The Obama Administration has made training of the Afghan Army a top priority. US and NATO troops are fanned across Afghanistan in advance of Thursday’s presidential election, which Taliban leaders say they will disrupt.
** AFGHANISTAN READYING FOR TOMORROW’S ELECTION. Afghanistan holds its presidential election on Thursday. It’s a big challenge for the fledgling government, with the Taliban’s central leadership pledging to disrupt the vote across the country. (Though some local Taliban leaders have signaled otherwise.)
Some 300,000 US, NATO, and Afghan troops are deployed to stop the Taliban disruption in its tracks as part of the government’s encouragement of the nation’s 17 million voters to turn out at nearly 7,000 polling sites. Polling sites have been established in all but eight districts which remain under Taliban control after a series of recent offensives spearheaded by US Marines.
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said that by participating, Afghans would help “bring fresh vigour to the country’s political life, and ultimately reaffirm their commitment to contribute to the peace and prosperity of their nation”.
Opinion polls suggest support for Mr Karzai is at around 45%, with his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, in second place with 25%.
Preliminary official results should be announced sometime on Saturday evening. If the winning candidate fails to gain more than 50% of the vote on Thursday, there will be a second-round run-off in October.
Afghanistan time is eleven-and-a-half hours ahead of California time. It’s GMT plus 4.5.
** POIZNER RIPS WHITMAN FOR NOT DEBATING. California Insurance Commissioner, a GOP gubernatorial hopeful, today ripped ex-eBay CEO and Republican campaign official Meg Whitman for turning down an October debate at an Orange County college. Whitman’s campaign has previously said that the former John McCain and Mitt Romney campaign co-chair will participate in three debates this fall. But she hasn’t scheduled them.
** CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS TAKING UP CALL FOR “CLEAN CAMPAIGN PLEDGE.” In advance of the 2010 gubernatorial primary, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party has just called on candidates to avoid “brutal and defamatory attacks.” LA party chairman Eric Bauman, also a state party vice chair and former senior aide to Governor Gray Davis, put out a statement during the noon hour, noting the likelihood of a super-rich Republican nominee and the need to avoid hurting the Democratic nominee.
The San Francisco County Democratic Party issued the same call last week.
This would affect the tactics of Bauman’s old colleague, former Davis chief strategist Garry South, a lobbyist and political consultant who as chief strategist for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatens to harshly attack former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, the clear frontrunner. South has been taking nasty potshots at Brown for months.
Personally, I don’t see Newsom taking off, so folks can talk to themselves and a few reporter friends all they want. But it is an interesting development.
** OBAMA VS. PALIN: THE BIG DUKE-AROO? It’s the dream match-up for right-wing activists pushing back against the advent of Barack Obama’s America on all fronts. And with Obama’s job approval rating dipping into the low 50s, they think they’ve got him on the run.
However, a new poll by the Marist Institute shows that Barack Obama would crush 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in a 2012 presidential match-up, 56% to 33%.
Palin’s in a dead heat in early soundings for the Republican presidential nomination. 21% back former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 20% back Palin, 19% support former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and 10% support former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Palin is reviled by Democrats and does poorly with independents.
However, she is extremely popular with Republicans, with a 73% favorable rating and just 16% viewing her unfavorably.
Palin’s decision to step down from office did not help her cause. In fact, voters say her action hurt her prospects for a presidential bid. 61% of the national electorate thought Palin’s resignation was a bad political move while just 15% report it helps her political aspirations. The self-proclaimed “soccer mom” doesn’t even gain the affirmation of her own party. A slim majority of Republicans — 51% — think Palin’s stepping down hurt her political future. 69% of Democrats and 61% of Independents agree.
President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held a successful summit yesterday in the White House. Egypt is re-emerging as a key American ally.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama focuses on health care reform and cultural symbolism today at the White House, honoring NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson.
Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the White House.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, he delivers remarks at an event honoring 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson on the South Portico of the White House.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama participates in a conference call with faith leaders to discuss health insurance reform.
The Obama White House has to make two fundamental on health care. Since few Republicans favor changing the system, a bipartisan bill is difficult at best. That would argue for a party-line vote, which is not at all surprising, but goes against some sense of decorum in the Senate.
And the White House must decide whether to retain or jettison the “public option,” which would establish a government-run operation to compete with private insurers. Needless to say, they aren’t happy about that, since it affects their ability to profit from health care. And the public option splits the public itself in opinion polling.
NATO troops are working to secure the longtime Taliban stronghold of Kandahar one day before Afghanistan national elections the Taliban vow to disrupt.
Obama is also monitoring tomorrow’s presidential election in Afghanistan. It’s not so much the election itself that is in question but whether the Taliban can make good on their threat to thoroughly disrupt the election.
The Taliban launched some attacks yesterday around the country, but they were terrorist strikes only, nothing in main force, and caused fewer than 10 fatalities.
Tomorrow will tell the tale.
Obama made good headway yesterday in his summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Obama sees Egypt as a key ally both in the Middle East peace process with Israel and Palestine and in combating the spread of Islamic jihadism.
UPDATE: Schwarzenegger’s live webcast from the state prison at Chino will now take place at 10:30 AM.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Southern California this morning.
He will tour Chino State Prison, site of a major prison riot last week.
Schwarzenegger’s plan to reduce crowding conditions, and the state budget by more than a billion dollars per year, by reducing the prison inmate by 27,000 will be brought up tomorrow in the Legislature.
It will have to pass on a Democrats-only vote, as Republicans do not want to be on record supporting such cuts.
Schwarzenegger met yesterday with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders reviewing priorities for the remainder of the legislative session, including prisons, water, public pension reform, energy reorganization and the state’s renewable portfolio standard, the need for the state to qualify for the Obama Administration’s “Race To the Top” challenge grants, further governmental reforms, and stimulating the economy.
** MAD MEN: “OUT OF TOWN” … SEASON 3 OPENER SATISFYING NOT SCINTILLATING. … From my new column.
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ‘60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a perpetually depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss. … From my August 14th essay.
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. … From my August 13th column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the 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 $37 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
The Taliban promise to disrupt Thursday’s national elections in Afghanistan, threatening to kill voters. So much for their pretending to represent the people.
** QUICK HITS. President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak say they made some progress toward Middle East peace in their summit today at the White House. Obama Administration officials have made repeated trips to Israel this month. … Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina took another step toward a Republican run against Senator Barbara Boxer by registering the name “Carly for California.” One recent poll purported to show her very close to Boxer, while another showed her far behind. My gut poll says both those polls are off. … Ex-eBay CEO and Republican campaign official Meg Whitman said today that she wants employers to be able to check a big government database on the immigration status of potential employees. She didn’t say how it would be set up.
** SCATTERED TALIBAN ATTACKS TWO DAYS BEFORE AFGHANISTAN’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. The Taliban launched a few attacks today in advance of Thursday’s presidential election. One rocket landed inside the presidential compound in Kabul, but did little damage. There was also a car bombing in Kabul, and a few other attacks around the country that left fewer than 10 people dead.
NATO officials say they expect a big turnout in the election. How clean the election is, however, is another matter. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is said to be engaged in backroom deals and vote-buying in an effort to avoid a run-off against his leading opponent, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Shocking, I know.
While most NATO member troops in Afghanistan don’t engage in offensive operations against the Taliban, leaving that mainly to American and Afghan forces, they are all working to secure election sites.
Recent operations, just days ahead of the election, by U.S. Marines and other NATO forces in the Taliban strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the southern part of the country have been designed to clear and hold sectors that have long been in the Taliban grip, and free up the population to vote, according to the NATO officials.
While reports from the military command say the operations have been relatively successful in clearing the Taliban, it is unclear how the arrival of NATO forces will influence villagers to vote.
** BOB NOVAK LOSES HIS BATTLE WITH BRAIN CANCER. Longtime conservative columnist Bob Novak passed away today. I was acquainted with him and admired his knowledge base, if not his modus operandi.
Although frequently wrong, perhaps on purpose, Novak was one of the few really knowledgeable political journalists in the country.
He was a true fixture in political and journalist circles. Some will recall this line from Robert Redford’s classic, TheCandidate. “Bill, those giants of journalism, Evans and Novak, are running with a story that your father is really for Jarman.”
That was 1972. Evans was Novak’s former partner Rowland Evans, who has long since retired. The story, incidentally, within the film, was false, a nod to the widespread view that Novak used disinformation to make an impact and ferret out actual information.
Novak later became even more famous on Crossfire, a show which I particularly disliked for its forcing participants into hyperpartisan caricatures. This has become the norm on cable news, even after the show was canceled for being a caricature producing far more heat than light.
While he became known as a staunch conservative for his role on “Crossfire” and other CNN political shows like “The Capital Gang,” he differed with conservatives on many issues, expressing doubts about invading Afghanistan and frequently criticizing the war in Iraq.
Novak wrote in his book about often giving politicians the choice of being a source or a target, a strategy that often produced scoops for his column.
With a lengthy list of highly-placed sources, a high public profile and a relentless approach to reporting his column, Novak produced many scoops.
Among those scoops included a 2003 column in which he outed Plame as a CIA agent. The article was published eight days after Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, said the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat of nuclear weapons.
** STILL NO SIGN OF INFLATION. U.S. WHOLESALE PRICES DROP DRAMATICALLY. Worries about inflation — in a deflated economy — continue to be just that. US wholesale prices dropped 0.9% in July, more than anticipated. One of the keys to the decline was a 2.4% drop in energy prices.
For the year, US wholesale prices declined 6.4%, the biggest drop since statistical records started in 1947.
The 0.9 percent decrease in prices paid to factories, farmers and other producers followed a 1.8 percent gain in June, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Excluding food and fuel, so-called core prices unexpectedly fell 0.1 percent.
A record amount of excess capacity will prevent production bottlenecks from developing, indicating wholesale prices will be slow to recover even as the economy improves. A lack of inflation was one reason Fed policy makers last week reiterated a pledge to keep the benchmark interest low for an “extended period.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is back in Washington.
He holds a summit today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a central figure in Obama’s strategy with the Muslim world.
Obama also meets today with former President Bill Clinton.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 7:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:10 AM Pacific, Obama holds a one-on-one meeting with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama holds an expanded meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak in the Oval Office.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama hosts a working lunch with Egyptian President Mubarak in the Cabinet Room.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama meets with former President Bill Clinton in the Situation Room.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private discussions today in and around the Capitol, much of them concerning California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis.
At noon today, he talks about water reform at a press conference called by the Latino Water Coalition on the East Steps of the Capitol.
Democratic legislators are also touting their plans on water. As it happens, I’ve seen this move for over 20 years. It always ends up as conservation vs. storage. Not conservation and storage.
Perhaps it will be different this time around …
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ‘60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a perpetually depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss. …
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. … From my August 13th column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
The female stars of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, including Germany’s National Treasure star Diane Kruger, labeled him a ladies man at the New York premiere of his latest picture, which we’ll be getting to.
** 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 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 $33 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
This is full BBC coverage of yesterday’s world championship 100-meter dash in Berlin, which resulted in one of the most astounding athletic feats in history. Commentators including former track great Michael Johnson set up the race, show it several times, and discuss the aftermath of Usain Bolt’s shattering 9.58 seconds world record performance.
** QUICK HITS.What is with these anti-Obama protesters showing up at his events with guns? Let’s see … first black president. Supposedly (according to nitwits whose nonsense is nonetheless entertained by most Republicans) not really an American citizen. Clown show principal and notorious draft-dodger Rush Limbaugh says Obama’s logo looks like a Nazi symbol. Connect the dots. … Toyota is reportedly fixing to move the San Francisco Bay Area’s Nummi auto plant to a Southern state, cheaper due to anti-labor practices. But Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial race against Jerry Brown and is frontrunner in a Bay Area congressional special election on September 1st, says the struggle is still on. … The Iraqi government is proposing to hold a referendum in January which could accelerate the US withdrawal from Iraq by a year.
** OBAMA’S ADDRESS TO THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS NATIONAL CONVENTION IN PHOENIX, EXCERPTED. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I am honored and humbled to stand before you as Commander-in-Chief of the finest military the world has ever known. And we’re joined by some of those who make it the finest force in world—from Luke Air Force Base, members of the 56th Fighter Wing. …
When communism cast its shadow across so much of the globe, you stood vigilant in a long Cold War—from an airlift in Berlin to the mountains of Korea to the jungles of Vietnam. When that Cold War ended and old hatreds emerged anew, you turned back aggression from Kuwait to Kosovo.
And long after you took off the uniform, you’ve continued to serve: supporting our troops and their families when they go to war and welcoming them when they come home; working to give our veterans the care they deserve; and when America’s heroes are laid to rest, giving every one that final fitting tribute of a grateful nation. We can never say it enough: for your service in war and in peace, thank you VFW. …
To all those who have served America—our forces, your families, our veterans—you have done your duty. You have fulfilled your responsibilities. And now a grateful nation must fulfill ours. And that is what I want to talk about today.
First, we have a solemn responsibility to always lead our men and women in uniform wisely. This starts with a vision of American leadership that recognizes that military power alone cannot be the first or only answer to the threats facing our nation.
In recent years, our troops have succeeded in every mission America has given them, from toppling the Taliban to deposing a dictator in Iraq to battling brutal insurgencies. At the same time, forces trained for war have been called upon to perform a whole host of missions. Like mayors, they’ve run local governments and delivered water and electricity. Like aid workers, they’ve mentored farmers and built new schools. Like diplomats, they’ve negotiated agreements with tribal sheikhs and local leaders.
But let us never forget. We are a country of more than 300 million Americans. Less than one percent wears the uniform. And that one percent—our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen—have borne the overwhelming burden of our security. In fact, perhaps never in American history have so few protected so many.
The responsibility for our security must not be theirs alone. That is why I have made it a priority to enlist all elements of our national power in defense of our national security—our diplomacy and development, our economic might and our moral example. Because one of the best ways to lead our troops wisely is prevent the conflicts that cost American blood and treasure tomorrow.
As President, my greatest responsibility is the security and safety of the American people. As I’ve said before, this is the first thing that I think about when I wake up in the morning. It’s the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep at night. And I will not hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests.
But as we protect America, our men and women in uniform must always be treated as what they are: America’s most precious resource. As Commander-in-Chief I have a solemn responsibility for their safety. And there is nothing more sobering than signing a letter of condolence to the family of serviceman or woman who has given their life for our country.
That is why I have made this pledge to our armed forces: I will only send you into harm’s way when it is absolutely necessary. When I do, it will be based on good intelligence and guided by a sound strategy. And I will give you a clear mission, defined goals and the equipment and support you need to get the job done.
That is our second responsibility to our armed forces—giving them the resources and equipment and strategies to meet their missions. We need to keep our military the best trained, the best-led, the best-equipped fighting force in the world. That’s why—even with our current economic challenges—my budget increases defense spending.
We will ensure that we have the force structure to meet today’s missions. That is why we’ve increased the size of the Army and Marines Corps two years ahead of schedule and have approved another temporary increase in the Army. And we’ve halted personnel reductions in the Navy and Air Force. This will give our troops more time home between deployments, which means less stress on families and more training for the next mission. And it will help us put an end, once and for all, to stop-loss for those have done their duty.
We will equip our forces with the assets and technologies they need to fight and win. So my budget funds more of the Army helicopters, crews and pilots urgently needed in Afghanistan; the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that gives our troops the advantage; the special operations forces that can deploy on a moment’s notice. And for all those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, including our National Guard and Reserve, more of the protective gear and armored vehicles that saves lives.
As we fight in two wars, we will plan responsibly, budget honestly and speak candidly about the costs and consequences of our actions. That is why I’ve made sure my budget includes the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Iraq, after more than six years of war, we took an important step forward in June. We transferred control of all cities and towns to Iraq’s security services. The transition to full Iraqi responsibility for their own security is now underway. This progress is a testament to all those who have served in Iraq, uniformed and civilian. And our nation owes these Americans—and all who have given their lives—a profound debt of gratitude.
As they take control of their destiny, Iraqis will be tested and targeted. Those who seek to sow sectarian division will attempt more senseless bombings, more killing of innocents. This we know.
But as we move forward, the Iraqi people must know that the United States will keep its commitments. And the American people must know that we will move forward with our strategy. We will begin removing our combat brigades from Iraq later this year. We will remove all our combat brigades by the end of next August. And we will remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. And for America, the Iraq war will end.
By moving forward in Iraq, we’re able to refocus on the war against al Qaeda and its extremist allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why I announced a new, comprehensive strategy in March. This strategy recognizes that al Qaeda and its allies had moved their base to the remote, tribal areas of Pakistan. This strategy acknowledges that military power alone will not win this war—that we also need diplomacy and development and good governance. And our new strategy has a clear mission and defined goals—to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies.
In the months since, we’ve begun to put this comprehensive strategy into action. And in recent weeks, we’ve seen our troops do their part. They’ve have gone into new areas—taking the fight to the Taliban in villages and towns where residents have been terrorized for years. They’re adopting new tactics, knowing that it’s not enough to kill extremists and terrorists; we also need to protect the Afghan people and improve their daily lives. And today, our troops are helping to secure polling places for this week’s election so Afghans can choose the future they want.
These new efforts have not been without a price. The fighting has been fierce. More Americans have given their lives. And as always, the thoughts and prayers of every American are with those who make the ultimate sacrifice in our defense.
As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn’t just happen overnight. And we won’t defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy.
But we must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.
Going forward, we will constantly adapt our tactics to stay ahead of the enemy and give our troops the tools and equipment they need to succeed. And at every step of the way, we will assess our efforts to defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies, and to help the Afghan and Pakistani people build the future they seek.
Even as we lead and equip our troops for the missions of today, we have a third responsibility to fulfill. We must prepare our forces for the missions of tomorrow.
Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen adapt to new challenges everyday. But as we all know, much of our defense establishment has yet to fully adapt to the post-Cold War world, with doctrine and weapons better suited to fight the Soviets on the plains of Europe than insurgents in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. Twenty years after the Cold War ended, this is not simply unacceptable. It is irresponsible. And our troops and taxpayers deserve better.
That is why our defense review is taking a top-to-bottom look at our priorities and posture, questioning conventional wisdom, rethinking old dogmas and challenging the status quo. We’re asking hard questions about the forces we need and the weapons we buy. And when we’re finished, we’ll have a new blueprint for the 21st century military we need. In fact, we’re already on our way.
We’re adopting new concepts—because the full spectrum of challenges demands a full range of military capabilities—the conventional and the unconventional, the ablilty to defeat both the armored division and the lone suicide bomber; the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and the Improvised Explosive Device; 18th-century-style piracy and 21st century cyber threats. No matter the mission, we must maintain America’s military dominance.
So even as we modernize our conventional forces, we’re investing in the capabilities that will reorient our force of the future: an Army that is more mobile and expeditionary and missile defenses that protect our troops in the field; a Navy that not only projects power across the oceans but operates nimbly in shallow, coastal waters; an Air Force that dominates the airspace with next-generation aircraft—manned and unmanned; a Marine Corps that can move ashore more rapidly in more places. And across the force, we’re investing in new skills and specialties. Because in the 21st century, military strength will be measured not only by the weapons our troops carry, but by the languages they speak and the cultures they understand.
But here’s the simple truth. We can’t build the 21st century military we need—and maintain the fiscal responsibility that Americans demand—unless we fundamentally reform the way our defense establishment does business. It’s a simple fact. Every dollar wasted in our defense budget is a dollar we can’t spend to care for our troops, protect America or prepare for the future. …
This isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s about giving our troops the support they need. And that’s something on which all Americans can agree. So I’m glad that I have a partner in this effort in a great veteran, a great Arizonan, and a great American who has shown the courage to stand and fight this waste—Senator John McCain. And I’m proud to have Secretary of Defense Robert Gates—who has served under eight presidents of both parties—leading this fight at the Pentagon.
Already, I’ve put an end to unnecessary no-bid contracts. I signed bipartisan legislation to reform defense procurement so weapons systems don’t spin out of control. And even as we increase spending on the equipment and weapons our troops do need, we have proposed cutting tens of billions of dollars in waste we don’t need.
Think about it. Hundreds of millions of dollars for an alternate second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter—when one reliable engine will do just fine. Nearly two billion dollars to buy more F-22 fighter jets when we can move ahead with a fleet of newer, more affordable aircraft. Tens of billions of dollars to put an anti-missile laser on a fleet of vulnerable 747s.
And billions of dollars for a new presidential helicopter. Maybe you heard about this. Among other capabilities, it would let me cook a meal while under nuclear attack. I’ll tell you something. If the United States of America is under nuclear attack, the last thing on my mind will be whipping up a snack.
It’s simple enough. Cut the waste. Save taxpayer dollars. Support the troops. But we all know how Washington works. The special interests, contractors and entrenched lobbyists are invested in the status quo. And they’re putting up a fight.
But make no mistake, so are we. If a project doesn’t support our troops, we will not fund it. If a system doesn’t perform, we will terminate it. And if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with that kind of waste, I will veto it. We will do right by our troops and taxpayers. We will build the 21st century military we need.
Finally, we will fulfill our responsibility to those who serve by keeping our promises to our people.
We will fulfill our responsibility to our forces and families. That is why we’re increasing military pay, building better family housing and funding more childcare and counseling to help families cope with the stresses of war. And we’ve changed the rules so military spouses can better compete for federal jobs and pursue their careers.
We will fulfill our responsibility to our wounded warriors. For those still in uniform, we’re investing billions of dollars for more treatment centers, more case managers and better medical care so our troops can recover and return to where they want to be—with their units.
But for so many veterans the war rages on—the flashbacks that won’t go away, the loved ones who now seem like strangers, the heavy darkness of depression that has led too many of our troops to take their own lives. Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury are the defining injuries of today’s wars. So caring for those affected by them is a defining purpose of my budget—billions of dollars for more treatment and mental health screening to reach our troops on the frontlines and more mobile and rural clinics to reach veterans back home. We will not abandon these American heroes.
We will fulfill our responsibility to our veterans as they return to civilian life. I was proud to co-sponsor the Post-9/11 GI Bill as a senator. Thanks to VFW members across the country—and leaders like Arizona’s Harry Mitchell in Congress—it’s now the law of the land. And as President, I’m committed to seeing that it is successfully implemented. …
Whether you left the service in 2009 or 1949, we will fulfill our responsibility to deliver the benefits and care that you earned. That’s why I’ve pledged to build nothing less than a 21st-century VA. And I picked a lifelong soldier and a wounded warrior from Vietnam to lead this fight—General Ric Shinseki.
We’re dramatically increasing funding for veterans health care. This includes hundreds of millions of dollars to serve veterans in rural areas as well as the unique needs of our growing number of women veterans. We’re restoring access to VA health care for a half-million veterans who lost their eligibility in recent years—our Priority 8 veterans.
And since there’s been so much misinformation out there about health insurance reform, let me say this. One thing that reform won’t change is veterans health care. No one is going to take away your benefits. That’s the truth. …
Taken together, these investments represent an historic increase in our commitment to America’s veterans—a 15 percent increase over last year’s funding levels and the largest increase in the VA budget in more than 30 years. And over the next five years we’ll invest another $25 billion more.
These are major investments, and these are difficult times. Fiscal discipline demands that we make hard decisions—sacrificing certain things we cannot afford. But let me be clear. America’s commitments to its veterans are not just lines in a budget. They are bonds that are sacrosanct—a sacred trust we are honor bound to uphold. And we will.
These are the commitments we make to the patriots who serve—from the day they enlist to the day they are laid to rest. Patriots like you. Patriots like Jim Norene.
His story is his own, but in it we see the larger story of all who serve. A child of the Depression who grew up to join that greatest generation. A paratrooper in the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne. Jumping in a daring daylight raid into Holland to liberate a captive people. Rushing to Bastogne at the Battle of the Bulge where his commanding general—surrounded by the Germans and asked to surrender—declared, famously, “Nuts.”
For his bravery, Jim was awarded the Bronze Star. But like so many others, he rarely spoke of what he did or what he saw—reminding us that true love of country is not boisterous or loud but, rather, the “tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
He returned home and built a life. Went to school on the GI Bill. Got married. Raised a family in his small Oregon farming town. And every Veterans Day, year after year, he visited schoolchildren to speak about the meaning of service. And he did it all as a proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Then, this spring, Jim made a decision. He would return to Europe once more. Eighty-five years old, frail and gravely ill, he knew he might not make it back home. But like the paratrooper he always was, he was determined.
Near Bastogne, he returned to the places he knew so well. At a Dutch town liberated by our GIs, schoolchildren lined the sidewalks and sang The Star-Spangled Banner. And in the quiet clearing of an American cemetery, he walked among those perfect lines of white crosses of fellow soldiers who had fallen long ago, their names forever etched in stone.
Then—back where he had served 65 years before—Jim Norene passed away. At night. In his sleep. Quietly. Peacefully. The “tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
The next day, I was privileged to join the commemoration at Normandy to mark that day when the beaches were stormed and a continent was freed. There were presidents and prime ministers and veterans from the far corners of the earth. But long after the bands stopped playing and the crowds stopped cheering, it was the story of a departed VFW member that echoed in our hearts.
Veterans of Foreign Wars, you have done your duty—to your fallen comrades, to your communities, to your country. You’ve always fulfilled your responsibilities to America. And so long as I am President, America will always fulfill its responsibilities to you.
Usain Bolt shattered his own world record in the 100-meter dash yesterday at the world championships in Berlin. The Jamaican phenom, not quite 23, ran it in 9.58 seconds, breaking his own 9.69 record set a year earlier at the Olympics in Beijing. It’s the biggest advance in the record ever. American Tyson Gay, breaking his own US record, ran 9.71 to become the second fastest human in history.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A mid-August week ahead in presidential and California politics.
President Barack Obama wraps up his Western tour today with a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix, then returns to Washington.
He’ll meet this week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key figure in the Middle East peace process and in anti-jihadist efforts. That’s a key reason why Cairo was chosen as the stage for Obama’s big June address heralding “a new beginning” in America’s relationship with the Muslim world.
Afghanistan’s presidential election is this week, on August 20th. Some elements of the Taliban have been amenable to the elections, while the organization’s central command has not, threatening to cut off the dyed fingers of Afghans, sign that they have voted. Despite threats, the run-up to the election has been relatively uneventful, perhaps due in large part to US Marine offensives against Taliban strongholds.
Obama is also coming to a decision point about his universal health care plan. We’ve all become all too familiar with the irrational claims from the far right about supposed “death panels” to do away with senior citizens. But a larger question concerns the fate of the so-called “public option,” which would allow Americans to choose a government-run health insurance plan over private insurance.
Its fate is unclear, with some signs from the Obama Administration that it is getting ready to concede the point.
Incidentally, the fact that it is so difficult, with big Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and a sympathetic president in the White House, to establish true national health care as a mere option should be a firm wake-up call for activists who were so insistent about the ease of establishing a single-payer program in California, as well as nationwide.
With the US economy slowly but surely improving, Obama’s hand should be strengthened on this and other matters, no matter the atmospherics of various congressional town halls, some of which are besieged by political kamikazes from the far right hysterically bent on terminating Obama’s political persona.
A few good signs for Obama on the geopolitical front. Israel’s ambassador said over the weekend that Israel will not attack Iran in the foreseeable future in effort to forestall any nuclear weapons program. The foreseeable future being for the rest of the year. Most reports have it that Iran is several years away from having an actual nuclear weapon, if in fact that is its aim.
And Pakistan, where a US missile killed the leader of the principal Pakistani Taliban organization, there is serious infighting going on surrounding his replacement. That’s infighting as in actual fighting, with as many as 20 key Taliban cadre killed so far.
Back to more typical political infighting, in California, the Legislature returns from its summer recess this week.
This has been a very bad year for the California Legislature, which has produced two state budgets so far that don’t actually solve the state’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis. Now the leader of the state Senate, Darrell Steinberg, in a move which this weekend drew the scorn of his hometown paper, the liberal Sacramento Bee, is suing to try to block Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line item vetoes of enough funding to, at least briefly, create a balanced budget.
Other issues will be dealt with, in the usual madcap dash to the supposed legislative finish line of September 11th. And to the extent that they’re actually significant, and many of them are not, I’ll cover them.
By the way, with the state budget continuing to teeter, and a state tax reform commission expected to deliver some recommendations next month, don’t expect that September 11th date to hold up.
The Obamas spent most of Sunday visiting the Grand Canyon.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama finishes his Western tour today.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
He will discuss the progress of US efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, the Obamas depart Phoenix on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 4:20 PM Pacific, the Obamas land at Andrews Air Force Base, where they embark on Marine One.
At 4:35 PM Pacific, the Obamas land on the South Lawn of the White House.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private discussions today in and around the Capitol.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger is pleased that the threatened BART strike was averted last night. A shutdown of the Bay Area Rapid Transit district would have semi-paralyzed the San Francisco Bay Area.
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ‘60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a perpetually depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss. …
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. … From my August 13th column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far? … From my August 5th 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 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 $32 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
President Barack Obama talked about insurance industry opposition and far right distortions on health care reform in his Saturday town hall in Grand Junction, Colorado.
OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in the West today.
Obama, along with First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, is touring Grand Canyon National Park throughout the day.
The Obamas will spend the night in Phoenix, Arizona.
FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger journeys today from Los Angeles to Pebble Beach.
This afternoon, Schwarzenegger will deliver remarks at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on the 18th Fairway at Pebble Beach. This is one of the premiere shows for classic and concept cars, a real treat for Schwarzenegger, a great car enthusiast.
This will undoubtedly be more pleasant than another transportation-related happening which he is monitoring. That’s the looming BART strike, which could semi-paralyze the San Francisco Bay Area. The public employee union representing Bay Area Rapid Transit District workers doesn’t like the deal on the table and could go on strike Sunday night.
Mad Men, the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winner for best television drama, returns for its third season on Sunday night.
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ‘60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a perpetually depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss. …
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama criticizes the insurance companies and says that the cable news “ruckus” on health care obscures the reality that most congressional town halls around the country are having normal discussions, not disruptions.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is on the road this weekend, visiting Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon in between promoting health care reform, or perhaps vice versa.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama tour Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, the Obamas depart West Yellowstone, Montana on Air Force One en route to Grand Junction, Colorado.
At 2:40 PM Pacific, the Obamas arrive in Grand Junction, Colorado.
At 3:25 PM Pacific, Obama holds a town hall on health insurance reform at Central High School in Grand Junction, Colorado.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, the Obamas depart Grand Junction, Colorado on Air Force One en route to Phoenix, Arizona.
At 5:10 PM Pacific, the Obamas arrive in Phoenix.
Industrial production in the US increased 0.5% in July, the first monthly increase since December 2007. (That’s not counting a brief spurt related to hurricane damage last October.) Manufacturing production increased 1.0% in July due to an increase in car production.
The consumer price index remained unchanged, indicating that there is no inflation in the US economy.
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai’s brother says that Taliban commanders have agreed not to target the August 20th presidential election. But that’s disputed by an official Taliban spokesman.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics and sister of the late John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, was honored in a funeral service yesterday in Hyannis, Massachusetts at St. Francis Xavier Church, where Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger were married.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to California from Massachusetts last night.
This morning he tours the Lockheed fire in the Santa Cruz area, one of a number burning around the state, and is briefed in on the fire situation.
At 10 AM, Schwarzenegger will discuss the fire situation at the fire command post at the Watsonville Fairgrounds in Watsonville.
Schwarzenegger previously on May 5th issued an executive order to deploy firefighting resources as needed in the state’s looming fire season. While he was back East for his mother-in-law’s funeral, Acting Governor John Garamendi declared a state of emergency in Santa Cruz County.
First Lady Maria Shriver remains in Hyannisport attending to family matters.
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. … From my August 13th column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far? … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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 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, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $67.51 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $34 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
President Barack Obama tried to bring some order to the increasingly chaotic health care “debate” at a town hall today in Montana.
** OBAMA DECRIES SENSATIONALISM ON HEALTH CARE REFORM. From President Obama’s remarks today in Montana:
“The fact is, health care touches all of our lives in a profound way. So it is only natural that this debate is an emotional one. And I know there’s been a lot of attention paid to some of the town hall meetings that are going on around the country – especially those where tempers have flared. You know how TV loves a ruckus.
“But what you haven’t seen – and what makes me proud – are the many constructive meetings going on all over the country. Earlier this week, I held a town hall in New Hampshire. A few thousand people showed up. Some were big supporters of health insurance reform. Some had concerns and questions. And some were downright skeptical. But I was glad to see that people weren’t there to shout. They were there to listen. And I think that reflects the American people far more than what we’ve seen covered on television these past few days. And I thank you for coming here today in that spirit. …”
** MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ’60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.The much acclaimed, if not so much watched, Mad Men makes a welcome return for its third season Sunday night. I’ve found the series, now the flagship show on AMC, a channel once best known as a reliable source for late night viewings of Commando, to be very compelling from the beginning, if not exactly action-packed.
There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early ’60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity. Or as an evocation of style, with the sort of glamour and cool associated with JFK and the early Bond films, in this case a New York variant including chain smoking, constant drinking, and sexual play continually tinged with sexual harassment.
It’s a character study, as well, for the surface glitter of the persuader class and those who attend them masks confusion and lack of identity. That could also make it a cautionary tale, albeit one set during the height of the post-war expansion of American affluence.
Which makes it, in turn, a meditation on the American Dream. Not entirely unlike The Sopranos, on which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner served as an Emmy-winning writer and producer. Well, except for the fact that Mad Men protagonist/anti-hero Don Draper is a charismatic and enigmatic New York ad man, not a depressed, poetically crude New Jersey mob boss and murderer. … From my new essay.
California First Lady Maria Shriver eulogized her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, at a funeral service this morning in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The church, St. Francis Xavier, is the one in which she and Arnold Schwarzenegger were married.
The church, incidentally, is the one in which Schwarzenegger and Shriver were married 23 years ago.
She was scary smart and not afraid to show it,” Maria Shriver said of her mother, who died Tuesday at age 88. “If she were here today … she would pound this podium … and ask each of you what you have done today to better the world.”
The Special Olympics torch led a procession for Shriver past thousands of onlookers who lined the streets outside St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church as friends, family and athletes from the movement she founded in 1968 gathered for the private service.
Shriver’s only living brother, Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer, did not attend the funeral. …
Standing with her four brothers during her eulogy, Maria Shriver said her “Mummy” liked to hang with the guys, but all her heroes — except her brother, Jack — were women. She said she was grateful her mother’s life and work were getting so much attention, and that young women in particular saw a role model who never conformed to what society might have wanted.
“Mummy wore men’s pants, smoked Cuban cigars and she played tackle football,” she said. “Our mother never rested, she never stopped. She was momentum on wheels.”
Loretta Claiborne, a former Special Olympics athlete and longtime friend of Shriver’s, delivered welcoming remarks at the service, also attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Shriver’s husband, R. Sargent Shriver, the 1972 Democratic vice presidential nominee who has Alzheimer’s disease, also was at the service. Maria Shriver said her father never minded when her mother’s hair was unkempt or she beat him in a game of tennis.
“He let her rip and he let her roar, and he loved everything about her,” she said.
The crowds of people outside, including residents, tourists and Special Olympians, were largely silent for the procession as the church bell rang and a lone bagpipe whined. After the Mass, many in the crowd clapped as family members carried the casket out of the church while others snapped photos.
She was buried at the St. Francis Xavier parish cemetery in nearby Centerville after a brief private graveside service.
I met Eunice Kennedy Shriver on several occasions. She was a great character, a person of tremendous verve and intelligence. She was also a great supporter of Schwarzenegger, who at the beginning of his relationship with Maria Shriver sought to charm her by telling her: “Your daughter has a great ass.”
Which certainly goes down in the annals of how to win over one’s future mother-in-law.
I especially remember Eunice accompanying Arnold and Maria to African American churches in Los Angeles as the governor campaigned toward his landslide re-election in 2006. Her enthusiastic dancing and singing belied her advancing illness. And she was especially exuberant at Schwarzenegger’s election night at the Beverly Hilton, which I captured on video at the time.
This founder of Special Olympics and sister of the late JFK and RFK leaves behind a legacy of enormous good works and goodwill. As former Senator Gary Hart, who knew her through his friendship with Ted Kennedy and his management of the McGovern-Shriver campaign, said to me after she died, the Catholic Church surely should recognize Eunice Kennedy Shriver with sainthood.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. I saw the movie.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … MAD MEN RETURNS: THE ’60S ADVERTISING DRAMA IS A TIME TUNNEL TO THE PRESENT.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is on the road today, tomorrow, and Sunday selling health care reform in the West.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 7 AM Pacific, he meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 7:40 AM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 7:55 AM Pacific, the Obamas depart Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Belgrade, Montana.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, the Obamas arrive in Belgrade, Montana.
At 11:55 AM Pacific, Obama holds a town hall on health insurance reform at Gallatin Field Hangar ER-2 in Belgrade, Montana.
Vice President Joe Biden is in Massachusetts today for the funeral of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics and sister of the late John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.
At 7 AM Pacific, Biden attends the funeral mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
The US Consumer Price Index is flat, revealing that there is no inflation as a result of ramped-up federal spending to stimulate the economy.
The late Eunice Kennedy Shriver was celebrated yesterday in a public wake at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver participated.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Massachusetts today with First Lady Maria Shriver.
His mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early Tuesday morning at Cape Cod Hospital. Schwarzenegger had been near her for most of the past week. A private wake was held on Tuesday night in Hyannisport.
A public wake was held yesterday in Centerville, Massachusetts.
At 7 AM Pacific, Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver attend the funeral mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
The private burial will occur after, and various private events with the Kennedys and Shrivers will ensue.
I don’t know if Eunice’s surviving brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, who has himself been ailing from brain cancer and was not able to receive his Medal of Freedom at the White House from President Barack Obama (sending daughter Kara in his stead), will be able to attend the funeral mass.
Hyannis and Centerville, like Hyannisport, site of the Kennedy family homestead, are small towns in the Barnstable area of coastal Massachuestts.
Special Olympics, which Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded, will also hold a memorial for her on Friday outside the California State Capitol.
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. … From my new column.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far? … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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 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 $37 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
U.S. Marines are moving against Taliban positions around Dahaneh in southern Afghanistan. The Afghan presidential election is one week from today.
** EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER’S WAKE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. The public wake for the founder of Special Olympics and sister of JFK and RFK is underway. California First Lady Maria Shriver and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are greeting well-wishers at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Centerville, Massachusetts.
“It was so warm and friendly and open,” said Barbara Johnson, 62, a nursing director at a center for disabled adults who came from Woburn because of Shriver’s work on behalf of the mentally retarded. “I shook hands with every member of that family and they appreciated us, which was so welcoming.”
Other extended members of the Kennedy clan sat in pews near the altar and spoke quietly among themselves, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, who is married to Maria Shriver. Senator Edward M. Kennedy was notably absent from the wake. He attended a private family Mass at the Shriver home on Tuesday night, but was not expected to come today to the church. There is no word yet on whether the senator, who is battling brain cancer, will attend Friday’s funeral.
Photographs from Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s life rested on easels at the edge of the chapel, showing images from her wedding, her work with the Special Olympics, life in Hyannis Port, and her campaigning for Adlai Stevenson when he ran for president in the 1950s. One family portrait showed Shriver clutching a football with her high school-aged brother, Teddy, crouched at her feet holding a football of his own.
** A RISING DARK HORSE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE … Writing today in the Daily Beast, Mark McKinnon, former senior media consultant to George W. Bush and John McCain, says that former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum should be taken very seriously and that he is “dangerous.”
A Rick Santorum presidency would be very, very dangerous for America. …
Santorum is a strong neoconservative who represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and the Senate over a 16-year period and rose to the No. 3 leadership position among Republicans.
Santorum once grouped gay sex with incest, polygamy, and bestiality, and he believes consenting adults have no constitutional right to privacy when it comes to sexual behavior. He is a strong supporter of teaching intelligent design. He is anti-gay, anti-immigrant—supporting the most extreme anti-immigrant legislative proposals though he is the son of an Italian immigrant father—antiabortion, and anti-anything that smacks of progressive thinking, centrism, bipartisanship, or moderation in the Republican Party.
Santorum was one of only two senators who voted against Robert Gates to be secretary of Defense because Gates advocated talking to Iran and Syria, which Santorum said would be talking to “radical Islam” and would be a grievous error. …
I’m a pretty tolerant guy, but beyond his ideology, some of Santorum’s behavior is just a little bizarre. For example, Santorum has six children. In 1996, he had son born prematurely who lived for only two hours. He and wife brought the child home and introduced the dead infant to the rest of their children as “your brother Gabriel” and slept with the body overnight.
Despite his actions and extreme ideology, and the fact that he was defeated in his bid for re-election by the widest margin of any incumbent senator since 1980, Rick Santorum should be taken seriously. He is articulate, focused, and a tenacious campaigner. And ideological conservatives love him. His base will be narrow but passionate. They will mobilize and they will vote. Especially in early primary states like Iowa and South Carolina.
And that means there’s one word that should come to mind when thinking about a Rick Santorum presidential candidacy: dangerous.
** CALIFORNIA TO STOP ISSUING I.O.U.S. California state Controller John Chiang said today that, having gone through the new state budget and with Treasurer Bill Lockyer having secured new financing, his office will stop issuing IOUs on September 4th.
** SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM. Is it a long-term problem for Republicans that they are largely diametrically opposed to the first black president and first brown Supreme Court justice? You bet.
What struck me while watching yesterday’s White House reception for President Barack Obama’s first apppointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is how far out of synch with the future of America that the Republican Party is positioning itself. Lily white is hardly the color of America’s future, but that is how the Republican Party has chosen to play it (notwithstanding the hapless Michael Steele at the Republican National Committee).
First, the party brushed aside the post-partisan offerings of Obama, keeping to the same hyper-partisan hostilities of the 2008 election. Then it turned on Sotomayor, who was actually appointed a federal judge by none other than the first President Bush, branding her a “racist,” pounding away for months on the theme that she’s a dangerous radical. …
President Barack Obama bestowed the Medal of Freedom on 16 individuals yesterday at a White House ceremony. Honorees are Nancy Goodman Brinker, Pedro José Greer, Jr., Jack Kemp, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Stephen Hawking, Billie Jean King, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, Harvey Milk, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sidney Poitier, Chita Rivera, Dr. Janet Davison Rowley, Mary Robinson, Desmond Tutu, and Muhammad Yunus.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings and is meeting with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
As I’ve written, Obama has been getting over-exposed. He’s pulling back a bit from the constant spotlight.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Massachusetts today with First Lady Maria Shriver.
His mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early Tuesday morning at Cape Cod Hospital. Schwarzenegger had been near her for most of the past week. A private wake was held on Tuesday night in Hyannisport.
Her surviving brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, who has himself been ailing from brain cancer and was not able to receive his Medal of Freedom yesterday at the White House from President Barack Obama (sending daughter Kara in his stead), was in attendance.
There will be a public wake this afternoon at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centreville, Massachusetts.
On Friday, Eunice will be honored by a funeral service at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts. (Centreville and Hyannis, like Hyannisport, are small towns in the Barnstable area of coastal Massachuestts.) Special Olympics, which she founded, will also hold a memorial for her on Friday outside the California State Capitol.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. … From my August 11th column.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far? … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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.
On this day in history, the Berlin Wall was begun, Fidel Castro and Alfred Hitchcock were born, and Spain’s Hernando Cortez captured what is now Mexico City.
** 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 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 $37 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
President Barack Obama celebrated the rise of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court this morning at a reception in the East Room of the White House.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … SOTOMAYOR, OBAMA, AND THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN RACE PROBLEM.
** QUICK HITS. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of John and Robert Kennedy and mother-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be honored at a public wake tomorrow afternoon at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centreville, Massachusetts. On Friday, she will have a funeral service at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts. (Centreville and Hyannis are small towns in the Barnstable area of coastal Massachuestts.) Special Olympics will also hold a memorial for her that day outside the California State Capitol. … San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is trying to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, today announced that his various appointees to local office have endorsed him. … General Electric, corporate parent of NBC News and MSNBC, this afternoon denied a report by Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly that it supplies gear used in terrorist bombs in the Middle East. … Say what? … And that’s the way it is …
** FEDERAL RESERVE SEES NEW SIGNS OF STABILITY. This is the Federal Open Market Committee statement following its August policy meeting:
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests that economic activity is leveling out. Conditions in financial markets have improved further in recent weeks. Household spending has continued to show signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, sluggish income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Businesses are still cutting back on fixed investment and staffing but are making progress in bringing inventory stocks into better alignment with sales. Although economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time, the Committee continues to anticipate that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, fiscal and monetary stimulus, and market forces will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth in a context of price stability.
The prices of energy and other commodities have risen of late. However, substantial resource slack is likely to dampen cost pressures, and the Committee expects that inflation will remain subdued for some time.
In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability. The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. As previously announced, to provide support to mortgage lending and housing markets and to improve overall conditions in private credit markets, the Federal Reserve will purchase a total of up to $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and up to $200 billion of agency debt by the end of the year. In addition, the Federal Reserve is in the process of buying $300 billion of Treasury securities. To promote a smooth transition in markets as these purchases of Treasury securities are completed, the Committee has decided to gradually slow the pace of these transactions and anticipates that the full amount will be purchased by the end of October. The Committee will continue to evaluate the timing and overall amounts of its purchases of securities in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets. The Federal Reserve is monitoring the size and composition of its balance sheet and will make adjustments to its credit and liquidity programs as warranted.
** BIG GAY RIGHTS ORGANIZATION SAYS 2012, NOT 2010, TO REVERSE PROP8. Equality California, a leading LGBT rights organization, announced in a conference call late this morning that it will go to the ballot in 2012 to reverse the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban enacted last fall.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 7 AM Pacific, Obama hosted a reception in the East Room of the White House honoring Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to serve on the US Supreme Court.
At 12:10 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the Medal of Freedom ceremony in the East Room.
Obama will present the Medal of Freedom to 16 individuals, some posthumously. The Medal of Freedom is America’s highest civilian award, and is roughly commensurate with a knighthood.
This year’s honorees are the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (assassinated in 1978), the late former Housing Secretary and Congressman Jack Kemp, Senator Ted Kennedy, tennis great Billie Jean King, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Archbiship Desmond Tutu, movie icon Sidney Poitier, physicist Stephen Hawking, breast cancer survivors advocate Nancy Brinker, Dr. Pedro Jose Greer, Plains Indian chief Joe Medicine Crow, Tony Award-winner Chita Rivera, Dr. Janet Davison Rowley, Nobel Prize-winning economist and “micro-loans” pioneer Muhammad Yunus, and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
Senator Kennedy, battling brain cancer, is too ill to attend the ceremony. He also missed last week’s vote to confirm Sotomayor.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Massachusetts today.
His mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early yesterday morning at Cape Cod Hospital. Schwarzenegger had been near her for most of the past week.
The family is planning a wake in her honor tomorrow in Centreville, Massachusetts.
A private wake was held last night.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. …
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far? … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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.
The Arctic polar ice cap is receding this summer to near record levels.
** 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 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 $36 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
At his town hall today in former swing state New Hampshire, President Barack Obama sought to dispel hysteria and myths around health care reform and decried government and insurance company bureaucrats alike.
** NEVADA: REID LOSES ANOTHER REPUBLICAN OPPONENT. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t all that popular in home state Nevada, but the Republicans continue to have major problems finding a serious challenger in the 2010 elections.
Heller, unopposed for the seat in Congress after an announced Democratic challenger ended her bid, raised $166,442 last quarter. He reported having $255,000 cash on hand.
He would have had a lot of catching up to do to get anywhere close to Reid. The Democratic senator has raised more than $7 million as he seeks re-election to a fifth term and has a goal of raising $25 million. Still, Reid’s low poll ratings back home make GOP leaders think he’s vulnerable.
The mess around Nevada Senator John Ensign, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee until it emerged that he had paid off the family of his former mistress — a former top aide married to a former top aide — is believed to be another factor constraining Nevada Republicans in trying to take on Reid.
President Barack Obama took the Silver State out of the Republican presidential column last year, and continues to be popular there.
** NORTH CAROLINA POLL: MOST REPUBLICANS THINK OBAMA ISN’T REALLY AN AMERICAN. More confirmation that the “birther” nonsense is mainstream thinking for Republicans today, especially in the South. A new Public Policy Polling survey shows that only 54% of North Carolina voters say with certainty that they believe President Barack Obama was born in the United States, with 26% saying they think he was not, and 20% unsure. Amongst Republicans, 47% think Obama was not born in America, with 29% unsure, and just 24% stating that they think he was.
** OBAMA MELLOWS OUT THE HEALTH CARE CIRCUS. Appearing today at a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Barack Obama sought to dispel myths around health care reform and move his agenda forward. Which is actually happening, though it’s not so clear when you pay too much attention to the hourly news cycle.
Saying he likes “vigorous debate” but wants people to talk “with each other and not over each other,” Obama said: “I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling. But I also don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling,”
Despite promises to the contrary, there were no real disrupters on hand, either inside or outside the Obama town hall, though one Obama critic was held up for bringing a gun.
A young girl lamented the “mean things” being said about health care reform, and wonders how people can learn the truth. Obama blasted the idea that the legislation authorizes “death panels” that can authorize euthanasia of old people — “I am not in favor of that,” he says mockingly. He added that the bill only calls for information about end of life issues, and does not allow “rationing” of care for the elderly. And he noted that the insurance companies are already “rationing care.” Acknowledges “fear” of change, but calls it unfounded.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, discussed in this video by Nelson Mandela, Maria Shriver, and Ted Kennedy, passed away early this morning. The founder of Special Olympics and sister of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy was attended by her family, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
** ON EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER’S PASSING.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Michelle and I were deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Eunice was many things to many people: a mother who inspired her children to serve others; a wife who supported her husband Sargent in the Peace Corps and in politics; and a sister to her siblings, including brothers John, Robert, and Edward. But above all, she will be remembered as the founder of the Special Olympics, as a champion for people with intellectual disabilities, and as an extraordinary woman who, as much as anyone, taught our nation – and our world – that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit. Her leadership greatly enriched the lives of Special Olympians throughout the world, who have experienced the pride and joy of competition and achievement thanks to her vision. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sargent; their children Robert, Maria, Timothy, Mark, and Anthony; and the entire Kennedy family.
SENATOR TED KENNEDY: Eunice is now with God in heaven. My sister Jean and I, and our entire family, will miss her with all our hearts. I know that our parents and brothers and sisters who have gone before are filled with joy to have her by their side again.My earliest memory of Eunice is of a young girl with great humor, sharp wit, and a boundless passion to make a difference. She understood deeply the lesson our mother and father taught us — much is expected of those to whom much has been given. Throughout her extraordinary life, she touched the lives of millions, and for Eunice that was never enough.
The seeds of compassion and hope she planted decades ago in her backyard summer camp were inspired by her love for our sister Rosemary. Over the years, she grew those seeds into a worldwide movement that has given persons with disabilities everywhere the opportunity to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. We would never have had an Americans with Disabilities Act without her.
Though the Special Olympics will be her enduring monument, in our family she’ll be remembered as a loyal and loving sister, a treasured wife to Sarge, and a wonderful mother and grandmother. We will miss her deeply and we will always love her and cherish the beautiful memories of our years together. She was blessed with a long life, but for us that time was still too short.
THE SHRIVER FAMILY: It’s hard for us to believe: the amazing Eunice Kennedy Shriver went home to God this morning at 2 a.m.
She was the light of our lives, a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt who taught us by example and with passion what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to others. For each of us, she often seemed to stop time itself – to run another Special Olympics games, to visit us in our homes, to attend to her own mother, her sisters and brothers, and to sail, tell stories, and laugh and serve her friends. How did she do it all?
Inspired by her love of God, her devotion to her family, and her relentless belief in the dignity and worth of every human life, she worked without ceasing – searching, pushing, demanding, hoping for change. She was a living prayer, a living advocate, a living center of power. She set out to change the world and to change us, and she did that and more. She founded the movement that became Special Olympics, the largest movement for acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in the history of the world. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy.
We have always been honored to share our mother with people of good will the world over who believe, as she did, that there is no limit to the human spirit. At this time of loss, we feel overwhelmed by the gifts of prayer and support poured out to us from so many who loved her. We are together in our belief that she is now in heaven, rejoicing with her family, enjoying the fruits of her faith, and still urging us onward to the challenges ahead. Her love will inspire us to faith and service always.
She was forever devoted to the Blessed Mother. May she be welcomed now by Mary to the joy and love of life everlasting, in the certain truth that her love and spirit will live forever.
** WHEN SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES TRY TO REVERSE CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8? When should Californians try to reverse last November’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage? That’s the question on tap this week, and for awhile going forward.
While Barack Obama won a 61% to 37% victory in California last November, the Prop 8 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also passed, 52% to 48%. It was a striking rebuke to pro-gay rights forces, who had just won the right in a notable California Supreme Court decision, and seemed poised to hold it in the election.
This week, a few organizations championing same-sex marriage will announce their opinions as to to whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. In order to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot, initiative language must be submitted to California Attorney General Jerry Brown by September 25th. Equality California and Courage Campaign will announce their decisions this week. This won’t end the process, of course, as key funding decisions are yet to be made.
So, the question for human rights advocates is, when best to try again, the seeming slam dunk of 2008 having been screwed up in various ways.
California’s same-sex marriage advocates have heard from their pollsters, they’ve heard from selected political consultants, and they’ve heard from activists. Now they need to decide whether to try to reverse Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment adopted last November, in 2010 or in 2012.
The pollsters said that 2012 would be a better option. The political consultants said that 2012 would be a better option. The activist leaders prefer 2010.
If there is to be an initiative to bring back the right to same-sex marriage — established by the California Supreme Court last year and overturned by California voters last November — ballot language is due by September 25th. …
White House Domestic Policy Council chief Melody Barnes debunks the myth that President Barack Obama’s health care reform would force euthanasia for senior citizens.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama, back from the North American summit in Guadalajara, heads to New Hampshire today to promote health care reform.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 7:30 AM Pacific, he meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:15 AM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
At 9:40 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama holds a town hall on health insurance reform at Portsmouth High School.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama departs Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, where he embarks on Marine One.
At 1:50 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of Defense Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Massachusetts today.
His mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early this morning at Cape Cod Hospital. Schwarzenegger had been near her for most of the past week.
Schwarzenegger made this statement not long after her passing: “I am immensely saddened by the passing of my mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“Eunice was the light of our family. She meant so much, not only to us, but to our country and to the world. She was a pioneer who worked tirelessly for social and scientific advances that have changed the lives of millions of developmentally disabled people all over the world.
“Inspired by her faith in God and her love of her sister, Rosemary, she was on a life-long mission to expand opportunities for those with intellectual challenges and to prove that they are capable of great achievements.
“Apart from her family, her greatest legacy is the Special Olympics, which started as a summer camp in her backyard in 1962, and has grown into a global movement and organization that has transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
“Eunice was the devoted mother of five children, including my dear wife, Maria. My mother-in-law changed my life by raising such a fantastic daughter, and by putting me on the path to service, starting with drafting me as a coach for the Special Olympics. I will miss her every day, but I know her spirit endures through her amazing children and grandchildren, and through the many lives she changed.”
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far?
Well, it seems, but with a couple of big question mark items, both beginning with the letter “I,” one of them highlighted by the inauguration today in Tehran of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second four-year term in office.
The controversy and furor over Ahmadinejad’s re-election, especially the Iranian regime’s violent response to protests following the election, has stymied a key element of Obama’s strategy of engagement. Not that we’ve ended up with different people in power there than we should have expected, nor people acting any differently than we should have expected them to act. More about that in a moment. … From my August 5th column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that.
In part because he is such a talented speaker. He’s the big gun that Team Obama keeps firing when it’s in harm’s way. Which it almost always is, having inherited the biggest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, a growing environmental crisis, and geopolitical crises around the globe. Not to mention a hyper-partisan political environment and a semi-functional media culture.
The question takes on some urgency for Obama with his “hurry up offense” coming up short on universal health care.
With Obama having dipped in the polls, though still very healthy in the mid-50s in job approval despite multiple crises, it’s a good moment to rethink one’s drink, so to speak.
There’s no question that, in this fragmented media culture marked by an acute attention deficit disorder, Obama is the prime driver of news. But that doesn’t mean he has to do it himself. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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 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 $36 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is in grave condition at a Massachusetts hospital. Her husband, children and all her grandchildren are at her side.
** QUICK HITS. At a routine North American summit today in Guadalajara, President Barack Obama said he’s more concerned by human rights abuses committed by big drug cartels than by the Mexican military combating them. … The sister of former Senator John Edwards’ ex-mistress told Entertainment Tonight that her 18-month old niece is Edwards’ daughter. … A couple of same-sex marriage advocacy outfits will this week announce their position on whether to try to reverse Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012. But that’s just part of the process. More to follow on that …
** VEGAS, BABY! BILL CLINTON’S 63RD BIRTHDAY PARTY. Former President Bill Clinton is in Las Vegas today for a national green energy summit. Which is not entirely his thing. Turns out, he has another reason. He’s having a 63rd birthday celebration at the hot Craftsteak restaurant at the MGM Grand. Among those joining the festivities are Hollywood producer Steve Bing, who provided the jet for Clinton to bring home two California-based journalists from North Korea last week, and former top aides Terry McAuliffe, Paul Begala, John Podesta, and Jay Carson. Former Vice President Al Gore might show as well, as he’s in town for the energy event. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might have been there as well, but he’s back to Massachusetts to join First Lady Maria Shriver at the bedside of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, now in grave condition in Cape Cod Hospital.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won’t be there, as she’s wrapping up her tour of Africa. But she will be back in time for the ex-president’s actual birthday, which isn’t until August 19th.
** SCHWARZENEGGER BACK TO SHRIVER’S SIDE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone back to Cape Cod Hospital to be with his wife and kids at the bedside of his mother-in-law, whose condition has worsened.
He was to have been in Las Vegas with Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and others along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a national green energy conference.
However, he flew today from Los Angeles to the Capitol, then on to Massachusetts.
The “Three Amigos” summit is underway in Guadalajara with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and President Barack Obama.
** NOTE. You notice there is no Monday Morning Quarterback column today. That’s for three reasons. Tech problems very early this morning. Not a big week in presidential politics here in August, and even less so in California politics. Though one can always try to pump it up, and there are those who try. And I’m into a Mad Men marathon today, prepping for future writing.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in the second day of a North American summit in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
He is the midst of a summit session with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada at the Cabanas Cultural Center in Guadalajara.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama, President Calderon, and Prime Minister Harper hold a press conference at the Cabanas Cultural Center.
At 11:15 AM Pacific, Obama departs Guadalajara on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 3:20 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base and switches to Marine One for the flight over to the White House.
At 3:35 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
The North American summit is focusing on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, swine flue, and green energy.
It seems mostly routine. Illegal immigration from Mexico is a flash point, as usual, but it has apparently declined sharply given the economic crisis in the US.
The fight with the drug cartels is also an issue, with the US providing military assistance but concerned about human rights issues.
The White House is hitting back against what are widely regarded as massive distortions of its health care reform program with web videos and a new web site.
10 AM UPDATE: Schwarzenegger cancelled his Las Vegas appearance and will hold talks in the Capitol.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the road today.
He flies from Los Angeles this morning to appear in Las Vegas with former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore and others along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a national green energy conference.
Schwarzenegger was with First Lady Maria Shriver in Massachusetts over the weekend, as they had been for some time, spending much of their time at the bedside of Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The founder of Special Olympics and sister of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy is in grave condition in Cape Cod Hospital, where she’s been for the past week.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far?
Well, it seems, but with a couple of big question mark items, both beginning with the letter “I,” one of them highlighted by the inauguration today in Tehran of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second four-year term in office.
The controversy and furor over Ahmadinejad’s re-election, especially the Iranian regime’s violent response to protests following the election, has stymied a key element of Obama’s strategy of engagement. Not that we’ve ended up with different people in power there than we should have expected, nor people acting any differently than we should have expected them to act. More about that in a moment. … From my new column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that.
In part because he is such a talented speaker. He’s the big gun that Team Obama keeps firing when it’s in harm’s way. Which it almost always is, having inherited the biggest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, a growing environmental crisis, and geopolitical crises around the globe. Not to mention a hyper-partisan political environment and a semi-functional media culture.
The question takes on some urgency for Obama with his “hurry up offense” coming up short on universal health care.
With Obama having dipped in the polls, though still very healthy in the mid-50s in job approval despite multiple crises, it’s a good moment to rethink one’s drink, so to speak.
There’s no question that, in this fragmented media culture marked by an acute attention deficit disorder, Obama is the prime driver of news. But that doesn’t mean he has to do it himself. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra beat the competition at the weekend box office, continuing the toy takeover of Hollywood.
** 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 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 $37 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
A few historical events of significant note took place on August 9th. In 1974, President Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign from office, due to his central role in the Watergate scandal. In 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, after the August 6th nuking of Hiroshima failed to force Japan to surrender. World War II ended a few days later. In 1969, the Manson cult murdered several Hollywood celebrities. And in 1854, Henry David Thoreau published “Walden.”
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is on the road again today.
He journeys to Guadalajara on the Pacific Coast of Mexico today for a two-day North American summit.
At 10:55 AM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One.
At 11:10 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Guadalajara, Mexico.
At 3:20 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Guadalajara, Mexico.
At 4 PM Pacific, Obama attends a bilateral meeting with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico in Guadalajara.
At 5 PM Pacific, Obama participates in a working dinner with President Calderon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada.
At 6:15 PM Pacific, Obama attends a cultural event with President Calderon and Prime Minister Harper.
The summit will focus on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, and green energy.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of state.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver are in Massachusetts this weekend, as they have been for some time, spending much of their time at the bedside of Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The founder of Special Olympics and sister of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy is in critical condition in Cape Cod Hospital, where she’s been for the past week. She has been staying in Hyannisport to be near her brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, who is himself fighting brain cancer.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama says that health reform is key to long-term economic prosperity and that the claims of increasingly hysterical opponents disrupting congressional town halls are “outlandish.”
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events today.
Obama is prepping for a North American summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday and Monday in Guadalajara.
They will focus on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, and green energy.
Obama’s first nominee for the US Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, was sworn in this morning after winning a 68 to 31 confirmation vote in the Senate.
Sotomayor, the first Hispanic member of the nation’s highest court, will appear with Obama at a celebratory White House reception on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, here’s a quote from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, which just appeared on her Facebook page, which will undoubtedly further stir up the disruptive anti-health reform protests at congressional town halls which Obama refers to in his weekend address.
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of state.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver are in Massachusetts this weekend, as they have been for some time, spending much of their time at the bedside of Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The founder of Special Olympics and sister of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy is in grave condition in Cape Cod Hospital, where she’s been for the past week.
** OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: TWO MONTHS ON.It’s been two months since President Barack Obama delivered his heralded address to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new era of respect and engagement. How’s his opening to the Muslim world going so far?
Well, it seems, but with a couple of big question mark items, both beginning with the letter “I,” one of them highlighted by the inauguration today in Tehran of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second four-year term in office.
The controversy and furor over Ahmadinejad’s re-election, especially the Iranian regime’s violent response to protests following the election, has stymied a key element of Obama’s strategy of engagement. Not that we’ve ended up with different people in power there than we should have expected, nor people acting any differently than we should have expected them to act. More about that in a moment. … From my new column.
** IS OBAMA GETTING OVEREXPOSED?Is President Barack Obama getting overexposed? As talented a communicator as he is, it seems he’s in danger of just that.
In part because he is such a talented speaker. He’s the big gun that Team Obama keeps firing when it’s in harm’s way. Which it almost always is, having inherited the biggest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, a growing environmental crisis, and geopolitical crises around the globe. Not to mention a hyper-partisan political environment and a semi-functional media culture.
The question takes on some urgency for Obama with his “hurry up offense” coming up short on universal health care.
With Obama having dipped in the polls, though still very healthy in the mid-50s in job approval despite multiple crises, it’s a good moment to rethink one’s drink, so to speak.
There’s no question that, in this fragmented media culture marked by an acute attention deficit disorder, Obama is the prime driver of news. But that doesn’t mean he has to do it himself. … From my July 28th column.
** ANOTHER ‘60S ANNIVERSARY: THE UR-ACTION BLOCKBUSTER GOLDFINGER.We have two iconic ’60s anniversaries this week. Ironically, it’s the least known by far of the two that continues to resonate most in the culture. On July 20th, 1969, a human being first walked on the Moon. On July 21st, 1964, Goldfinger wrapped principal photography.
We haven’t gone to the Moon for 37 years, nor can we go to Mars, as the Apollo 11 astronauts are urging, anytime soon, but we sure go to blockbuster action movies. And Goldfinger is the ur-action blockbuster. … From my July 21st essay.
** 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.
The brilliant television series Mad Men, set in the early ’60s advertising world of New York’s Madison Avenue, returns next Sunday for its third 13-episode season. I’ll be writing weekly reviews for the Huffington Post.
** 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 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, 2008, crude oil closed at $70.93 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up $37 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
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