President Barack Obama on Saturday appointed Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, a prominent Republican modernizer, to serve as US ambassador to China. It was a political masterstroke, moving both a potentially dangerous re-election opponent and moderating influence on an increasingly conservative Republican Party off the gameboard.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … 24 AND THE TORTUOUS POLITICS OF TORTURE.
** PANETTA URGES FOCUS ON FUTURE IN TERROR AND TORTURE DEBATE. Speaking today before the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, CIA Director Leon Panetta said that the focus should be kept on the future in discussing the interrogation of terror suspects.
Decrying “hyper-partisanship” on both sides, Panetta said: “If they start to use these issues as political clubs to beat each other up with, then that’s when we not only pay a price, but this country pays a price.”
“As a creature of the Congress,” the longtime California congressman and former White House chief of staff said, “I don’t deny them the opportunity to learn the lessons from that period. I think it’s important to learn those lessons, so that we can move into the future. But in doing that, we have to be very careful that we don’t forget our responsibility to the present and to the future.”
Panetta declared the Al Qaeda remains “the most serious security threat” to America.
“We are a nation at war. We have to confront that reality every day, and while it’s important to learn the lessons of the past, we must not do it in a way that sacrifices our capability to stay focused on the present, stay focused on the future and stay focused on those who threaten the United States of America.”
Panetta said he’s working with the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by fellow Californian Dianne Feinstein, on abuses caused by the torture policy of the Bush/Cheney Administration. But he doesn’t want the Obama Administration’s policies to become sidetracked.
“What I’m most concerned about,” he said, “is that this stuff doesn’t become the kind of political issue that everything else becomes in Washington, D.C., where it becomes so divisive that it begins to interfere with the ability of the intelligence agencies to do our primary job, which is to focus on the threats that face us today and tomorrow.”
Panetta also said that aerial drone attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda cadre using Pakistan as a safe haven should continue, and that civilian casualties have not been widespread.
At an All Parties Conference early today in Pakistan, the opposition political parties endorsed the government’s offensive against the Pakistani Taliban, but called for the end of US aerial drone strikes.
Two weeks ago, during one of his two recent trips to deliver messages to the new Israeli leadership, Panetta told the new government to stop the religious settler program in the West Bank. A new settlement was started earlier today, just prior to Obama’s meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
Panetta did not touch on that issue today in LA, but Obama himself carried the message during his sessions with Netanyahu in the Oval Office.
** A CALIFORNIA SPECIAL ELECTION HIGHLIGHT: INTENSE BAFFLEGAB. One of the more cynical and sardonically amusing political moves of the year was the TV ad run by lefty public employee unions against the Prop 1A measure on tomorrow’s ballot. What 1A would do, in the unlikely event it were to pass, is establish a new state spending limit with a rainy day fund and extend temporary tax hikes.
The anti-government faction in the state Capitol’s system of fiscal gridlock doesn’t want any taxes; it wants to grind government down.
The ultra-government faction doesn’t want any spending limits; it wants more taxes and more expansion of both government, and the workforce which can be part of public employee unions. These folks believe that the answer is to do away with the two-thirds legislative vote requirement on budgets and revenues – even though the latest polls show that’s highly unlikely – or to say that taxes are really fees and pass tax, er, “fee” hikes on a simple majority vote. Which may well be unconstitutional.
The anti-government folks have been straight up in their extremism. But they had very little money. The ultra-government faction had millions to spend. And the No on 1A campaign, in its TV ad, was anything bu straight up, demonstrating a decided lack of faith in the popular appeal of its underlying agenda. It attacked the initiative from the right, claiming that the spending limit in it isn’t real.
I asked No on 1A spokesman Mike Roth, former communications director for ex-Treasurer Phil Angelides, to explain the contradiction: “Mike, is there any particular reason why your group’s ad attacks Prop 1A from … the right? Considering your group is against a state spending limit, why are you attacking it as creating a “phony” state spending limit?”
At first, Roth gave a totally unresponsive answer: “Proponents say the “rainy day” fund would protect programs in down years, but Prop. 1A doesn’t do what proponents say it would. It will lead to cuts even in good years!”
Told he should try to respond to the question, rather than issue a totally unrelated soundbite, he seemed to claim ignorance: “Are we talking about same ad? The tv spot we unveiled today says nothing about “phony” or “spending limit.” There are several groups opposing the measure, could you possibly be referring to a different group/orgs ad.”
Pinned down further, Roth offered, at last, a more responsive non-response: “Regarding your question – this isn’t about left or right, it’s about right and wrong. The fact is this measure is fatally flawed and there are many reasons to dislike it.”
When asked, again, the point blank question – “Do you and your employers oppose Prop 1A because it has a supposedly ineffective spending limit?” – Roth had no reply.
** OBAMA: MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE WORKS. President Barack Obama will likely make an announcement tomorrow, as suggested early this morning would occur sometime this week, on vehicle fuel efficiency standards.
It’s now looking like the federal government adopting California-like standards, which would have the effect of cutting tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases and of sharply boosting fuel efficiency.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on hand in Washington for the announcement, which may include new federal support for alternative vehicles.
** AFGHANS GRAVELY DISTRUST PAKISTANIS.The Gallup Poll taken in December 2008 shows a tremendous degree of distrust in Afghanistan toward neighboring Pakistan. The poll was, naturally, taken months before the new Pakistani offensive against the Taliban.
In December 2008, Gallup asked Afghans to assess Pakistan’s current role in resolving the situation in their country. A slim majority of respondents (52%) perceived Pakistan to be supporting the Taliban leadership. Considerably smaller percentages saw Pakistan playing a role in reconstruction (14%), economic development (11%), and peacekeeping (6%). Ten percent saw Pakistan playing no role at all.
During a recent visit to the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed Taliban safe havens, or “sanctuaries,” in Pakistan for the worsening insurgency. The Pakistani government, previously reluctant to consistently engage militants in the country’s semi-autonomous border region, now fears an expanding Taliban influence in Pakistan itself.
Gallup also asked Afghans what role Pakistan should play in resolving the situation in their country. Here Afghans clearly want Pakistan to play a constructive role. Forty-three percent of respondents say Pakistan should play a role in reconstruction, while another 18% say economic development and 14% say peacekeeping — in each case more than they currently perceive. Just 12% say Pakistan should support the Taliban leadership.
President Barack Obama, in his very well-received Sunday commencement address at Notre Dame, took on the issues of abortion and stem cell research which prompted protests on the right.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
A potentially momentous week for President Barack Obama. And a likely anti-climactic week in California politics.
Obama is holding a high-stakes summit today with Israel’s new right-wing prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu. At stake? The Israeli/Palestinian peace process, as well as the stability of Obama’s new policy of engagement with Iran. Israel has been threatening a military strike to short-circuit what many believe is Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which in any event is not near producing a viable weapon.
Obama has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to Balkans, another, much less noticed factor on the game board that could disrupt any emerging rapprochement with the Islamic world. Tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims have increased in the wake of Kosovo’s independence.
Obama will see this week whether his attempt to move beyond a major focus on recriminations about Bush/Cheney era torture policies – he thinks the debate is a potentially bloody distraction from his expansive agenda – is going to succeed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is right in the middle of things, claiming that CIA records suggesting she was briefed about waterboarding are erroneous.
He will also have a much better idea about the effectiveness of the anti-Taliban offensive he urged upon the Pakistani government.
This is also the week in which Obama likely zeroes in on his Supreme Court pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
Obama may also announce new fuel efficiency standards for future cars and trucks.
In California politics, along with the desultory 2010 governor’s race, we have tomorrow’s special election on the state budget compromise-related initiatives. With the far right and some elements of the left joined in opposition – for wildly contradictory reasons – and the electorate in a foul and frightened mood, most everyone expects the initiatives to go down.
Which would lead to a budgetary bloodbath.
More to follow.
** OBAMA TODAY. It’s a momentous day for President Barack Obama.
Obama has already had his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office and is now in the midst of several hours of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, also in the Oval Office.
At 9:25 AM Pacific, Obama and Netanyahu continue their sessions with a 90-minute working luncheon in the Old Family Dining Room.
Following the Netanyahu meetings, Obama meets with senior advisors at 10:45 AM Pacific in the Oval Office.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington yesterday and immediately huddled with Israel’s ambassador to the US and officials of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the pro-Israel lobbying group. The Obama Administration dismissed charges of spying against two AIPAC officials prior to Netanyahu’s visit.
Netanyahu’s narrow victory in Israel’s elections and his subsequent formation of a largely very right-wing government has created a number of difficulties for the new president.
Over the weekend, the new Israeli government initiated another settlement project by religious settlers in the disputed West Bank area.
Israel is also doing a great deal of saber rattling about a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program.
With Israel boasting a new right-wing government, casting the Middle East peace process in some doubt, the US and Israel are in a very delicate situation.
Obama has twice dispatched CIA Director Leon Panetta to Israel in the last few weeks to sound out the Israeli leadership and to deliver messages.
Behind the scenes today, Obama is also focusing in on his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. He apparently still has six or more candidates in play. The pick may come next week. Or it may not.
Obama is also closely monitoring the Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban, which he and his advisors urged upon President Asif Ali Zardari.
Obama is taking some heat on the left for his choice of a new American commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, former head of Joint Special Operations Command. See my column linked below on the Afghan command change.
He is also taking heat for moving to re-establish military tribunals to try some suspected terrorists, albeit with more legal safeguards than allowed during the Bush/Cheney Administration, most notably the exclusion of all information gained from torture.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is off to the Balkans for most of the week.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he meets with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo. The latter gained its formal independence last year, and there is serious tension between Muslims and non-Muslims in the region.
Four minutes from Terminator Salvation, which opens wide on Thursday. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a digitally composed cameo role as his iconic figure in this film, which takes place prior to the full emergence of his character.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a town hall meeting this morning on California’s chronic budget crisis in the LA area.
He will discuss the May budget revisions, which he presented last week. If the state budget compromise-related initiatives were to pass in tomorrow’s special election, the state would have a $15.4 billion shortfall. If they fail, the state has a $21.3 billion shortfall.
Schwarzenegger will hold a press avail following the town hall meeting.
In the afternoon, Schwarzenegger appears in Silicon Valley with initiative supporters to urge their passage.
Joining him at the San Jose Police Officers Association headquarters will be California Teachers Association President David Sanchez, San Jose Police Officers Association President Bobby Lopez, San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Board Chair Michael Busselen, Silicon Valley Leadership Group President and CEO Carl Guardino, San Jose Firefighters President and 4th District California Professional Firefighters Vice President Randy Sekany, and others.
Meanwhile, state Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner – who got his start in politics largely through Schwarzenegger – and former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell (who was Schwarzenegger’s state finance director), who’s also trying to run for governor, debate at a luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club.
Poizner is against all the initiatives backed by Schwarzenegger. Campbell backs most of them.
** ANGELS AND DEMONS AND RELIGIOUS POLITICS. The sequel to one of the most controversial movies in recent memory is opening this weekend. And the collective response is a mild “hmm.”
In 2006, The Da Vinci Code was widely condemned by Catholic groups for blasphemy against religious doctrine. … From my May 15th column.
** WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?For the first such change in wartime since Harry Truman replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War in 1951, Barack Obama is replacing General David McKiernan in Afghanistan. Obama is moving both to change a stalemated war in Afghanistan and to scale back expectations there.
In the process, the Obama Administration is signaling that there will be no massive military surge preferred by General David Petraeus, as well as, seemingly, an end to nation-building fantasies and a preference for more special operations while searching for compromise.
McKiernan, the commander of conventional ground forces for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is being replaced by a rather controversial special operations expert, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. As head of Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal oversaw the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. …
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. … From my May 8th column.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $24 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
Speaking to some 500 brand-new graduates, and another 12,000 or so in attendance, including some of California’s top Democrats, the first lady likened the start-up campus to her own rather hardscrabble upbringing in Chicago, where she and her brother (Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson) were the first in their family to go to college.
“You will face tough times. You will certainly have doubts, and let me tell you because I know I did when I was your age,” she told the grads and their well-wishers in hundred degree weather. “Remember that you are blessed. Remember that in exchange for those blessings, you must give something back. You must reach back and pull someone up. You must bend down and let someone else stand on your shoulders so that they can see a brighter future.”
Obama came to Merced in response to a concerted grassroots campaign by students and supporters of the little-known UC Merced, the first new campus in the famed University of California system since UC Santa Cruz came online in the 1960s.
Some top California Democrats were on hand to greet the first lady. There was Dick Blum, of course. The chairman of the UC Board of Regents is married to California’s senior Senator Dianne Feinstein.
And among active politicians there to greet Obama were former state Controller Steve Westly, Lieutenant Governor and UC Regent John Garamendi, and former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Westly, who serves on the UC Merced Board of Trustees and helped get the first lady to the Central Valley ceremony, spoke privately with Obama. The ex-eBay honcho, now a greentech venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, chaired the Obama California contingent at the Democratic National Convention and was a national finance co-chair of the Obama campaign.
With husband Barack off playing golf yesterday, along with prepping for a big summit meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and today’s commencement address at Notre Dame, Michelle Obama left their daughters in the care of her mom, who lives with them in the White House.
The first lady flew out to California strictly for the UC Merced graduation ceremony and left shortly after, traveling on an executive jet provided by the Air Force.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama has a high-profile Sunday.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama delivers the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where he also receives an honorary degree.
The event will be roadblocked on all cable news nets.
Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame, the most famous Catholic university in America, has been the target of protests from conservative Catholics and the right-wing in general. The issues? Abortion and stem cell research.
At 3:10 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana.
At 6 PM Pacific, he arrives back at the White House.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, is campaigning today in Los Angeles for the state budget compromise-related initiatives on Tuesday’s California special election ballot.
Schwarzenegger and Bass, the first African American woman to serve as speaker of a state legislative body in America, speak this morning at three black churches and do a press conference.
The governor and the speaker appear at the West Angeles Church of God In Christ, the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles, and First African Methodist Episcopal Church (better known as First AME), all the South Central area of LA.
The press conference takes place outside First AME Church.
President Barack Obama, in his weekend video/radio address, discusses his view of progress on clean energy and health care as cornerstones of a transformed economy.
** OBAMA’S BIG HUNTSMAN MOVE. In appointing Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. to be America’s new ambassador to China, President Barack Obama accomplishes a number of political masterstrokes.
For one, he eliminates a potential 2012 opponent who might have demonstrated mainstream and new generation appeal.
For another, he removes one of the most prominent voices in favor of Republican modernization from the political debate, thus guaranteeing that the Republican dialogue will remain skewed more to the far right.
And he has selected someone who appears eminently qualified for the position, at a time in which America’s relations with China – an emerging superpower – are rapidly evolving.
The 49-year old, super-rich Huntsman, son of the founder of Huntsman Corp., one of the world’s largest chemical companies, has twice won landslide elections as governor of Utah. He’s a different kind of Republican, albeit one who most objective people would still have to view as essentially conservative.
He’s pro-business, but concerned about the environment. He’s pro-gay rights, but not pro-gay marriage. He’s pro-diversity, but strongly family-oriented.
Huntsman, who is of course a Mormon, shocked many when he came out in favor of civil unions for gays and lesbians.
He confounded the far right, and more than a few in his state, when he joined Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Western States initiative to cut greenhouse gases.
He talks the language of bipartisanship, or, more accurately, post-partisanship. And though a national co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign – his father backed the more conservative Mitt Romney, the popular choice in Utah – he’s expressed admiration for Obama. And now he is going to work with Obama.
This University of Utah grad, product of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, worked as a Mormon missionary in China. He speaks fluent Mandarin. He and his wife recently adopted a Chinese girl, who joined an adopted daughter from India and five children born to the couple.
This one-time junior Reagan aide has even been an ambassador before. The first President Bush made him US ambassador to Singapore, that intriguing city-state that is so key to Pacific Basin commerce.
Needless to say, they’re very excited about this in Obamaworld.
** ANGELS AND DEMONS AND RELIGIOUS POLITICS. The sequel to one of the most controversial movies in recent memory is opening this weekend. And the collective response is a mild “hmm.”
In 2006, The Da Vinci Code was widely condemned by Catholic groups for blasphemy against religious doctrine. … From my new column.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefing and announced the appointment of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as America’s new ambassdor to China.
Huntsman, a popular two-term governor talked of as a potential Republican presidential candidate, will resign from his post in Salt Lake City upon confirmation by the US Senate. Huntsman served as US ambassador to Singapore under the first President Bush.
More on Huntsman in the item above.
First Lady Michelle Obama is in California today, where she is joined by a number of key Obama backers, including former state Controller Steve Westly.
She delivers the commencement address this afternoon at the new University of California at Merced, a picturesque Central Valley town known as “the gateway to Yosemite.”
Behind the scenes, Obama is focusing in on his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. He apparently still has six or more candidates in play. The pick may come next week. Or it may not.
Obama is also closely monitoring the Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban, which he and his advisors urged upon President Asif Ali Zardari.
Another major topic of Obama’s preparation is next week’s visit to Washington of new Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. With Israel boasting a new right-wing government, casting the Middle East peace process in some doubt and ratcheting up the pressure around Iran, the US and Israel are in a very delicate situation.
Obama has twice dispatched CIA Director Leon Panetta to Israel in the last few weeks to sound out the Israeli leadership and to deliver messages.
Obama is taking some heat on the left for his choice of a new American commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, former head of Joint Special Operations Command. See my column linked below on the Afghan command change.
He is also taking heat for moving to re-establish military tribunals to try some suspected terrorists, albeit with more legal safeguards than allowed during the Bush/Cheney Administration, most notably the exclusion of all information gained from torture.
Terminator Salvation, the latest film in the franchise made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role, opens wide next Thursday. Schwarzenegger has a cameo role. The Dark Knight‘s Christian Bale stars as John Connor.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today. He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger is expected to hit the campaign trail Sunday for the initiatives on Tuesday’s special election ballot.
** WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?For the first such change in wartime since Harry Truman replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War in 1951, Barack Obama is replacing General David McKiernan in Afghanistan. Obama is moving both to change a stalemated war in Afghanistan and to scale back expectations there.
In the process, the Obama Administration is signaling that there will be no massive military surge preferred by General David Petraeus, as well as, seemingly, an end to nation-building fantasies and a preference for more special operations while searching for compromise.
McKiernan, the commander of conventional ground forces for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is being replaced by a rather controversial special operations expert, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. As head of Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal oversaw the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. …
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. … From my May 8th column.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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.
Terminator Salvation, opening wide on Thursday, is something of a reboot of the original saga, albeit one set in the future.
** 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed at $56.34 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $22 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
CIA Director Leon Panetta addressing agency staff in Langley, Virginia during President Barack Obama’s April visit. Panetta, the former longtime California congressman, was Obama’s emissary to Israel regarding a potential military strike against Iran.
** QUICK HITS. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a bit of pickle over when she knew about waterboarding, has been backed by former Senate Intelligence PeCommittee chairman Bob Graham about briefings in 2002, which CIA claimed told both of them about the practice of torture. New CIA Director Leon Panetta backed his agency, naturally, but, though he doesn’t say it, doesn’t actually know if notes taken seven years ago were accurate. In any event, Pelosi acknowledges knowing in 2003, though not as a result of being briefed by CIA, and sought today to calm the waters by praising intelligence work. … Once and future GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney joined a parade of conservative pols today at the National Rifle Association convention in Phoenix, where he said President Obama is out to make America weak and please radical law professors and editorial boards. … Always interesting to watch the one-time moderate Romney pander to the far right. Meanwhile, in the real world, those radical law professors and editorial boards are denouncing Obama this week for his appointment of a new Afghanistan commander (see my column linked below) who is a hardball special ops officer, for moving to block release of more photos of detainee abuse, and for today’s decision to revive military tribunals for suspected terrorists, albeit with more legal safeguards for the accused.
** GAFFEIN’ GAVIN. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose comments and behavior inadvertently helped pass the Prop 8 anti-gay marriage initiative last November, has offered up his vision of the media future to The Economist, the venerable British newsweekly of global persuasion. If the San Francisco Chronicle folds, he opined, “People under 30 won’t even notice.”
Putting aside the obvious gaffe here – namely, the most unwise insult to the mayor’s hometown newspaper which, for the most part, has not delved into various problems of his mayoralty – let’s look at the substance of Newsom’s insight.
Newsom, influenced by his friend, actor Ashton Kutcher, who is the acknowledged king of the medium, has become a champion of Twitter. Which enjoys a certain vogue. But only allows for the most shallow form of communication, given the inherent limits of what one can say in 140 characters.
There may be a lot of folks under 30 who think that Twitter is media. Others think it’s mostly noise, and largely self-indulgent noise at that. And Twitter, as a recent media report I read reveals, has a dangerously high drop rate, much higher than other social media.
If the Chronicle goes down in terms of its physical newspaper, that will greatly affect its popular web site, sfgate.com, if it even survives. Why? Because useful content requires reporting. Which requires people with at least a modicum of skills to gather and present news. But that requires a business model to support those reporters. Which physical newspapers had, and online publications, with very few exceptions,do not. If the paper goes down, there won’t be enough reporters left to keep the website substantive.
And I’m sure there will be more than a few people under 30 who notice that, no matter how shallow Newsom assumes them to be.
Support on the issue is up sharply in the last five years; an April 2004 poll showed gay marriage opposed, 55% to 37%.
In addition to the even split on the issue among all voters, there is a sharp racial divide. While white voters very narrowly approve of gay marriage, 47% to 45%, African American voters are strongly opposed, 55% to 37%. Predictably, Democrats are strongly in favor and Republicans are strongly opposed. But independents are split, 46-45.
** OBAMA RE-STARTS MILITARY TRIBUNALS FOR TERROR SUSPECTS, WITH NEW SAFEGUARDS.
Obama’s statement today: Military commissions have a long tradition in the United States. They are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered. In the past, I have supported the use of military commissions as one avenue to try detainees, in addition to prosecution in Article III courts. In 2006, I voted in favor of the use of military commissions. But I objected strongly to the Military Commissions Act that was drafted by the Bush Administration and passed by Congress because it failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees that we were holding at the time. Indeed, the system of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay had only succeeded in prosecuting three suspected terrorists in more than seven years.
Today, the Department of Defense will be seeking additional continuances in several pending military commission proceedings. We will seek more time to allow us time to reform the military commission process. The Secretary of Defense will notify the Congress of several changes to the rules governing the commissions. The rule changes will ensure that: First, statements that have been obtained from detainees using cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation methods will no longer be admitted as evidence at trial. Second, the use of hearsay will be limited, so that the burden will no longer be on the party who objects to hearsay to disprove its reliability. Third, the accused will have greater latitude in selecting their counsel. Fourth, basic protections will be provided for those who refuse to testify. And fifth, military commission judges may establish the jurisdiction of their own courts.
These reforms will begin to restore the Commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law. In addition, we will work with the Congress on additional reforms that will permit commissions to prosecute terrorists effectively and be an avenue, along with federal prosecutions in Article III courts, for administering justice. This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values.
** LIVE WEBCAST OF JERRY BROWN’S U.S.C. LAW SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown delivers the commencement address this afternoon at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law in Los Angeles. Read the USC news item here.
“If I had listened to the naysayers, I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling.”
– Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in this morning’s University of Southern California commencement address.
** PANETTA TO ISRAEL: NO STRIKE ON IRAN. CIA Director Leon Panetta has twice journeyed to Israel in the past few weeks to sound out the new Israeli government and to deliver a pointed message from President Barack Obama: No sudden attacks on Iran.
Obama is attempting to engage Iran, which has its own elections next month. But the saber-rattling rhetoric out of Israel has increased since the new right-wing government was formed.
Late last month, as I noted at the time, Panetta went to Israel to meet with the country’s new leadership. He met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak (a former prime minister who brought his sagging Labor Party into the coalition), Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Mossad director Meir Dagan.
Panetta got to know Israeli leaders well during his time as Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff, a time which coincided with significant chaos within Israel following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin by a right-wing religious extremist upset about the peace process.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 9:20 AM Pacific, Obama welcomes the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team to the White House at the South Portico. The Phillies won the World Series last year. Pennsyvlania was also a cornerstone state in Obama’s sweeping electoral college victory. Obama also intends to hold the Senate seat next year of Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter.
At 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
Vice President Joe Biden is in California.
At 11 AM Pacific, he tours the Esperanza Community Housing Corporation in South Central Los Angeles.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Biden will make remarks on the stimulus bill in South Central Los Angeles.
Behind the scenes, Obama is focusing in on his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. He apparently still has six or more candidates in play. The pick may come next week. Or it may not.
Obama is also closely monitoring the Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban, which he and his advisors urged upon President Asif Ali Zardari.
Another major topic of Obama’s meeting with Hillary Clinton today is next week’s visit to Washington of new Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. With Israel boasting a new right-wing government, casting the Middle East peace process in some doubt and ratcheting up the pressure around Iran, the US and Israel are in a very delicate situation.
Obama has twice dispatched CIA Director Leon Panetta to Israel in the last few weeks to sound out the Israeli leadership and to deliver messages.
Obama is taking some heat on the left for his choice of a new American commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, former head of Joint Special Operations Command. See my column linked below on the Afghan command change.
You’ll notice that Obama is not focused on health care reform today, after a major focus on the first three days of the week. He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it known yesterday that the bill will be passed on a party-line vote in both houses.
This means two things politically. First, that House Republicans are irrelevant. Second, that more conservative Democrats in the Senate like Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson, are not needed.
Mad TV ends its 14-season run this weekend. Here is Will Sasso as Arnold Schwarzenegger promoting his new super-smash hit movie, Stolen Identity III.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He delivers the commencement address at the University of Southern California this morning at 9 AM. He will also receive an honorary doctorate degree.
By coincidence, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown delivers the commencement address for the USC Law School this afternoon.
Having unveiled two fiscal emergency budgets for the State of California earlier in the day, Schwarzenegger did not attend last night’s premiere of Terminator Salvation at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. His children Katherine, Patrick, and Christopher Schwarzenegger were on hand, however, along with stars Christian Bale and Sam Worthington.
As first revealed in my live webcast with him last month, Schwarzenegger agreed to reprise his iconic role in cameo fashion in the new movie, assuming the digital technology needed to insert him worked. It did, and I’ll have more on that soon.
** WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?For the first such change in wartime since Harry Truman replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War in 1951, Barack Obama is replacing General David McKiernan in Afghanistan. Obama is moving both to change a stalemated war in Afghanistan and to scale back expectations there.
In the process, the Obama Administration is signaling that there will be no massive military surge preferred by General David Petraeus, as well as, seemingly, an end to nation-building fantasies and a preference for more special operations while searching for compromise.
McKiernan, the commander of conventional ground forces for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is being replaced by a rather controversial special operations expert, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. As head of Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal oversaw the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. …
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. … From my May 8th column.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $24 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, never a special ally of Pelosi, is not backing her up, as Fox News delighted in pointing out. He says he has no information to have a belief about the matter.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LAYS OUT NOT ONE, BUT TWO DISASTER BUDGETS. The global economic crisis which hit California hard last fall and continues to hurt has devastated the state’s revenue picture. So today, as first reported here the other day, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out two May state budget revisions. One to deal with a $15.4 billion ongoing shortfall. The other to deal with a $21.3 billion shortfall.
Intriguingly, there was a big crowd of hundreds of onlookers onhand when Schwarzenegger made the walk from the Governor’s Office to the Room 1190 press conference room. Schwarzenegger, however, was relatively stonefaced, his aides and deputies also quite sober. The governor went so far to quip during his press conference that state Finance Director Mike Genest “is on suicide watch.”
The wire service has some of the details. There will be lay-offs, big cuts in health and human services and in education, borrowing, possible sale of famous state assets, and so on. Schwarzenegger will also look to the Obama Administration for more assistance. More taxes? No. Obviously, he couldn’t get Republican votes again, even if he wanted to. The liberal hope for recasting taxes as fees, thus getting around the two-third vote requirement? He won’t go along with it.
No on 1A spokesman Mike Roth, who turned into a pretzel – as you will see – trying to explain to me why his coalition, which wants no spending limits, is running a TV ad attacking the proposed spending limit for being too porous, called the release of the budget proposals a “scare tactic.”
** CALIFORNIA BUDGETOLOGY. By an odd coincidence, the campaign for the state budget compromise-related initiatives on next Tuesday’s special election ballot is making top backers available for media comment in every market in the state today … immediately after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveils his twin scenario budget update.
And in other news, ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, speaks at the Roseville Chamber of Commerce’s economic summit beforehand. Roseville is a town about 25 miles east of Sacramento, so the former top official in the Mitt Romney and John McCain campaigns had better talk really fast if she wants to get covered in counterpoint to Schwarzenegger.
What will Whitman say? Probably what she’s been saying, which I dealt with at length in February. She can solve the crisis through technology, cutting the workforce, and finding waste. It doesn’t get much more specific than that.
It’s an interesting approach, picking a fight with agents of perhaps the world’s most famous spy operation. She could be the target of more leaks to come. On the other hand, the new CIA director is her former congressional colleague and fellow Californian, Leon Panetta. And the credibility of unnamed, leaking CIA folks is especially low these days, with the the exception of right-wing media outlets and the Washington Post.
President Barack Obama, in a break from his usual myriad of problematic issues, brought the national champion University of North Carolina basketball team to the White House last week. The Tar Heels validated Obama’s ESPN bracketology.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in New Mexico. He has received his daily intelligence briefing.
At 9 AM Pacific, Obama will hold a town hall meeting at Rancho Rio High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will appear with Obama, who will focus on financial reforms and consumer protections for credit card holders.
At 11:15 AM Pacific, Obama is wheels up in Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama lands at Andrews Air Force Base, from which he travels in Marine One to the White House.
At 2:50 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at the White House, where he may make some remarks on events of the day.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is in California today.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Biden delivers remarks to USS Ronald Reagan sailors and families in San Diego.
The aircraft carrier Reagan has returned to home port San Diego after conducting Fleet Replacement Squadron Carrier Qualifications, i.e., carrier landing and aerial maneuvers.
Behind the scenes, Obama is focusing in on his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. He apparently still has six or more candidates in play. The pick is expected to come next week.
Obama is also closely monitoring the Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban, which he and his advisors urged upon President Asif Ali Zardari.
Obama is taking some heat on the left for his choice of a new American commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, former head of Joint Special Operations Command. See my column linked below on the Afghan command change.
You’ll notice that Obama is not focused on health care reform today, the first time this week. He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it known yesterday that the bill will be passed on a party-line vote in both houses.
This means two things politically. First, that House Republicans are irrelevant. Second, that more conservative Democrats in the Senate like Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson, are not needed.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today. He holds private discussions around California’s deeply troubled budget situation, both in terms of governance and next Tuesday’s special election initiatives.
At 2 PM in the Capitol, Schwarzenegger will unveil two revised budget proposals for the 2009-10 fiscal year. He will be joined by state finance director Mike Genest.
One budget, as discussed the other day, is based on passage of the initiatives. The other is not.
At one time, you could describe the latter as a disaster budget. Now they are both disaster budgets, with the continuing economic downturn dramatically impacting the state’s revenues, which are even more boom and bust in nature than the state’s economy as a whole.
What’s in these disaster budgets? Well, there are journalists who only cover the California Capitol, and they may have more, but you can boil it down to some obvious things. Release prisoners, fire state workers, cut education, cut social programs, sell famous state assets, and so on.
Drug production in Afghanistan has actually increased in recent years, despite the US and NATO presence there.
** WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?For the first such change in wartime since Harry Truman replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War in 1951, Barack Obama is replacing General David McKiernan in Afghanistan. Obama is moving both to change a stalemated war in Afghanistan and to scale back expectations there.
In the process, the Obama Administration is signaling that there will be no massive military surge preferred by General David Petraeus, as well as, seemingly, an end to nation-building fantasies and a preference for more special operations while searching for compromise.
McKiernan, the commander of conventional ground forces for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is being replaced by a rather controversial special operations expert, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. As head of Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal oversaw the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. …
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. … From my May 8th column.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $23 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama is moving to block release of more photos depicting the abuse of detainees.
** QUICK HITS. As predicted this morning, President Barack Obama’s move to block the release of more photos depicting the abuse of detainees in the war on terror is stirring up signficant criticism on the left. … Back from a week out of California trying to boost his bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, hit by a civil grand jury report criticizing him for mismanagement, is moving to fill some of his city’s many potholes. … Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner keeps trying to embarrass ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman to take part in a debate, ostensibly on the May 19th special election initiatives, a day before the election. Since they largely agree, he and his strategists are probably hoping to hit her on something else.
** WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?For the first such change in wartime since Harry Truman replaced General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War in 1951, Barack Obama is replacing General David McKiernan in Afghanistan. Obama is moving both to change a stalemated war in Afghanistan and to scale back expectations there.
In the process, the Obama Administration is signaling that there will be no massive military surge preferred by General David Petraeus, as well as, seemingly, an end to nation-building fantasies and a preference for more special operations while searching for compromise.
McKiernan, the commander of conventional ground forces for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is being replaced by a rather controversial special operations expert, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. As head of Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal oversaw the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. …
** A NEVADA WALKOVER FOR HARRY REID? Even though he’s not very popular in Silver State polls, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is looking more and more like a lock for re-election next year in Nevada.
As it happens, Ensign, who narrowly lost to Reid in 1998, may actually have a non-aggression pact with the former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Republican Governor Jim Gibbons is beset by a myriad of legal problems, with a famously disputed late night Vegas parking garage encounter with a casino cocktail waitress starting the spiral.
Reid, meanwhile, has over $5 million in the bank and President Barack Obama heading to Las Vegas for a big fundraiser later this spring. And last week, Obama – who has directed big economic recovery funds Nevada’s way – helped Reid some more when he followed through on his campaign pledge to urge a halt to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project.
Reid, who as a House member formed an alliance with LA Congressmen Howard Berman and Henry Waxman, has a bone dry demeanor that masks a very shrewd and complex political mind.
** OBAMA SWITCHES, NOW OPPOSES RELEASE OF MORE DETAINEE ABUSE PHOTOS, SETS UP PROBLEM WITH LEFT. Shifting gears, President Barack Obama now opposes release of more photos showing prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military commanders told Obama that the release, which had been expected later in the spring, would put US troops at greater risk.
This will be a problem for Obama with significant elements of the left, which won’t be satisfied unless there are show trials of Bush/Cheney Administration officials for their post-9/11 policies of massive surveillance and interrogation through torture.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?
After meeting this morning with President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced that the House will pass a health care reform plan by the end of July.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has also met with with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Hoyer, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, California Congressman Henry Waxman and California Congressman George Miller in the Oval Office. These members of Congress, four of five of them Californians, are key players on health care reform, the topic of discussion for the president on a third day in a row.
Note that there were no Republicans in the meeting. Obama is moving forward to pass health care reform on a party line vote.
At 8:15 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Jeff Sessions in the Oval Office.
The topic? A replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama has his weekly luncheon meeting with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama will comment from the South Drive of the White House on the violence in Sri Lanka prior to departing for Arizona.
At 1:15 PM Pacific, Obama departs the White House for Andrews Air Force Base on Marine One. Just 15 minutes later, he is scheduled to be wheels up on Air Force One en route to Phoenix, Arizona.
At 4:50 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Phoenix, Arizona at Sky Harbor Airport.
At 6:10 PM Pacific, Obama delivers the commencement address at Arizona State University at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
At 8:35 PM Pacific, Obama departs Phoenix, Arizona en route to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
At 10:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Kirtland Air Force Base.
Obama appears at a town hall meeting tomorrow with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not commented on the great Miss California controversy, which should start to fizzle right about … now.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private discussion today in and around Los Angeles, focusing again on California’s troubled budget politics.
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. …
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $25 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama talked with business leaders today about cutting health care costs and expanding coverage.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … WHAT DOES OBAMA’S AFGHAN COMMAND CHANGE MEAN?
** QUICK HITS. Senator Dianne Feinstein today repeated what Senator Barbara Boxer did yesterday, i.e., endorse Props 1A and 1B on the May 19th California special election ballot. The two measures, trailing in the polls, would create a state spending limit and rainy day fund, extending temporary tax hikes in the case of 1A, and ensure education funding in the case of 1B. Neither senator endorsed any of the other four initiatives. … Dick Cheney says he’d like to see former Florida Governor Jeb Bush run for president in 2012. Let’s see, super-unpopular ex-veep insists on staying in the spotlight, with Rush Limbaugh, as the most prominent Republicans, and calls for a Bush restoration to try to take down popular President Barack Obama. Okay then … Obama is pushing hard to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, detailing his confidante, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, to quarterback the effort. Obama is drawing on his global celebrity to secure the Games, which would be quite a going away party towards the end of a second term.
Cheney recently attacked Colin Powell for his criticism of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh. Amusingly, Powell’s approval rating of 80% if much more than those of Limbaugh and Cheney combined.
Dick Cheney said Tuesday that he’s not going to “roll over” while Democrats accuse the Bush administration of breaking the law with its anti-terror policies. The former vice president defended his decision to stay in the public eye during an interview Tuesday on FOX News, his latest appearance in a media blitz since leaving office.
Cheney, who has taken heat for remaining so vocal, told FOX News that the Obama administration is “dismantling” the national security policies that kept the country safe since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he continues to speak out to combat the mounting criticism of Bush-era interrogation policies and weigh in on what he called the “outrageous” debate over whether to punish the officials involved with designing those policies.
This is a great boon for Obama and the Democrats. With one caveat. Torture used on occasion is more popular than a lot of liberals can imagine. But a policy of torture is not. Democrats need to keep the focus on the latter. To the extent they are absolutists on torture, Cheney has an opening.
** GALLUP POLL: TALIBAN SEEMINGLY UNPOPULAR IN PAKISTAN. With a military offensive underway against the Taliban in the one-time resort Swat Valley region, a Gallup Poll from December indicates that the Islamic jihadists aren’t very popular. Only 14% say the Taliban presence in parts of the country is a positive influence. 47% say no. The other 39% aren’t sure or won’t say.
Of course, that’s an awfully high number of people who don’t have an opinion, or won’t offer one. And they might be pretty popular in forbidding Baluchistan, which could become a haven for the Taliban even if the Pakistani Army offensive is successful.
Relief agencies estimate that the number of Pakistanis fleeing the Swat valley and nearby districts could soon swell to as many as 1 million, further inflating the number who have been displaced since last August. This mass exodus poses a humanitarian crisis in a country where many are already struggling to provide the basics: More than 3 in 10 Pakistanis told Gallup that there had been times when they could not afford food for their families in the last year and nearly 2 in 10 said they had been unable to buy adequate shelter. In NWFP, roughly a third of residents said they were unable to afford food or shelter at times.
** THE BIZARRE NEW ANTI-PROP 1A TV AD. There are two great contesting factions in California’s Capitol. An anti-government faction, comprised mainly of far right ideologues, which wants to shrink government for this growing state and presents an anti-tax mantra as the solution to nearly all woes. And an ultra-government faction, comprised of public employee unions and left-wing ideologues, which wants to grow government with no limits and is constantly looking for ways to raise taxes.
Major elements of both intractable factions are opposed to the state budget compromise, because it violates both their dogmas in providing limits on spending and in raising taxes.
Both factions speak the language of principle, overarching all obvious self-interest, naturally.
The problem with 1A, according to this TV ad, isn’t that it has the state spending limits which caused this coalition to oppose it in the first place. No, the problem is that the spending limit is a phony, and would secretly allow the politicians to spend still more billions.
To describe this as cynical, and remarkably lacking in faith in their own message, is to understate severely.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you how the coalition tries to explain itself on these massive contradictions.
Controversial Miss California Carrie Prejean, backed by pageant owner Donald Trump, retained her title today.
** CONTROVERSIAL MISS CALI KEEPS HER CROWN – THE DONALD THINK SHE’S A HOTTIE. Miss California Carrie Prejean, the 21-year old glamour model who stoked national consternation and controversy when she came out against gay marriage in the Miss USA pageant – preferring, um, “opposite marriage,” instead – keeps her title with Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump siding with her. Not on the issue, but on her looks.
Trump dismissed the inevitable surfacing of risque pix of Prejean, retaliation for her views on same-sex marriage cast as showing her to be a hypocrite, as “part of the 21st century.” I do try to keep you informed here on NWN …
President Barack Obama held a White House forum on health care yesterday. He has another roundtable today.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and has met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama participates in a roundtable with business leaders to discuss cutting employer health care costs in the Roosevelt Room.
At 11:25 AM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden deliver remarks at a ceremony honoring Top Cops award winners in the Rose Garden.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with General Raymond Odierno and Ambassador Chris Hill in the White House Situation Room to discuss the situation in Iraq.
Obama fired America’s Afghanistan commander yesterday, and I have a column on that coming up.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
At 4:45 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend an evening of poetry, music and the spoken word in the East Room featuring James Earl Jones and other artists.
So, another day of major focus on health care reform, and a focus on America’s other long troubled war, the one in Iraq.
Obama got good news this morning with the Iranian government releasing Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, a former Miss America finalist imprisoned for supposed espionage. Obama had insisted on her release, and had it not occurred, a potential rapprochement between the US and the Islamic republic would likely have proved impossible.
However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, incidentally, who had come under public fire recently from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was endorsed today by Khamenei. Ahmadinejad, head of government to Khamenei’s religious head of state, is up for re-election next month.
Attention, Arnold! James T. Kirk demonstrates why he doesn’t believe in “the no-win scenario.”
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger focuses again on California’s troubled budget politics.
At 10:30 AM in Silicon Valley, he participates in a roundtable discussion with local government officials to discuss budget options and impacts on local communities.
Schwarzenegger then holds a press avail.
The focus is on the annual May budget revise, when the current budget is looked at for needed adjustments. In this case, with revenue running well short of projections – due to the global economic downturn – the currrent budget is in big trouble even before the potential defeat of next week’s special election initiatives.
Schwarzenegger released the numbers, reported here first yesterday afternoon, for two scenarios: Passage of the initiatives, and defeat of the initiatives. He puts out the actual budgets themselves on Thursday.
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. …
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. … From my April 23rd 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $25 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
Defense Secretary Bob Gates, as expected (see item below) this afternoon sacked American’s commander in Afghanistan.
** QUICK HITS. As noted here this morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed state budget options at his morning roundtable in Culver City. He will put out the May budget revise numbers for two scenarios – if the special election initiatives pass, and if they fail – tonight. $15.4 billion deficit if they pass, $21.3 billion deficit if they fail. The numbers get bigger after this year. … The shake-up in America’s Afghan command, discussed below, has another dimension to it. In addition to his reliance on air strikes, which have been yielding high civilian casualties, General David McKiernan persisted in pushing for still more troops beyond the 21,000 additional soldiers Obama is sending. …
** THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.Remember that big, dangerous swine flu threat that the cable culture was going on about round the clock, still scaring the sweat out of people a week ago? Why, it’s going to … er, never mind.
** UPDATE ON STAR TREK OPENING: In an item this morning, I reported that the new Star Trek launched with an opening weekend domestic box office (including $4 million from Thursday night screenings added late) of $76.5 million. That was based on the studio estimate as of this morning. That’s incorrect. The actual opening was $79.2 million. ($75.2 million for the customary three-day weekend period.) The picture did significantly better than anticipated on Mother’s Day. Not only is this biggest opening ever for a Star Trek picture, adjusted or unadjusted for inflation, it’s substantially bigger than other recent franchise reboots, including Batman Begins and Casino Royale. They opened with, respectively, $48.7 million and $40.8 million. The picture also set an IMAX record and knocked Wolverine into the lowest second-weekend gross of the X-Men series.
McChrystal is not a diplomat in uniform, though he is currently director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, the executive staff to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He’s the former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, which some on the left have described as “an executive hit squad.” What it actually is is a combination of many of the various military service’s top special operators. McChrystal’s expertise is in carefully-targeted, highly-lethal ground force raids on high-value targets. (His troopers have also been criticized for rough interrogation techniques.) McKiernan has come under criticism in the Obama Administration for an over-reliance on air strikes with many civilian casualties.
** OBAMA MOSCOW SUMMIT SET FOR JULY. President Barack Obama goes to Moscow in July for a very important summit meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The summit will take place from July 6th through July 8th.
The two countries have a great deal to work out, with thawing relations following the Bush/Cheney Administration. Russia is being helpful with Afghanistan, but can be much more helpful. It can also help channel Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as help assuage India’s fears about Pakistan. It also wants concessions around the proposed anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and more general guarantees of its sway over neighboring countries. Relations have chilled a bit again with the NATO military exercise in Georgia.
The new Star Trek had by far the biggest opening weekend of any film in the series and the second-largestsince The Dark Knight.
** STAR TREK OPENS VERY BIG. The new Star Trek movie (see my piece linked below) opened very big across the country over the weekend. $72.5 million for the three-day weekend period, $76.5 million including Thursday night screenings added late in the game. That’s more than the last movie in the series, Star Trek: Nemesis, took in worldwide during its entire theatrical run.
The movie, which is, so far, the best-reviewed of the year, has broken out of the ranks of so-called “Trekkies” into a more mainstream audience. I think it’s a big hit, as I thought when I wrote the column on Friday before the numbers were known.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE HYPE FLU’S BIG FADE.
President Barack Obama, who skipped the annual Gridiron Dinner, was a hit at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the other big DC big media dinner of the year, poking fun at himself and others.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
President Barack Obama deals with multiple issues with eventful week ahead in presidential politics. In California politics, the campaign on the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot goes into its final week, and the no-drama 2010 gubernatorial race continues on its appointed rounds.
Obama deals with health care this week, meeting with various stakeholders today to find ways to wring trillions in savings from the dysfunctional current system while expanding its reach to all but a few Americans.
The search for a US Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring David Souter accelerates some, with the potential choices reduced to fewer than ten.
Obama and his geopolitical brain trust will explore if this is the time to push more on the Iranian front, with this morning’s release of jailed journalist Roxana Saberi, or if it’s best to wait until after next month’s Iranian presidential election.
Meanwhile, Obama’s troubled AfPak summit is bearing fruit in the form of major action on several fronts. Pakistana and Afghanistan agreed to form a joint border force to interdict Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters using Pakistan as a safe haven. The two countries have also agreed to coordinate their intelligence services. How well these things work out is, as the saying goes, another matter.
And the Pakistani Army is engaged in a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban who have been conducting a slow-rolling jihad, focusing on the Swat Valley, once the country’s resort area.
Al Jazeera reports that there are now one million refugees in Pakistan from the fighting between the Army and Taliban.
We’ll have a better idea at the end of the week about the resolve and capability of Pakistan – suddenly the weaker part of the AfPak equation – to engage and defeat the Taliban.
I’ll be writing more this week about the fate of the May 19th California special election initiatives, and will have at least one “California 2010″ feature on the governor’s race, such as it is.
Like most members of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi skipped the White House Correspondents Dinner. The former California Democratic Party chair toured Iraq instead.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence briefing and is receiving his daily economic briefing in the Oval Office.
At 7:45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with health care reform stakeholders in the Roosevelt Room.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on reforming the health care system to reduce costs from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The event will be roadblocked on all cable news nets.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama welcomes the national collegiate champion University of North Carolina men’s basketball team to the White House at the South Portico. Obama picked North Carolina to win the national title in his “March Madness” bracketology on ESPN. It was also a politically savvy pick, as North Carolina is one of the red states Obama took away from the Republicans last November.
Obama and health care stakeholders will discuss ways in which $2 trillion can be levered out of the troubled system, as well as how health care can be extended to nearly all Americans.
Obama got good news this morning when the Iranian government announced that Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, a former Miss America finalist imprisoned for supposed espionage, will be released today. Obama had insisted on her release, and had it not occurred, a potential rapprochement between the US and the Islamic republic would likely have proved impossible.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, incidentally, has come under public fire recently from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, for his economic policies and for general disarrary. Ahmadinejad, head of government to Khamenei’s religious head of state, is up for re-election next month.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited over the weekend with Californians displaced by the Santa Barbara fires. His friend actor Rob Lowe, who lives in the area, joined him.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger focuses again on California’s troubled budget politics.
At 9 AM in the LA area, he participates in a roundtable discussion with local government officials to discuss budget options and impacts on local communities.
The focus is on the annual May budget revise, when the current budget is looked at for needed adjustments. In this case, with revenue running well short of projections – due to the global economic downturn – the currrent budget is in big trouble even before the potential defeat of next week’s special election initiatives.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. …
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF FLU AND AFPAK.President Barack Obama has had two more crises to deal with in the past week. And, as he did with the crises around Somali pirates and a North Korean missile launch, he gave the most public attention to the least consequential crisis, while working heavily behind the scenes on the most consequential crisis.
This time it was the so-called swine flu and the rolling jihad in deteriorating Pakistan. The flu has caused media mayhem, with the cable culture locking on to it around the clock.
By now, however, the light is starting to dawn that this really is not like the flu in Stephen King’s The Stand. … From my May 4th column.
** THIS X DOESN’T MARK THE SPOT.WOLVERINE MISSES THE SERIES’ DEEPER THEMES. … From my May 2nd 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.
Over the weekend, Russia celebrated Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, with the biggest show of military might on Moscow’s Red Square since the Soviet era, including the world’s most advanced air defense system.
** 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $24 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
In his weekly video/radio address, President Barack Obama promises credit card reform and discusses his moves to crack down on offshore corporate tax havens and to assess the stability of the troubled banking system.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama has no public events today.
Vice President Joe Biden delivers the commencement address at Syracuse University in upstate New York.
Obama met yesterday in the Oval Office with Richard Phillips, the American freighter captain rescued last month by the Navy from Somali pirates.
In the evening, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended the annual White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton.
He made fun of himself, for his use of teleprompters, and of the press, saying “all of you voted for me.”
And he had some fun with conservative Republicans, saying former Vice President Dick Cheney – who is again today attacking Obama for supposedly making America less safe – is working on his memoir, “How To Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.”
Obama mocked Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, for his use of stereotypical idiom, and noted that the federal government will not give the Republican Party a bailout even if Rush Limbaugh is “a toxic asset.”
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend the annual White House Correspondents Dinner tonight at the Washington Hilton.
The Obamas skipped another fixture on the DC social scene, the annual Gridiron dinner, at which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proved to be the star draw with his funny speech. (The speech was pretty funny, too.)
But they can’t push the Beltway media establishment too much, so they will be at this increasingly circus-like event. I won’t, but I’ll have a special correspondent there, so if anything really interesting happens …
Meanwhile, Obama’s troubled AfPak summit is bearing fruit in the form of major action on several fronts. Pakistana and Afghanistan agreed to form a joint border force to interdict Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters using Pakistan as a safe haven. The two countries have also agreed to coordinate their intelligence services. How well these things work out is, as the saying goes, another matter.
The Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban, urged by the Obama Administration, has reportedly produced a million refugees.
And the Pakistani Army is engaged in a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban who have been conducting a slow-rolling jihad.
The Obama Administration has one of its major wishes of the AfPak summit a few days ago fulfilled. The Pakistani Army is engaged in a major offensive against the Taliban running things in the Swat Valley, once the country’s resort area.
Al Jazeera reports that there are now one million refugees in Pakistan from the fighting between the Army and Taliban.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visits an evacuation shelter at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday morning.
Some 30,000 Californians have been displaced from their homes by the wildfires raging near Santa Barbara. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency there on Thursday.
The rebooted Star Trek cleverly sets up a coming-of-age saga for a new generation.
** STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O. Let’s get the straight-up politics out of the way up front. Barack Obama, as he says himself, grew up on Star Trek. And both the new Spock, young Heroes TV star Zachary Quinto, and the classic Spock, Leonard Nimoy, each of whom star in the new movie, backed him for president, with Quinto campaigning around the country.
Obama even flashed the Vulcan hand sign — not so easy to do the first few times you try — at Nimoy at an Obama fundraiser in, for those of you who were johnnies-come-lately, January 2007.
Now for the part that’s not quite so obvious. This Star Trek hinges on the original captain of the Enterprise. But not the one you’re thinking of.
In rebooting the saga, the new stewards of Star Trek have neatly set up a classic coming-of-age journey for a new generation, the Obama generation. …
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF FLU AND AFPAK.President Barack Obama has had two more crises to deal with in the past week. And, as he did with the crises around Somali pirates and a North Korean missile launch, he gave the most public attention to the least consequential crisis, while working heavily behind the scenes on the most consequential crisis.
This time it was the so-called swine flu and the rolling jihad in deteriorating Pakistan. The flu has caused media mayhem, with the cable culture locking on to it around the clock.
By now, however, the light is starting to dawn that this really is not like the flu in Stephen King’s The Stand. … From my May 4th column.
** THIS X DOESN’T MARK THE SPOT. Big comic book and scifi movie extravaganzas can make big points about society, sometimes even catching the zeitgeist, as we saw with 2008’s The Dark Knight. The X-Men series has been at the forefront of this, exploring the changing nature of humanity, our relationship with technology, and the concept of otherness in a mass society. And doing it amidst unique powers, cool tech, and some bracing action.
Unfortunately, most of that which intrigues one intellectually and moves one emotionally is missing in the fourth entry in the franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
It’s not a bad movie. (And it does provide an amusing explanation for one of the most famous events of the 1970s.) In fact, it is shaping up as a big hit. It’s a pretty good action flick, but the movie lacks the intellectual depth and soul frequently found in the X-Men series. I was entertained. But it’s going to fall far short measured against the Star Trek and Terminator movies coming later this month in the cultural significance sweepstakes.
The basic plot seems borrowed, at least in part, from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1985 action vehicle, Commando. …
** OBAMA’S DEEPENING AFPAK CRISIS.With the appropriate huzzahs for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days still ringing in the air, his new AfPak strategy, for the linked crisis of Afghanistan and Pakistan, is already in deep trouble. Events have accelerated beyond the assumptions underlying it, especially in Pakistan, and much of the past few days in the administration was taken up with re-strategizing, including discussions on Air Force One as the president flew back-and-forth for a Missouri town hall yesterday and a full-scale National Security Council session before that.
This could be a tremendous disaster for America. As we are serially distracted by the various ADD obsessions of our media culture.
What’s wrong? Most immediately, the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan and a relatively new government there that’s been fighting with functional modernist governmental rivals and cutting deals that don’t work with the Pakistani Taliban. And in the long term, an approach in Afghanistan that leans in the direction of nation-building rather than simply — though it’s not simple — keeping Al Qaeda too disrupted to launch serious attacks on America. …
** 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $58.63 per barrel, a six-month high. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $25 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
Pakistan vows to defeat the Taliban. A major offensive with air and ground forces is underway in the scenic Swat Valley, a one-time resort haven where the Taliban declared sharia law. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are fleeing the scene.
** QUICK HITS. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had a snappy answer when the first question at the big event in LA this afternoon announcing the biggest highway project in the country was about the state budget crisis. Schwarzenegger acknowledged his failure in stopping the global economic meltdown. The Cali budget went from a chronic situation to a critical situation when the economy went down hard last fall. … Another new development coming out of President Barack Obama’s problematic AfPak summit. The Afghan and Pakistani intelligence agencies have agreed to coordinate information. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, with Pakistan’s long highly controversial ISI. … According to Gallup, Democrats now lead Republicans in all age groups of the American electorate.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STAR TREK‘S NEW COMING-OF-AGE SAGA FOR GENERATION O.
** OBAMA TO ADDRESS MUSLIM WORLD IN SPEECH NEXT MONTH IN EGYPT. It’s not happening in the first 100 days as promised, but President Barack Obama will give a major address to the Muslim world next month in a major Muslim city, somewhere in Egypt. It will probably be Cairo.
Obama did give a widely covered address to the Turkish parliament last month on his international tour. But this is likely to be in a very public setting. The speech will come on the trip in which Obama journeys to France for the anniversary of D-Day on June 6th.
** PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN AGREE TO JOINT BORDER FORCE. Another result of President Barack Obama’s AfPak summit — Pakistan and Afghanistan have announced that they are forming a joint border force to patrol the region between their two countries. There has been very little coordination up to now, allowing Afghan Taliban fighters to use Pakistan as a safe haven.
Caldera assumed that there had been notification of the move. There had not been. In any event, many would not have gotten the word. Obama was furious.
Under pressure from the Obama Administration, the Pakistani Army has launched an offensive against the Taliban. We’ll see how it goes, and how the army, with many Islamists within, holds up under the stress.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama’s AfPak summit concluded yesterday and his administration has one of its major wishes fulfilled. The Pakistani Army is engaged in a major offensive against the Taliban running things in the Swat Valley, once the country’s resort area.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on job creation and job training from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Jobless claims are down for the first time in six months, though the unemployment rate – always a lagging indicator during an economic recovery – is up again.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania in the Oval Office. Casey was a key supporter of Obama in the primaries, and is concerned about his state counterpart, Arlen Specter, who has switched from Republican to Democrat, but none too gracefully, perhaps earning a Democratic primary challenge next year.
** NEW CALIFORNIA POLL: MORE TROUBLING NEWS FOR PROPOSITIONS. The new Public Policy Institute of California poll is off embargo, and it contains more troubling news for the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot.
Here are the numbers.
• Prop. 1A (Spending Limit, Rainy Day Fund, Tax Hike Extension)
52% No, 35% Yes.
• Prop. 1B (Guaranteed Education Funding)
47% No, 40% Yes.
• Prop. 1C (Lottery Securitization)
58% No, 32% Yes.
• Prop. 1D (Shift Tobacco Tax for Kids)
45% No, 43% Yes.
• Prop. 1E (Shift Millionaire Tax for Mental Health)
48% No, 41% Yes.
• Prop. 1F (Freeze Legislative Salaries in Budget Down Years)
73% Yes, 24% No.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating is 34%. The state Legislature is less than half that.
The poll shows that Californians are frightened and uncertain about their economic futures. In this environment, shelling out more money is a tough sell.
There are other factors as well. The recent Field Poll showed that most voters want spending cut more, but are against cuts in 10 of 12 policy areas, picking only prisons and parks for the axe, a completely non-serious scenario. In addition, you have the recurring hyperpartisanship of state politics. The reaction of the far right is it can all be made up with cuts, not that they are specifying what those might be. On the far left, the line is that it can all be made up with a change in the 2/3 vote requirement on tax hikes, not that the public favors that, or with a majority vote-only budget, not that that can be shown to be constitutional. Speaking of gridlock.
Ironically, Californians, while down on the state’s direction, and state pols, are very much up on America’s future, and one pol in particular.
When Barack Obama was inaugurated, only a third of California voters saw America as moving in the right direction. Now it’s a majority.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins former Governor-turned Attorney General Jerry Brown and other notables this morning at the Peace Officers Memorial near the Capitol to deliver remarks at the 33rd Annual Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony to honor 19 officers killed in the line of duty. The ceremony will conclude with a 21-gun salute, taps and retiring of the colors.
This afternoon, Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles, where he will be joined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to hold a press conference announcing the construction groundbreaking of the largest highway project in the nation utilizing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds to date.
The project, a $1 billion-plus widening of I-405 Sepulveda Pass, has been on hold since 2001.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF FLU AND AFPAK.President Barack Obama has had two more crises to deal with in the past week. And, as he did with the crises around Somali pirates and a North Korean missile launch, he gave the most public attention to the least consequential crisis, while working heavily behind the scenes on the most consequential crisis.
This time it was the so-called swine flu and the rolling jihad in deteriorating Pakistan. The flu has caused media mayhem, with the cable culture locking on to it around the clock.
By now, however, the light is starting to dawn that this really is not like the flu in Stephen King’s The Stand. … From my May 4th column.
The new Star Trek‘s first full day in theaters is today. As in this classic 1967 episode from the original series, The City On the Edge of Forever, shown here in its entirety, time travel figures prominently in the new rebooted version.
** THIS X DOESN’T MARK THE SPOT. Big comic book and scifi movie extravaganzas can make big points about society, sometimes even catching the zeitgeist, as we saw with 2008’s The Dark Knight. The X-Men series has been at the forefront of this, exploring the changing nature of humanity, our relationship with technology, and the concept of otherness in a mass society. And doing it amidst unique powers, cool tech, and some bracing action.
Unfortunately, most of that which intrigues one intellectually and moves one emotionally is missing in the fourth entry in the franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
It’s not a bad movie. (And it does provide an amusing explanation for one of the most famous events of the 1970s.) In fact, it is shaping up as a big hit. It’s a pretty good action flick, but the movie lacks the intellectual depth and soul frequently found in the X-Men series. I was entertained. But it’s going to fall far short measured against the Star Trek and Terminator movies coming later this month in the cultural significance sweepstakes.
The basic plot seems borrowed, at least in part, from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1985 action vehicle, Commando. …
** OBAMA’S DEEPENING AFPAK CRISIS.With the appropriate huzzahs for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days still ringing in the air, his new AfPak strategy, for the linked crisis of Afghanistan and Pakistan, is already in deep trouble. Events have accelerated beyond the assumptions underlying it, especially in Pakistan, and much of the past few days in the administration was taken up with re-strategizing, including discussions on Air Force One as the president flew back-and-forth for a Missouri town hall yesterday and a full-scale National Security Council session before that.
This could be a tremendous disaster for America. As we are serially distracted by the various ADD obsessions of our media culture.
What’s wrong? Most immediately, the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan and a relatively new government there that’s been fighting with functional modernist governmental rivals and cutting deals that don’t work with the Pakistani Taliban. And in the long term, an approach in Afghanistan that leans in the direction of nation-building rather than simply — though it’s not simple — keeping Al Qaeda too disrupted to launch serious attacks on America. …
** 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
This is up about $24 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama met today with the rather motley crew of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rev. Al Sharpton, and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich to form a consensus on education reform. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was invited, but did not attend due to his city’s budget crisis.
** QUICK HITS. The Obama Administration’s stress tests on the banks shows more than a dozen big national money center banks and big investment houses still, after the massive federal bailouts, needing to come up with some $76 billion over the next quarter to keep going in some semblance of competence. Formerly San Francisco-based Bank of America is worst off, needing some $33 billion. Longtime San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is second worst off, needing about $14 billion. … California’s Legislative Analyst Office put out an assessment that the state government will have a $23 billion cash crunch if the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot don’t pass. The reaction of the far right is it can all be made up with cuts, not that they are specifying what those might be. On the far left, the line is that it can all be made up with a change in the 2/3 vote requirement on tax hikes, not that the public favors that, or with a majority vote-only budget, not that that can be shown to be constitutional. Speaking of gridlock. … In the 2010 California governor’s race, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declined an Oval Office invitation from President Obama today to work on his city’s budget crisis. With a proportionately larger budget crisis, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is almost done with a week of campaigning outside the state. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, prosecuting more criminals, is honoring fallen peace officers today and tomorrow. On the Republican side, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will debate former Congressman Tom Campbell on the initiatives the day before the election, while ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman announces more fundraising co-chairs.
** OBAMA: CHANGING IMPRESSIONS.The Pew research people have an interesting exercise in which they compare impressions of Barack Obama from last September to April. When you run through the list, you see a significant increase in those who consider him intelligent, bigger increases in those who view him as capable and effective, as well as socialist (still only 20% think that), a gigantic drop in those who consider him to be inexperienced, and smaller drops in those who view him as charismatic and representing change.
In an address today to the nation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that negotiations have failed and the army has been asked to rid the Swat Valley of Taliban militants. Pledging assistance to refugees, he appealed for support for this action from the public and from Islamic scholars. Obama and top American officials have been pressing for this sort of dramatic action for weeks.
** VILLINES REPLACED AS CALIFORNIA MINORITY LEADER. Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, a genial and shrewd Central Valley Republican, has stepped down from his leadership post. It’s another sign of a very conservative party moving further to the right. Villines was an aide to former Governor Pete Wilson and chief of staff for conservative former state Senator Chuck Poochigian, the landslider loser for attorney general in 2006 to Jerry Brown.
He took over in the fall of 2006, as Assembly Republicans wanted a more conservative figure than the relatively moderate (for a Republican) George Plescia. But with his role in the state budget compromise, Villines has run afoul of conservative absolutists. So after months of grind, mostly in fruitless negotiations, he has stepped down and is replaced by Central Coast Republican Sam Blakeslee.
He isn’t one of the true red hots of the caucus, but for the far right has the virtue of not having actually provided one of the needed Republican votes under California’s unusual two-thirds vote requirement for temporary tax hikes. Blakeslee has a PhD. in geophysics, and was a longtime researcher and executive for a little company called Exxon.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass praised Villines as a worthy leader and negotiator and expressed the hope that Blakeslee will not succumb to “hyper-partisanship.”
President Baraack Obama’s White House summit with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
** OBAMA’S TROUBLED AFPAK SUMMIT. The optics seem more telling than the rhetoric.
President Barack Obama is hosting his first summit of his wartime allies, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called “AfPak” summit, dealing with what Obama calls the biggest geopolitical threat to America’s security. But there’s no state dinner in their honor. No address to Congress, which must fund Obama’s plans (and may attach conditions).
And the principal social event, a dinner for the presidents hosted by Vice President Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory, has its own ironic backstory. Biden famously walked out of a dinner last year with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After their meetings today, Obama struck a note of optimism. …
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama’s AfPak summit is continuing today with Cabinet and sub-Cabinet members meeting with opposite numbers from governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office. He has also delivered remarks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on $17 billion in proposed budget cuts.
At 9 :45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rev. Al Sharpton, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to discuss education reform in the Oval Office.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer, a former UC Berkeley professor, in the Oval Office.
At 11:45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 1:15 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office.
Obama goes to Moscow in July for a major summit with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Russia is providing some assistance to the US in Afghanistan, but can do more. And wants more. As does the US with respect to Iran.
Amidst dry conditions more akin to late summer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency around the Santa Barbara fires.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cancelled plans to appear in Riverside today and is touring the Santa Barbara fire scene this morning.
Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in the Santa Barbara area.
At 9 AM, he holds a briefing on the Jesusita Fire at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara.
I suspect Schwarzenegger will make the point that firefighting efforts will be threatened if the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot go down.
This afternoon, Schwarzenegger takes part in a Silicon Valley summit on solar energy at which he will discuss renewable energy and public/private partnerships.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF FLU AND AFPAK.President Barack Obama has had two more crises to deal with in the past week. And, as he did with the crises around Somali pirates and a North Korean missile launch, he gave the most public attention to the least consequential crisis, while working heavily behind the scenes on the most consequential crisis.
This time it was the so-called swine flu and the rolling jihad in deteriorating Pakistan. The flu has caused media mayhem, with the cable culture locking on to it around the clock.
By now, however, the light is starting to dawn that this really is not like the flu in Stephen King’s The Stand. … From my May 4th column.
The rebooted Star Trek screens in theaters around the country tonight before its first full day of release tomorrow. In this complete episode, Balance of Terror, from the original series, the crew encounters the mysterious Romulans for the first time, something which happens very differently in the new film.
** THIS X DOESN’T MARK THE SPOT. Big comic book and scifi movie extravaganzas can make big points about society, sometimes even catching the zeitgeist, as we saw with 2008’s The Dark Knight. The X-Men series has been at the forefront of this, exploring the changing nature of humanity, our relationship with technology, and the concept of otherness in a mass society. And doing it amidst unique powers, cool tech, and some bracing action.
Unfortunately, most of that which intrigues one intellectually and moves one emotionally is missing in the fourth entry in the franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
It’s not a bad movie. (And it does provide an amusing explanation for one of the most famous events of the 1970s.) In fact, it is shaping up as a big hit. It’s a pretty good action flick, but the movie lacks the intellectual depth and soul frequently found in the X-Men series. I was entertained. But it’s going to fall far short measured against the Star Trek and Terminator movies coming later this month in the cultural significance sweepstakes.
The basic plot seems borrowed, at least in part, from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1985 action vehicle, Commando. …
** OBAMA’S DEEPENING AFPAK CRISIS.With the appropriate huzzahs for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days still ringing in the air, his new AfPak strategy, for the linked crisis of Afghanistan and Pakistan, is already in deep trouble. Events have accelerated beyond the assumptions underlying it, especially in Pakistan, and much of the past few days in the administration was taken up with re-strategizing, including discussions on Air Force One as the president flew back-and-forth for a Missouri town hall yesterday and a full-scale National Security Council session before that.
This could be a tremendous disaster for America. As we are serially distracted by the various ADD obsessions of our media culture.
What’s wrong? Most immediately, the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan and a relatively new government there that’s been fighting with functional modernist governmental rivals and cutting deals that don’t work with the Pakistani Taliban. And in the long term, an approach in Afghanistan that leans in the direction of nation-building rather than simply — though it’s not simple — keeping Al Qaeda too disrupted to launch serious attacks on America. …
** 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. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading in the $57 to $58 per barrel range, a six-month high.
This is up about $23 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
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