President Barack Obama, pushing greentech jobs today in Arlington, Virginia, said that the better-than-expected report on jobs isn’t good enough.
** QUICK HITS. Embattled New York Congressman Eric Massa is resigning in the wake of allegations that he sexually harassed a male staff member. This lowers the number of votes Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to corral for the national health care reform bill to 216. Massa was a No vote because he wants an all government-run system. … In the California governor’s race, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner got a boost in his Republican primary battle against billionaire Meg Whitman today with the endorsement of Congressman Tom McClintock. The veteran legislator, who finished third in the 2003 recall election for governor, is the leading figure of the California right wing. … All the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator are heading to Orange County for this weekend’s convention of the far right California Republican Assembly. The group will vote on endorsements on Sunday
** THE CALI SENATE GOP TUSSLE. All three Republican candidates vying to face off against Senator Barbara Boxer debated today on a conservative Sacramento radio show. I was only able listen to part of the hour-long debate, but have seen the coverage and have a few thoughts.
Far right Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, now running a distant third, seemed the most comfortable and had the best voice for radio. He probably won the debate, in the sense that was the most facile of the three in presenting his positions and never seemed on the defensive. But winning a primary debate doesn’t usually mean all that much. Just ask Tom Hayden, the left-liberal Democrat who probably won every debate he was in, but never won the Democratic nominations for governor or U.S. senator, much less got elected mayor of Los Angeles.
Ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina was the only candidate not in the studio with right-wing talk show host Eric Hogue. She was on the phone, which affects the sound quality a bit. It can also throw off one’s timing. I’ve been on what seems like thousands of radio shows, so it’s second nature. Fiorina doesn’t have that experience, so she seemed at least a half-beat off throughout the show.
But she did well enough, fending off criticism of Hewlett Packard selling printers to Iran, which was legal under U.S. law, and denying that her campaign manager Marty Wilson had called ex-Congressman Tom Campbell an “anti-semite.”
Fiorina still seems to be the candidate that the Democrats are most interested in bringing down. That’s because of her financial advantage. And the fact that the debate even took place was an advantage for her, coming in the wake of revelations of current frontrunner Campbell’s former close association with a convicted terrorist.
Campbell has seen his fundraising, aided by supporters of billionaire Meg Whitman, pick up notably since he dropped out of the governor’s race and switched to the Senate race. But it’s still not at the pace that he probably needs.
For his part, he did well enough in the debate, which he wanted to do to try to clear his name after it came out that he had a rather close association with former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian. Campbell defended Al-Arian against charges of terrorist activities and denied that Al-Arian had contributed to his past campaign. But it quickly emerged that Al-Arian had not only helped raise money for Campbell, but had also given him $1300. Which Campbell said he had forgotten about.
Al-Arian’s fundraising for Campbell happened before Al-Arian pled guilty to working with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization.
Campbell also has a problem in that, as a congressman, he sponsored legislation to bar the use of classified information in immigration proceedings. Such as the immigration proceeding involving Al-Arian’s brother-in-law. Campbell visited him in jail.
Campbell’s legislation would have made it more difficult to use information gleaned from counter-intelligence operations to expel suspected terrorists. None of the 9/11 hijackers, to use an obvious example, were American citizens.
Fiorina doesn’t quite know how to use this issue against Campbell. Yet.
** IS OBAMA’S AFPAK STRATEGY ACTUALLY WORKING? I’m not a big fan of the big escalation in Afghanistan. While there are many things that would be good to do in Afghanistan, there is only one thing that we have to do: Deny it as an operational base for Al Qaeda or other transnational jihadists. As Vice President Joe Biden and others have pointed out, that can be done with far less than the nation-building exercise which ex-President George W. Bush promised and President Barack Obama at times seems bent on delivering. Yet there are some signs that Obama’s strategy, which goes well beyond the escalation, is working. Is it?
With a few exceptions, in the form of rebuilding advanced industrial nations that we had smashed, America really isn’t very good at nation-building. And now we need to focus on a nation-building project rather closer to home, in that it is at home.
America is getting hollowed out economically. The middle class is in trouble, the poor hanging on by a thread. We all know it. The financial machinations that made a few wildly rich nearly wrecked the country. Yet we are still involved in a rickety nation-building experiment in Iraq after an invasion which looks only more idiotic as time passes and we learn more. We simply don’t need another nation-building experiment, much less one in a tribal society in which literacy is rare and corruption is the norm, with narcotics by far the biggest industry.
That said, what I like about Obama’s AfPak strategy, though I do not like the big escalation in Afghanistan, is that there is a suppleness to it. It evolves. Or, at least, it seems to evolve. For all I know, what appear to be evolutions in the strategy is merely Obama choosing to reveal new elements of it over time. …
** NEW SURVEY: FOUR OF THE TEN METRO AREAS WITH THE LOWEST OBESITY RATES ARE IN CALIFORNIA. SAY, ARNOLD … After giving Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger some gas for three California metropolitan areas turning up in the national top 10 for highest obesity rates (with Stockton tied for first), it’s a pleasure to note that California has four of the metropolitan areas that rank best in the country on that measure of health.
Schwarzenegger and former President Bill Clinton hosted a summit last week in Los Angeles on health and obesity issues.
The new Gallup/Healthways survey reveals that San Luis Obispo/Paso Robles, Santa Cruz/Watsonville, San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, and San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont all made the national top 10 in this measure, in fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth place, respectively.
America’s 10 least obese metro areas boast an average obesity rate of 18.7% — 15.1 percentage points lower than that of the nation’s 10 most obese places and significantly better than the national average.
Fort Collins/Loveland, Colo., has the lowest obesity rate of any metropolitan area in the country, at 16.0%, followed closely by Boulder, Colo., at 16.6%. Four Colorado metro areas rank among the 10 least obese places, as do four areas in California.
Indeed, nine of the leading metro areas in this measure are in the West. Reno/Sparks, Nevada joins the Colorado and California metro areas amongst the national leaders.
Only two metropolitan areas outside the West make the list, and they are both in New England. That’s Barnstable Town, Massachusetts. And Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, Connecticut, which finished in a tie for 10th place with Denver.
Actually, this reminds me of a map to Gary Hart strongholds in the Democratic presidential primaries of the 1980s.
Jerry Brown, who just bested a round of far younger reporters in pull-ups a month before his 72nd birthday during a series of very long interviews, also did very well in these areas in his two runner-up races for the Democratic presidential nomination.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted yesterday that the national health care reform bill will be passed. But it may not happen by March 18th, which is what President Barack Obama wants, as some anti-abortion Democrats and pro-single payer Democrats are not yet on board.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Virginia today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama then delivered remarks on clean energy jobs at a small business in Arlington, Virginia.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden have lunch in the Private Dining Room.
Obama announced his path forward on the national health care reform bill on Wednesday.
As expected, he wants the House to adopt the Senate bill and the Senate to to pass changes needed to mollify House Democrats through the majority vote budget reconciliation process, thus avoiding a Republican filibuster.
They probably need to have this done, one way or the other, no later than Easter. It has certainly dragged on far longer than anticipated.
Obama had wanted Congressional passage by the end of last August. Subsequent deadlines came and went. Following passage of different versions of national health care reform by the House and the Senate, something never done before since then President Teddy Roosevelt first called for universal health care, the two houses were closing in on agreement when inattentive Democrats lost the Massachusetts special election for the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s old seat.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
In Afghanistan, U.S. and allied forces are engaged in mopping up operations in the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah.
In Iraq, preparations are underway for this weekend’s national parliamentary elections. It remains to be seen how Sunnis will react to the banning of hundreds of candidates by Iranian-aligned Shiite officials. A threatened boycott of elections hasn’t gathered much public steam.
There has not yet been a repeat of yesterday’s suicide bombings on early polling stations in Baghdad for security personnel who will be working on Sunday.
The gunman who wounded two police officers at the subway entrance to the Pentagon has died. John Patrick Bedell, a Californian, drove across the country from California before the attack.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio today.
Schwarzenegger is attending the annual Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
** THE CALIFORNIA AS FIRST “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND JERRY BROWN. With Democrat Jerry Brown finally declaring his candidacy for California governor today and billionaire Meg Whitman’s super-rich Republican rival Steve Poizner starting his own TV ad campaign against her, this seems a good time to talk about a big new negative theme about the rather tarnished Golden State.
Is California America’s first “failed state?” That’s what a lot of people are saying. So I talked about that with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; the governor he replaced, Gray Davis; and a famous former governor favored to be the next governor, Jerry Brown.
It’s a hot topic. You see it suggested in the press. It’s spinning into the very high-stakes California governor’s race. There was even a formal debate about it in late January in New York City.
Schwarzenegger in particular was very struck by that debate, sponsored by Intelligence Squared, as he told me when we talked about it the other day. The event dripped with irony, as it featured Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, as the most prominent member of the team of three arguing that California is America’s first “failed state.” And it featured Schwarzenegger’s one-time bitter opponent, former Governor Gray Davis — removed from office in the famous 2003 California recall election that swept Schwarzenegger into power — as the most prominent member of the team of three arguing that California is nowhere near being America’s first failed state. …
Davis tells me … The veteran Democratic politician, who served as Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial chief of staff, state legislator, and state controller and lieutenant governor before winning two terms as governor, now thinks that the state Legislature should be made part-time. … From my March 2nd column.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) … Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney? … From my February 23rd column.
** MAD MEN: THE STREAK CONTINUES. … From my February 22nd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.) … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). … From my February 16th column.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA. … From my February 10th column.
** 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? … From my February 2nd 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.
** HELP FOR HAITI.
You can donate to the 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 is trading around $81 per barrel.
This is up about $47 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 (37) |
Nancy Pelosi seems confident about the health care bill.
What was that crazy Californian up to at the Pentagon?
He was a 9/11 conspiracist from the rural community of Hollister.
Wow, what a terrible story.
I sure hope Pelosi is right about getting the health insurance reform bill passed, finally.
Jonas Blane says:
March 5, 2010 at 9:05 am
Nancy Pelosi seems confident about the health care bill.
I sure hope I get to stop hearing about the health care bill.
Sorry, Len! If HCR fails, you’ll be hearing about the failure of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress to reform health care until November. If HCR succeeds, you’ll be hearing about the success of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress in reforming health care until November.
The media gets bored with old news.
Greece begged Germany for a bailout to pay for their ridiculous government sector workforce and pensions, and notoriously corrupt tax system. Germany refused to give them anything unless Greece agreed to sell their beautiful islands. Today Greece riots.
It will be interesting to see how California deals with this type of mess.
It would be especially interesting if California were as weak as Greece, which it clearly is not …
One could make a case that it is worse for Democrats to pass the bill rather than let is lapse, because then it is no longer “old news.”
> Len says:
March 5, 2010 at 10:34 am (Edit)
The media gets bored with old news.
If the bill does not pass, the economy moves to unchallenged center stage, as that is what most concerns most people.
> Clutch J says:
March 5, 2010 at 10:20 am (Edit)
Sorry, Len! If HCR fails, you’ll be hearing about the failure of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress to reform health care until November. If HCR succeeds, you’ll be hearing about the success of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress in reforming health care until November.
That is suspected, though it is still vague and I haven’t run it down.
>#
marcos leon says:
March 5, 2010 at 9:10 am (Edit)
He was a 9/11 conspiracist from the rural community of Hollister.
#
Capitol Boy says:
March 5, 2010 at 9:26 am (Edit)
Wow, what a terrible story.
She does indeed.
> Jonas Blane says:
March 5, 2010 at 9:05 am (Edit)
Nancy Pelosi seems confident about the health care bill.
The HCR bill is needed to begin to restore faith in Washington. Failure feeds into teaparty neo-Know Nothingism ideologically and Democratic defeatism politically..
Who needs abortion insurance, anyway? Abortions are already cheap and available. This is such a stupid stumbling block, and something Obama could resolve in a couple hours.
More video today?
OK, JB!!
BB: Jerry Brown, who just bested a round of far younger reporters in pull-ups a month before his 72nd birthday, also did well in these areas.
How many pull-ups can Meg Whitman do? Or girly man Stevie Poizner?
Rep. Bart Stupid is trying to change private insurance programs. Abortions aren’t cheap if you don’t have money. He needs to get a life.
Dr. Sam Loomis, Haddonfield says:
March 5, 2010 at 10:55 am
Who needs abortion insurance, anyway? Abortions are already cheap and available. This is such a stupid stumbling block, and something Obama could resolve in a couple hours.
Congress needs to get its balls and its act together and pass that damn bill.
They’ve already wasted too much time dicking around back there.
Clutch J says:
March 5, 2010 at 10:54 am
The HCR bill is needed to begin to restore faith in Washington. Failure feeds into teaparty neo-Know Nothingism ideologically and Democratic defeatism politically..
Obama did well in that news clip on new jobs.
He was wise not to claim too much progress …
I would say zero and unknown, respectively.
Though Meg was a swimmer as a girl, and reportedly used to get very upset when she lost. She has a very serious temper from what I’m told about her eBay and other corporate days …
> Jack Aubrey says:
March 5, 2010 at 12:28 pm (Edit)
How many pull-ups can Meg Whitman do? Or girly man Stevie Poizner?
I see the case for the idea of letting it die. But you are right, it will look like a monumental waste of time if nothing major is passed after all this mishegass.
> Clutch J says:
March 5, 2010 at 10:54 am (Edit)
The HCR bill is needed to begin to restore faith in Washington. Failure feeds into teaparty neo-Know Nothingism ideologically and Democratic defeatism politically..
Will there be PAYBACK for the murder of Dr. Tiller? Will there be COUNTERTERROR against right-to-lifers? WHO would be the most effective TARGETS for anti-right-to-lifist counterterror? WHERE do they live?
lol
Jack Aubrey says:
March 5, 2010 at 12:28 pm (Edit)
How many pull-ups can Meg Whitman do? Or girly man Stevie Poizner?
The Megster seems like a real arrogant piece of work…
Bill Bradley says:
March 5, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I would say zero and unknown, respectively.
Though Meg was a swimmer as a girl, and reportedly used to get very upset when she lost. She has a very serious temper from what I’m told about her eBay and other corporate days …
> Jack Aubrey says:
March 5, 2010 at 12:28 pm (Edit)
How many pull-ups can Meg Whitman do? Or girly man Stevie Poizner?
Nice…
BB:For his part, he did well enough in the debate, which he wanted to do to try to clear his name after it came out that he had a rather close association with former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian. Campbell defended Al-Arian against charges of terrorist activities and denied that Al-Arian had contributed to his past campaign. But it quickly emerged that Al-Arian had not only helped raise money for Campbell, but had also given him $1300. Which Campbell said he had forgotten about.
Al-Arian’s fundraising for Campbell happened before Al-Arian pled guilty to working with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization.
Campbell also has a problem in that, as a congressman, he sponsored legislation to bar the use of classified information in immigration proceedings. Such as the immigration proceeding involving Al-Arian’s brother-in-law. Campbell visited him in jail.
Campbell’s legislation would have made it difficult to use information gleaned from counter-intelligence operations to expel suspected terrorists. None of the 9/11 hijackers, to use an obvious example, were American citizens.
Fiorina doesn’t quite know how to use this issue against Campbell. Yet.
> NWN: I’ve been on what seems like thousands of radio shows, so it’s second nature. Fiorina doesn’t have that experience, so she seemed at least a half-beat off throughout the show.
Excellent point. It is infuriating listening to stuff on radio where audio quality is lame. They have a million listeners, and nobody seems to bother to show some pride in the art of audio engineering. Online podcasts suffer from this too. They crank down the bitrate so low it sounds like the hosts are descendants of Sleestak.
Did Jerry Brown beat you in pull-ups, Bill?
What new video today?
Obama’s weekend address on the benefits of health care reform, and background on the Pentagon shooter from California.
I wasn’t there, and we have not competed.
I actually don’t know how many pull-ups I can do. In any event, as a former powerlifter who lifts most days, I’d be a ringer.
> marcos leon says:
March 5, 2010 at 5:45 pm (Edit)
Did Jerry Brown beat you in pull-ups, Bill?
Who is Sleestak?
> Dr. Sam Loomis, Haddonfield IL says:
March 5, 2010 at 4:30 pm (Edit)
> NWN: I’ve been on what seems like thousands of radio shows, so it’s second nature. Fiorina doesn’t have that experience, so she seemed at least a half-beat off throughout the show.
Excellent point. It is infuriating listening to stuff on radio where audio quality is lame. They have a million listeners, and nobody seems to bother to show some pride in the art of audio engineering. Online podcasts suffer from this too. They crank down the bitrate so low it sounds like the hosts are descendants of Sleestak.
echodelta…
Probably one of the finest articles, in the world…