Survivors and victims’ relatives gathered today for a somber ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 168 people died in the bombing of a federal building by far right terrorists. More than 600 others were injured.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … BROWN, BOXER, AND THE (UN)CONVENTION(AL) SPECIAL.
** QUICK HITS.Al Qaeda’s two top leaders in Iraq were killed yesterday, with confirmation coming today. That should help settle the situation, which is roiled enough as it is by the still unsettled national elections last month. … A shadowy little group called the Adam Smith Foundation, based in Jefferson City, Missouri, gave $498,000 last week to the effort to get an initiative on the California ballot to repeal the state’s landmark climate change law. The money is being laundered via a group which barely exists. Texas oil companies have been the principal funders of the effort, which is behind schedule to gather signatures. … Another out-of-state group, the Iowa-based American Future Fund, launched a 30-second ad blasting ex-Congressman Tom Campbell, the erstwhile leader in the California GOP Senate race, for refusing to sign an anti-tax pledge. It’s spending a million dollars against him. This will help ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. … And, of course, the Republican Governors Association is starting to air an anti-Brown TV attack ad nearly identical to the one that the California Chamber of Commerce unsuccessfully tried to run as an “issues” ad. I’ll analyze that later.
** NEW POLL ON 2012 GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE. Another new poll shows ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to be the Republican frontrunner in the 2012 presidential race.
Romney is the acknowledged intellectual author of billionaire Meg Whitman’s candidacy for governor of California. She was his protege at Bain and Co. He spent his birthday rallying with her at the recent California Republican Party convention.
Mitt Romney continues to lead the way among the top Republicans likely to run for President in 2012. He’s polling at 33% nationally to 27% for Mike Huckabee and 23% for Sarah Palin.
PPP state by state polling has found Huckabee strong in the South and Romney winning everywhere else and the national numbers confirm that trend. Huckabee leads his home region with 37% to 25% for Palin and 23% for Romney. But in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Romney leads with anywhere from 37 to 39% with Palin second in her territory and Huckabee getting runner up honors everywhere else.
The big story in 2012 polling continues to be Palin’s surprisingly poor performance. She hasn’t led in a single one of the dozen individual states we’ve taken a look at, and runs ten points behind Romney nationally. She is actually the most well liked of the GOP front runners with 66% viewing her favorably to 55% for Huckabee and 54% for Romney, but there’s a disconnect between how much voters like Palin and how willing they are to support her for President.
Beyond the regional difference Romney leads with pretty much every subgroup of the Republican electorate at this point- moderates and conservatives, women and men, and every age group except the under 30 crowd.
A cloud of ash rising from a volcano in Iceland has shut down most European airports for a fifth day. Britain has sent Royal Navy warships to rescue those stranded across the English Channel. The volcano is having a chilling effect, so to speak, on geopolitical talks. It is also disrupting the usual supply chain for Afghanistan.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
Another big week in presidential politics, and perhaps a faster week than usual in California politics.
Like most international leaders, President Barack Obama was blocked from attending the services yesterday for the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Which also allowed Russian leaders to seize the spotlight there with their ostentatious concern, as well as taking away another opportunity for Obama to discuss Iran with them.
This week, however, the attention will be mostly on domestic politics, with Obama continuing to press for his financial regulatory plan in the wake of Friday’s charges against Wall Street investment banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs.
In its lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, the Securities and Exchange Commission provided a strong focal point for the issue, as well as serious leverage for legislative action.
Obama will lobby behind the scenes against an expected Republican filibuster in the Senate.
He will also do some high-profile events, including a trip late this week to Wall Street to press for the reforms.
In other words, Obama may finally be making his oft-promised pivot to the economy, which merely happens to be the area of most concern to voters.
Geopolitics won’t be entirely absent from the agenda, of course.
In Iraq, where politics has been deadlocked since the March 7th national parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki late last week called for a national coalition government including the more secular Sunni party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allaw, which actually narrowly defeated Maliki’s party in the election, but does not have enough support to govern on its own.
Maliki, a Shiite, had previously sought to cut his own deals to remain in office and exclude the first place party entirely. But that party, headed by ex-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, insists on its right to spearhead a new coalition government.
In the meantime, absent action on the state’s chronic budget crisis long sought by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — delayed in part by better revenue numbers — California politics will also focus on the Wall Street question.
Obama is here late today and tomorrow campaigning with embattled Senator Barbara Boxer, who spoke of the Wall Street crisis over the weekend at the California Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles.
As did de facto gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown, who this morning as California’s attorney general will discuss court action in Los Angeles against Moody’s Investors Service requiring the company to explain how it gave its highest credit ratings to securities backed by risky subprime mortgages and other toxic assets.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown talked about the Wall Street crisis on CNN, calling it “the biggest bank robbery in history.”
Brown was all over the convention this past weekend, as the party’s new “patriarch” as one newspaper put it.
In his well-received convention address, Brown shocked the experts and reset the governor’s race by challenging both his Republican rivals, billionaire Meg Whitman and super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, to a series of pre-primary debates on the state’s very pressing problems.
Poizner, who has closed the gap some on Whitman as I revealed on Friday (based on several private polls), accepted Brown’s challenge right away.
Whitman, however, at first said she was interested. Then she said no.
Which allows Brown to answer every charge she and her allies make with a simple challenge. Come out from behind the curtain — and the avalanche of paid advertising — and discuss the reality, or unreality, of your ideas.
I’ll have much more about the California Democratic Party convention, and the California races for governor and senator, in a forthcoming column.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and California today.
Obama has received received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Sudan Special Envoy General Scott Gration in the Oval Office.
At 12 noon Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Los Angeles, California.
At 5:25 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Los Angeles.
At 6 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraising reception for Senator Barbara Boxer and the DNC at the California Science Center.
At 6:40 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraising event for Senator Barbara Boxer and the DNC at the California Science Center.
At 8:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraising dinner for Senator Barbara Boxer and the DNC at the Museum of Natural History.
In other action this morning, Vice President Joe Biden addresses the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO’s 2010 National Legislative Conference.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Sacramento today.
At 10:30 AM, Schwarzenegger will be in Menlo Park to participate in a discussion on California’s competitiveness at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s 7th Annual CEO Business Climate Summit. The discussion, moderated by Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal Publisher James MacGregor, will also include Virgin America President and Chief Executive Officer David Cush, SpikeSource Chief Executive Officer Kim Polese and SunPower Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner.
** JERRY BROWN’S LONG AND WINDING ROAD.After clearing the Democratic field last year, Jerry Brown makes his first speech to the California Democratic Party convention as its de facto nominee for governor on Saturday. The LA event comes at a key moment of definition in what is arguably the biggest race in the country this year.
Billionaire Meg Whitman, the handpicked choice of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, has been burning up the airwaves for months with the biggest spending statewide campaign ever seen in America. The former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign is way ahead of super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is trying to put on a closing burst of advertising himself, slamming her between now and the June Republican primary. And she’s pulled even with or slightly ahead of Brown, who has spent virtually nothing.
He’s also conducted a fairly stealthy campaign. To the extent that someone who is California’s chief law enforcement officer and is constantly engaging publicly with a raft of high-profile issues can be described as stealthy.
But while Whitman, who’s barely bothered to vote and lied in her first TV ad about how long she’s lived in California, flip-flops her positions with dizzying rapidity and tries to “brand” herself with relentless advertising, Brown has genuine definition. The question is: Whose definition will prevail?
If ever there was a political figure who brought to mind the title of the Beatles’ classic, “The Long and Winding Road,” it’s Jerry Brown. He was California’s youngest elected governor, at age 36, when he was sworn in the first time in 1975. If he wins in November, he’ll be our oldest governor. An intellectual provocateur by nature, Jerry Brown, one of the most intriguing political figures this country has produced, has played a myriad of roles and offered a myriad of positions.
Ever fascinated by the new computing and biological technologies he helped foster in his first go-round as governor (when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Intel co-founder Bob Noyce, and Silicon Valley marketing guru Regis McKenna served in his administration) — in which shifting computing paradigms and recombinant DNA played the leading edge of the change — Brown has always been fascinated by what I call recombinant ideologies. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA. … From my April 1st 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.
** 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 $46 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, meeting today with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board headed by former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, discussed the need to reform the financial sector and rein in some of the risky Wall Street practices that nearly tanked the global economy.
** ROAMING MODE. NWN is in roaming mode this weekend. After knocking myself out with items throughout weekend California political conventions, when the fewest folks are reading, my preference this year is to give a full report after the fact, telling you what no one else is and putting it all in perspective, as I did with the California Republican Party convention. This enables me to ditch the laptop and travel light, with only phone and camera. (And no, I no longer post by blackberry. That was not very healthy.) So I’ll be all over the very familiar ground of the California Democratic Party convention this weekend in LA … If Attorney General Brown or Senator Boxer says something I don’t expect, I’ll let you know.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: WHY IS WHITMAN ATTACKING POIZNER? LET’S THINK. Consider some recent moves by the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign of billionaire Meg Whitman.
It announced that it’s bringing in 2012 Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother and son of former Presidents George Bush I and II, to campaign for her.
Then it put a TV attack ad up against Poizner, attacking Poizner as a supposedly phony Republican.
If she’s looking to position herself for a general election campaign against Jerry Brown, and running with a huge 40-50 point lead over Poizner, as previous polling suggests, why would she do this?
She’s already associated with McCain, whose campaign she co-chaired, and Romney, her business mentor who came up with the idea for her to run, but does she really want to bring in a Bush?
Here’s what I think. Poizner is cutting into that huge Whitman lead. It’s not close, but he is closing. That’s what the polling I’m hearing tells me. How much? Well, that affects the expectation, but maybe half. Suffice it to say that the Whitman campaign is not crazy to be fighting a primary contest.
Poizner, for his part, is running his brand new TV ad positioning him as the big tax cutter in the race (he wants an across-the-board cut, whereas Whitman targets rich investors and corporations). And he is running his ad positioning Whitman as the next coming of Arnold, hitting her for being soft on illegal immigration.
A new U.N. report blames Pakistan’s security establishment for failing to stop the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and reveals that there was no criminal investigation in its aftermath.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then delivered remarks at the White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors at the Interior Department.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama meets with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Situation Room.
Here are the participants in the AfPak review today with Obama in the White House Situation Room:
Vice President Joe Biden
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations (via videoconference)
Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg
Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin
Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)
Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
General James E. Cartwright, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command
General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence
CIA Director Leon Panetta
General James Jones, National Security Advisor
Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor
John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President
Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan
At 9:45 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden have lunch in the Private Dining Room.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board in the Roosevelt Room.
Late yesterday, Obama signed the just passed $18 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits.
In addition to Afghanistan, Obama is monitoring geopolitical crises in Pakistan, and Iran, and Iraq.
The United Nations today issued a report on the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who had just returned to the country and was expected to be its next leader.
The report finds that Pakistan’s security apparatus was very lax in protecting Bhutto and that thee was no serious investigation into her assassination. Pakistan was then headed by President Pervez Musharraf. Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is now president of Pakistan. But there are ongoing efforts to force him out of office on corruption charges.
In Iraq, where politics has been deadlocked since the March 7th national parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today called for a national coalition government including the more secular Sunni party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allaw, which actually narrowly defeated Maliki’s party in the election, but does not have enough support to govern on its own.
Maliki, a Shiite, had previously sought to cut his own deals to remain in office and exclude the first place party entirely.
Britain held its first ever debate last night between the leaders of its three main parties as they head into the May 6th national election. Nick Clegg, leader of the UK’s third party, the Liberal Democrats, fared best, followed by Conservative Opposition Leader David Cameron and Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The race between the Conservatives and Labour is tight, and Clegg’s party may hold the balance of power in Britain’s parliamentary system.
Britain, America’s closest ally, is digesting last night’s debate between the leaders of its three main parties in the run-up to the May 6th general election. This election was just called on April 6th; the Brits like to have much shorter election campaigns than we do.
Incidentally, the debate was immediately preceded by an ad for the Tony Blair roman a clef film The Ghost, which opens in the UK today. My essay on the film, known in the US as The Ghost Writer, is linked below.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown represented Labour, while principal Opposition Leader David Cameron debated for the Conservatives and Nick Clegg carried the banner of the Liberal Democrats.
What do these parties mean in American terms? Well, Labour is left-liberal to center-left, the Conservatives are corporate conservative to moderate conservative, and the Liberal Democrats are center-left to centrist.
In American terms, Conservative leader David Cameron, who was selected for party leadership in part because of some Blair-like qualities, would be a very moderate Republican with a serious Tea Party problem, while Brown and Clegg would be Democrats.
Cameron and the Conservatives had held a big lead in polls over Gordon Brown’s Labourites heading into the election, which Brown himself called. And now it is a very close race, with both parties in the 30s, and the Conservatives only a few points ahead.
Clegg appeared to win the debate, with Cameron faring somewhat better than the rather stolid Gordon Brown. (I’d better call him Gordon Brown so no casual reader thinks I just referred to Jerry Brown as “stolid.”)
What’s the impact on the election? Probably a strengthening of the third place Liberal Democrats, which may give them the whip hand in post-election maneuvering to choose the prime minister.
Why was this the first ever such debate? Perhaps because British politics is a parliamentary system. Every candidate for prime minister is a member of Parliament, and engages in debates on a constant basis. This is one reason why British politicians are generally more articulate and impressive than their American counterparts.
Someone like Meg Whitman could not be a candidate to lead Britain.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no planned public events.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks.
** JERRY BROWN’S LONG AND WINDING ROAD.After clearing the Democratic field last year, Jerry Brown makes his first speech to the California Democratic Party convention as its de facto nominee for governor on Saturday. The LA event comes at a key moment of definition in what is arguably the biggest race in the country this year.
Billionaire Meg Whitman, the handpicked choice of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, has been burning up the airwaves for months with the biggest spending statewide campaign ever seen in America. The former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign is way ahead of super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is trying to put on a closing burst of advertising himself, slamming her between now and the June Republican primary. And she’s pulled even with or slightly ahead of Brown, who has spent virtually nothing.
He’s also conducted a fairly stealthy campaign. To the extent that someone who is California’s chief law enforcement officer and is constantly engaging publicly with a raft of high-profile issues can be described as stealthy.
But while Whitman, who’s barely bothered to vote and lied in her first TV ad about how long she’s lived in California, flip-flops her positions with dizzying rapidity and tries to “brand” herself with relentless advertising, Brown has genuine definition. The question is: Whose definition will prevail?
If ever there was a political figure who brought to mind the title of the Beatles’ classic, “The Long and Winding Road,” it’s Jerry Brown. He was California’s youngest elected governor, at age 36, when he was sworn in the first time in 1975. If he wins in November, he’ll be our oldest governor. An intellectual provocateur by nature, Jerry Brown, one of the most intriguing political figures this country has produced, has played a myriad of roles and offered a myriad of positions.
Ever fascinated by the new computing and biological technologies he helped foster in his first go-round as governor (when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Intel co-founder Bob Noyce, and Silicon Valley marketing guru Regis McKenna served in his administration) — in which shifting computing paradigms and recombinant DNA played the leading edge of the change — Brown has always been fascinated by what I call recombinant ideologies. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
With his Washington summit this week with the leaders of 47 nations — the largest summit hosted by an American president since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco — Obama’s focus is on securing materials that could lead to the possession of nuclear weapons by additional states or transnational terrorists. Clearly he needs Russia’s help on that, along with final agreement on securing the country’s Cold War materials. Last week, Obama announced a new U.S. nuclear strategy, then journeyed to Prague, site of his speech a year ago laying out his goal to end the threat of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a treaty to reduce each country’s nuclear arsenal to 1550 weapons apiece. …From my April 12th column.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA. … From my April 1st 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.
** 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 $50 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.
Speaking today at Cape Canaveral, President Barack Obama said that space exploration is not a luxury but a necessity and laid out a new direction for NASA and space commercialization.
** QUICK HITS.With polling showing that at least a third of Americans say that President Barack Obama has raised their taxes, the Brookings Institution notes that taxes are actually at a 60-year low. In reality, one-third of Obama’s economic recovery act is made up of tax cuts. … It was revealed today that U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan have been at least doubled in recent months as part of Obama’s military surge there. The plan, as it was during the insurgency in Iraq, is to capture or kill as many jihadist leaders and cadre as possible to force the Taliban to the bargaining table. The danger is increased civilian casualties. … In California politics, as I explained this morning, ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has a 4 to 1 financial advantage in the Republican Senate primary over erstwhile frontrunner Tom Campbell. But Fiorina’s denying any knowledge of a probe into possible bribery in the middle of the past decade by HP executives involved with the firm’s German subsidiary in order to supply high tech gear to, ironically, the Russian prosecutor general’s office. … In the Republican governor’s race, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has a new TV ad coming up portraying him as the real economic conservative race in the race. He’s for a 10% across the board tax cut, whereas billionaire Meg Whitman only favors big tax cuts for wealth investors and corporations. Whitman has a big lead, but is concerned enough to bring in some conservative big guns from the national scene to campaign for her, which won’t disappoint Jerry Brown. I’ll explain where they’re coming from, and why, in a future item.
** THE CALIFORNIA SENATE RACE: FIORINA HAS A BIG FINANCIAL EDGE IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY, BOXER HAS A BIG FINANCIAL EDGE OVERALL. There’s always a lot of spin in how fundraising numbers are reported by campaigns. Or not reported.
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in California, ex-Congressman Tom Campbell, who’s seen his big early lead in the polls essentially vanish of late, got some mileage with a few outlets by reporting that he had raised $1.6 million in the first quarter, nearly as much as ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. This was trumpeted as a big improvement on his gubernatorial fundraising numbers.
Which only made sense because, as I reported a while back, the camp of billionaire Meg Whitman, the GOP gubernatorial frontrunner, helped persuade Campbell to drop out of the governor’s race and take a third stab at getting elected to the U.S. Senate. Campbell made the move, and with help from some Whitman backers now helping him raise money, he struck some early gold.
But I’m told that he raised most of the $1.6 million in the first month, and that things have lagged since then.
What was not reported earlier about Campbell’s fundraising success is two key facts.
First, nearly $400,000 of that $1.6 million is for the general election only. Second, he had only $1.1 million cash on hand. And since he can’t use over a third of that in the primary, his real cash on hand is about $700,000.
In contrast, Fiorina has $2.8 million cash on hand. And can put in more from her personal fortune. As well as hammer Campbell for his past relationship with a jihadist professor convicted of terrorist activities, his congressional bill to prohibit classified counter-intelligence information from immigration proceedings, and his support for big tax increases and the legalization of heroin. In a Republican primary.
The third Republican, far right Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, the Tea Party fave rave, has only a few hundred thousand dollars.
Meanwhile, incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer awaits the winner of the Republican contest. She’s raised $2.4 million in the first quarter, spent very little, and has $8.2 million in her campaign warchest.
** JERRY BROWN’S LONG AND WINDING ROAD.After clearing the Democratic field last year, Jerry Brown makes his first speech to the California Democratic Party convention as its de facto nominee for governor on Saturday. The LA event comes at a key moment of definition in what is arguably the biggest race in the country this year.
Billionaire Meg Whitman, the handpicked choice of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, has been burning up the airwaves for months with the biggest spending statewide campaign ever seen in America. The former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign is way ahead of super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is trying to put on a closing burst of advertising himself, slamming her between now and the June Republican primary. And she’s pulled even with or slightly ahead of Brown, who has spent virtually nothing.
He’s also conducted a fairly stealthy campaign. To the extent that someone who is California’s chief law enforcement officer and is constantly engaging publicly with a raft of high-profile issues can be described as stealthy.
But while Whitman, who’s barely bothered to vote and lied in her first TV ad about how long she’s lived in California, flip-flops her positions with dizzying rapidity and tries to “brand” herself with relentless advertising, Brown has genuine definition. The question is: Whose definition will prevail?
If ever there was a political figure who brought to mind the title of the Beatles’ classic, “The Long and Winding Road,” it’s Jerry Brown. He was California’s youngest elected governor, at age 36, when he was sworn in the first time in 1975. If he wins in November, he’ll be our oldest governor. An intellectual provocateur by nature, Jerry Brown, one of the most intriguing political figures this country has produced, has played a myriad of roles and offered a myriad of positions.
Ever fascinated by the new computing and biological technologies he helped foster in his first go-round as governor (when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Intel co-founder Bob Noyce, and Silicon Valley marketing guru Regis McKenna served in his administration) — in which shifting computing paradigms and recombinant DNA played the leading edge of the change — Brown has always been fascinated by what I call recombinant ideologies. …
In the wake of the West Virginia tragedy, President Barack Obama this morning directed a review of mines with “troubling safety records” across the country.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Florida today.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then met with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Mine Safety and Health Administrator Joe Main in the Oval Office.
Following that, Obama delivered remarks on mine safety.
At 8:20 AM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 8:35 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
At 10:55 AM Pacific, Obama tours a commercial rocket processing facility.
At 11:50 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on a new course for NASA.
Obama cancelled the rather vague mission to return to the Moon, a decision which has been controversial with some of NASA’s traditional constituency.
At 12:45 PM Pacific, Obama departs Cape Canaveral, Florida on Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida.
At 1:40 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Miami, Florida.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama attends a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Miami.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the DNC fundraiser in Miami.
At 4:50 PM Pacific, Obama departs Miami, Florida on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 6:55 PM Pacific, Obama lands at Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Marine One.
At 7:10 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Pennsylvania today for the groundbreaking of a major economic recovery act project and a fundraiser for a congressman.
And First Lady Michelle Obama, who made an unannounced visit to Haiti, is in the second day of her two day-visit to Mexico. This is her first major solo international trip as first lady. Her mission? To help lay the groundwork for next month’s summit meeting in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The Obamas will host their second state dinner, in honor of Mexico, on May 19th.
Air travel around the world is disrupted today by ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland.
In addition to the chronic issue of illegal immigration, Mexico has a hotly simmering problem with drug cartels, which at times seem to threaten the security of the Mexican state.
As he continues a pivot to economic issues, Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq.
The political situation in Iraq still remains unsettled after the March 7th national parliamentary elections.
The suddenly ousted president of Kyrgyzstan, home to a U.S. base key to the effort in Afghanistan, left the country today for Kazakhstan as a result of negotiations by Obama and Russian President President Dmitri Medvedev.
The new Kyrgyz government says that it will extend the lease on the U.S. base by another year, and will look at the issue again at that time.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in New York today.
He has no planned public events.
Last night, Schwarzenegger received the Riverkeeper 2010 Environmental Advocacy Award at the Riverkeeper’s Annual Fishermen’s Ball on the Hudson River’s Pier 60 in New York City.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
With his Washington summit this week with the leaders of 47 nations — the largest summit hosted by an American president since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco — Obama’s focus is on securing materials that could lead to the possession of nuclear weapons by additional states or transnational terrorists. Clearly he needs Russia’s help on that, along with final agreement on securing the country’s Cold War materials. Last week, Obama announced a new U.S. nuclear strategy, then journeyed to Prague, site of his speech a year ago laying out his goal to end the threat of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a treaty to reduce each country’s nuclear arsenal to 1550 weapons apiece. …From my April 12th column.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA. … From my April 1st 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.
** 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 $51 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 met this morning with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on his plan to reform a financial sector which nearly melted down in 2008.
** QUICK HITS. After today’s bipartisan meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama, Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd said that opposition to financial sector reforms is “rooted in outright falsehood.” So much for kumbaya. Look for this bill to get some Republican votes, though, unlike the national health care reform bill. It’s harder to characterize as big government. … After yet another incident yesterday in which NATO troops killed Afghan civilians, General Stanley McChrystal today ordered a thorough review of the rules of engagement in Afghanistan. For the second day in a row, Iran offered to be helpful to the U.S. in Iraq (where the governance situation is still unsettled over five weeks after parliamentary elections) and Afghanistan. In exchange for what?
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN’S LONG AND WINDING ROAD.
** CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT IN CALIFORNIA. One of the X factors in this year’s general election in California, and of the politics of the environment nationally and internationally, is the so-called California Jobs Initiative. Supposedly the brain child of a right-wing state assemblyman, the effort to qualify an initiative to repeal the state’s landmark climate change program cutting greenhouse gas emissions has been taken over by a consortium of oil companies, principally from Texas.
This is what Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was referring to in his remarks yesterday decrying oil company “greed.”
Signature gatherers, despite being well-funded, have been having something of a problem getting people to sign with the official ballot description provided by Attorney General Jerry Brown.
So the oil consortium has taken to paying $2 per signature, a very high rate.
Putting that kind of money into it, I think they can qualify. But as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, as you may get it.
Both Republicans seeking succeed Schwarzenegger, billionaire Meg Whitman and super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, want to dump the law. Whitman having first called for a one-year suspension — which is allowable under the law — and more recently getting rid of it altogether.
But the public polling, as well as private polling I’ve seen and referenced before, indicates that this initiative would have an uphill climb. The coalition backing it has not broadened its financial base beyond oil companies and a $100,000 contribution from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which in turns gets its money from somewhere else, perhaps, for example, an oil company. And the economic report which Whitman and other opponents have relied upon has been thoroughly discredited and actually disowned by its Sacramento State business professor author.
This initiative looks like a backfire to me.
** DEMOCRATS PREPARE FOR CALIFORNIA CONVENTION THIS WEEKEND IN LOS ANGELES. California Democratic Party chairman John Burton this morning announced the lineup for this coming weekend’s state convention in Los Angeles.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and, of course, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown will be featured speakers in the convention’s general session at the L.A. Convention Center, site of the 2000 Democratic National Convention. This is the first time in five years that the Dems’ annual state convention will be in LA. I’ll of course have a full report.
The convention will focus on a victory program for Brown, who cleared the Democratic field for governor last year, and Boxer, seeking a fourth term in the Senate.
The famed East LA rock band Los Lobos will play at a special convention concert.
Saturday’s luncheon speaker will be Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, the largest liberal news site and one of the biggest news sites in the world.
The Saturday convention banquet will honor Richard Trumka, the former United Mine Workers president who is now the national president of the AFL-CIO.
** THE IRONY OF POLITICS: POIZNER ATTACKS SCHWARZENEGGER. In a new TV attack ad against billionaire Meg Whitman, the frontrunner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner attacks his former ally, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, claiming that a Whitman governorship would be Schwarzenegger’s third term.
Poizner also likens Whitman, who was national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, to President Barack Obama and Senator Barbara Boxer.
Which is not exactly how I view the dynamic, since Whitman in the real world is running for governor at the behest of the Republican presidential frontrunner, Mitt Romney, her business mentor. It’s Romney’s idea for her to run, and he convinced her to do it. He said it himself, in video I’ve run more than once, and she agreed. And in the real world, Whitman is running far to the right of either of Schwarzenegger’s landslide winning elections as governor.
But politics is what it usually is, and Poizner is trying to win very conservative votes in a conservative Republican primary voter base.
However, as I’ve noted before, Poizner, when he was a moderate Republican a few years ago, was actually an ally of Schwarzenegger.
The irony is that he had seemed to be one of the few leading Arnold Republicans. Schwarzenegger discovered Poizner during his ill-fated 2004 attempt to defeat Democrats in a dozen state Assembly districts he had carried during his landslide victory in the 2003 California recall campaign.
Poizner ran as a very moderate Republican in a San Francisco Bay Area district, losing despite spending $6 million from his personal fortune. But he was the only good thing to come out of the disastrous effort, which had been masterminded for Schwarzenegger by his then chief political strategist Mike Murphy, who is now Meg Whitman’s chief strategist.
Schwarzenegger raved about what a great guy Poizner was and vowed to keep him involved, appointing him to the state Public Utilities Commission.However, Poizner’s personal finances were so tangled in potential conflicts of interest that he could not be confirmed, which Schwarzenegger finally, regretfully, acknowledged in pulling the appointment. Schwarzenegger then involved him in his redistricting reform efforts before Poizner joined Schwarzenegger in 2006 as the only Republicans to win statewide office. But by the time of the fateful state Republican convention in September 2007, when Schwarzenegger’s plea that the party move back toward the center fell mostly on deaf ears, it was clear that the far right was the dominant tendency in party politics, and Poizner was running for governor.
President Barack Obama closed his Nuclear Security Summit yesterday, saying that a world made more dangerous in the post-Cold War era with the threat of nuclear terrorism is safer with a new accord to dispose of nuclear materials.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
After a nine-day period of focus on nuclear weapons and security issues, he pivots to the economy and reform of the financial sector.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 7:45 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leadership to discuss financial reform at the White House
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 1:15 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
First Lady Michelle Obama, who made an unannounced visit to Haiti yesterday, flew on to Mexico City last night. She’ll be there for two days on her first major solo international trip as first lady. Her mission? To help lay the groundwork for next month’s summit meeting in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The Obama’s will host their second state dinner, in honor of Mexico, on May 19th.
In addition to the chronic issue of illegal immigration, Mexico has a hotly simmering problem with drug cartels, which at times seem to threaten the security of the Mexican state.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signed a deal yesterday to dispose of plutonium unused in either nation’s nuclear weapons. This followed a deal on Monday with Ukraine for that former Soviet republic to send its loose nuclear materials to the U.S. for disposal.
Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit produced a relatively vague accord for all 47 participating nations to work together to secure loose nuclear materials and to prevent the proliferation of those materials and the technology needed to create nuclear weapons. It’s the first such summit and first such agreement in history.
The accord is probably vague both for political and security purposes. Real international cooperation in keeping these materials and technologies out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states requires the sharing of secrets.
Obama also touted as yet unspecified progress on further isolating and imposing sanctions on Iran for its rogue nuclear program. But deadlines keep on slipping.
As he pivots today to economic recovery and reform of the financial sector that nearly tanked the global economy, Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq.
The political situation in Iraq still remains unsettled after the March 7th national parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to Obama in which he reportedly held out Iran as an unlikely partner in helping Obama stabilize Afghanistan and maintain stability in Iraq.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver greeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she arrived last night in Los Angeles. Merkel, who had just flown west following a private meeting with President Obama and participation in the Nuclear Security Summit, meets with Schwarzenegger this morning.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and New York today.
Schwarzenegger greeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel – who earlier in the day had participated in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington and met with President Obama – at the airport in Los Angeles last night.
He meets with her at 8:30 AM in Los Angeles.
At 6 PM Pacific, Schwarzenegger receives the Riverkeeper 2010 Environmental Advocacy Award at the Riverkeeper’s Annual Fishermen’s Ball on the Hudson River’s Pier 60 in New York City. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a leader of the organization.
Schwarzenegger will participate in a conversation with James Lipton, host of Inside the Actors Studio, and deliver remarks after he accepts the award.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
With his Washington summit this week with the leaders of 47 nations — the largest summit hosted by an American president since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco — Obama’s focus is on securing materials that could lead to the possession of nuclear weapons by additional states or transnational terrorists. Clearly he needs Russia’s help on that, along with final agreement on securing the country’s Cold War materials. Last week, Obama announced a new U.S. nuclear strategy, then journeyed to Prague, site of his speech a year ago laying out his goal to end the threat of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a treaty to reduce each country’s nuclear arsenal to 1550 weapons apiece. …From my April 12th column.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA. … From my April 1st 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.
** 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 $50 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.
First Lady Michelle Obama, who was supposedly about to leave for Mexico on her first solo international trip since the presidential election, instead went today to Haiti to tour the devastated capital.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN’S LONG AND WINDING ROAD.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE, AGAIN. In comments this afternoon at an event in Capitol Park showing off a new electric car, the Chevy Volt, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had some notable things to say.
He ripped “greedy Texas oil companies” bankrolling an attempt to qualify an initiative to repeal California’s landmark climate change program and suggested that the oil industry blocked electric car development.
He also seemed perturbed about the delayed confirmation of his appointee lieutenant governor, moderate Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado, saying that Assembly Speaker John Perez has said “five times” now that he is about to set the vote. (I think Democratic leaders are waiting a few weeks to avoid a special election and consolidate the replacement election with the general election, giving them a better chance to pick up the seat.
Yet he said that he doesn’t “shvitz the governorship” when asked about a new ad by erstwhile ally Steve Poizner, who blasts Schwarzenegger in his Republican primary gubernatorial primary battle with billionaire Meg Whitman. Who has also criticized Schwarzenegger.
It’s an ironic story, and I’ll have more tomorrow.
** WITH RATINGS LIKE THESE, HOW CAN REPUBLICANS DO WELL? IT’S A CRANKY ELECTORATE.A new national survey by Public Policy Polling shows truly bad numbers nationally for the Republican Party. Why mights its candidates do well in November. The Democrats are, mostly, in power.
The Republican Party may have a big election year anyway, but Americans sure don’t think much of it or its leadership.
Only 28% of voters in the country say they approve of the current direction of the GOP with 51% disapproving. Even among voters who identify with the party just 54% say they like where it’s headed. It’s predictable that Democrats would give it very low marks but even among independents just 18% think the Republicans are headed in the right direction while 49% dissent. …
Mitch McConnell and John Boehner aren’t real popular either, but they do better than Steele. Each of them is seen favorably by 15% of Americans, with 25% in Boehner’s case and 26% in McConnell’s viewing each of them in a negative light. They both at least, in contrast to Steele, are generally held in positive regard by Republicans. It’s a 28/9 spread for Boehner and a 25/8 one for McConnell.
** CALIFORNIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ATTACK WEB SITE AGAINST JERRY BROWN HAS DISAPPEARED. As an NWN Forum poster pointed out this morning, the California Chamber of Commerce web site attacking de facto Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown has disappeared.
So the web site has now gone the same way as the thoroughly dishonest and illegal TV attack ad it once featured. (The ad, strangely, was pulled from the web site as it was pulled from the airwaves, then reappeared at the end of last week and disappeared again yesterday.) This is all that remains:
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
President Barack Obama kicked off the 47-country Nuclear Security Summit Tuesday, declaring that the risk of nuclear attack, not by an enemy nation, but from terrorists, is on the rise despite the end of the Cold War.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 6:20 AM Pacific, Obama participated in the Heads of Delegation Group Photo at the Convention Center.
At 6:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden began participating in Plenary Session I of the Nuclear Security Summit.
Obama delivered opening remarks.
At 9 AM Pacific, Obama attends the Heads of Delegation working lunch.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Relations with Turkey, which started off in improved shape in the first year of Obama’s presidency, have taken a turn for the worst lately. Turkey has not moved against Iran on the nuclear question, and has been increasingly critical of Israel. In addition, the country has been beset by rumors of a military coup, including the arrests of several high-ranking current and former officers.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama attends Plenary Session II of the Nuclear Security Summit.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama meets with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama holds a press conference.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama attends the Heads of Delegation reception.
At 3 PM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.
Germany is playing a key role on Iran and on relations with Russia.
At the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama, Ukraine agreed yesterday to turn over its plutonium to the U.S. and the U.S. and Russia will agree today to dispose of its excess plutonium.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will sign a deal today to dispose of plutonium unused in either nation’s nuclear weapons.
For his part, in addition to his participation in the nuclear summit, Biden hosts a conference call at mid-day with governors from across the country to discuss implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
At 2:15 PM, Schwarzenegger is in Capitol Park to view the 2011 model of the Chevy Volt, a Detroit effort to create an electric car.
Prior to that, Schwarzenegger participates in the national governors conference call on implementation of the Obama economic recovery act with Vice President Joe Biden.
He will also hold private talks.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
With his Washington summit this week with the leaders of 47 nations — the largest summit hosted by an American president since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco — Obama’s focus is on securing materials that could lead to the possession of nuclear weapons by additional states or transnational terrorists. Clearly he needs Russia’s help on that, along with final agreement on securing the country’s Cold War materials. Last week, Obama announced a new U.S. nuclear strategy, then journeyed to Prague, site of his speech a year ago laying out his goal to end the threat of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a treaty to reduce each country’s nuclear arsenal to 1550 weapons apiece. …
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA. … From my April 1st 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.
** 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 $49 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 Dow Jones industrial average today finished above 11,000 for the first time in a year-and-a-half.
** QUICK HITS.Ukraine today agreed to turn over all its enriched uranium to the U.S. for disposal. The country had enough nuclear material left over from its days as part of the Soviet Union to produce several nuclear bombs. … In an intriguing, to say the least, move, LA business mogul Haim Saban, of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fame, an ally of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has loaned $2 million to an effort by LA Congressman Howard Berman to qualify an initiative effort to repeal California’s not yet implemented redistricting reform measure taking redistricting out of legislative hands and giving it to a citizens commission. Saban contributed $200,000 to its passage in 2008. Berman’s move doesn’t have much time to qualify, probably only a matter of days. … To the surprise of few, a bid to qualify an initiative to repeal California’s constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage failed. Most sophisticated operators viewed 2010 as the wrong year to repeal an initiative which should not have passed in 2008.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: DEMOCRATIC INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE COMMITTEE RAMPS UP. The third of the three Democratic independent expenditures announced so far, California Working Families 2010, this afternoon announced co-chairs of an effort to help de facto Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown stave off the challenge of super-rich, free-spending Republicans such as billionaire Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
California Building and Construction Trades Council president Bob Balgenorth, Service Employees International Union state president Bill Lloyd, and California Professional Firefighters Union president Lou Paulson start off serving as co-chairs of the group, which already included Los Angeles business mogul Ron Burkle, former business partner of President Bill Clinton.
Other leaders from labor and the environmental and feminist communities are expected to be involved.
The co-chairs starting out were announced at the California Labor Federation’s pre-primary endorsement meeting, which also came not long after the failure of the latest effort to qualify a so-called paycheck protection initiative — which would require that unions get specific approval from members for their dues to be used in campaigns — became official.
“There has never been a more well-funded threat to the men and women working in public safety than the one coming from Meg Whitman and Republican candidates for other state offices,” said firefighters chief Paulson in a prepared statement. “We cannot stand idly by as candidates recklessly threaten public safety, which can ultimately endanger the safety and security of our communities.”
“California’s building trade workers are suffering through 30% unemployment right now and it’s time for leaders with the experience and leadership to turn that around,” added Balgenorth, the longtime head of the building trades. “There needs to be a counterweight to CEO candidates like Whitman and Poizner whose only answer to the jobs crisis is to require struggling working families to sacrifice even more. This committee will provide that counterweight.”
The Democratic Governors Association’s California Accountability Project had already been announced in late 2009.
Some of the principal consultants involved with California Working Families include former Obama media consultant and Gray Davis re-election campaign manager Larry Grisolano, former Davis press secretary Roger Salazar, Obama campaign labor advisor Jason Kruger, Burkle executive Frank Quintero, fundraiser Marjan Philhour, and pollster David Binder.
** YET ANOTHER DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PARTIES: DEMOCRATS ARE INCREASINGLY HOPEFUL ON THE ECONOMY, REPUBLICANS ARE INCREASINGLY FEARFUL. While most objective economic indicators have been improving for months, public attitudes have lagged. Along with the unemployment rate.
But in recent weeks, Democrats are increasingly seeing the economy as improving, while Republicans say they see the opposite.
In the most recent week (March 29-April 4 interviewing), 60% of Democrats said the economy was “getting better,” up from 47% four weeks ago. And the percentage of Democrats who rate current conditions as “poor” dropped from 45% to 36% over the same time, with a slight increase from 12% to 16% in “excellent” and “good” ratings of the economy. …
Where the parties diverge, rather dramatically, is in their perceptions of whether the economy is improving. At this time, by 60% to 36%, Democrats say economic conditions are getting better. By 75% to 21%, Republicans say they are getting worse.
There clearly is a political component to how Americans view the economy, in particular in terms of their economic outlook. Democrats, whose party controls the White House and both Houses of Congress, are substantially more optimistic about the economy’s direction than are Republicans or independents, and have become more so in recent weeks. Republicans, at odds with the president and the Democratic leadership in Congress, are much less likely to agree that the economy is moving in a positive direction.
The timing of the improvement in Democrats’ views suggests that passage of the healthcare bill may have helped brighten their economic outlook more generally. In addition to healthcare, there are positive economic signs that could reinforce the view that the economy is improving, including recent increases in consumer spending and retail sales, and the government’s March jobs report, which showed the largest job growth in nearly three years.
As is often the case, there are still indications that the economy is not improving, given that the unemployment rate remains high. Additionally, Gallup’s Daily tracking of job creation in the U.S. does not yet show substantial improvement, and while self-reported consumer spending increased modestly last month, it is nowhere near as high as in 2008, before the major impact of the recession.
President Barack Obama spoke yesterday on the eve of the Nuclear Security Summit. He made his remarks from Blair House in Washington, after meetings with Prime Minister Singh of India and President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, and just before meeting with President Zuma of South Africa.
** OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE. President Barack Obama is in the midst of a spate of moves to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, his moves coinciding with the ongoing resurgence of Russia.
That there is a strong connection here is only to be expected. America and Russia are the two nuclear superpowers on the planet. Obama can’t get what he wants without Russia. And Russia has much that it wants in order to continue erasing the memory of its ’90s near collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.
With his Washington summit this week with the leaders of 47 nations — the largest summit hosted by an American president since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco — Obama’s focus is on securing materials that could lead to the possession of nuclear weapons by additional states or transnational terrorists. Clearly he needs Russia’s help on that, along with final agreement on securing the country’s Cold War materials. Last week, Obama announced a new U.S. nuclear strategy, then journeyed to Prague, site of his speech a year ago laying out his goal to end the threat of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a treaty to reduce each country’s nuclear arsenal to 1550 weapons apiece. …
A huge week is already underway for President Barack Obama. And probably a not so huge week in California politics, though the state Democratic Party convention is next weekend and one never knows for sure.
At the beginning of last week, I didn’t anticipate the sudden revolution in far-off Kyrgyzstan, a place I actually know and one which is key to the Afghan War effort. Nor did I anticipate the sudden death of the president of Poland and much of that country’s top leadership. Nor did I expect that the California Chamber of Commerce would try to a do a multi-million dollar attack ad campaign against Jerry Brown, hiding the true source of its funding. Though had I known of it, I probably would have guessed that the Chamber would have to back down.
In any event, back to what we know.
Obama is having another big week in geopolitics, hosting the largest global summit on American soil since the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco. The heads of government of 47 nations are in Washington today and tomorrow for Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit. See my column linked above for a full discussion of this.
Obama, after first disclosing an empty public schedule, got a head start yesterday holding several private meetings with international leaders and then delivering a public briefing on his goals and activities.
On the heels of last Thursday’s treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals by one-third, Obama hopes to score another accord with Russia to at last secure loose nuclear materials from the Cold War era.
And he is looking for a larger global framework to halt the transfer of materials that can be fashioned into nuclear weapons, both by rogue states and by terrorists. That means, among other things, forging agreement on new sanctions against Iran.
Obama will also resume his pivot to economic issues later in the week, then attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died along with much of his country’s leadership on Saturday in a shocking plane crash in Russia.
Obama is also looking for resolution this week for Iraq’s growing crisis of governance. The future government of the country is still an unsettled question after the March 7th national parliamentary elections.
In California politics, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes for more action on the state’s chronic budget crisis. But after four months of higher than anticipated revenues, legislators are still loathe to move on more than a few items.
We can also expect to see more action in the races for governor and U.S. senator. Billionaire Meg Whitman and super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will continue their still one-sided duel for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, while Schwarzenegger’s most likely successor, Democrat Jerry Brown, is starting to ramp up his public campaign activity in advance of this weekend’s state party convention in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer awaits the winner of the Republican battle between ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who has come up alongside the putative frontrunner, ex-Congressman Tom Cambell, as she gets her advertising drive underway. I expect Fiorina to win, especially with Campbell’s repeatedly changing story about his relationship with a jihadist convicted of terrorist activity and his championing of big tax hikes and the legalization of heroin.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 7:15 AM Pacific, Obama arrived at the Convention Center for the Nuclear Security Summit.
Obama then held bilateral meetings with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Mohammed Najib Abdul Razak of Malaysia.
At 9:55 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Hu Jintao of China.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama welcomes Heads of Delegation to the National Security Summit.
At 3:30 PM Pacific, Obama holds a working dinner with Heads of Delegation.
For his part, Vice President Joe Biden holds bilateral meetings with the leaders of South Korea, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates, and hosts a working lunch at the Naval Observatory.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA.The California governor’s race has huge national implications. On the one hand, California is the lynchpin of President Barack Obama’s political coalition, its electoral votes providing one-fifth of those needed to win the White House. On the other hand, the hand-picked candidate of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, billionaire Meg Whitman, is already shattering all spending records in her bid to win the governorship. …
It’s a very big race with very big national implications. If she’s the Republican nominee, Whitman will spend more money than any non-presidential candidate in America history. It’s an audacious move by corporate conservative Republicans associated with Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney to snatch the California governorship and place it in the hands of a staunch opponent of Barack Obama. (Schwarzenegger has become a big ally of Obama.)
** 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.
Is Tiger Woods really back? Already? He came close to winning the Masters over the weekend.
** 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 $51 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.
Iran has not changed its tune on its aggressive nuclear program. The country just unveiled new technology in a splashy ceremony.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND THE RUSSIAN RESURGENCE.
UPDATE: President Barack Obama held a series of private meetings Sunday with international leaders at Blair House in advance of his global summit Monday and Tuesday on nuclear weapons.
WH print pool report #1, 4-11-10
Obama walks with Clinton, Emanuel to Blair House. No news.
Obama talked with Secy. Of State Hillary Clinton to his left with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to his right as they walked out of EEOB parking lot across the street to Blair House for four bilateral meetings ahead of nuclear summit tomorrow and Tuesday.
They were too far away to hear conversation. And they said nothing to pool.
Tight security shut down Lafayette Park and area around White House on a warm sunny day that drew tourists, bicyclists and the curious to the area. A white canopy was erected to the entry of Blair House.
They appeared around 1:35 pm. Walk lasted a couple minutes.
WH print pool report #2, 4-11-10
First photo spray – Obama and Singh of India
Obama sat at front of room with Prime Minister Manmohab Singh of India, with two rows of eight advisers on each side facing each other (no table). On Obama’s left were Secy. Of State Hillary Clinton, Energy Secy. Steven Chu, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and national security adviser James Jones in that order.
After a crush of photographers rushed the room, Obama said, “All right, guys? All good?”
As pool was ushered out, cool drinks and tea were being brought in to meeting room.
Pool being entertained in nearby room by Masters on tv.
One down, three bilats, one phone call and the walk back to go.
WH print pool report #3, 4-11-10
Second bilat – Obama and Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan
As before, Obama at front of room with President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to his right.
Brief glimpse in crowd of photographers in this 3 pm spray. Again, Obama had nothing to say of substance that pooler heard.
WH aides circulated seating charts showing US and other country advisers in meetings.
In addition to top four US advisers identified in earlier report there were five others in both meetings, though they changed from India to Kazakhstan.
Advisers were identified by last names only.
WH print pool report #4, 4-11-10
Obama says progress being made, praises world leaders “sense of urgency” and specific focus on “locking up” loose nuclear materials
At the top of the third bilat today- between Obama and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa – Obama spoke for about 4 and half minutes to explain the purpose of the nuclear summit and to praise the sense of urgency by the world leaders attending.
A transcript will be sent out. Please check it for quotes.
Obama said, “The central focus of this nuclear summit is the fact that the single biggest threat to U.S. security both short term medium term and long term would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon. This is something that could change the security landscape of this country and around the world for years to come if there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London or Johannesburg.”
“The ramifications economically and politically and from a security perspective would be devastating,” he said, adding that Al Qaida is trying to get materials.
“Unfortunately we have a situation where there is a lot of loose nuclear material around the world,” he said, so the central focus going on in the summit is getting “where we are locking up that nuclear material in a very specific time frame.”
He added, “One of the things I’m very pleased about is that countries have embraced this goal and come to this summit not just talking about general statements of support but rather very specific focus on how to solve this profound international problem.”
Obama praised South Africa and its president for it role.
“South Africa is singular in having had a nuclear weapons program, and moved forward on it and then decided this was not the path, dismantled it and has been a strong and effective leader in he international community.”
Obama said he feels good about “the degree of commitment and a sense of urgency that I have seen in world leaders so far on this issue.” He added that “we think we’ve made enormous progress,” on an approach that is part and parcel o the broader focus going back to the signing of the START treaty.
He also repeated what he called the central and most urgent part of process was assuring those countries that abide by non proliferation treaty would not be targeted for potential nuclear weapons.
At the end he shook the hand of Zuma Clinton nodded her head in agreement while Obama spoke.
Addendum: Before this pooler squeezed into room for Kazakhstan photo op, Caren Bohan of Reuters aid she asked what president hoped to out of summit but he didn’t answer and waved reporters off with a thank you.
WH print pool report #5, 4-11-10
Fourth bilat – Obama and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Same set up as earlier meetings, though Obama did not speak to the press.
As pool was leaving, however, Obama told Gilani about how he slipped out yesterday morning without the press pool to see his daughter’s soccer game.
Based on a combined effort of the pool:
“Apparently I caused quite a problem,” Obama said. He said something about his secretary not telling the Secret Service.
He suggested his pool-less trip did not please the news media.
“They were very upset about it,” he said. “It was big news today.”
WH print pool report #6, 4-11-10
A courtesy visit between Obama and acting Nigerian President Goodluck E. Jonathan.
Quick photo op. Jonathan in grey with fedora-like hat. Obama talked to him quietly. Pool couldn’t hear conversation.
WH print pool report #7, 4-11-10
Obama returns to White House
At about 6:20, Obama left Blair House through a canopy on east end of building and walked across street, sans Clinton and Emanuel. He entered White House grounds through northwest gate.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Bob Gates scaled back on the criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the Sunday chat shows. Despite his erratic behavior, Karzai is the only current option for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
The situation in Kyrgyzstan, home to the last U.S. base in Central Asia, one which is key to the Afghan War effort, remains somewhat unsettled. The ousted president has fled the capital city Bishkek but refuses to formally resign. He’s calling for UN peacekeepers to be inserted into the country. The ousted prime minister has formally resigned.
The head of the new interim government, Roza Otunbayeva, asked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for major economic assistance and possible military units. Otunbayeva was educated at the elite Moscow State University, and served as Soviet Ambassador to UNESCO and Soviet Ambassador to Malaysia prior to Kyrgyzstan becoming an independent country.
She said today that Kyrgyzstan will continue to allow the operation of the U.S. base at Manas. But many operations there have been suspended, and 1300 U.S. troops headed for Afghanistan as part of the Obama surge there have been stranded at Manas for the past several days.
It’s been a big week for Russian geopolitics, with a major nuclear arms reduction treaty signed in Prague between Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev, the emergence of a much more pro-Russian government in Kyrgyzstan, and yesterday’s devastating plane crash in Russia which took the lives of Poland’s conservative nationalist President Lech Kaczynski, the country’s first lady, the head of the national bank, the chief of general staff, and the heads of all branches of the Polish armed forces.
More than a month after the March 7th national parliamentary elections, the shape of Iraq’s future government remains unclear. Factions continue to jockey, and many look to Iran for guidance.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no scheduled public events.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses several of the tax breaks for middle class families he has signed into law.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events.
He returned late yesterday following his signing in Prague of an historic nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia and related summitry with Eastern and Central European leaders.
Obama is in the midst of a nine-day period of intense focus on nuclear weapons. In addition to the Prague summit, Obama will host an international summit next week in Washington bringing together the leaders of nearly 50 nations to discuss global nuclear security and non-proliferation.
Following the treaty signing, Medvedev introduced a few not unexpected wrinkles.
First, Medvedev called for an American/Russian partnership in the development of a global ballistic missile defense system.
Then he said that the just-signed treaty will be nullified if U.S. ballistic missile defense development appears aimed at Russia.
Current anti-missile programs envisioned for Eastern and Central Europe use a threat from Iran as their rationale.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan.
The sudden revolution in Kyrgyzstan, which seems to have begun on Tuesday in the rather remote region of Talas, and quickly reached major flash point status yesterday, resulted in opposition leaders declaring an interim government on Thursday. This appears to be a secular revolution. Kyrgyzstan is Islamic, but not Islamist. New elections are to take place in six months.
The interim leader of that government, former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva, says that previous international accords will be honored by the new government. Which appears to include the Manas Air Base, which is central to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. I don’t know that this includes a second U.S. base there, an anti-terrorism center just announced last month.
But this declaration is probably not to be taken all that seriously.
Meanwhile, the new deputy premier says that he thinks Russian peacekeepers may be necessary to keep order.
In what is sure to be more fodder for conspiracy theorists, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a pro-American, relatively anti-Russian figure who welcomed the Bush/Cheney Administration’s proposed anti-missile base in Poland, was killed today in Russia.
Kaczynski’s aging, Russian-made presidential plane crashed on approach at the fog-shrouded Smolensk airport.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and some of the country’s most prominent military and civilian leaders died Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia.
Some 96 other people died along with the Polish president, including Poland’s first lady, its army chief of staff, the head of the national security council, and the president of the national bank.
Kaczynski was such a staunch nationalist that he accused Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa, who launched the revolt against the Communist state there, of having been a spy for the KGB.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, former chief of the FSB security service, said that he will take personal charge of the investigation into the crash of the Polish presidential jet.
Yesterday, Putin offered aid to the new government of Kyrgyzstan. The sudden coup in the former Soviet republic has resulted in a much more pro-Russian government, which has requested financial assistance and the possible deployment of Russian troops as peacekeepers.
The U.S. base outside the Kygyz capital city Bishkek is America’s lone remaining base in Central Asia, and is key to the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan.
My next column is on Russia and the Obama Administration.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA.The California governor’s race has huge national implications. On the one hand, California is the lynchpin of President Barack Obama’s political coalition, its electoral votes providing one-fifth of those needed to win the White House. On the other hand, the hand-picked candidate of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, billionaire Meg Whitman, is already shattering all spending records in her bid to win the governorship. …
It’s a very big race with very big national implications. If she’s the Republican nominee, Whitman will spend more money than any non-presidential candidate in America history. It’s an audacious move by corporate conservative Republicans associated with Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney to snatch the California governorship and place it in the hands of a staunch opponent of Barack Obama. (Schwarzenegger has become a big ally of Obama.)
** 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.
** 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 $84.92 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $51 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Oil prices have risen in the past week due to speculation and more heartening signs of economic recovery, including the biggest growth in U.S. employment in three years and increased manufacturing activity in the U.S., Japan, and China.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Mourners turned out today in Kyrgyzstan’s capital city of Bishkek to honor those who died in Wednesday’s uprising which led to the sudden replacement of the government. The new government says it will keep the U.S. base there open, and welcomes assistance from Russia.
** ABOUT THAT DISAPPEARED CALIFORNIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ATTACK AD AGAINST JERRY BROWN. On Tuesday, the California Chamber of Commerce launched a purported educational TV ad and web site on the issues. What they really were about was attacking Attorney General Jerry Brown, the de facto Democratic nominee for governor.
Late yesterday came word that the Chamber, following an outcry on its board of directors and much public controversy, was pulling the ad. It promptly disappeared from the attack web site launched only two days before.
This morning I was informed by an NWN poster that the TV ad was still running, and so I called current Chamber president Allan Zaremberg. He was not in, at 8:30 in the morning. But his assistant insisted that the order had been issued for the ad to come down.
There are many questions that remain about this episode, which is one of the most fraudulent efforts in my memory of California’s political history. And I have a long memory.
The Chamber refuses to say who actually created the ad, which looks nothing like an educational effort — the only thing legally allowed for a non-profit corporation — and looks very much like the work of a standard hyper-partisan political hack.
The ad buy, in excess of one million dollars, was reportedly placed by the Washington, D.C. area firm Mentzer Media. And what we know about Mentzer is that it was the media buying firm used by the notorious Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in their famously distorted attack ads against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. That was the smear campaign which made out a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran to be a coward.
Which makes sense, as this is a Swift Boat type attack.
We also know that, as my sources have told me, former Governor Pete Wilson, chairman of billionaire Meg Whitman’s Republican gubernatorial campaign and a member of the Chamber board of directors, was involved in this anti-Brown attack project from start to finish.
Actually, Wilson owes his entire career to a Jerry Brown mistake. Had Brown not foolishly run for president in 1980, he would have beaten Wilson or any other Republican for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and we would likely be having a very different discussion.
Now Wilson, in an interview with a very young reporter for the Sacramento Bee, who does not know the history and players involved, denied it. I’m told that Wilson is lying. Wilson also claimed that the ad was not an attack ad, but an educational effort within the law governing non-profit organizations. Yet he claimed not to have seen the ad. Which would have made him about the only person in California politics not to have seen it.
Incidentally, what has gone unreported anywhere else is that current Chamber of Commerce president Zaremberg was a top aide to Wilson during his governorship. Yet we are supposed to believe Wilson’s amusing assertion that he and Zaremberg never discussed this project.
Murphy lacks a certain subtlety. Before he was dismissed as Schwarzenegger’s chief strategist, Murphy, as I revealed some years ago, embarrassed the governor by using his picture as a logo on every page of his pitches for corporate clients.
The real reason to have tried to run this ad under the false rubric of an educational effort was to evade the law requiring disclosure of its true funders.
I’m told that Zaremberg, who is not talking about this, agreed to pull the ad on Wednesday night after the public controversy broke and Brown and his wife Anne Gust, former top executive for The Gap, phoned many Chamber of Commerce board members to protest. But then he delayed for another day.
What was going on behind the scenes? The Whitman campaign, not surprisingly, and ex-Governor Wilson, wanted the attack ad to run. They pressured former Wilson aide Zaremberg, the current president of the Chamber.
If you’re offended by watching this sort of thing, I have the script, which I’ll deconstruct for you.
California has lost one million jobs
We’re $200 billion in debt
And Jerry Brown has a 35-year record of higher spending and taxes
Governor Brown opposed Prop 13
Spending increased 163%
He turned a budget surplus into a massive deficit
Mayor Brown, taxes went up
Spending increased 60%
And jobs vanished
Go to enoughspending.com to tell Brown
Enough is enough on higher taxes and spending.
Let’s take it one line at a time.
“California has lost one million jobs.”
This is a false charge. Brown has nothing to do with this, which comes on the watch of Chamber ally Arnold Schwarzenegger (Zaremberg has been a political ally of Arnold’s, and is eager to find a new Republican patron in the form of his old boss Wilson’s candidate, billionaire Meg Whitman).
“We’re $200 billion in debt.”
This is a false charge. $200 billion? California has a $20 billion budget deficit. Brown has no responsibility for this. This comes on the watch of Chamber ally Schwarzenegger, not that he is actually responsible for this, either.
Ironically, while Schwarzenegger cannot be blamed for all this, the people surrounding him at the top when he adopted fateful fiscal policies in 2004 and 2005 are now at the top of the Whitman campaign.
“And Jerry Brown has a 35-year record of higher spending and taxes.”
This is a false charge. In his first go-round as governor, Brown was the only governor in the modern era to avoid general tax increases. Wilson enacted some of the biggest tax increases in California history.
“Governor Brown opposed Prop 13.”
This is a serious distortion of reality. Brown implemented Proposition 13 so well that its author, Howard Jarvis, endorsed him for re-election, cut a TV ad promoting his candidacy, and voted for him. Which the lobbyist running the “Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association,” a business venture, can’t seem to articulate.
Those who opposed Prop 13 included, yes, the California Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of this “educational” ad, and Whitman campaign chairman Pete Wilson.
“Spending increased 163%.”
This is a serious distortion of reality. Brown was a fiscally conservative governor, so much so that he was attacked by unions and liberals. Increases in spending were due to California being a high-growth state, and to the need to bail out schools and local governments after the passage of, yes, Prop 13.
“He turned a budget surplus into a massive deficit.”
This is a false statement. When Brown came into office as governor, he created one of the biggest budget surpluses in the history of California through his frugal policies. He then used that surplus to bail out schools and local governments in the aftermath of Prop 13. But that did not create a relatively minor deficit. That came with the national recession at the end of his second term, presided over by then President Ronald Reagan.
“Mayor Brown, taxes went up.”
This is a serious distortion of reality. The people of Oakland voted to increase taxes to pay for needed services, notably in public safety.
“Spending increased 60%.”
This is a serious distortion of reality. Oakland is one of the toughest cities in America, long beset by crime. Brown attacked crime in a myriad of ways. The voters wanted those increases in government, and Brown twice won landslide elections as mayor.
“And jobs vanished.”
This is a false statement.
“Go to enoughspending.com to tell Brown
“Enough is enough on higher taxes and spending.”
And so much for the TV ad and web site being an “educational” effort. The ad solicits its viewers to attack Brown for this false and distorted version of his policies.
To sum up, this effort is shot through with dishonesty, from start to finish.
Its origins are dishonest, its presentation is dishonest, and its substance is dishonest.
The ad was illegal. A non-profit can’t run TV attack ads. And the true funding sources for this ad and web site must be disclosed.
Now that the ad has been pulled, the true sources of its funding need to be established and the Chamber leadership which went forward with this backfiring project needs to be held to account.
** OUR MAN IN KABUL. Let me be clear. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a nightmare, a slow-motion train wreck. Yet he is all there is, when it comes to a benighted nation-building exercise for the whole of Afghanistan. For two reasons. He is in place. And he is (majority) Pashtun.
(Not that nation building is at all necessary.) As I may have mentioned on one or two occasions …
Given that, here we go with the press pool report from Air Force One:
Andrews AFB
April 9, 2010
AF1 was wheels down at 12:48 p.m. local time. Your pool learned about Justice Stevens’s retirement about an hour before landing from watching CNN and sent a request for Robert Gibbs to come back. He did not. We learned about the planned Potus statement back at the White House from a Twitter tweet.
Earlier during the flight, Jim Jones and Denis McDonough came back to brief your pool on the dinner with Central and Eastern European leaders last night and to take questions on other foreign policy issues. A transcript has already gone out, so you should have that. Quick highlights, if they’re helpful:
– Potus sent President Karzai a letter this week (perhaps yesterday or day before) thanking him for hosting his recent visit and recommitting to the relationship, though not directly mentioning Karzai’s recent anti-Western speeches. Jones said both sides “ought to calm the rhetoric” and declared that “this matter is really behind us now.” McDonough said Karzai’s visit in May is “absolutely” still on.
– Jones said “we’ll be sorry” Prime Minister Netanyahu won’t be coming to the nuclear summit but “the Israelis did not want to be a catalyst for changing the theme of the summit.” Asked if the relationship is in crisis, he said it is “ongoing and fine and continuous.”
– Jones said “there are ongoing discussions” about the United States putting forth its own concrete Middle East peace plan but “we’ve not taken any decision to jumpstart any dramatic shift in our strategy” and “we don’t intend to surprise anybody at any time.”
– Jones had little to say about Kyrgyzstan, noting that information was still fluid, but he reiterated that “obviously Manas is a very important air base for our operations in Afghanistan.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the minority bloc liberals on the court, announced this morning that he will retire. Stevens, who turns 90 this month, will be replaced by President Barack Obama’s second appointee.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is returning to Washington today following his signing in Prague of an historic nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia and related summitry with Eastern and Central European leaders.
Obama held a bilateral meeting with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and then departed Prague on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama lands at Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Marine One.
At 10:20 AM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania today, promoting the economic recovery act and campaigning for Democratic Congressman Bob Brady in Philadelphia.
Obama is in the midst of a nine-day period of intense focus on nuclear weapons. In addition to the Prague summit today, Obama will host an international summit next week in Washington bringing together the leaders of nearly 50 nations to discuss global nuclear security and non-proliferation.
Following the treaty signing, Medvedev introduced a few not unexpected wrinkles.
First, Medvedev called for an American/Russian partnership in the development of a global ballistic missile defense system.
Then he said that the just-signed treaty will be nullified if U.S. ballistic missile defense development appears aimed at Russia.
Current anti-missile programs envisioned for Eastern and Central Europe use a threat from Iran as their rationale.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan.
The political situation in Iraq remains unresolved following the March 7th parliamentary elections. But the currently ruling Shiite party headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which lost to the secular Sunni list headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, says it will form a coalition with another Shiite party backed by Iran and the principal Kurdish party.
The sudden revolution in Kyrgyzstan, which seems to have begun on Tuesday in the rather remote region of Talas, and quickly reached major flash point status yesterday, resulted in opposition leaders declaring an interim government yesterday. This appears to be a secular revolution. Kyrgyzstan is Islamic, but not Islamist. New elections are to take place in six months.
The interim leader of that government, former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva, says that previous international accords will be honored by the new government. Which appears to include the Manas Air Base, which is central to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. I don’t know that this includes a second U.S. base there, an anti-terrorism center just announced last month.
But this declaration is probably not to be taken seriously.
Meanwhile, the new deputy premier says that he thinks Russian peacekeepers may be necessary to keep order.
Coming up … a column on Russia’s latest moves vis a vis Obama, nuclear weapons, Iran, and the “post-Soviet space.”
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. … From my April 7th column.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA.The California governor’s race has huge national implications. On the one hand, California is the lynchpin of President Barack Obama’s political coalition, its electoral votes providing one-fifth of those needed to win the White House. On the other hand, the hand-picked candidate of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, billionaire Meg Whitman, is already shattering all spending records in her bid to win the governorship. …
It’s a very big race with very big national implications. If she’s the Republican nominee, Whitman will spend more money than any non-presidential candidate in America history. It’s an audacious move by corporate conservative Republicans associated with Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney to snatch the California governorship and place it in the hands of a staunch opponent of Barack Obama. (Schwarzenegger has become a big ally of Obama.)
** 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.
Golfer Tiger Woods, following as tumultuous a spate of coverage as one can imagine, is close to the lead after the first round of the Masters.
** 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 $52 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Oil prices have risen in the past week due to speculation and more heartening signs of economic recovery, including the biggest growth in U.S. employment in three years and increased manufacturing activity in the U.S., Japan, and China.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a major nuclear arms reduction treaty today in Prague.
** QUICK HITS.You recall the California Chamber of Commerce TV ad attacking Jerry Brown, which current Chamber president Allan Zaremberg incongruously claimed was an education effort in keeping with the Chamber’s non-profit status and, by complete coincidence, not requiring disclosure of the true source of the $1 million-plus advertising buy. Well, it’s gone. This is how the politics of the “insider’s knowledge/outsider’s mind” works. After a lot of public protest, and private lobbying by Brown and his wife, Anne Gust, Zaremberg, facing an internal revolt on his board of directors, and after stalling for much of the day, finally took the ad down. In fact, it’s gone from the Chamber’s anti-Jerry Brown web site. But I have it, and will deconstruct its fraudulent message tomorrow, along with the story of how it came to disappear from the state’s airwaves. It is one of the most thoroughly dishonest efforts in recent memory. … While Russian intelligence agents are all over the capital of Kyrgyzstan, home of the last U.S. base in Central Asia, one that is key to the war effort in Afghanistan, the country’s ousted president is refusing to resign. But he’s essentially in hiding, with the country’s security apparat gone over to the protesters, who have formed an interim government. And Russia is talking a big foreign aid package for the largely impoverished, landlocked nation of some 5 million souls. There’s a column coming up on Russia’s new moves vis a vis the U.S. …
** IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID. For all the import and drama of geopolitics these days, most American voters are still firmly focused on their own direct circumstances.
A new Gallup Poll shows that 57% believe that the economy is the number one issue.
57% say it’s “extremely important” for gaining their vote for Congress.
49% rate health care as extremely important, while 46% say unemployment. Which is another version of the economy, naturally.
45% give that ranking to the federal deficit, while 40% view terrorism that way. The numbers for the Afghan War and the environment are 32% and 22%, respectively.
An election fought largely around the economy should, if properly waged, give the advantage to Democrats, especially in light of the multiple disasters of the Bush years.
** FIORINA GOES ON THE AIR. Ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina became the first candidate to go on the air in California’s deadlocked GOP Senate primary. Fiorina had already pulled up alongside the erstwhile leader, ex-Congressman Tom Campbell, who exited the governor’s race at the suggestion of and with the help of billionaire Meg Whitman’s campaign.
Fiorina’s TV ad, which you can see here, is a fairly standard positive biographical spot, which features the candidate extensively. Her campaign says she will be on the air through the primary.
Campbell was already in deep trouble after having to repeatedly change his story about his relationship with a professor convicted of terrorist activities.
** OBAMA’S BIG NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.As President Barack Obama turns his attention to nuclear weapons, his AfPak strategy appears to be going south, even as polling shows his approach to be popular at home. That would be so even if Kyrgyzstan, home to the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, had not just experienced a sudden revolution in which the new powers appear to be opponents of the U.S. military presence in their country.
Obama has a big new nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia, signed Thursday in Prague. He’s announced a new nuclear strategy for the U.S., which narrows the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used. Next week, he hosts the heads of state of nearly 50 countries in Washington to discuss stronger international controls on nuclear weapons technology. All to the good.
Meanwhile, however, his surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 28th, heavy on drama, seems to be coming up very short on substance. …
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.
The time in Prague is nine hours later than that in California. It’s GMT+2.
After arrriving in Prague following an overnight flight from Washington on Air Force One, Obama met one-on-one with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, then held an extended meeting with Medvedev and their respective senior officials and advisors.
Obama and Medvedev then signed a major nuclear arms reduction treaty, which will cut the atomic arsenals of both the U.S. and Russia by nearly one-third.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama greets Central and Eastern European leaders on arrival.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama hosts a dinner for Central and Eastern European leaders.
Back in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden held a breakfast meeting with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, a former Los Angeles member of Congress, at the Naval Observatory, and then chaired a meeting of senior officials to assess progress in Iraq.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Biden hosts a conference call with mayors from around the country to discuss the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
On Tuesday, Obama formally revised U.S. doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.
He renounced the development of new nuclear weapons and narrowed the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used, explicitly renouncing the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Which, incidentally, does not include Iran and North Korea.
Obama also declared that nuclear terrorism, carried out by transnational, state-less groups and rogue nations, is the greatest threat to national security.
Obama is in the midst of a nine-day period of intense focus on nuclear weapons. In addition to the Prague summit today, Obama will host an international summit next week in Washington bringing together the leaders of nearly 50 nations to discuss global nuclear security and non-proliferation.
Following the treaty signing, Medvedev introduced a few not unexpected wrinkles.
First, Medvedev called for an American/Russian partnership in the development of a global ballistic missile defense system.
Then he said that the just-signed treaty will be nullified if U.S. ballistic missile defense development appears aimed at Russia.
Current anti-missile programs envisioned for Eastern and Central Europe use a threat from Iran as their rationale.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan.
The political situation in Iraq remains unresolved following the March 7th parliamentary elections.
The opposition in Kyrgyzstan said Thursday it had formed an interim government, after the president fled following street clashes yesterday. Buildings and cars had still been burning in the morning. Kyrgyzstan hosts the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia, a base key to military operations in Afghanistan.
The sudden revolution in Kyrgyzstan, which seems to have begun on Tuesday in the rather remote region of Talas, and quickly reached major flash point status yesterday, has resulted in opposition leaders declaring an interim government today. This appears to be a secular revolution. Kyrgyzstan is Islamic, but not Islamist. New elections are to take place in six months.
The interim leader of that government, former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva, says that previous international accords will be honored by the new government. Which appears to include the Manas Air Base, which is central to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. I don’t know that this includes a second U.S. base there, an anti-terrorism center just announced last month.
Of course, this declaration on the fly by the apparent leader of a just declared interim government can hardly be taken to the bank. It took the personal intercession of Obama last year to keep the base open, along with a substantial increase in U.S. payments to the impoverished, landlocked nation.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles, Calexico, and Sacramento today.
At 8:30 AM, his tour of damage in Calexico caused by the 7.2 earthquake which occurred in Baja California on Sunday, Schwarzenegger will hold a media availability.
On Monday, he proclaimed a state of emergency in Imperial County due to the earthquake which impacted Southern California, disrupted telephone communications, buckled roads, broke water mains and damaged critical water storage facilities.
At 11:30 AM, having toured the downtown Sacramento location, Schwarzenegger will open the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GoED), a one- stop shop to help businesses.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA.The California governor’s race has huge national implications. On the one hand, California is the lynchpin of President Barack Obama’s political coalition, its electoral votes providing one-fifth of those needed to win the White House. On the other hand, the hand-picked candidate of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, billionaire Meg Whitman, is already shattering all spending records in her bid to win the governorship. …
It’s a very big race with very big national implications. If she’s the Republican nominee, Whitman will spend more money than any non-presidential candidate in America history. It’s an audacious move by corporate conservative Republicans associated with Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney to snatch the California governorship and place it in the hands of a staunch opponent of Barack Obama. (Schwarzenegger has become a big ally of Obama.)
** 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.
** 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 $51 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Oil prices have risen in the past week due to speculation and more heartening signs of economic recovery, including the biggest growth in U.S. employment in three years and increased manufacturing activity in the U.S., Japan, and China.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Opposition leaders have reportedly formed a provisional government in Kyrgyzstan, the mountainous Central Asian nation which is home to a U.S. air base central to the war effort in Afghanistan. The president of Kyrgyzstan has reportedly fled the country. Manas, outside the capital city Bishkek, is the last U.S. base in Central Asia. Many in the uprising want the base closed.
** QUICK HITS. The fate of America’s last remaining base in Central Asia, key to the military surge and ongoing effort in Afghanistan, remains unknown with opposition forces apparently having overthrown Kyrgyzstan’s president, whose whereabouts are presently publicly unknown. What is not unknown is that several homes belonging to him and his family have been torched. And that opposition forces say they are forming an interim government. … President Barack Obama is now flying to Prague, where on Thursday he will meet with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to sign a major nuclear arms reduction treaty. Since Russia is highly influential in Kyrgyzstan, today’s happenings there will undoubtedly be on the agenda, along with the fate of both the Manas air base and a proposed new anti-terrorism center announced last month as slated for Kyrgyzstan.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: ABOUT THAT ILLEGAL NON-PROFIT ATTACK AD AGAINST JERRY BROWN, POIZNER AND WHITMAN CALL EACH OTHER PHONY CONSERVATIVES. The California Chamber of Commerce is, quite incongruously, continuing to insist that its TV attack ad against de facto Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown is merely an educational example of issue advocacy. They have to do that, because otherwise they are violating their non-profit status.
But it’s obviously nonsense, as is the ad, which is full of wild distortion. As you can see for yourself, the web site (with banner headline: “Enough is enough!”) and pictures of and repeated attacks on Jerry Brown, and the ad (which is clearly an attack ad, and a highly inaccurate one at that) are highly partisan political hit jobs.
It is illegal for the Chamber of Commerce to run political attack ads.
It’s not illegal for the Chamber’s political action committee to do it. But that requires disclosure, both of the source of the money and where and how it is spent. It is also subject to contribution limits.
And the Chamber refuses to disclose where the money is coming from. How much money is it? The San Francisco Chronicle reported this morning that it’s only $185,000, but the Brown campaign says it’s a million dollar TV ad buy.
Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman’s chief strategist, Mike Murphy, tweeted about it as soon as it became known yesterday, bragging that it’s a big buy. Here’s what he said: “Cal Chamber runs TV ad to remind voters of Jerry Brown’s 35 yr record of fiscal disaster. Large media buy.”
So the California Democratic Party and Consumer Watchdog today filed complaints with the Fair Political Practices Commission — established as part of the Political Reform Act authored by Brown — charging that the Whitman for Governor campaign is in collusion with the Chamber, that the Chamber is making an illegal in-kind contribution to the Whitman campaign in the form of the advertising, and that the ad, as I said yesterday, is itself illegal. The amount, whatever it is, is far in excess of limits on such donations.
It turns out that Whitman campaign chairman Pete Wilson, the former governor, is on the board of directors of the Chamber and took part in the decision to run the anti-Brown attack ad.
What a shock.
Why isn’t this being done through an independent expenditure committee, which has no limits on contributions? Because the money can’t be hidden.
Meanwhile, Whitman and her Republican rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, are hammering each other in radio ads for allegedly being fake conservatives. Each attacks the other for supposedly having past ties to Democratic candidates, and for purported past moderation on illegal immigration.
Poizner’s TV ad attacking Whitman on the issue has pushed her further to the right than she wanted to go, as she hoped to appeal to Latinos with her past support for McCain/Kennedy-style comprehensive immigration reform. But she has another problem in that area, as pointed out recently by the Democratic Governors Association California project; between 2000 and 2005, Whitman didn’t hire any Latinos at California-based eBay.
That’s actually a hard thing to avoid doing in the Golden State.
Today, incidentally, is Brown’s 72nd birthday. Hard to believe.
** GALLUP POLL: DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS TIED ON GENERIC CONGRESSIONAL BALLOT. The latest Gallup Poll, which also shows President Barack Obama’s job approval at 50%, has the Democrats and Republicans tied on a generic congressional vote.
It’s 46% to 46%.
Gallup tracking from March through early April has consistently found voters closely divided in their congressional voting preferences. On average, the race for control of the House has been slightly tighter in the two weeks after passage of healthcare than it was earlier in March, when the Democrats led by a slight margin. However, the Republican gains seen in the first week after the vote ebbed slightly this past week, suggesting that any momentum the party received may have since stalled.
The details aside, the very close nature of the midterm contest to date suggests that voter turnout could be decisive, and affords no rest for either party.
The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, home to a U.S. base key to operations in Afghanistan, is in absolute turmoil after violent nationwide protests today. These are scenes from the capital city of Bishkek, formerly known as Frunze (named for the architect of the Red Army) during the old days as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S NEW AFPAK PROBLEMS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today, and then travels to Prague.
Obama has met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office and received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 4:15 PM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One en route to Prague, Czech Republic.
Obama is preparing for his big summit in Prague on Thursday. There he will sign a major nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia and meet with heads of state from many Eastern and Central European nations.
Obama yesterday formally revised U.S. doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.
He renounced the development of new nuclear weapons and narrowed the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used, explicitly renouncing the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Which, incidentally, may not include Iran and North Korea.
Obama also declared that nuclear terrorism, carried out by transnational, state-less groups and rogue nations, is the greatest threat to national security.
This begins a nine-day period of intense focus on nuclear weapons. In addition to the Prague summit on Thursday, Obama will host an international summit next week in Washington bringing together the leaders of nearly 50 nations to discuss global nuclear security and non-proliferation.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan.
The political situation in Iraq remains unresolved following the March 7th parliamentary elections.
In far worse straits than that is the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. I have a few old friends who’ve lived there and I know the country well. It’s picturesque but generally doesn’t figure much in international news. However, the mountainous former Soviet republic plays a key role with its hosting of the last remaining U.S. base in Central Asia. Manas Air Base outside the capital city Bishkek is key to the Afghan War.
Current President Kurmanbek Bakiyev took power in 2005 in one of the color revolutions, Tulip in this case, deposing President Askar Akayev, a physicist who headed the late Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic and remained as president following the fall of the Soviet Union. But the supposedly democratic Bakiyev has had to rule with an increasingly iron fist, which has not gone down well with repeated hikes in energy and utility rates.
The latest unrest has spread nationwide, and a few members of the cabinet have been captured by protesters. They have also captured parliament building and the city hall in the capital city Bishkek, as well as several TV and radio stations, including the state TV channel.
Despite the 2005 ouster of Akayev, exiled to Mocow where he is a physics professor, Kyrgyzstan is again increasingly under the sway of Russia. There are three Russian military bases there, one of them near the American base at the international airport of Manas, which is now closed to commercial air traffic. It’s unclear what role, if any, Russia is playing now, though Bakiyev complains greatly about how he is being portrayed in the Russian media.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown revealed yesterday in Los Angeles that actor Corey Haim employed “doctor shopping” to obtain a vast array of prescription drugs prior to his death.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
He has no scheduled public events.
** 10 KEY THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH-STAKES CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR BROWN, WHITMAN, POIZNER, ROMNEY, AND OBAMA.The California governor’s race has huge national implications. On the one hand, California is the lynchpin of President Barack Obama’s political coalition, its electoral votes providing one-fifth of those needed to win the White House. On the other hand, the hand-picked candidate of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, billionaire Meg Whitman, is already shattering all spending records in her bid to win the governorship. …
It’s a very big race with very big national implications. If she’s the Republican nominee, Whitman will spend more money than any non-presidential candidate in America history. It’s an audacious move by corporate conservative Republicans associated with Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney to snatch the California governorship and place it in the hands of a staunch opponent of Barack Obama. (Schwarzenegger has become a big ally of Obama.)
** 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.
** 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 $53 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Oil prices are on the rise due to speculation and more heartening signs of economic recovery, including the biggest growth in U.S. employment in three years and increased manufacturing activity in the U.S., Japan, and China.
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