The US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, who pulled American combat troops out of the cities by the end of June, announced today that 4,000 troops will return permanently from Iraq next month.
** QUICK HITS. The night before negotiations begin in Geneva, Iran appears to be putting together a conciliatory package, including third party enrichment of nuclear fuels, beyond a certain level achieved in Iranian facilities, that is. But how serious is it? And in attempting to broaden the agenda, are they trying to take the focus off last week’s revelation? … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Los Angeles with UN and Obama Administration officials for his second Governors’ Global Climate Summit, is announcing an agreement with Sierra Pacific Industries on carbon sequestration. … Cali GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, reeling for days in the wake of revelations that, contrary to her GOP convention speech in February, she never bothered to register to vote till her late 40s, has announced the backing of the mayor of Fresno and a former state Republican chairmanwho had backed rival Steve Poizner.
** POST-BLAIR LABOUR PARTY SLIPS TO THIRD PLACE. Since the departure from the premiereship of Tony Blair, who appears this week at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, Britain’s Labour Party has been having a rough time of it. Many activists were happy to see Blair, reviled by many for backing the Iraq War, go in favor of Gordon Brown. But Labour has been slumping, and a brand new poll shows it running, ever so narrowly, behind the Liberal Democrats in a potential election match-up.
The Conservative Party runs first with 36%, with the Liberal Democrats at 25% and Labour at 24%.
Prime Minister Brown fares especially poorly in comparison with Tory leader David Cameron, who became party leader because of his Blair-like qualities. Cameron, incidentally, is also a Schwarzenegger friend, though not on the scale of Blair.
According to Ipsos: Two in five (41%) believe that, of the three leaders, David Cameron would make the most capable Prime Minister, almost twice as many as in June 2007. He is seen to be better than Brown in a crisis and more in touch with ordinary people, while Brown is seen to have a better understanding of world problems. Nick Clegg is seen as the most honest of the three politicians.
One in four (26%) are satisfied with the way the Government is running the country and seven in ten are dissatisfied (69%, compared to 71% last month). Taking the ‘net’ rating (the percentage satisfied minus the percentage dissatisfied) puts the Government on -43, which is the highest reported satisfaction level for the Government since March.
Almost three in ten (29%) are satisfied with the way Gordon Brown is doing his job as Prime Minister and two in three (65%) are dissatisfied, giving a net score of -36, matching last month’s score.
** JERRY BROWN: EXPLORER SCOUT. Steve Glazer, a senior advisor to the former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, sent out a release yesterday afternoon saying that the two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination is setting up an exploratory committee for a 2010 run for a return to the governorship of California.
As Brown is already the obvious frontrunner for both the Democratic nomination and the governorship, as has ben maintained from the start here on NWN, that’s not much of a surprise.
At the end of June, Brown had eight times as much campaign cash available to spend as did his would-be challenger for the Democratic nomination, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Since Brown has contributors who want to give him more money, but can’t, as he has previously been limited by the amount allowed per contribution in a race for state attorney general, which is only one-fourth the rate that Newsom and the Republicans have been allowed to raise, I knew this announcement was coming.
But when it came on my blackberry, I was out and about running errands, listening to the remastered Beatles (being unfamiliar with their early albums, it’s Beatlemania around here, and especially in the car, following the re-release of all the albums on September 9th), and getting a badly needed haircut. My hair is fine, up to the point when it gets out of control, which comes all of a sudden, resembling the “Help!” era.
Anyway, there were other things to mention on NWN and I had a large and complex analytical piece to do, and the Brown announcement frankly slipped my mind.
Brown leads all Republicans by double digits in the Republican-owned Rasmussen poll — while Newsom, who is way behind Brown in San Francisco — trails all Republicans.
Not surprisingly, Newsom, increasingly ignored, now wants to debate Brown. If he is still in the race next year, I suspect there’s a chance that will happen.
President Barack Obama met yesterday in the Oval Office with new NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
** IRANIAN CRISIS: RUN-UP TO NEGOTIATION.On the eve of the first formal negotiations between America and Iran in 30 years, there’s been a flurry of activity on all sides. Especially so since the sides include the other parties to negotiation — Britain, France, China, Germany, and Russia — as well as Israel.
All this comes on the heels of last Friday’s dramatic announcement by President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy of the existence of a secret Iranian nuclear facility. The facility was only disclosed, in vague terms, in an Iranian communication with the UN’s nuclear agency as the Obama Administration was briefing foreign governments about its existence.
What we see in the flurry of activity since then is Iran putting out decidedly mixed messages, and perhaps playing for time. And, apparently, and I do mean apparently, the American intelligence services lagging behind the European intelligence services and, naturally, Mossad, in seeing war-like intent in the Iranian nuclear program. …
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in and around Washington today.
Obama received his daily intelligence briefing early this morning in the Oval Office.
He then went to Bethesday, Maryland where he toured the National Institutes for Health with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Obama then delivered remarks announcing that $5 billion from his economic recovery act will be spent on disease research and biomedical jobs.
He then returned to White House.
At 9 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10: 30 AM Pacific, Obama signs the Arnold Palmer Gold Medal Act in the Oval Office.
At 10:50 AM Pacific, Obama receives his daily economic briefing.
At 12 noon Pacific, Obama meets with his national security team on Afghanistan in the Situation Room.
First Lady Michelle Obama is already in Copenhagen, Denmark, to pitch the International Olympic Committee on Chicago as host of the 2016 Olympic Games. Obama will join her there on Friday.
Michelle Obama has visited the US Embassy and is meeting with IOC members at the Marriott Hotel in Copenhagen.
Later, she attends Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s welcome reception at the Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen, one of my favorite cities.
For his part, Vice President Joe Biden is participating in welcome home ceremonies honoring the Delaware Army National Guard’s 261st Signal Brigade in Dover, Delaware. Among its members is Biden’s son, Beau, Delaware’s attorney general and a candidate for his father’s old seat in the U.S. Senate. The brigade has just returned home from Iraq.
Obama is monitoring several situations.
There is, of course, the big session today on Afghanistan.
The recount of Afghanistan’s hotly disputed August 20th presidential election is scheduled to be completed on October 7th.
Congress continues to haggle over the public option on national health care reform following its defeat yesterday in the Senate Finance Committee.
And the US, Britain, France, China, Germany, and Russia are preparing for negotiations with Iran on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Celebrating Earth Day 2007 in Iowa, then underdog presidential contender Barack Obama talked up California’s program as his model on climate change.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today for his second Governors’ Global Climate Summit, which begins today.
Yesterday, Schwarzenegger and the United Nations formally announced it as a preparatory event for the forthcoming Copenhagen round of global negotiation on climate change.
Schwarzenegger is being joined by a number of American governors, and governors of provinces from various parts of the world, along with top officials of the Obama Administration, the United Nations, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
** OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING: HIGH ALTITUDE HEADACHES AND RUMORS OF WAR.As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning’s revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities.
First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn’t allow, to back it up.
Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel.
And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the Nonproliferation Treaty. … From my September 25th column.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. … From my September 21st review.
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
The Obama Administration is planning new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, focusing on energy, finance, and telecommunications. Negotiations take place on Thursday in Geneva.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … IRAN CRISIS: RUN-UP TO NEGOTIATION.
** QUICK HITS.What is it with Californians wandering over the borders of hostile nations? First it was the two California-based journalists for Current TV wandering over the North Korean border and being seized by border guards. Next it was three graduates of UC Berkeley wandering into Iran. In a conciliatory move, Iran announced today that Swiss diplomats, who represent American interests in Tehran, were allowed to visit wayward hikers Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer, and Sarah Shourd. Next time, boys and girls, pay more attention to your surroundings. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, having finally received oft-delayed recommendations from a state tax revision commission, today called a special legislative session to examine the proposals. Schwarzenegger also released statements of praise for the commission’s work from Senator Dianne Feinstein, former Governor Gray Davis, former state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and former state Senator President Pro Tem Don Perata. But the statements tended to be rather carefully couched. The package was denounced by a number of labor and business organizations. … GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman has another explanation for why she didn’t register to vote until she was in her late 40s. Giving the latest in a string of speeches to local Republican volunteer groups, she said today that she didn’t realize how bad politics was for business until she became CEO of eBay, which inspired her to become a voter. Ahhh … (She’d been CEO of eBay for four years before registering.) …
The panel voted 16-8 against a government-run insurance plan in the first of what is expected to be several battles in Congress over the public option, one of the most contentious issues in the raging U.S. debate over healthcare reform.
Obama has made reforming the hugely expensive U.S. healthcare system his top domestic priority.
Five Democrats joined all the panel Republicans in opposing inclusion of the government-run option in the bill. The issue is expected to be raised again in the full Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Senate Finance plan by Democratic Chairman Max Baucus is the only healthcare bill pending in Congress that does not have a public insurance plan, which Obama and other backers say would boost competition for insurers.
Republican critics said the public option would devastate the private insurance industry and ultimately lead to a government takeover of the sector.
Democratic Senator John Rockefeller, who offered an amendment to insert a public option, said the approach would give the public more choices and force the insurance industry to compete.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in the Oval Office.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Oval Office.
Tonight the Bidens host a reception in honor of the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act at the Naval Observatory.
Obama is monitoring several situations.
The Senate Finance Committee is haggling over the public option for national health care reform.
In Afghanistan, a recount is underway in the hotly disputed August 20th presidential election.
And the US, Britain, France, China, Germany, and Russia are preparing for negotiations with Iran on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Even as the US and Russia show a new rapport, with Moscow key to the Iranian crisis, Russia and Belarus staged war games on the border of NATO countries.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private discussions today in and around the Capitol.
At 11:30 AM, Schwarzenegger will formally receive a report from a special tax revision commission and hold a press conference.
** OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING: HIGH ALTITUDE HEADACHES AND RUMORS OF WAR.As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning’s revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities.
First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn’t allow, to back it up.
Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel.
And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the Nonproliferation Treaty. … From my new column.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. … From my September 21st review.
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
With President Barack Obama holding no public events on Yom Kippur, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said today that Iran must demonstrate full and immediate transparency on its just revealed nuclear facility.
** QUICK HITS. The Meg Whitman pushback today against the emerging line that she couldn’t be bothered to vote until she started thinking about running for governor of California a few years ago is that Sonny Bono didn’t vote, either. Frankly, if I were Republican wannabe governor Whitman and this was the best my very extensive and expensive PR staff could come up with, I’d fire the lot of them. I’ll have more to say about sophisticated public relations down the line. This ain’t it. Of course, their fault, as my old mentor Regis McKenna would point out, lies in failing to perform an adequate external audit on their client. … A Rasmussen poll shows Jerry Brown with double digit leads over all Republicans and Gavin Newsom trailing all Republicans. But Bill Clinton adding Newsom to his 20-plus list of Hillary Clinton campaign reward fundraisers will change all this, of course. (That’s a little joke. And how much are Newsom’s spinners getting paid for their nonsense?) … German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not yet formed her coalition government with the preferred conservative partner, the Free Democrats. I’ll explain tomorrow why it’s not all that easy. Incidentally, that coalition would lead to a more dovish German foreign policy from the American perspective. …
** MAD MEN REVIEW: “SEVEN TWENTY THREE.”In history, the solar eclipse is an omen of things to come, frequently upsetting. And so it is with “Seven Twenty Three,” an episode which caused some confusion in advance. And some after as well, with a major newspaper blog still failing to grasp what the title is about, mistakenly saying it’s a time in the morning.
As always with these reviews, there be spoilers ahead, so if you’ve not yet seen this key episode, you’ve been warned.
Since the previews on Mad Men, unlike most movie trailers, are structured in such a way that they really don’t tell you anything about what’s coming, and even actively mislead you, I noticed a lot of fan blogging speculation about the cryptic title of this episode. A prevalent theory had it that the title is related to David Ogilvy, the British advertising guru who published the classic “Confessions of An Ad Man” in 1963. But what did the number mean? One favored explanation was that Ogilvy’s funeral was on July 23, 1963. Since he actually died in 1989, that was incorrect.
What “Seven Twenty Three” is is Don Draper’s Waterloo. Or I should say, Dick Whitman’s Waterloo. That’s the day in 1963 on which Don Draper/Dick Whitman gets lassoed. Fitting, as it’s his Westerner hotel magnate friend Connie Hilton who sets it in motion.
But before we get to that, let’s go back to the beginning of the episode. Which was actually near the middle, per the Lost-style flash forward/flashback mode now in vogue. … From my new review.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who control the secret nuclear facility just revealed on Friday, have just test fired medium-range and long-range missiles, the latter of which can reach Israel. Today is, not by coincidence, the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
Another big week on tap in president politics, and another not so big week in California politics. Of course, you never know what might happen. Case in point being last week’s revelation of GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman’s astonishing record of never voting for nearly the first half century of her life. Well, not exactly astonishing, perhaps striking is a better term.
While Obama is working to reconcile various versions of a national health care reform bill, the week will be largely dominated by the controversy swirling around Iran and its nuclear program. Representatives of the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany will meet with Iranian representatives in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday. I’ll obviously be writing more about this, but for now see the Friday column linked below.
The Iranian regime, in its inimitable fashion, has just held a series of provocative missile launches, including a test firing of long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel. Today is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Friday prayers in Tehran regularly include the charming chant “Death to Israel.”
While the heretofore secret Iranian nuclear facility, and this is a distinction that is at once significant and insignificant, won’t produce actual nuclear weapons, it will produce the material needed for nuclear weapons.
After a lot of defensive posturing, Iran says now that it will open the facility for inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. But it won’t say when. And as the facility is not yet in operation, an inspection now is fairly meaningless.
There’s been a large and strong reaction around the world to Friday’s revelation. Russia, as you can see in the video below, is now taking a much tougher line on Iran, whose bacon it has saved a number of times in recent years.
Indeed, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warmly praised Obama in a talk to students at the University of Pittsburgh. China also condemned Iran for its secret facility, but may not be on board for sanctions. China has recently begun shipping gasoline, a critical area of vulnerability in the Iranian economy, which lacks refining capability, to the Islamic republic.
Obama will make an in-person pitch on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Chicago. He’s the first president to travel abroad for this purpose. Incidentally, it’s not that far from Geneva to Copenhagen.
Obama is also contemplating a Germany which has just moved further to the right. On Sunday, he congratulated newly re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats will form a new parliamentary coalition with the conservative Free Democrats. As a result, a more dovish foreign policy may emerge, along with more free market economic policies. The Social Democrats, which have been part of Merkel’s grand coalition, had their worst electoral showing since World War II.
Obama is reviewing a request for more troops in Afghanistan from his new commander there, General Stanley McChrystal.
I rather suspect he won’t be getting them. Amongst others, Vice President Joe Biden is opposed to any further mission creep into nation-building via a counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, preferring a counter-terrorist strategy focused on Al Qaeda.
What’s important to note about the McChrystal report, leaked a week ago to Bob Woodward, as I mentioned in my new column, is that, while the general says the current strategy will fail without more troops, he doesn’t say it will succeed with more troops.
In California politics, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
The latter, as I’ve been mentioning for months, looks like a political non-starter.
And he is preparing for his second governors’ global climate summit this week at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
California Republicans, who hold two state conventions per year while the Democrats have a more normal annual convention, just had their second convention of the year in Indian Wells, outside Palm Springs. All in all, it was a very good convention.
For Jerry Brown.
Gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, now at each other’s throats — Whitman’s failing being that she never bothered to register to vote until she was in her late 40s and Poizner’s being past family contributions to Democrats and past moderation on taxes — spoke to the highly conservative gathering.
The event was reportedly dominated by former eBay CEO Whitman’s evident failure to register to vote until she was in her late 40s.
Rival Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, again urged her to drop out of the race, noting that no one has ever been elected governor of an American state with such a record of civic non-involvement.
Poizner came under fire from Whitman for his past moderation. Poizner also came under fire from the press and from a third hopeful, former Congressman Tom Campbell, for urging massive tax cuts which he says will actually raise revenues without being able to back up his claim.
Whitman criticized Schwarzenegger, though not by name, for championing California’s landmark climate change program. She said it needs to be eliminated. She also further upped the ante by saying that environmentalists don’t care about people.
Whitman said she’d cut the state budget another $15 billion. But won’t say what she’ll cut till after she’s elected. She should get used to saying “if,” and modifying that with “big.” Poizner also won’t say what he’ll cut from the state budget.
Two years ago, this convention, which was apparently not well attended, was a much bigger deal, at the same resort location in Indian Wells. (Which is why I was there, after previewing Schwarzenegger’s convention speech in a column.) Schwarzenegger chided the party in a major address for turning too far to the right. He got a tepid response, especially in contrast to Texas Governor Rick Perry, who followed him immediately afterwards and delivered the hard right stuff. Perry, you may recall, said earlier this year that Texas should consider seceding from the United States. More recently. he denied that Texas has been in a recession, which will not help him in his re-election campaign.
Maybe he should run for the California GOP nod.
Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election Sunday in Germany and will form a center-right government. The left-of-center Social Democrats had their worst electoral showing since World War II.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has no scheduled public events on this day, the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with Vice President Joe Biden and senior advisors in the Oval Office.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events today, the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
He is holding private discussions in Los Angeles.
** OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING: HIGH ALTITUDE HEADACHES AND RUMORS OF WAR.As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning’s revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities.
First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn’t allow, to back it up.
Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel.
And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the Nonproliferation Treaty. … From my new column.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. … From my September 21st review.
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Following its customary pattern of demonstrating peaceful intent when in the midst of global controversy, Iran has fired off a series of short-range missiles, including a first-ever demonstration of a multiple-missile launcher. Global tensions will ratchet up further with Iranian firings of medium and long-range missiles taking place place shortly.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
He’s monitoring the situation with Iran, which in the wake of revelations of its previously secret nuclear facility is in the midst of a series of missile launches.
He’s also awaiting the outcome of today’s German federal elections.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to be returned to office, but her moderate conservative party will again have to form a coalition in order to govern. Her choice of coalition partners will have great bearing on Germany’s domestic and foreign policy.
Should her Christian Democrats retain its current coalition with the Social Democrats, the latter will retain the foreign minister post and current social welfare policies will remain in place.
Should Merkel choose to form a coalition with the Free Democrats, a more dovish foreign policy may emerge, along with more free market economic policies. Or it may be one or the other, depending upon which senior cabinet portfolio is allotted.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events today.
His would-be Republican successors engaged in various political firefights yesterday at the California Republican convention in Indian Wells.
The event was reportedly dominated by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s evident failure to register to vote until she was in his late 40s.
Rival Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, again urged her to drop out of the race, noting that no one has ever been elected governor of an American state with such a record of civic non-involvement.
Poizner came under fire from Whitman for his past moderation. Poizner also came under fire from the press and from a third hopeful, former Congressman Tom Campbell, for urging massive tax cuts which he says will actually raise revenues without being able to back up his claim.
Whitman criticized Schwarzenegger, though not by name, for championing California’s landmark climate change program. She said it needs to be eliminated. She also further upped the ante by saying that environmentalists don’t care about jobs or people.
Whitman said she’d cut the state budget another $15 billion. But won’t say what she’ll cut till after she’s elected. She should get used to saying “if,” and modifying that with “big.” Poizner also won’t say what he’ll cut from the state budget.
All in all, a very good weekend. For the other party.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Obama discussed his week of summit meetings.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in the White House today.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
At 5:10 PM Pacific, he delivers remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual Phoenix Awards Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Obama is awaiting the results of Sunday’s election in Germany.
Obama has received a request for more troops in Afghanistan from his new commander there, General Stanley McChrystal.
I rather suspect he won’t be getting them. Amongst others, Vice President Joe Biden is opposed to any further mission creep into nation-building via a counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, preferring a counter-terrorist strategy focused on Al Qaeda.
What’s important to note about the McChrystal report, leaked last Sunday to Bob Woodward, as I mentioned in my new column, is that, while the general says the current strategy will fail without more troops, he doesn’t say it will succeed with more troops.
Obama is also monitoring the international reaction to the revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility, which is not yet complete. While this facility, and this is a distinction that is at once significant and insignificant, won’t produce actual nuclear weapons, it will produce the material needed for nuclear weapons.
Negotiations with Iran begin on October 1st in Geneva.
After a lot of defensive posturing yesterday, Iran says today that it will open the facility for inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. But it won’t say when. And as the facility is not yet in operation, an inspection today is fairly meaningless.
There’s been a large and strong reaction around the world to yesterday’s revelation. Russia, as you can see in the video below, is now taking a much tougher line on Iran, whose bacon it has saved a number of times in recent years.
Indeed, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warmly praised Obama in a talk to students at the University of Pittsburgh.
China also condemned Iran for its secret facility.
But much of the commentary also centers on underlying feelings about Israel, many of them harshly negative. It’s obvious that there are far more people around the world than we’d like to think who agree with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his “Death to Israel” sentiments.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events today.
Schwarzenegger put in an appearance last night at the California Republican Party convention in Indian Wells. In contrast to his speech at the same location, and on the same Friday night, two years ago, it was uneventful.
Schwarzenegger’s former state finance director, former Silicon Valley Congressman and Stanford and Berkeley professor Tom Campbell, now a gubernatorial hopeful, also spoke.
Gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, now at each other’s throats — Whitman’s failing being that she never bothered to register to vote until she was in her late 40s and Poizner’s being past family contributions to Democrats and moderation on taxes — speak today to the highly conservative gathering.
Two years ago, it was a much bigger deal. (Which why I was there, after previewing Schwarzenegger’s coming speech in a column.) Schwarzenegger chided the party in a major address for turning too far to the right. He got a tepid response, especially in contrast to Texas Governor Rick Perry, who followed him immediately afterwards and delivered the hard right stuff. Perry, you may recall, said earlier this year that Texas should considering seceding from the United States. More recently. he denied that Texas has been in a recession, which will not help him in his re-election campaign.
Schwarzenegger is also contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
The latter, as I’ve been mentioning for months, looks like a political non-starter.
And he is preparing for his second governors’ global climate summit at the end of next week at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, in a seeming about-face for Moscow, says that Iran’s construction of a secret nuclear facility is clearly contrary to United Nations Security Council resolutions.
** OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING: HIGH ALTITUDE HEADACHES AND RUMORS OF WAR.As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning’s revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities.
First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn’t allow, to back it up.
Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel.
And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the Nonproliferation Treaty. …
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th column.
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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.
** 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 $66.02 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Not surprisingly, the Iranian nuclear revelation is dominating the G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit today in Pittsburgh, which was supposed to focus on the still troubled global economy.
** QUICK HITS. Paul Kirk, chairman of the JFK Library and former Democratic national chairman, was sworn in today as the interim replacement for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Kirk will hold the seat for about four months until the special election in Massachusetts. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he’s keeping all California state parks open. Of course, that means cutbacks. … California Republicans are gathering for their second state convention of the year, with gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner at each other’s throats. Poizner’s campaign is saying Whitman should drop out of the race following the revelation that she didn’t bother to register to vote until she was in her late 40s. Whitman’s campaign is saying Poizner isn’t a real Republican because of family contributions to Democrats. …
** FROM THE G-20 SUMMIT COMMUNIQUE. Clearly the discussion of the still troubled global economy was eclipsed by the revelation of a previously secret Iranian nuclear facility. The group did agree to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and rein in banker bonuses. Probably the biggest development is this, prodded by President Barack Obama, the G-20 will supplant the G-8 as the principal forum for guiding the global economy. It’s a much more inclusive and expansive group.
Here’s the summary of the G-20′s communique coming out of the Pittsburgh summit:
1. We meet in the midst of a critical transition from crisis to recovery to turn the page on an era of irresponsibility and to adopt a set of policies, regulations and reforms to meet the needs of the 21st century global economy.
2. When we last gathered in April, we confronted the greatest challenge to the world economy in our generation.
3. Global output was contracting at pace not seen since the 1930s. Trade was plummeting. Jobs were disappearing rapidly. Our people worried that the world was on the edge of a depression.
4. At that time, our countries agreed to do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital.
5. It worked.
6. Our forceful response helped stop the dangerous, sharp decline in global activity and stabilize financial markets. Industrial output is now rising in nearly all our economies. International trade is starting to recover. Our financial institutions are raising needed capital, financial markets are showing a willingness to invest and lend, and confidence has improved.
7. Today, we reviewed the progress we have made since the London Summit in April. Our national commitments to restore growth resulted in the largest and most coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus ever undertaken. We acted together to increase dramatically the resources necessary to stop the crisis from spreading around the world. We took steps to fix the broken regulatory system and started to implement sweeping reforms to reduce the risk that financial excesses will again destabilize the global economy.
8. A sense of normalcy should not lead to complacency.
9. The process of recovery and repair remains incomplete. In many countries, unemployment remains unacceptably high. The conditions for a recovery of private demand are not yet fully in place. We cannot rest until the global economy is restored to full health, and hard-working families the world over can find decent jobs.
10. We pledge today to sustain our strong policy response until a durable recovery is secured. We will act to ensure that when growth returns, jobs do too. We will avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus. At the same time, we will prepare our exit strategies and, when the time is right, withdraw our extraordinary policy support in a cooperative and coordinated way, maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility.
11. Even as the work of recovery continues, we pledge to adopt the policies needed to lay the foundation for strong, sustained and balanced growth in the 21st century. We recognize that we have to act forcefully to overcome the legacy of the recent, severe global economic crisis and to help people cope with the consequences of this crisis. We want growth without cycles of boom and bust and markets that foster responsibility not recklessness.
12. Today we agreed:
13. To launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth. We need a durable recovery that creates the good jobs our people need.
14. We need to shift from public to private sources of demand, establish a pattern of growth across countries that is more sustainable and balanced, and reduce development imbalances. We pledge to avoid destabilizing booms and busts in asset and credit prices and adopt macroeconomic policies, consistent with price stability, that promote adequate and balanced global demand. We will also make decisive progress on structural reforms that foster private demand and strengthen long-run growth potential.
15. Our Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth is a compact that commits us to work together to assess how our policies fit together, to evaluate whether they are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced growth, and to act as necessary to meet our common objectives.
16. To make sure our regulatory system for banks and other financial firms reins in the excesses that led to the crisis. Where reckless behavior and a lack of responsibility led to crisis, we will not allow a return to banking as usual.
17. We committed to act together to raise capital standards, to implement strong international compensation standards aimed at ending practices that lead to excessive risk-taking, to improve the over-the-counter derivatives market and to create more powerful tools to hold large global firms to account for the risks they take. Standards for large global financial firms should be commensurate with the cost of their failure. For all these reforms, we have set for ourselves strict and precise timetables.
18. To reform the global architecture to meet the needs of the 21st century. After this crisis, critical players need to be at the table and fully vested in our institutions to allow us to cooperate to lay the foundation for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
19. We designated the G-20 to be the premier forum for our international economic cooperation. We established the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to include major emerging economies and welcome its efforts to coordinate and monitor progress in strengthening financial regulation.
20. We are committed to a shift in International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota share to dynamic emerging markets and developing countries of at least 5% from over-represented countries to under-represented countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from. Today we have delivered on our promise to contribute over $500 billion to a renewed and expanded IMF New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB).
21. We stressed the importance of adopting a dynamic formula at the World Bank which primarily reflects countries’ evolving economic weight and the World Bank’s development mission, and that generates an increase of at least 3% of voting power for developing and transition countries, to the benefit of under-represented countries. While recognizing that over-represented countries will make a contribution, it will be important to protect the voting power of the smallest poor countries. We called on the World Bank to play a leading role in responding to problems whose nature requires globally coordinated action, such as climate change and food security, and agreed that the World Bank and the regional development banks should have sufficient resources to address these challenges and fulfill their mandates.
22. To take new steps to increase access to food, fuel and finance among the world’s poorest while clamping down on illicit outflows. Steps to reduce the development gap can be a potent driver of global growth.
23. Over four billion people remain undereducated, ill-equipped with capital and technology, and insufficiently integrated into the global economy. We need to work together to make the policy and institutional changes needed to accelerate the convergence of living standards and productivity in developing and emerging economies to the levels of the advanced economies. To start, we call on the World Bank to develop a new trust fund to support the new Food Security Initiative for low-income countries announced last summer. We will increase, on a voluntary basis, funding for programs to bring clean affordable energy to the poorest, such as the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program.
24. To phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for the poorest. Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce our energy security, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change.
25. We call on our Energy and Finance Ministers to report to us their implementation strategies and timeline for acting to meet this critical commitment at our next meeting.
26. We will promote energy market transparency and market stability as part of our broader effort to avoid excessive volatility.
27. To maintain our openness and move toward greener, more sustainable growth.
28. We will fight protectionism. We are committed to bringing the Doha Round to a successful conclusion in 2010.
29. We will spare no effort to reach agreement in Copenhagen through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.
30. We warmly welcome the report by the Chair of the London Summit commissioned at our last meeting and published today.
31. Finally, we agreed to meet in Canada in June 2010 and in Korea in November 2010. We expect to meet annually thereafter and will meet in France in 2011.
** OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING: HIGH ALTITUDE HEADACHES AND RUMORS OF WAR.As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning’s revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities.
First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn’t allow, to back it up.
Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel.
And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the Nonproliferation Treaty. …
President Barack Obama joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy this morning in Pittsburgh to charge that Iran has constructed a secret nuclear facility inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear power program.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Pittsburgh today for the G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
Early this morning, he joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to unveil an intelligence report revealing a large secret Iranian nuclear facility that they say is inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear power program. They’re demanding that Iran immediately allow International Atomic Energy Agency officials to inspect the plant. And they want an explanation from Iran by the time negotiations begin October 1st between their countries, Russia, China, Germany, and Iran.
The disclosure is likely to overshadow the G-20 sessions, which are focused on finding ways to further stimulate the still slumping global economy and regulate a financial system which nearly brought it all down.
Obama’s participated in the G-20 leaders working breakfast and is now in the G-20 morning plenary at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh.
At 9:45 AM Pacific, Obama attends the G-20 leaders lunch at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama attends the G-20 afternoon plenary session at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
At 1:40 PM Pacific, Obama holds a news conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
At 3:10 PM Pacific, Obama departs Pittsburgh on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 4:05 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Marine One.
At 4:20 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
While Obama is working with other G-20 leaders, First Lady Michelle Obama is touring Pittsburgh with the other spouses. One highlight is the Andy Warhol Museum.
President Barack Obama’s full address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Yes, the Pop Art icon was a native Pittsburgher and his museum is located in his home town, rather than New York (where he began as a commercial illustrator in the advertising business) or Los Angeles.
And here’s a fun Warhol fact. Warhol wanted to do the official portrait of Governor Jerry Brown to hang in the Califonria Capitol. But Brown said no, opting to go with a less famous avant garde artist, Don Bachardy.
But there is still a Warhol in the Capitol. It’s a portrait of First Lady Maria Shriver, and it hangs in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s personal office.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is in Marietta, Georgia this morning spearheading the federal response to the sudden massive flooding there.
This afternoon, Biden swears in former Democratic national chairman and JFK Library chairman Paul Kirk to replace the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is at the U.S. Marine Corps Base this morning in Twenty Nine Palms to sign a bill creating a day honoring veterans of the Vietnam War.
Schwarzenegger will also put in appearance tonight at the California Republican Party convention in Indian Wells.
Two years ago he chided the party in a major address for turning too far to the right. He got a tepid response, especially in contrast to Texas Governor Rick Perry, who followed him immediately afterwards and delivered the hard right stuff. Perry, you may recall, said earlier this year that Texas should considering seceding from the United States. More recently. he denied that Texas has been in a recession, which will not help him in his re-election campaign.
Schwarzenegger is also contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
The latter, as I’ve been mentioning for months, looks like a political non-starter.
And he is preparing for his second governors’ global climate summit at the end of next week at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th column.
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu took the UN General Assembly to task today for its silence over terrorist rocket attacks on Israel.
** QUICK HITS. Kirk to Enterprise, er, Senate. As expected, former Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk has been appointed to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Kirk, a former Ted Kennedy aide and chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library, will be sworn in to the Senate tomorrow. He is not running in the special election early next year. This will immediately restore the Democrats’ 60-seat majority, needed to get national health care through, and with a very politically savvy fellow who was backed for the appointment by the entire Kennedy family. … As I told you last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not impressed by ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman urging him to dump California’s climate change program. And he made that plain in his comments before the Commonwealth Club this afternoon in San Francisco, where he commemorated the third anniversary of his signing of the landmark AB 32. (The actual third anniversary is this Sunday.) Schwarzenegger simply didn’t take Whitman’s speech on the matter at all seriously, saying he couldn’t believe she would propose to take California back to “the Stone Age.” …
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NEW YORK SUMMITRY: HIGH-ALTITUDE HEADACHES.
** WHITMAN RESPONDS. Voting is a precious right that all Americans should exercise. I have repeatedly said that my voting record is inexcusable. I failed to register and vote on numerous occasions throughout my life. That is simply wrong and I have taken responsibility for my mistake.
California needs leaders who are accountable for their actions. I take responsibility for mine, while my opponent, Steve Poizner, runs from his. On everything from his position on taxes to his political contributions, Steve hides behind others or misrepresents himself. I look forward to a vigorous campaign and to a discussion of the issues that matter to the people of California.
The kilkenny cats are at it.
** POIZNER ANTICIPATES FIELD DAY OVER WHITMAN’S VOTING RECORD. California GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner is anticipating a field day at this coming weekend’s state Republican convention in Indian Wells (Palm Springs area) making hay over former eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s voting record. Or lack thereof. His campaign has already put out a scathing statement. An article in this morning’s Sacramento Bee reveals that Whitman has barely bothered to vote.
Whitman, now 53, turned 18 and voting age in Suffolk County, N.Y., in 1974. Officials say they have no record of her registering or voting there.
She lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1979 to 1981 after completing a master’s degree in business administration at Harvard. Neither Ohio state elections officials nor Hamilton County Board of Elections officials found a record of Whitman registering or voting there.
For much of the 1980s, she lived in San Francisco as a management consultant at an investment firm, Bain & Co. The San Francisco County elections office no longer retains records prior to 1992, but said that had she been registered and voting, her registration information would have been transferred to the current system. They have no record of her registration.
Similarly, Los Angeles County has no record that she registered or voted between 1989 and 1992, when she worked for Walt Disney Corp. as a senior executive.
Whitman and her husband, Griffith Harsh, a neurologist, lived in Brookline, Mass., a suburb just outside Boston, for several years in the 1990s. She worked for Stride-Rite, FTD and Hasbro until 1997.
“We had her as a resident for a while, and she was captured by the census, but she was never registered and she never voted,” said Patrick Ard, town clerk in Brookline.
Whitman returned to the Bay Area in 1998, when she was hired to be eBay’s first chief executive officer and take the company public.
She told delegates at the convention that she had “been a registered ‘decline-to-state’ voter since 1998.” The Bee was unable to find any public record of that registration.
The first registration record The Bee found, in San Mateo County, was dated Sept. 12, 2002.
At that time, she told San Mateo elections officials that she had been registered in San Francisco County, a county official said, after reviewing electronic records. Yet San Francisco County officials, whose database records active registrations as far back as 1992, said they had no record of voter registration for Whitman at either of her two San Francisco addresses during the period.
Although she was registered to vote in 2003, Whitman did not vote in the dramatic California recall election which ousted Governor Gray Davis and elevated Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was a huge turnout in that election, which generated daily global attention.
Whitman also, according to the investigation, never voted for her campaign chairman, former Governor Pete Wilson, who ran for the U.S. Senate and for governor during the time she lived in California.
This points up a fundamental problem of Whitman’s candidacy. She played no role whatsoever in public affairs — not even an op-ed piece — prior to leaving eBay as a “bored billionaire” (as one Republican strategist puts it). And when she did become involved in public affairs, it was as a top official for conservative Republican presidential campaigns.
Whitman was national finance co-chair for Mitt Romney, who lost the California primary last year, and national campaign co-chair for John McCain, who was crushed in California by Barack Obama.
I’ll let her opponents discuss the contradictions in her statements.
With President Barack Obama presiding, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution this morning aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons. More practically, it established a framework in which nuclear material could be withdrawn from a nation attempting to create a nuclear weapon.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in New York and Pittsburgh today.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings.
At 6:15 AM Pacific, Obama became the first American president to chair the United Nations Security Council meeting at UN Headquarters in New York City.
In another rare event, all five heads of government of the Perm 5, the permanent five members of the UN Security Council — America, Britain, France, China, and Russia — participated in the UN Security Council meeting.
The principal topic? Curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, with Iran and North Korea obviously major factors in the proceedings.
At 9 AM Pacific, Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown co-chair the Friends of Pakistan leaders meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The meeting is designed to increase and coordinate aid to Pakistan, whose government has been under severe pressure from jihadist forces but has regained the upper hand.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, Obama departs New York City on Air Force One en route to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Pittsburgh, site of the second G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit of the year. The first was early this year in London.
At 3 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet leaders and their spouses in a welcome reception at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, Obama attends the G-20 leaders working dinner at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s landmark anti-global warming bill on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay three years ago this weekend in this NWN video.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in San Francisco today to mark the third anniversary of the enactment of AB 32, co-authored by then Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and then Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, which established California’s landmark climate change program.
Schwarzenegger will speak and take questions at the Commonwealth Club meeting at the Fairmont Hotel at noon.
Schwarzenegger is also contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
And he is preparing for his second governor’s global climate summit at the end of next week at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th column.
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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.
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.
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President Barack Obama, in his address to the United Nations, noted that his duty is to protect the interests of the United States even as there are emerging shared interests around the world.
** QUICK HITS. Kirk to Enterprise, er, Senate. It looks like Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick will appoint former Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk to the seat held by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Kirk is chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Also in the running was former Governor and Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. … Backers of a California constitutional convention have delayed submitting a statewide proposition. … Still no word on a possible California special legislative session on a not yet emerged proposal from a controversial state tax revision commission. …
** RUSSIA OPEN TO MORE SANCTIONS ON IRAN. In an apparently positive development, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said today following his mini-summit with President Barack Obama that, while seldom productive, new sanctions may be necessary against Iran to to ensure that it does not turn its nuclear power program into a nuclear weapons program. In the recent past, Moscow has been unalterably opposed to a new round of sanctions. This is playing out in the foreground of a major behind-the-scenes discussion between the US and Russia over how how much influence Moscow has over the former Soviet Union. Which, naturally, is not discussed in the media, fixated as it is on rowdy town halls and other non-serious behavior.
It’s not in Russia’s interest for Iran to become a nuclear power. But it is in Russia’s interest to use the stumbling block that Iran provides for the US and much of the West to block attempts to, for example, further expand the military reach of the US and NATO into the Russian periphery.
** SIDESHOWS AND THE REAL DEAL. President Barack Obama’s noteworthy speech to the UN General Assembly about mutual responsibility for shared threats, published below, was followed by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s interminable speech, in which he ran through the usual anti-American litany and called for the removal of the UN from New York to somewhere else, at one point appearing to suggest it be headquartered in Libya. Which would be a lovely way to permanently marginalize an already troubled institution.
But he said he loved Obama’s speech, repeatedly calling the president a “son of Africa” and “my son” — Gadhafi has reinvented himself as an African leader — saying that what he’s heard is new and promising but could change unless Obama is president “forever.” I can only imagine the right-wing cable chatter over that.
Fidel Castro liked Obama’s speech, too, putting out a statement calling it the bravest speech given by an American president. More grist for the chatterfest.
Meanwhile, Obama is about to engage in some of the most important diplomacy of the week, when he meets with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. High on the agenda? Pressuring Iran on its nuclear program by cutting into its gasoline imports. Naturally, you’re not hearing or reading about this.
Iran is a major oil power but has insufficient refining capacity for its gasoline needs, and isn’t likely to get more given its international isolation. So it must import much of its gasoline. I’ll get into the particulars in the upcoming column, but here’s the short form: America can put a major squeeze on Iran’s gasoline supply. And Russia can frustrate America’s actions.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NEW YORK SUMMITRY: HIGH-ALTITUDE HEADACHES.
** OBAMA’S ADDRESS TO THE UNITED NATIONS.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentleman: it is my honor to address you for the first time as the forty-fourth President of the United States. I come before you humbled by the responsibility that the American people have placed upon me; mindful of the enormous challenges of our moment in history; and determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad.
I have been in office for just nine months, though some days it seems a lot longer. I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world. These expectations are not about me. Rather, they are rooted – I believe – in a discontent with a status quo that has allowed us to be increasingly defined by our differences, and outpaced by our problems. But they are also rooted in hope – the hope that real change is possible, and the hope that America will be a leader in bringing about such change.
I took office at a time when many around the world had come to view America with skepticism and distrust. Part of this was due to misperceptions and misinformation about my country. Part of this was due to opposition to specific policies, and a belief that on certain critical issues, America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others. This has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for our collective inaction.
Like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the interest of my nation and my people, and I will never apologize for defending those interests. But it is my deeply held belief that in the year 2009 – more than at any point in human history – the interests of nations and peoples are shared.
The religious convictions that we hold in our hearts can forge new bonds among people, or tear us apart. The technology we harness can light the path to peace, or forever darken it. The energy we use can sustain our planet, or destroy it. What happens to the hope of a single child – anywhere – can enrich our world, or impoverish it.
In this hall, we come from many places, but we share a common future. No longer do we have the luxury of indulging our differences to the exclusion of the work that we must do together. I have carried this message from London to Ankara; from Port of Spain to Moscow; from Accra to Cairo; and it’s what I will speak about today. Because the time has come for the world to move in a new direction. We must embrace a new era of engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect, and our work must begin now.
We know the future will be forged by deeds and not simply words. Speeches alone will not solve our problems – it will take persistent action. So for those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions that we have taken in just eight months.
On my first day in office, I prohibited – without exception or equivocation – the use of torture by the United States of America. I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed, and we are doing the hard work of forging a framework to combat extremism within the rule of law. Every nation must know: America will live its values, and we will lead by example.
We have set a clear and focused goal: to work with all members of this body to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies – a network that has killed thousands of people of many faiths and nations, and that plotted to blow up this very building. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, we – and many nations here – are helping those governments develop the capacity to take the lead in this effort, while working to advance opportunity and security for their people.
In Iraq, we are responsibly ending a war. We have removed American combat brigades from Iraqi cities, and set a deadline of next August to remove all of our combat brigades from Iraqi territory. And I have made clear that we will help Iraqis transition to full responsibility for their future, and keep our commitment to remove all American troops by the end of 2011.
I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In Moscow, the United States and Russia announced that we would pursue substantial reductions in our strategic warheads and launchers. At the Conference on Disarmament, we agreed on a work plan to negotiate an end to the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. And this week, my Secretary of State will become the first senior American representative to the annual Members Conference of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Upon taking office, I appointed a Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, and America has worked steadily and aggressively to advance the cause of two states – Israel and Palestine – in which peace and security take root, and the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians are respected.
To confront climate change, we have invested 80 billion dollars in clean energy. We have substantially increased our fuel-efficiency standards. We have provided new incentives for conservation, launched an energy partnership across the Americas, and moved from a bystander to a leader in international climate negotiations.
To overcome an economic crisis that touches every corner of the world, we worked with the G-20 nations to forge a coordinated international response of over two trillion dollars in stimulus to bring the global economy back from the brink. We mobilized resources that helped prevent the crisis from spreading further to developing countries. And we joined with others to launch a $20 billion global food security initiative that will lend a hand to those who need it most, and help them build their own capacity.
We have also re-engaged the United Nations. We have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights Council. We have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have fully embraced the Millennium Development Goals. And we address our priorities here, in this institution – for instance, through the Security Council meeting that I will chair tomorrow on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and through the issues that I will discuss today.
This is what we have done. But this is just a beginning. Some of our actions have yielded progress. Some have laid the groundwork for progress in the future. But make no mistake: this cannot be solely America’s endeavor. Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone. We have sought – in word and deed – a new era of engagement with the world. Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.
If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we are not living up to that responsibility. Consider the course that we are on if we fail to confront the status quo. Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world. Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease. I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action.
This body was founded on the belief that the nations of the world could solve their problems together. Franklin Roosevelt, who died before he could see his vision for this institution become a reality, put it this way – and I quote: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one Nation…. It cannot be a peace of large nations – or of small nations. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.”
The cooperative effort of the whole world. Those words ring even more true today, when it is not simply peace – but our very health and prosperity that we hold in common. Yet I also know that this body is made up of sovereign states. And sadly, but not surprisingly, this body has often become a forum for sowing discord instead of forging common ground; a venue for playing politics and exploiting grievances rather than solving problems. After all, it is easy to walk up to this podium and to point fingers and stoke division. Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles, and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions. Anyone can do that.
Responsibility and leadership in the 21st century demand more. In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero sum game. No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold. The traditional division between nations of the south and north makes no sense in an interconnected world. Nor do alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long gone Cold War.
The time has come to realize that the old habits and arguments are irrelevant to the challenges faced by our people. They lead nations to act in opposition to the very goals that they claim to pursue, and to vote – often in this body – against the interests of their own people. They build up walls between us and the future that our people seek, and the time has come for those walls to come down. Together, we must build new coalitions that bridge old divides – coalitions of different faiths and creeds; of north and south, east and west; black, white, and brown.
The choice is ours. We can be remembered as a generation that chose to drag the arguments of the 20th century into the 21st; that put off hard choices, refused to look ahead, and failed to keep pace because we defined ourselves by what we were against instead of what we were for. Or, we can be a generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the rough waters ahead; that comes together to serve the common interests of human beings, and finally gives meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution: the United Nations.
That is the future America wants – a future of peace and prosperity that we can only reach if we recognize that all nations have rights, but all nations have responsibilities as well. That is the bargain that makes this work. That must be the guiding principle of international cooperation.
Today, I put forward four pillars that are fundamental to the future that we want for our children: non-proliferation and disarmament; the promotion of peace and security; the preservation of our planet; and a global economy that advances opportunity for all people.
First, we must stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and seek the goal of a world without them.
This institution was founded at the dawn of the atomic age, in part because man’s capacity to kill had to be contained. For decades, we averted disaster, even under the shadow of a super-power stand-off. But today, the threat of proliferation is growing in scope and complexity. If we fail to act, we will invite nuclear arms races in every region, and the prospect of wars and acts of terror on a scale that we can hardly imagine.
A fragile consensus stands in the way of this frightening outcome – the basic bargain that shapes the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. It says that all nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy; that nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to move toward disarmament; and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them. The next twelve months could be pivotal in determining whether this compact will be strengthened or will slowly dissolve.
America will keep our end of the bargain. We will pursue a new agreement with Russia to substantially reduce our strategic warheads and launchers. We will move forward with ratification of the Test Ban Treaty, and work with others to bring the Treaty into force so that nuclear testing is permanently prohibited. We will complete a Nuclear Posture Review that opens the door to deeper cuts, and reduces the role of nuclear weapons. And we will call upon countries to begin negotiations in January on a treaty to end the production of fissile material for weapons.
I will also host a Summit next April that reaffirms each nation’s responsibility to secure nuclear material on its territory, and to help those who can’t – because we must never allow a single nuclear device to fall into the hands of a violent extremist. And we will work to strengthen the institutions and initiatives that combat nuclear smuggling and theft.
All of this must support efforts to strengthen the NPT. Those nations that refuse to live up to their obligations must face consequences. This is not about singling out individual nations – it is about standing up for the rights of all nations that do live up to their responsibilities. Because a world in which IAEA inspections are avoided and the United Nation’s demands are ignored will leave all people less safe, and all nations less secure.
In their actions to date, the governments of North Korea and Iran threaten to take us down this dangerous slope. We respect their rights as members of the community of nations. I am committed to diplomacy that opens a path to greater prosperity and a more secure peace for both nations if they live up to their obligations.
But if the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards; if they put the pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the security and opportunity of their own people; if they are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms races in both East Asia and the Middle East – then they must be held accountable. The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that Treaties will be enforced. We must insist that the future not belong to fear.
That brings me to the second pillar for our future: the pursuit of peace.
The United Nations was born of the belief that the people of the world can live their lives, raise their families, and resolve their differences peacefully. And yet we know that in too many parts of the world, this ideal remains an abstraction. We can either accept that outcome as inevitable, and tolerate constant and crippling conflict. Or we can recognize that the yearning for peace is universal, and reassert our resolve to end conflicts around the world.
That effort must begin with an unshakeable determination that the murder of innocent men, women and children will never be tolerated. On this, there can be no dispute. The violent extremists who promote conflict by distorting faith have discredited and isolated themselves. They offer nothing but hatred and destruction. In confronting them, America will forge lasting partnerships to target terrorists, share intelligence, coordinate law enforcement, and protect our people. We will permit no safe-haven for al Qaeda to launch attacks from Afghanistan or any other nation. We will stand by our friends on the front lines, as we and many nations will do in pledging support for the Pakistani people tomorrow. And we will pursue positive engagement that builds bridges among faiths, and new partnerships for opportunity.
But our efforts to promote peace cannot be limited to defeating violent extremists. For the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the hope of human beings – the belief that the future belongs to those who build, not destroy; the confidence that conflicts can end, and a new day begin.
That is why we will strengthen our support for effective peacekeeping, while energizing our efforts to prevent conflicts before they take hold. We will pursue a lasting peace in Sudan through support for the people of Darfur, and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, so that we secure the peace that the Sudanese people deserve. And in countries ravaged by violence – from Haiti to Congo to East Timor – we will work with the UN and other partners to support an enduring peace.
I will also continue to seek a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine, and the Arab world. Yesterday, I had a constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. We have made some progress. Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security. Israelis have facilitated greater freedom of movement for the Palestinians. As a result of these efforts by both sides, the economy in the West Bank has begun to grow. But more progress is needed. We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.
The time has come to re-launch negotiations – without preconditions – that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem. The goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security – a Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people. As we pursue this goal, we will also pursue peace between Israel and Lebanon, Israel and Syria, and a broader peace between Israel and its many neighbors. In pursuit of that goal, we will develop regional initiatives with multilateral participation, alongside bilateral negotiations.
I am not naïve. I know this will be difficult. But all of us must decide whether we are serious about peace, or whether we only lend it lip-service. To break the old patterns – to break the cycle of insecurity and despair – all of us must say publicly what we would acknowledge in private. The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians. And nations within this body do the Palestinians no favors when they choose vitriolic attacks over a constructive willingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy, and its right to exist in peace and security.
We must remember that the greatest price of this conflict is not paid by us. It is paid by the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the night. It is paid by the Palestinian boy in Gaza who has no clean water and no country to call his own. These are God’s children. And after all of the politics and all of the posturing, this is about the right of every human being to live with dignity and security. That is a lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one small slice of Earth the Holy Land. And that is why – even though there will be setbacks, and false starts, and tough days – I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace.
Third, we must recognize that in the 21st century, there will be no peace unless we make take responsibility for the preservation of our planet.
The danger posed by climate change cannot be denied, and our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred. If we continue down our current course, every member of this Assembly will see irreversible changes within their borders. Our efforts to end conflicts will be eclipsed by wars over refugees and resources. Development will be devastated by drought and famine. Land that human beings have lived on for millennia will disappear. Future generations will look back and wonder why we refused to act – why we failed to pass on intact the environment that was our inheritance.
That is why the days when America dragged its feet on this issue are over. We will move forward with investments to transform our energy economy, while providing incentives to make clean energy the profitable kind of energy.
We will press ahead with deep cuts in emissions to reach the goals that we set for 2020, and eventually 2050. We will continue to promote renewable energy and efficiency – and share new technologies – with countries around the world. And we will seize every opportunity for progress to address this threat in a cooperative effort with the whole world.
Those wealthy nations that did so much to damage the environment in the 20th century must accept our obligation to lead. But responsibility does not end there. While we must acknowledge the need for differentiated responses, any effort to curb carbon emissions must include the fast-growing carbon emitters who can do more to reduce their air pollution without inhibiting growth. And any effort that fails to help the poorest nations both adapt to the problems that climate change has already wrought – and travel a path of clean development – will not work.
It is hard to change something as fundamental as how we use energy. It’s even harder to do so in the midst of a global recession. Certainly, it will be tempting to sit back and wait for others to move first. But we cannot make this journey unless we all move forward together. As we head into Copenhagen, let us resolve to focus on what each of us can do for the sake of our common future.
This leads me to the final pillar that must fortify our future: a global economy that advances opportunity for all people.
The world is still recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In America, we see the engine of growth beginning to churn, yet many still struggle to find a job or pay their bills. Across the globe, we find promising signs, yet little certainty about what lies ahead. And far too many people in far too many places live through the daily crises that challenge our common humanity – the despair of an empty stomach; the thirst brought on by dwindling water; the injustice of a child dying from a treatable disease, or a mother losing her life as she gives birth.
In Pittsburgh, we will work with the world’s largest economies to chart a course for growth that is balanced and sustained. That means vigilance to ensure that we do not let up until our people are back to work. That means taking steps to rekindle demand, so that a global recovery can be sustained. And that means setting new rules of the road and strengthening regulation for all financial centers, so that we put an end to the greed, excess and abuse that led us into disaster, and prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.
At a time of such interdependence, we have a moral and pragmatic interest in broader questions of development. And so we will continue our historic effort to help people feed themselves. We have set aside $63 billion to carry forward the fight against HIV/AIDS; to end deaths from tuberculosis and malaria; to eradicate polio; and to strengthen public health systems. We are joining with other countries to contribute H1N1 vaccines to the World Health Organization. We will integrate more economies into a system of global trade. We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s Summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.
Now is the time for all of us to do our part. Growth will not be sustained or shared unless all nations embrace their responsibility. Wealthy nations must open their markets to more goods and extend a hand to those with less, while reforming international institutions to give more nations a greater voice. Developing nations must root out the corruption that is an obstacle to progress – for opportunity cannot thrive where individuals are oppressed and business have to pay bribes. That’s why we will support honest police and independent judges; civil society and a vibrant private sector. Our goal is simple: a global economy in which growth is sustained, and opportunity is available to all.
The changes that I have spoken about today will not be easy to make. And they will not be realized simply by leaders like us coming together in forums like this. For as in any assembly of members, real change can only come through the people we represent. That is why we must do the hard work to lay the groundwork for progress in our own capitals. That is where we will build the consensus to end conflicts and to harness technology for peaceful purposes; to change the way we use energy, and to promote growth that can be sustained and shared.
I believe that the people of the world want this future for their children. And that is why we must champion those principles which ensure that governments reflect the will of the people. These principles cannot be afterthoughts – democracy and human rights are essential to achieving each of the goals that I have discussed today. Because governments of the people and by the people are more likely to act in the broader interests of their own people, rather than the narrow interest of those in power.
The test of our leadership will not be the degree to which we feed the fears and old hatreds of our people. True leadership will not be measured by the ability to muzzle dissent, or to intimidate and harass political opponents at home. The people of the world want change. They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history.
This Assembly’s Charter commits each of us, and I quote – “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women.” Among those rights is the freedom to speak your mind and worship as you please; the promise of equality of the races, and the opportunity for women and girls to pursue their own potential; the ability of citizens to have a say in how you are governed, and to have confidence in the administration of justice. For just as no nation should be forced to accept the tyranny of another nation, no individual should be forced to accept the tyranny of their own government.
As an African-American, I will never forget that I would not be here today without the steady pursuit of a more perfect union in my country. That guides my belief that no matter how dark the day may seem, transformative change can be forged by those who choose the side of justice. And I pledge that America will always stand with those who stand up for their dignity and their rights – for the student who seeks to learn; the voter who demands to be heard; the innocent who longs to be free; and the oppressed who yearns to be equal.
Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its people, and – in the past – America has too often been selective in its promotion of democracy. But that does not weaken our commitment, it only reinforces it. There are basic principles that are universal; there are certain truths which are self evident – and the United States of America will never waiver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.
Sixty-five years ago, a weary Franklin Roosevelt spoke to the American people in his fourth and final inaugural address. After years of war, he sought to sum up the lessons that could be drawn from the terrible suffering and enormous sacrifice that had taken place. “We have learned,” he said, “to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.”
The United Nations was built by men and women like Roosevelt from every corner of the world – from Africa and Asia; form Europe to the Americas. These architects of international cooperation had an idealism that was anything but naïve – it was rooted in the hard-earned lessons of war, and the wisdom that nations could advance their interests by acting together instead of splitting apart.
Now it falls to us – for this institution will be what we make of it. The United Nations does extraordinary good around the world in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and mending places that have been broken. But it also struggles to enforce its will, and to live up to the ideals of its founding.
I believe that those imperfections are not a reason to walk away from this institution – they are a calling to redouble our efforts. The United Nations can either be a place where we bicker about outdated grievances, or forge common ground; a place where we focus on what drives us apart, or what brings us together; a place where we indulge tyranny, or a source of moral authority. In short, the United Nations can be an institution that is disconnected from what matters in the lives of our citizens, or it can be indispensable in advancing the interests of the people we serve.
We have reached a pivotal moment. The United States stands ready to begin a new chapter of international cooperation – one that recognizes the rights and responsibilities of all nations. With confidence in our cause, and with a commitment to our values, we call on all nations to join us in building the future that our people deserve. Thank you.
During a visit to Switzerland prior to his New York mini-summit today with President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev discussed a new global security architecture.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in New York today for a round of summitry, including a major address to the United Nations General Assembly and meetings with the leaders of Japan and Russia.
At 6 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 7 AM Pacific, Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters.
At 9 AM Pacific, Obama attends meeting with leaders of peace-keeping troop contributing countries at UN Headquarters.
At 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama participates in a wreath-laying ceremony for fallen United Nations staff members at UN Headquarters.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama attends a lunch hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for heads of state and government at UN Headquarters.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 4:05 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a reception for heads of state and government at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Climate change is taking its toll in Australia, a country which opposed action against greenhouse gases earlier this decade. The issue is a mini-summit for this week’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will soon host his second governors’ global climate summit in Los Angeles.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold private discussions today in and around the Capitol.
He is contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
Schwarzenegger is also preparing to mark the third anniversary of the enactment of California’s landmark climate change program with a speech on Thursday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
And he is preparing for his second governor’s global climate summit at the end of next week at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th column.
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
President Barack Obama discussed his talks today with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. While it’s good that they’re talking, they are apparently still negotiating about negotiating.
** QUICK HITS.No real progress today in Israeli/Palestinian leadership talks with President Barack Obama at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. I’ve long thought that this situation may be essentially intractable. Religious determinism over the same pieces of land is a huge issue on both sides. But talks will continue. At least, that is, talks about talks. … Iran used today to announce that it is accelerating nuclear enrichment activities. Which it continues to insist are for nuclear power and not nuclear weapons. There is little reason to think that the Iranian regime, given its bizarre statements, not to mention its harshly easy crackdown on a nascent protest movement, is benign. But the head of Mossad says Iran is several years at least away from having a nuclear weapon. Yet the drumbeats of war are growing louder from warhawk backers of Israel. … The Massachusetts legislature has passed legislation allowing the governor to immediately appoint an interim replacement for the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who will arrive in the nick of time to help the Obama Administration. … Late Sunday night, someone leaked the secret report of America’s Afghanistan commander to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. Intriguingly, the report says that the current counter-insurgency/nation-building strategy can’t be carried out with the current level of troops. (Which is what the conventional media focuses on, naturally.) But it also doesn’t say that the counter-insurgency/nation-building strategy can be carried out with an increased troop level. (See my column from last week.) …
** JERRY BROWN SUES MADOFF ASSOCIATE FOR ALLEGEDLY FUNNELING HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS INTO THE NOTORIOUS PONZI SCHEME. Former Governor-turned Attorney General Jerry Brown was in Los Angeles this morning to sue Beverly Hills investment adviser Stanley Chais for allegedly steering hundreds of millions of his clients’ funds into fraudulent investments controlled by notorious New York financier Bernard Madoff.
“For decades, Stanley Chais posed as an investment wizard, but in truth, he was nothing more than a Madoff middleman, channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in investor funds to his friend’s Ponzi scheme,” Brown said. “Chais intentionally concealed his close ties to Madoff, while collecting nearly $270 million in fees.”
Brown is demanding at least $25 million in civil penalties, as well as disgorgement of profits and restitution to victims.
According to Brown, the scheme worked like this. Chais allegedly attracted hundreds of investors to his three funds by promising 20% to 25% returns. Engaging in a sort of techno-babble about his methods, he discouraged his investors from learning the truth about how he made these profits: He turned the money over to Madoff, who relied on feeder funds to generate the cash flow needed to prop up his notorious Ponzi scheme.
Brown is filing this lawsuit after a seven-month Department of Justice investigation into Chais and Madoff.
Last week, though I didn’t mention it at the time, Brown launched an investigation into the role of credit rating agencies fueling the global financial crisis by giving excellent ratings to toxic assets.
** WHITMAN FORMALLY LAUNCHES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CAMPAIGN. Former eBay CEO and Republican presidential campaign official Meg Whitman this morning formally announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor of California. I actually thought she’d already announced, as she’s spent many millions already and has been speaking regularly since last year.
At an event late this morning in Fullerton, which is in Orange County, she declared that she would cut the state budget by another $15 billion (leaving the actual plan out) and lay off one-sixth of the state’s workforce, while cutting taxes and regulations on business. She and another GOP hopeful, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, are trying to out-conservative one another. Whitman will reiterate her announcement later this week in San Diego and in Foster City, which is a retirement community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We need someone with a proven ability at creating jobs.
Who understands what growing businesses need.
Who still believes government should be small, efficient and affordable.
We need Meg Whitman.
Meg has 30 years of business experience with major companies like Disney, Hasbro and Procter & Gamble.
As CEO of eBay, she took a start-up and turned it into a Fortune 500 company creating thousands of new jobs here in California.
She helped entrepreneurs create thousands of small businesses and she was recognized as one of the best business leaders in America.
We need to reinvent California.
And that reinvention starts at the top.
For a new California. Meg Whitman.
President Barack Obama, addressing a UN climate change summit this morning in New York — convened in advance of the December round of global negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark — said that the US was slow to recognize the threat but that climate change can be reversed.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in New York today for a round of summitry on Middle East peace, climate change, and relations with China.
Obama has delivered remarks at the UN climate change meeting.
He has also held private meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama holds a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama attends a lunch with Sub-Saharan African Heads of State at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative at the Sheraton Hotel.
At 4 PM Pacific, Obama attends UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s climate change summit dinner at United Nations Headquarters.
On last night’s Late Show with David Letterman, President Barack Obama discussed the issue of race in this year’s vehement criticism of him from the far right, with Obama noting that he was “actually black before the election.”
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold private discussions today in and around the Capitol.
He is contemplating when to call the California Legislature back in special session to deal with outstanding issues on water and educational reform, as well as a possible special session on a several times delayed set of recommendations from a special state tax revision commission.
At 11 AM Pacific, Schwarzenegger will sign legislation by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and others that preserves the state’s Healthy Families program of children’s health care.
In related action, Republican hopeful Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO and Republican presidential campaign co-chair, formally announces her campaign today at an event in Fullerton. I thought she had already made her formal announcement. But then, I remember Gray Davis announced his campaign four times in 1998 …
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? … From my September 17th column.
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
A former aide to 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards, who long said that he was the father of Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter’s child, now says that Edwards is the true father.
** QUICK HITS. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told PBS today that America’s future troop commitments in Afghanistan will hinge in large part on the outcome of the very controversial August 20th presidential election. Final results are still not available, with many returns under serious challenge and subject to recount. Allegations of fraud have largely swirled around President Hamid Karzai, the choice of the Bush/Cheney Administration for the Afghan presidency. … California GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner today accused fellow hopeful Meg Whitman of not only being insufficiently committed to tax-cutting, but also an advocate of the current system. … In advance of tomorrow’s American/Israeli/Palestinian summit in New York, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry today vowed that Israel will keep on with settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank.
** OBAMA GETS HIGH MARKS FOR STRONG LEADERSHIP AND DECISIVENESS. A new Gallup Poll shows President Barack Obama getting high marks nationally on most measures of presidential leadership.
Seventy-two percent say he “is willing to make hard decisions,” and 66% describe him as “a strong and decisive leader.” Sixty-four percent say he “can get things done.” …
The poll also shows that Obama gets high marks for empathy, as he has done since he rose to national prominence. Sixty-four percent say Obama understands the problems Americans face in their daily lives. No less than 63% of Americans have said this about Obama since the characteristic was first measured in March 2008.
His weakest traits are those most closely tied to his politics — “shares your values” (52%) and “has mostly chosen good advisers and cabinet officers” (52%).
While Obama is getting slammed in much of the lefty blogosphere (which mostly supported John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich) for supposed weakness, upwards of 90% of Democrats around the country credit him for strong leadership and decisiveness.
President Barack Obama, fresh off appearances on five Sunday shows, has a full plate of geopolitics this week, commanding the global stage from the UN General Assembly meeting in New York and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A very big week in presidential politics. In California politics, not so much.
President Barack Obama is back on the global stage this week, and it’s all happening in America. In New York City and Pittsburgh.
He will address the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and become the first American president to chair the UN Security Council. High on the agenda: Nuclear arms control around the world, and especially in Iran and North Korea.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday raised the stakes rhetorically (as the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah began) by denying that the Holocaust took place and saying that the State of Israel is founded on “a lie.” This is, of course, vicious nonsense. Obama will not be meeting with him.
While in New York, Obama will also hold private meetings with the leaders of Russia, China, and Japan.
And he will try to re-start the Middle East peace process with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The summit with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas takes place on Tuesday. One major stumbling block to a full resumption of the peace process is the insistence of the right-wing coalition backing Netanyahu that settlements by religious fundamentalists on the West Bank continue. Others are disarray in Palestinian ranks and slowness on the part of Arab countries in recognizing Israel.
Obama will also join former President Bill Clinton to address the annual meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative, the former president’s very impressive charitable organization.
Things got very heated on the campaign trail last year between Obama and Clinton as the former president tried to salvage his wife’s once all-but-certain (for most analysts, that is) nomination. Clinton was widely accused of injecting race into the campaign and made a number of decidedly intemperate remarks. He’s a very emotional guy whose private blow-ups are legendary. But he’s extremely talented and personable as well and he and Obama have buried the hatchet.
Obama then goes on to host the G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The G-20 held a summit early this year in London, at the height of the global economic crisis. Things are improving, but the economy is still weak. Obama will push further stimulus of various ailing economies and regulation of financial institutions, whose complex machinations, mostly on Wall Street, caused a near meltdown of the global financial system.
In California politics, following one of the least productive legislative sessions in memory, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is contemplating when to recall the California Legislature to deal with unfinished business on water and education.
He’s also preparing to celebrate the third anniversary of the signing of AB 32, the state’s landmark climate change program. Which one of his would-be Republican successors, former eBay CEO and Republican presidential campaign official Meg Whitman rather amusingly called on him to dump last week.
The governor’s race continues on its appointed course. I think my assessment of each of the candidates, based on extensive scouting, from early this year holds true.
Republicans Whitman and Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner and inventor the mixed blessing of of cell phone tracking tech, each hug the far right rail despite the insistence of much of the press on calling them moderates. While Whitman gave the lie to her purported moderation last week, calling for the end of a landmark climate change program even while a new shipping lane was established through the melting Arctic Ocean, Poizner rolled out an economic program far to the right of Ronald Reagan’s.
Former Congressman Tom Campbell is the wonky editorial board candidate, offering long and dull position papers at the drop of a hat.
On the Democratic side, the favorite to be the next governor of California, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, is elusive and above the fray, except when he feels like smacking a challenger around from time to time. He clings to the illusion that he’s not really a candidate while amassing a huge campaign warchest.
As for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, this promising figure is a major disappointment, conducting a sophomoric, generic campaign while making jet-setter Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a homebody. His spinners whipped up a simulacrum of progress last week when former President Bill Clinton scheduled an LA fundraiser with him. But left unmentioned in the spin, and the rather provincial coverage, is the fact that Clinton is actually doing many such fundraisers around the country for politicians who backed his wife’s campaign. I know of 10 such pols, and a top Clinton hand tells me it’s more like 20, with Clinton doing substantially more for several others than he’s doing for Newsom. Newsom was a national co-chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Meanwhile, Newsom, who already had a net negative favorable rating, made two moves last week that render him even less electable than he was before.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is on the road today in New York
After flying to Albany, New York on Air Force One, on which he received his daily intelligence and economic briefings, Obama proceeded to Hudson Valley Community College which he toured with Jill Biden.
At 8:50 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Hudson Valley Community College.
At 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama departs Albany en route to New York City on Air Force One.
At 10:45 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in New York City.
At 12:55 PM Pacific, Obama tapes an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman. The interview airs tonight.
Obama is prepping for a momentous week ahead. See the Monday Morning Quarterback column.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events today.
He will hold private discussions in and around the Capitol.
Mad Men won the Emmy for best dramatic series last night for the second year in a row. 30 Rock won again as best comedy series.
** MAD MEN‘S EMMY TRIUMPH COMES AS “GUY WALKS INTO AN ADVERTISING AGENCY.”Last night’s repeat win at the Emmy Awards further enshrined Mad Men as television’s best series on a night when it aired a consequential new episode.
Before getting to the review of “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” — a very ironic title, as it happens — replete with the usual spoilers, a few thoughts about Mad Men as the new Sopranos.
While it will never have the populist appeal of a well-written show about angst-ridden mobsters, Mad Men is something I find even more interesting. It’s a highly cinematic time tunnel from a fascinating period, the early 1960s, to the present. It’s a show about the American Dream, about aspiration and identity and value, revolving around some very intriguing characters in perhaps the most quintessential of American businesses. Advertising defines the American Dream and reflects it, all in an endless loop of desire and dissatisfaction, ever adjusting to change and co-opting it. For one purpose: To convince you that you need what it’s selling. …
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? …
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 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, 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 $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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Just a week after its dramatic come-from-behind victory before 106,000 screaming fans at Ohio State, USC was upset by Washington yesterday on a last-second field goal, 16-13. Star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley and All-American safety Taylor Mays missed the game with injuries as USC went up against its former offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkisian, now the Washington head coach who knows them very well indeed. So much for the national championship.
OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama has no scheduled public events today.
He is, however, all over your TV screen.
Obama appears today on NBC’s Meet The Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face The Nation, CNN’s State of the Union, and Univision’s Al Punto.
Obama is the first president to appear on the Univision show. He will not appear at the Emmy Awards to give the trophy for best dramatic series to Mad Men.
Left out of the mix? Fox News. For fairly obvious reasons.
Obama filmed the appearances on Friday at the White House.
He’s prepping today for a very big week of geopolitics, as discussed below.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events today.
He is out of state.
Schwarzenegger is contemplating when to recall the California Legislature to deal with unfinished business on water and education. He’s also preparing to celebrate the third anniversary of the signing of AB 32, the state’s landmark climate change program.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the global economic crisis in advance of next week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit in Pittsburgh.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama has no scheduled public events today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama is prepping for a momentous week ahead.
He will address the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and become the first American president to chair the UN Security Council. High on the agenda: Nuclear arms control around the world, and especially in Iran and North Korea.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday raised the stakes rhetorically (as the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah began) by denying that the Holocaust took place and saying that the State of Israel is founded on “a lie.” This is, of course, vicious nonsense. Obama will not be meeting with him.
While in New York, Obama will also hold private meetings with the leaders of Russia, China, and Japan.
And he will try to re-start the Middle East peace process with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Obama will also join former President Bill Clinton to address the annual meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative, the former president’s very impressive charitable organization.
Things got very heated on the campaign trail last year between Obama and Clinton as the former president tried to salvage his wife’s once all-but-certain (for most analysts, that is) nomination. Clinton was widely accused of injecting race into the campaign and made a number of decidedly intemperate remarks. He’s a very emotional guy whose private blow-ups are legendary. But he’s extremely talented and personable as well and he and Obama have buried the hatchet.
South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, who shouted “You lie!” at President Obama during his nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, says now that he “had a town hall moment.”
Obama then goes on to host the G-20 (group of 20 advanced economies) summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The G-20 held a summit early this year in London, at the height of the global economic crisis. Things are improving, but the economy is still weak. Obama will push further stimulus of various ailing economies and regulation of financial institutions, whose complex machinations, mostly on Wall Street, caused a near meltdown of the global financial system.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no scheduled public events this weekend.
** OBAMA AND AL QAEDA: NEW MOVES SHOW SUCCESS MAY NOT DEPEND ON AFGHANISTAN.While things are going quite ruggedly for America in Afghanistan, they may be going worse for Al Qaeda everywhere. Osama bin Laden’s taunting 9/11 anniversary message was days late and very lame. And President Barack Obama’s lethal approach to dealing with the organization that attacked America on 9/11 took a startling, and still more lethal, turn this week in Somalia.
Which raises a central question: Are we not in fact much closer to achieving our central goal in Afghanistan than most imagine? …
** 9/11 + 8: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE’RE GOING.Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80.
So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.
We all remember how America seemed unified in 9/11’s aftermath, especially in contrast to the disunity engendered by the Florida election debacle. And much of the world embraced America. Then there was the fear, the feeling that another jihadist strike inside America was surely coming.
All that remains of any of that is the permanent wartime footing at the airports.
Well, that and Osama bin Laden, along with an ongoing problem for America in the Islamic world. And a confused Afghanistan strategy. … From my September 11th column.
** WHY THE KENNEDY EULOGIES STRUCK THE RIGHT TONE.The eulogies this past weekend for Senator Ted Kennedy provided the late senator a wonderful send-off, presenting him as both passionate partisan and powerful conciliator, a send-off that would undoubtedly have pleased him. Undoubtedly, in that he planned most of the proceedings himself.
While he didn’t write his eulogists’ speeches for them, he can’t help but have had a very good idea of what they would say. And what they presented was a picture of a man who was a staunch Democrat, “the soul of the Democratic Party,” as President Barack Obama put it, a most imperfect man who was nonetheless a great man of family, and a man of the Senate. Or, perhaps more accurately, a man of the old Senate. …
Kennedy found his political home in this environment. More the doctrinaire liberal than either John or Robert Kennedy, he spoke passionately and fought strongly for the partisan causes that came to define the Democratic Party.
But he focused not only on the fight, but on the result, keeping lines of communication to Republicans open and compromising to find the deal when he felt that the fight was becoming for naught. As a result, Ted Kennedy made a large and lasting imprint on the fabric of America. … From my September 2nd column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY.(NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
** 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, 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 $72.04 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $38 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
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