Congressman John Murtha, the longtime chairman of the House Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations and a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, died today from complications from gall bladder surgery. Murtha became an outspoken and influential opponent of the Iraq War. His subcommittee is one of the most influential of all congressional panels. Through his membership on this body, and his influence over Murtha and others, then Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson was able to fund the covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
** QUICK HITS. Congressional Republicans are agreeing so far to join President Barack Obama for televised negotiating session later this month on the national health care bill. This is perilous ground for them, given how things went when he appeared at the House Republican Caucus retreat. … California Attorney General Jerry Brown today called on the nation’s two largest public pension funds, California’s Public Employee Retirement System and State Teachers Retirement System, to demonstrate some action under the state law requiring to divest from companies doing business with Iran that are not ending the practice. Brown noted that the funds have reported on their 2009 activities but have failed to reveal whether they have actually divested or taken any steps. He spoke at rallies last year in support of Iran’s pro-democracy demonstrators who were forcibly suppressed by the Tehran regime. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appointee to be the state’s new lieutenant governor, moderate Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado, was to have had a confirmation hearing this afternoon in front of the Assembly Rules Committee. That’s been postponed till tomorrow. He’s drawing more opposition in the Assembly than in the Senate. … Schwarzenegger will be in lovely Vancouver, British Columbia on Friday morning to run in the last leg of the Winter Olympics Torch Relay. Schwarzenegger has done a lot on energy and environmental issues with the Canadian provincial government, which will help host the Opening Ceremony of the Games later that day.
** IRANIAN NUCLEAR CRISIS SPINS UP. As long anticipated on NWN, the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program is spinning up.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a longtime man of the left, both said today that the European Union will join the U.S. in insisting on tough new sanctions against Iran.
“We don’t have any other option than to go to the Security Council for further measures,” Morin was quoted as saying following a meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “On the Iran nuclear issue, our views totally converge.”
Also speaking on the Iranian nuclear issue was French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who was quoted by AFP as saying Monday afternoon that Iran’s usage of “blackmail” over its atomic program was forcing Western powers to insist on sanctions. “Negotiation is not possible,” he reportedly said.
After announcing Sunday that it would begin to enrich uranium in defiance of repeated entreaties by the UN and Western leaders, the regime in Teheran declared on Monday that it would enrich the potentially fissile material to 20 percent.
Iran’s announcement also served as a final, official rejection of a UN-brokered plan which would have required the Islamic republic to ship most of its uranium abroad to France, where it would undergo further processing into metal fuel rods.
** HOW LONG HAS MEG WHITMAN LIVED IN CALIFORNIA? In her introductory TV ad, released to the media on Thursday, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Whitman, the former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, said she has lived in California for 30 years.
As that was obviously impossible, she changed the TV ad on Friday to say that she’s lived in California for “many years.”
So how long has she lived in California?
In a getting-to-know-you softball interview, Stahl asked Whitman — who had just become national co-chair of the John McCain for President campaign — what she and her husband, Dr. Griff Harsh IV, like to do for fun.
We actually really like to hike. And it’s something that we do together, and locally. One of the great things about living in California is the state parks, all up and down the coast. So we do a fair amount of hiking together. This was a fun thing we did about a month ago. We went down to see the elephant seals at Año Nuevo. I have lived in California for nearly 20 years and I’ve never been to see the elephant seals. And we had a ball. We drove to Half Moon Bay, drove down the coast, had a picnic lunch, went to see the elephant seals, on the most spectacular California day that you have ever seen. And then took off to a hike in the redwoods that’s just north of … or just a little bit south of Half Moon Bay, and did about a 10-mile hike, which I was dying at the end of.
One wonders how Whitman got from having lived in California for less than 20 years — when talking with Leslie Stahl as she accepted the national co-chairmanship of the 2008 Republican presidential campaign — to having lived in California for 30 years in her much-rehearsed introductory TV ad for governor of California.
Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off last night from the Kennedy Space Center, heading toward the International Space Station on a construction mission. Monday’s lift-off was the final night time launch before the space shuttles are retired.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
Another big week in presidential politics, and a semi-big week in California politics.
President Barack Obama has a complex series of moves to make on the economy, health care, and geopolitics, especially with regard to Iran.
In California politics, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping for legislative cooperation on his appointment of a new lieutenant governor and some action on the chronic budget crisis. Jerry Brown, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, edges closer to actually declaring his candidacy, having made a campaign-like speech and taken questions over the weekend in San Francisco. And the Meg Whitman camp is probably breathing a sigh of relief that California’s much diminished press corps didn’t bother to cover any of her public appearances last week.
One great development for Obama over the weekend was the definitive re-emergence of Sarah Palin as a political figure following her book tour. She’s clearly not just going to play media celebrity.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, who quit as Alaska’s governor midway through her first term, keynoted the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee, ripping in to Obama as soft on terror. She received $100,000 for her speech.
Palin sounded a lot like a presidential candidate, both before the Tea Party crowd and on Fox News today. Which, as I write this, is not much of a distinction.
“We need a Commander-in-Chief, not a law perfessor standing at the lectern,” she declared to screams of approval.
Palin led a preference poll of Republicans for president last week.
For his part, Obama now has to follow through on his weekend pledge at the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee to revive the national health care bill, which in different forms had passed both houses of Congress only to stall with the upset loss of the Massachusetts special election for Senate.
Obama is also pushing for a second, smaller economic stimulus bill as part of his newfound focus on job creation. The unemployment rate dropped for the first time in months but the situation is still sluggish at best.
While Obama monitors the welcome re-emergence of Palin, he places a bit more attention on several geopolitical crises he inherited, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
In Pakistan, it appears increasingly evident that the new head of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in a U.S. missile strike inside Pakistan ordered by Obama. The Taliban have refused to provide any proof of life for Hakimullah Mehsud.
The U.S. strike was in mid-January.
Mehsud’s predecessor was also killed in a U.S. missile strike ordered by Obama.
In Iran, regime leaders have further muddied the waters by vowing to host an international conference against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Even as they vowed to begin further enrichment of uranium, though not to weapons-grade levels, for medical purposes. Once uranium is enriched to 20%, it is much easier to then turn around and further enrich it to 90% for weapons purposes.
They also say that they want to send uranium abroad for further enrichment. But they don’t like the deal their negotiators agreed to late last year.
Defense Secretary Bob Gates, appearing today in Paris with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, said that the U.S. and its allies have no choice but to pursue stringent sanctions against the Iranian regime. At the same time, the U.S. and the European Union released a scathing joint statement on Iran’s human rights practices in the wake of last year’s disputed presidential election.
Things are not quite so good in Iraq, either. Last week, it appeared that the government was going along with an appellate court ruling restoring some 500 Sunni candidates for the March parliamentary elections. They had been banned for supposed links to the late Saddam Hussein, in a move that many considered a Shiite power play. Now it’s not so clear.
In Afghanistan, preparations continue for the first big military offensive since the Obama surge. U.S. Marines and British troops will take the lead, assisted by Afghan forces, in a major move against a Taliban enclave in southern Afghanistan.
Back in California, there’s been little action in the special legislative session on the budget called by Schwarzenegger. A state Senate committee has heard some testimony. An Assembly committee finally convened, but only to hear criticism of Schwarzenegger’s plans. The state will run out of money at the end of March if action is not taken.
While remaining state reporters and bloggers were transfixed by the sensational last week in the Republican contests for governor and U.S. senator — Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s claim that Whitman’s campaign violated the law in trying to force him from the race, Whitman’s clumsy attempt to force him out, Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s cockeyed “demon sheep” video attack on Tom Campbell, and Whitman’s false claim to have lived in California for 30 years (when she was national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign she said she’d lived in California for less than 20 years) — Whitman herself moved around the state all week promoting her book.
And no one covered the billionaire gubernatorial hopeful. True, they were book tour events, not campaign events. Which is, well, nonsense. It’s all part of her campaign.
Whitman managed to appear, as I wrote 10 days ago that she would, in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento. And to my knowledge, no journalist bestirred him or herself to attend, observe, and ask her a few questions.
Not that she would give much in the way of answers, but that’s the point. The press complains that Whitman isn’t available, that her staff gives boiler plate robot answers, that she won’t (or can’t) engage.
She’s not an author on a private book tour, she is an official candidate for governor of California. Everywhere she goes she is on the record.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10:45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in the Oval Office.
Due to the massive snow storm along the Atlantic seaboard, Washington is essentially shut down today. Federal government offices are closed.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised James Cameron Saturday night in Santa Barbara, presenting him with the Modern Master award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Cameron’s new film, Avatar, has already broken the domestic and global box office records set by his Titanic. Cameron and Schwarzenegger worked together on several major films.
UPDATE: Schwarzenegger’s event in San Luis Obispo will now be at 11 AM instead of 10 AM.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and Sacramento today.
His appointee as California’s new lieutenant governor, moderate Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado, has a confirmation hearing this afternoon before the Assembly Rules Committee.
Maldonado won approval from the Senate Rules Committee on February 3rd.
If he is not rejected by the Legislature by February 22nd, Maldonado takes office.
At 10 AM, after touring REC Solar in San Luis Obispo, Schwarzenegger and Maldonado hold a press conference there to highlight Schwarzenegger’s proposal to promote green jobs through training and hiring incentives.
The event will be webcast live on www.gov.ca.gov.
** LOST IN LOST. … From my February 4th essay.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP. What would Don Draper do?
The selling of Meg Whitman has been underway for more than a year, the billionaire ex-eBay CEO and public affairs novice assiduously promoting herself as a potential governor of of the nation’s largest state even as she dodges debates and substantive interviews. After making no public appearances in California in January, but venturing back East last week to launch her CEO memoir, “The Power of Many,” she’s appearing up and down the state this week to promote her book, if not to discuss the pressing issues of the state she would presume to govern.
Meanwhile, her eighth radio ad to date (featuring her campaign chair, former Governor Pete Wilson) blankets the state, as the others have for months. All is “on plan” in the selling of Meg Whitman. Or is it?
There’s just one thing. Television.
Well-informed sources tell me that Whitman and her panoply of high-paid consultants are having trouble coming up with a way to introduce the would-be governor on television to her hoped-for constituents.
In January, Whitman’s consultants presented 22 potential introductory TV ads to a focus group in Sacramento. The ads didn’t fly. The reaction to Whitman’s TV presentation was particularly problematic with women. … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** MAD MEN SWEEPS THE LATEST AWARDS AND LOSES A KEY CHARACTER. … From my January 27th column.
** SCOTT BROWN NEED NOT APPLY: CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS IN THE POST-ARNOLD ERA. … From my January 26th column.
** WHAT SCOTT BROWN KNEW IN 2010 AND BARACK OBAMA KNEW IN 2008. … From my January 22nd column.
** 24 NATION.… From my January 19th column.
** THE LAST CLINTON MELODRAMA? (AND OTHER SENSATIONALIST GAME CHANGE GOSSIP) … From my January 14th column.
** OBAMA’S SECURITY PROBLEMS: THE MEDIA, CHENEY AND, OH YES, THE ISSUE. … From my January 12th column.
** HOW JERRY BROWN CLEARED THE DEMOCRATIC FIELD FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. … From my December 9th 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, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The long-suffering New Orleans Saints, whose city was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, upset the favored Indianapolis Colts in convincing fashion in the Super Bowl, 31-17.
** HELP FOR HAITI.
You can donate to the new Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, www.clintonbushhaitifund.org, by clicking here.
** 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 is trading around $72 per barrel.
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.
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| Comments (47) |
Great video of Schwarzenegger and James Cameron.
Great nighttime launch video.
I’m happy New Orleans won the Super Bowl.
I really enjoyed this video. Arnold seems really into it. Cameron seems almost human.
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:29 am
Great video of Schwarzenegger and James Cameron.
I’m going to miss these.
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:34 am
Great nighttime launch video.
That was a great Super Bowl!!!!
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:36 am
I’m happy New Orleans won the Super Bowl.
L-A-M-E.
BB: While remaining state reporters and bloggers were transfixed by the sensational last week in the Republican contests for governor and U.S. senator — Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s claim that Whitman’s campaign violated the law in trying to force him from the race, Whitman’s clumsy attempt to force him out, Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s cockeyed “demon sheep” video attack on Tom Campbell, and Whitman’s false claim to have lived in California for 30 years — Whitman herself moved around the state all week promoting her book.
And no one covered the former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign. True, they were book tour events, not campaign events. Which is nonsense. It’s all part of her campaign.
Whitman managed to appear, as I wrote 10 days ago that she would, in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento. And to my knowledge, no journalist bestirred him or herself to attend, observe, and ask her a few questions.
Not that she would give much in the way of answers, but that’s the point. The press complains that Whitman isn’t available, that her staff gives boiler plate robot answers, that she won’t (or can’t) engage.
She’s not an author on a private book tour, she is an official candidate for governor of California. Everywhere she goes she is on the record.
If you have a chance see the PBS program Sound Tracks’ fascinating piece on the origins of a Russian pop song that has become Putin’s signature campaign and rally song, “A Man Like Putin”. I thought it was a fascinating window on modern Russian culture.
http://www.pbs.org/soundtracks/stories/putin/
Reporters are parakeets.
Capitol Boy says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:59 am
L-A-M-E.
BB: While remaining state reporters and bloggers were transfixed by the sensational last week in the Republican contests for governor and U.S. senator — Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s claim that Whitman’s campaign violated the law in trying to force him from the race, Whitman’s clumsy attempt to force him out, Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s cockeyed “demon sheep” video attack on Tom Campbell, and Whitman’s false claim to have lived in California for 30 years — Whitman herself moved around the state all week promoting her book.
And no one covered the former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign. True, they were book tour events, not campaign events. Which is nonsense. It’s all part of her campaign.
Great game, for a Super Bowl.
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:36 am
I’m happy New Orleans won the Super Bowl.
Where’s Schwarzeneger?
The webcast isn’t playing for me.
I hadn’t realized Obama’s cancelling of the Moon Program also meant scrapping the replacement vehicle for the shuttle (Orion). He wants to instead seek a role for private sector launch vehicles to access low earth orbit. Interesting concept.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8489097.stm
And he’s very much behind the space station, as well as non-lunar exploration.
Oh, yes. That’s very real, and very clever. I’d seen the music video before — with Putin as funny spymaster with his singing Bond Girls — and the whole thing is very funny. On one level. And very serious on another.
My old friend used to have dreams in which she was Putin’s daughter.
> Dana says:
February 8, 2010 at 10:14 am (Edit)
If you have a chance see the PBS program Sound Tracks’ fascinating piece on the origins of a Russian pop song that has become Putin’s signature campaign and rally song, “A Man Like Putin”. I thought it was a fascinating window on modern Russian culture.
http://www.pbs.org/soundtracks/stories/putin/
One of the best Super Bowls, and I’ve seen them all.
> Capitol Boy says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:55 am (Edit)
That was a great Super Bowl!!!!
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:36 am
I’m happy New Orleans won the Super Bowl.
A bit of damning with faint phrase there …
> Capitol Boy says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:52 am (Edit)
I really enjoyed this video. Arnold seems really into it. Cameron seems almost human.
Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:29 am
Great video of Schwarzenegger and James Cameron.
That does look good, doesn’t it?
> Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:34 am (Edit)
Great nighttime launch video.
They’re both saying interesting and amusing things.
> Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 9:29 am (Edit)
Great video of Schwarzenegger and James Cameron.
More video today?
Found this via a comment posted on calbuzz–enviro bigshots squabbling. Too delicious not to share…
http://www.gapatton.net/2010/02/35-exchange-of-correspondence.html
Who’s Gary Patton?
Where’s my comment?
Ya know. If Meg Whitman can’t get her story straight about how long she’s lived in California, what the hell else is she lying about?
This is as basic as it gets.
First it’s 20 years, now it’s 30 years? No, how about you are a liar.
… Maybe she’s a dummy, like Palin. Ignorant, I mean. Obama’s “soft on terrorism” but he’s killing more top terrorists thatn Bush ever did.
Was Executive Director of the Planning & Conservation League for some years, among other roles in the environmental movement.
http://www.wittwerparkin.com/gary.html
>22.Jack Aubrey says:
February 8, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Who’s Gary Patton?
Murtha was very powerful, who will Pelosi pick in his place?
She’s a fake! I love it!!
BB: One wonders how Whitman got from having lived in California for less than 20 years — when talking with Leslie Stahl as she accepted the national co-chairmanship of the 2008 Republican presidential campaign — to having lived in California for 30 years in her much-rehearsed introductory TV ad for governor of California.
Whitman makes Newsom look like a straight shooter.
The Republicans are falling into Barack’s trap on health care. Good for JB getting on those pension funds to get out of Iran.
Perhaps.
I don’t know.
> Jonas Blane says:
February 8, 2010 at 2:37 pm (Edit)
Murtha was very powerful, who will Pelosi pick in his place?
Sorry for the glitch, again …
> Jack Aubrey says:
February 8, 2010 at 2:08 pm (Edit)
Where’s my comment?
What do you think the upshot is?
> Dana says:
February 8, 2010 at 12:17 pm (Edit)
Found this via a comment posted on calbuzz–enviro bigshots squabbling. Too delicious not to share…
http://www.gapatton.net/2010/02/35-exchange-of-correspondence.html
Thank you.
There is so much to say about today’s writings.
I am happy the President is drawing the Republicans into his lair. I wish conflict with Iran were not necessary. I don’t see how Meg Whitman can not be considered a fake. I am happy for New Orleans.
My impression is the high sounding ideals these folks are using to skewer each other are in service of long-standing personality clashes, etc. People often complain about things when it suits them in service of various agendas only later to engage in the very behavior they previously decried. Not a shocking revelation but interesting to see it all on somewhat public display and obviously airing various grudges, etc.
The enviro movement isn’t always in lock step. Just read a newsletter from the Sacramento office of the Sierra Club that fairly denounced the Water Bond. I know other groups think on balance it is worth supporting.
>34.Bill Bradley says:
February 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm
What do you think the upshot is?
President Obama’s commitment to the International Space Station is very wise.
What new video today?
Iran’s Revolution Day coming up, and Ringo Starr on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As a Russian rocket delivers supplies …
> sergei says:
February 9, 2010 at 4:34 am (Edit)
President Obama’s commitment to the International Space Station is very wise.
That’s typical in all movements.
I think the water bond is going to have some rough going in this environment.
> Dana says:
February 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm (Edit)
My impression is the high sounding ideals these folks are using to skewer each other are in service of long-standing personality clashes, etc. People often complain about things when it suits them in service of various agendas only later to engage in the very behavior they previously decried. Not a shocking revelation but interesting to see it all on somewhat public display and obviously airing various grudges, etc.
The enviro movement isn’t always in lock step. Just read a newsletter from the Sacramento office of the Sierra Club that fairly denounced the Water Bond. I know other groups think on balance it is worth supporting.
>34.Bill Bradley says:
February 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm
What do you think the upshot is?
Thanks.
> marcos leon says:
February 8, 2010 at 6:14 pm (Edit)
There is so much to say about today’s writings.
I am happy the President is drawing the Republicans into his lair. I wish conflict with Iran were not necessary. I don’t see how Meg Whitman can not be considered a fake. I am happy for New Orleans.
His House colleagues used to say Charlie Wilson was the only person they had ever met who could strut while sitting down.
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Incidentally, NWN passed 93,000 comments sometime in the past week or so.