto the character, then adds dialogue recorded by Schwarzenegger.
I’ve been following the new Terminator movie and will have more on this as it develops.
Terminator: Salvation stars Christian Bale – best known for his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Dark Knight and Batman Begins – as John Connor, the leader of the human resistance. Schwarzenegger’s iconic character, as you may know, traveled back in time in the first three films in the series … 1984′s The Terminator, 1991′s Terminator II: Judgment Day, and 2003′s Terminator III: Rise of the Machines. In the first film, Schwarzenegger’s terminator was sent back in time by Skynet, the machine intelligence in an apocalyptic future, to Los Angeles to eliminate Connor’s mother Sarah before he could be born. In the next two films, Schwarzenegger’s character is sent back in time to protect John Connor from a terminator assassin.
Terminator: Salvation is a reboot of the franchise, not directed by the first two films’ James Cameron, with seemingly minimal involvement from Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and other principals. Unlike the first three films, it’s set in the future, with Bale’s John Connor leading the human resistance against the artificial intelligences animating the machine culture that is bent on wiping out humanity.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: KEY TAKEAWAYS.
Capt. Joseph Murphy, an instructor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told The Associated Press the Department of Defense that his son Shane, the second in command on the ship, had called him to say the crew had regained control.
“The crew is back in control of the ship,” a U.S. official said at midday, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record. “It’s reported that one pirate is on board under crew control — the other three were trying to flee,” the official said. The status of the other pirates was unknown, the official said, but they were reported to “be in the water.”
While previous captives of the Somali pirates have been well-treated and quietly ransomed, the jihadist links of many of the pirates raised a troubling political prospect with respect to the American prisoners. Incidentally, I’m not entirely buying the notion that the crew itself re-took the ship. The initial capture of the ship took five hours, with the crew repeatedly dodging and fending off the Somali pirates, who were operating in relatively small fast boats. While the closest US Navy vessel was hundreds of miles away, the extreme length of the hijacking process allowed for substantial preparation to take place.
President Barack Obama returned to Washington in the middle of the night from his trip to Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Iraq.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is back in Washington after his eight-day international trip and summits with the G-20, NATO, European Union, and Turkey. Obama has no public events today and is expected to spend the day in the White House resting and monitoring events.
After his unscheduled trip to Iraq, Obama landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland at 2:35 AM Eastern time, and got back to the White House after 3 AM.
One event to monitor is the seizure by Somali pirates of a US-flagged freighter carrying at least 20 American citizens. These are the first Americans captured by pirates in many years.
The Somali pirates are linked to an Islamic jihadist faction that has effective control of the failed state Somalia. While previous captives of the pirates have been well-treated and peacefully ransomed, it’s possible that the American prisoners will be used to make a geopolitical point.
Vice President Joe Biden is at Fort Bragg, North Carolina to welcome home the headquarters element of the 18th Airborne Corps, which has served as operational headquarters in Iraq.
It’s been reported throughout the conventional media that Biden is there to welcome the 18th Airborne Corps, which consists of four full divisions, home from Iraq. Hardly the case that four divisions are returning home from Iraq today. Actually, it’s a few hundred soldiers and a lieutenant general. What is the case is that the media doesn’t know what the 18th Airborne Corps is.
Meanwhile, US special envoy to South Asia Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen are in India today today, following visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are meeting with Indian leaders to discuss the joined crises on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
They met with Pakistani leaders yesterday to discuss the new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Zardari said he will not allow US troops to operate in Pakistan and demanded the end of US drone strikes.
Obama has already said that he won’t send troops in Pakistan without the government’s permission. But Holbrooke and Mullen rejected the drone request, and the attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda cadre using Pakistan as a safe haven will continue.
Pakistani leaders pushed back on criticism of the country’s ISI intelligence agency for its long-standing ties with Islamic jihadists, going so far as to deny it, and snubbing the US officials by denying a separate meeting with the ISI director, though he did take part in a larger meeting.
Zardari today said that the US should provide Pakistan with drone aircraft so that it can carry out attacks against Al Qaeda and Taliban cadre using their country for safe haven. Meanwhile, another US drone attack occurred earlier today, killing several suspected terrorists in South Waziristan.
President Barack Obama addressed enthusiastic American troops at the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad yesterday, saying: “It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis.”
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a very active day today around Southern California.
At 10 AM, he goes to the San Diego Food Bank where joins Republican state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego, the San Diego Food Bank, and Intuit to announce that First Lady Maria Shriver’s WE Connect Campaign will be partnering with other states to continue connecting working families with financial resources that are available to them but sometimes not accessed, such as food stamps. Under the Obama recovery program, California is getting a 13.6% increase in benefits for food stamp recipients.
At 1 PM, Schwarzenegger is in Ontario where he speaks at the Inland Empire’s Eleventh Annual Economic Briefing. There he will discuss the California economy and the economic stimulus elements in the state’s compromise budget deal. Then he will hold a press conference.
In the evening, Schwarzenegger headlines a fundraiser in Glendora for state Assemblyman Anthony Adams, a Republican who provided one of the needed votes to pass the state budget compromise. Adams has been pilloried by the far right, and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a GOP gubernatorial hopeful whose political career is in part owed to Schwarzenegger, made a show of cancelling his own fundraising appearance.
** TURKEY: NOT THE USUAL GEOPOLITICAL SANDWICH.In the wake of some desultory results over the weekend at the NATO and European Union summits, President Barack Obama is in Turkey Monday and Tuesday making a hard bid for what could be a huge new alliance for America.
The US has long had cordial relations with Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO. But after the end of the Cold War, things drifted between the two countries, only to turn downright frosty during the Bush/Cheney years.
The principal problem was the previous administration’s insistence on the Iraq War, with the overarching problem that of the administration’s dominant neoconservative ideology lending the distinct atmospherics of a “clash between civilizations.” … From my new column.
** RE-SETTING THE GEOPOLITICAL TABLE: HOW OBAMA’S BIG TRIP IS GOING.One down, three to go. At a time when the geopolitical table is being re-set, President Barack Obama is in the midst of a huge international tour. London’s G-20 summit – with several bilateral mini-summits having taken place on the side — has concluded. The NATO summit is underway in France and Germany. Waiting not far off in the wings are the European Union summit in Prague and an intriguing summit in Turkey.
With NATO’s future mission very unclear, I suspect the two most successful stops will be the first and the last. … From my April 3rd column.
** AFGHANISTAN: THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM?America has won two wars in Afghanistan in the past quarter-century. First against the late Soviet Union, then against the radical Islamist Taliban. But each time, eminently distractable America has taken its eye off the ball, and the victories have proved evanescent.
Now, under new President Barack Obama, the U.S. is hoping the third time’s the charm. But does the new strategy miss the reasons why America succeeded — to the extent it did — the first two times around in Afghanistan? Does it meet the announced mission, or lead to something else? And how is it faring so far, in the midst of international conferences and at the beginning of a tour by Obama that takes him to summits in Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey? …
** OUR MAN IN KABUL: BACKBITING ON THE EVE OF THE NEW OBAMA STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN. … From my March 13th column.
** OBAMA’S DARING TOUR D’HORIZON: THE NEW PRESIDENT ENGAGES MULTIPLE CRISES AND PROBES FOR OPPORTUNITY. … From my March 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up over $16 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
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