CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan is, according to the network, recovering in an American hospital after “suffering a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” last Friday while covering the celebration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
** QUICK HITS. Governor Jerry Brown imposed a state hiring freeze today. Any exceptions to the freeze have to be directly approved by the Governor’s Office. … Brown also ended the court case over the governor’s powers to impose minimum wage on state employees during a budget impasse as a tactic to move recalcitrant legislators. While Brown’s labor allies like the move, there is ample precedent to use such a tactic in the future. The real stumbling block when Arnold Schwarzeneger used it was Controller John Chiang’s insistence that state computers couldn’t be re-programmed to issue the checks. … Brown’s office announced late today that LA Congresswoman Jane Harman, who announced recently that she would resign to become head of a DC think tank, will formally resign on February 28th. Since she will trigger a special election, and it makes sense for that to be at the same time as Brown’s proposed statewide election on the chronic budget crisis, that’s in tune with Brown’s timeline of gaining legislative approval of the election in early March.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … IF OBAMA LOSES, IT WON’T BE BECAUSE “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.”
** CALIFORNIA 2011: BOWEN VS. HAHN FOR JANE HARMAN’S L.A. CONGRESSIONAL SEAT. Yes, it’s another election year in California, driven by Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed statewide special election to extend/generate temporary tax hikes to balance his austerity-with-revenues solution to the state’s chronic budget crisis.
Only one year in the past ten has there not been a statewide election in California.
This election, which is still in formation as Brown continues to dicker with recalcitrant Republican and Democratic state legislators who bedeviled the last few years of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship, is tied to an impending special election to replace Congresswoman Jane Harman in a south LA County district with a big coastal component.
Harman, long a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, announced recently that she will resign to become director of the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank long headed by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton. But she hasn’t resigned yet, because it doesn’t make sense to hold her special election on a different day than the statewide special election. And Brown isn’t quite ready to to determine exactly when that will be.
(Update: Late today, Brown’s office announced that Harman will resign on February 28th.)
While these timing questions get sorted, the race for Harman’s congressional seat is already underway.
Longtime L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the Los Angles harbor district of San Pedro, had already declared her candidacy.
Today California Secretary of State Debra Bownen, twice a winner statewide who long represented most of Harman’s congressional district as a state senator and state assemblywoman, declared that she will run for Congress. Bowen is term limited out of her statewide office in a little under four years.
Hahn is the daughter of the legendary late L.A. County Supervisor Kenny Hahn and sister of former LA Mayor Jim Hahn. She has lined up a lot of support, including the endorsement of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and the backing of Assembly Speaker John Perez and a number of local figures.
Bowen, who just declared her candidacy, hasn’t rolled out any big endorsements yet. But she has campaigned successfully in the district many times, has the cachet as a two-time winner for statewide office, and a very effective consultant in Parke Skelton, who did very good work for LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (who defeated Hahn’s brother), many coastal LA elected officials, and new state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.
Hahn ran for statewide office last year, but was easily beaten in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor by then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. She had one of those campaigns where fundraising was good enough to pay its consultants — who included former Newsom chief strategist Garry South and media consultant Joe Trippi, who had a more successful experience helping Jerry Brown win the governorship — but not much more than that.
It promises to be an intriguing campaign, all the more so once we know when the election will take place.
>>>>>>LIVE VIDEO FEED President Barack Obama honors the recipients of the Medal of Freedom at 10:30 AM Pacific in the White House. If you wish to mute the sound, click on the pause button.
** OBAMA ON TURMOIL SWEEPING THE ARAB WORLD, SAYS NATIONS “CAN’T BE BEHIND THE CURVE.” From this morning’s White House press conference:
Well, first of all, on Iran, we were clear then and we are clear now that what has been true in Egypt should be true in Iran, which is that people should be able to express their opinions and their grievances and seek a more responsive government. What’s been different is the Iranian government’s response, which is to shoot people and beat people and arrest people.
And my hope and expectation is, is that we’re going to continue to see the people of Iran have the courage to be able to express their yearning for greater freedoms and a more representative government, understanding that America cannot ultimately dictate what happens inside of Iran any more than it could inside of Egypt. Ultimately these are sovereign countries that are going to have to make their own decisions. What we can do is lend moral support to those who are seeking a better life for themselves.
Obviously we’re concerned about stability throughout the region. Each country is different. The message that we’ve sent even before the demonstrations in Egypt has been, to friend and foe alike, that the world is changing; that you have a young, vibrant generation within the Middle East that is looking for greater opportunity, and that if you are governing these countries, you’ve got to get out ahead of change. You can’t be behind the curve.
And so I think that the thing that will actually achieve stability in that region is if young people, if ordinary folks end up feeling that there are pathways for them to feed their families, get a decent job, get an education, aspire to a better life. And the more steps these governments are taking to provide these avenues for mobility and opportunity, the more stable these countries are.
You can’t maintain power through coercion. At some level, in any society, there has to be consent. And that’s particularly true in this new era where people can communicate not just through some centralized government or a state-run TV, but they can get on a smart phone or a Twitter account and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people.
My belief is that, as a consequence of what’s happening in Tunisia and Egypt, governments in that region are starting to understand this. And my hope is, is that they can operate in a way that is responsive to this hunger for change but always do so in a way that doesn’t lead to violence.
The wave of Arab protest has spread to Bahrain, headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama held a rather hastily scheduled press conference in the East Room to discuss the federal budget and the turmoil in the Arab world.
At 9:15 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet for lunch in the Private Dining Room.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama honor recipients of the 2010 Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the
East Room.
Former President George H.W. Bush, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and baseball legend Stan Musial are among the recipients, who also include: Georgia congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis; Natural Resources Defense Council co-founder John Adams; poet Maya Angelou; investor Warren Buffett; artist Jasper Johns; Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein; humanitarian activist Tom Little, who was killed in Afghanistan; civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez; Boston Celtics NBA legend Bill Russell; nonprofit leader and former Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith; and AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
A major topic of discussion is the crisis in Bahrain. The tumult in the Arab world has made it to the Persian Gulf, specifically to this island nation which serves as headquarters for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, the naval force dealing with the Gulf and other parts of the region.
Bahrain is ruled by a king and a parliament, which has a Sunni majority though the country is 70% Shia. Two protesters have been killed so far.
For his part, Biden hosted a breakfast meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Naval Observatory, then in the evening he and Dr. Jill Biden host a reception in celebration of Black History Month, also at the Naval Observatory.
Clinton, who made notably off-base comments throughout the phase of the Egyptian crisis that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, delivers what her office bills as a major address today at George Washington University.
In it, she will seek to get ahead of the curve of change in the Arab and Muslim world by touting information technology as a tool of liberation.
The theme is “the freedom to connect.”
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, as well as the still unfolding Wikileaks crisis.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
He’s working on California’s chronic budget crisis and his nascent administration.
** IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STILL WAY BEHIND THE CURVE ON EGYPT?President Barack Obama’s comeback since the November elections has been very impressive professionally, if not always politically. What has not been at all impressive is how far behind the curve his administration has been on Egypt, a distressing development over the past few weeks that reached a nadir of sorts on Thursday with an epic level of confusion.
There are clear limits to American power. The failure of neoconservative adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan make that obvious. But there should not be many limits to American knowledge. Especially given the limits to American power. …
The real power games have only just begun. And, this administration — stunningly, given Obama’s choice of Cairo for his great address to the Muslim world in 2009 — has been behind the curve repeatedly throughout the crisis thus far. …From my February 11th essay.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see. … From my January 31st feature.
** 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.
In a Valentine’s Day ceremony in San Diego, the remains of the late novelist Raymond Chandler were reunited with those of his wife Cissy in a San Diego cemetery. Chandler, creator of the Philip Marlowe character and father of the Los Angeles mystery novel, died in 1959 but had left no instructions about the ashes of his late wife, who died in 1954. A researcher last year discovered notes from Chandler indicating his wishes and a Los Angeles judge granted the re-burial.
** 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.
Three days after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military is actively working to disperse protesters short of moving into crackdown mode.
** QUICK HITS. Protests continued today across the Arab world.Egypt’s new military rulers sought to halt labor actions today, without success. … An Ecuadoran judge today levied a fine of $8 billion against California-based Chevron, the world’s fourth largest oil company, for polluting rain forests. That won’t end the case, of course, as Chevron is fighting back in U.S. federal court and the international court at the Hague. … Reaction to President Barack Obama’s federal budget proposal ran along predictable lines, with criticism from the right for not cutting more and raising taxes on the wealthy and criticism from the left for program cuts for the poor and middle class. … The federal budget would worsen the chronic budget crisis of California, a tax donor state, by several hundred million. … At the request of state Senate Democratic leaders, the California Legislative Analyst Office issued a report saying that failure to extend 2009 tax hikes would lead to huge cuts in schools, colleges, corrections, and the social safety net.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … IF OBAMA LOSES, IT WON’T BE “THE ECONOMY, STUPID.”
** NEW POLL: MOST AMERICANS THINK CHINA IS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ECONOMY. ER, NO.A new Gallup Poll shows that most Americans believe that China is the biggest economy is the world.
Actually, they are wrong.
It is this little-known country called … America.
Strangely, fewer believe that China will be the leading economic power in 20 years — when China may very well be just that — than believe it is now.
In reality, China has just passed Japan as the world’s second largest economic power.
Our education and media systems have so much to be proud of.
Incidentally, the world’s eighth largest economy, were it rated as a nation, is California. It’s equal to New York and Texas combined.
By 52% to 32%, Americans are more likely to name China than the United States as the leading economic power in the world today, with Japan a distant third at 7%. This is China’s strongest lead on this Gallup measure, first asked in 2000, and is a major change from 2009, when China and the U.S. were nearly tied in Americans’ perceptions about the leading power. …
The poll also finds a 13-point surge since 2009 in the percentage of Americans who believe China will be the world economic leader in 20 years. The 47% now saying this eclipses the 35% choosing the U.S. as the leader; however, China’s lead over the U.S. on this measure is smaller than it is for perceptions about who leads today, and is not appreciably different from what it was in 2008. …
No other country figures very largely in Americans’ perceptions of the world’s top economic powerhouse, with respect to either the present or the future. Fewer than 5% of Americans cite the European Union, Russia, or India as the leading power in either context. …
China is enjoying explosive economic growth and, as a result, has made impressive gains in the rank-order of national economies in the past decade. However, the Gallup data suggest Americans may not be aware that, on the basis of GDP, China’s economy still trails the United States’. Alternatively, Americans’ conception of the “leading economic power” may take into account more than nations’ relative economic output, and could reflect awareness that China enjoys economic momentum at the same time that U.S. jobs are being outsourced to China, and that China is a substantial holder of U.S. debt.
Consumer attitudes about the U.S. economy, by themselves, fail to explain Americans’ outsized views of China’s economic position. Americans were mostly positive about U.S. economic conditions a decade ago — in May 2000, the Gallup Economic Confidence Index registered a fairly robust +36 — and at that time, Americans believed the U.S. was dominant economically. While Americans have been more negative about the economy in recent years, they are far less negative in 2011 than they were in 2008 and 2009. Nevertheless, perceptions that China is the dominant economic power have continued to rise, suggesting that declining consumer attitudes about the U.S. economy are not the sole cause.
Bottom Line
Few would argue that China’s rocketing economic growth looms as a formidable challenge to the United States’ global economic leadership. However, the majority of Americans believe the U.S. has already lost the challenge, and relatively few are confident that the situation will be reversed in 20 years. A strong economic recovery in the U.S. may improve how Americans feel about the United States’ economic competitiveness, but whether it would wholly alter their perceptions that the U.S. now trails China in global economic power is unclear.
In its new communique Monday morning, the grim-looking spokesman of the Egyptian Armed Forces Supreme Council is directing Egyptians to stop demonstrating. To little avail so far.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A big week ahead in presidential politics, and perhaps in California politics.
President Barack Obama rolls out his federal budget proposal — not surprisingly, it’s positioned like that of a presidential candidate — and deals with a host of geopolitical challenges in the wake of Egypt’s ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak.
In California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is over halfway through his announced period to gain legislative action on his plan to solve the state’s chronic budget crisis. No votes have been scheduled, but this week should see some Republican reactions to his proposals beyond “No.” In other words, the bargaining may surface as the current Republican stance of no/no/no looks, to put it politely, decidedly non-serious.
Brown has announced no block schedule for the week.
Obama’s week ahead looks like thiss.
On Monday, he travels to Baltimore County, Maryland to speak to students at Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Budget Director Jack Lew join him for the visit where he lays out key priorities in the 2012 Budget and discuss the importance of investing in education for a competitive economy.
On Tuesday, Obama will honor recipients of the 2010 Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, in a ceremony at the White House.
On Wednesday, Obama will meet with state legislators at the White House and later deliver remarks on the America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
On Thursday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House. In the afternoon, Obama flies to the West Coast.
It’s not on his schedule, but I hear that Obama may hold a private dinner meeting Thursday night in Silicon Valley with major leaders in the innovation economy.
On Friday, Obama will visit Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon and tour the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility as well as learn more about Intel’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education programs.
Obama’s budget should be considered as positioning for the 2012 presidential race, and as an opening bid for future negotiations with Congressional Republicans, whose leaders are trying to hold down the Tea Party cutting proclivities of their new members.
Obama wants to raise some taxes on the rich, cut college grants and heating assistance for low-income residents, freeze some domestic spending for five years, and raise the military budget. He proposes no entitlement or tax reforms.
In other words, it’s a budget aimed at independent voters, who say they want big cuts but, as it turns out, don’t want to cut anything major.
While the budget roll-out will be interesting, Obama’s hands will again be full of geopolitical crisis.
Labor strikes are spreading in Egypt, the banks are closed, and the military is telling everyone to cool it now that Hosni Mubarak is out and get back to life as usual. We’ll see how that goes.
Meanwhile, protests are spreading across the Arab world, in Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain (U.S. Navy headquarters in the Arab world), Iran, and Palestine.
The cabinet of the Palestinian Authority was dismissed today, and protesters in Tehran were forcibly suppressed by baton-wielding, tear gas-dispensing riot police.
It’s a multi-faceted formula for incipient chaos and disaster for Obama. But he always has his saving grace, the Republican presidential field.
Ron Paul handily won the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) straw poll over the weekend over the putative frontrunner Mitt Romney. Everyone else was in single digits.
As for California politics, it can’t really compare with presidential politics at this point, especially with Brown persisting in this stealth mode of his.
Were it not for the flashes of personality he shows when he does emerge from submergence, and the stark policies he’s offering, Jerry Brown would be, quite unthinkably, rather dull.
Brown had a great bit at the end of last week with his trip to LA and his “the people are my entourage” theme.
But he was overshadowed, like everything else, by Egypt and presidential politics. And he really does need more security.
The new/renewed governor’s job approval among adult Californians is down to 34%, a 7-point drop from January. Among likely voters, it’s 41%, down six points from a month earlier.
In contrast, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last job approval rating, in a December PPIC poll of those who voted in the November election, was 32%. (Of course, there are signs that his approval is lower in the wake of the controversial last minute commutation and appointments. But his final job approval rating taken during his governorship was up well above the depths of the low 20s he was in early last summer.)
But while Brown’s job approval is not much higher than Schwarzenegger’s, his disapproval is much lower. More than 40% have no opinion of Brown as governor.
Why the decline in job approval for someone who won a landslide victory three months ago?
As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind, baby.
Brown may get a lift this week with the quite possible victory of his preferred candidate in an LA area state Senate special election. Otherwise, the run-off would take the election past Brown’s accelerated budget timeline, and the governor needs every legislative vote he can count on.
President Barack Obama is unveiling his new budget proposal this week.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Maryland.
He has received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events.
Obama traveled early this morning to Baltimore, Maryland where he visited and toured Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology
Joined by top education and budget leaders, Obama delivered remarks on education and key budget priorities
He then returned to the White House.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, OMB Director Jack Lew and CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee will discuss the White House Budget in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, as well as the still unfolding Wikileaks crisis.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
He’s working on California’s chronic budget crisis and his nascent administration.
** IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STILL WAY BEHIND THE CURVE ON EGYPT?President Barack Obama’s comeback since the November elections has been very impressive professionally, if not always politically. What has not been at all impressive is how far behind the curve his administration has been on Egypt, a distressing development over the past few weeks that reached a nadir of sorts on Thursday with an epic level of confusion.
There are clear limits to American power. The failure of neoconservative adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan make that obvious. But there should not be many limits to American knowledge. Especially given the limits to American power.
Speaking Friday afternoon, after delaying his remarks for 90 minutes, Obama hailed the victory of the Egyptian protesters, saying: “There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people in Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.”
But for all Obama’s trademark rhetorical finery, deposing Hosni Mubarak may have been the simplest and most obvious move in the Egyptian Revolution. For, as the man who actually announced the change, veteran Egyptian spymaster Omar Suleiman, put it: “President Hosni Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency and has instructed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to take over the affairs of the country.”
The real power games have only just begun. And, this administration — stunningly, given Obama’s choice of Cairo for his great address to the Muslim world in 2009 — has been behind the curve repeatedly throughout the crisis thus far. …From my February 11th essay.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** 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 $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.
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 new rulers of Egypt, the Armed Forces Supreme Council, on Sunday dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events.
His day is again dominated by events in Egypt, where the situation remains somewhat hazy following the dramatic ouster of President Hosni Mubarak on Friday.
The military this morning dissolved the national parliament, widely thought to have won in rigged elections, and suspended the constitution, widely derided for making it impossible for opposition groups to mount serious political challenges.
Of course, absent a constitution, the military determines what is the law governing the polity.
And the state of emergency remains in effect, and that includes a midnight curfew.
The new cabinet put in place by Mubarak a few weeks ago in response to growing protests will remain in office for some unspecified time.
Elections are to go forward for September, as originally scheduled.
There are widespread rumors that Mubarak, still reported to be at his estate in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, will flee to the United Arab Emirates. But he not yet.
The role of Omar Suleiman, the longtime intelligence chief recognized just last weekend by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Egypt’s legitimate leader, remains unclear. He is hated by most of the country and has not been mentioned in the new governing arrangements emerging since he, in his short-lived role as Mubarak’s vice president, announced on Friday that Mubarak would step down.
The military, incidentally, or I should say, not incidentally, are big business in Egypt. They have a lot of economic interest to protect.
The Republican presidential field had its first big cattle call on Friday and Saturday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington.
Not all the potential big candidates were there, with Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin notable by their absence. And the event, not to mention the candidates, were vastly overshadowed by sweeping geopolitical matters.
Putative frontrunner Mitt Romney’s speech was reportedly well-received. But Romney, who’s won the CPAC presidential straw poll in the past, lost this one.
To Ron Paul.
The libertarian Texas congressman won the first big straw poll of the campaign handily, with 30% of the vote. Romney was second at 23%.
From there it was a big drop into the single digits for the rest of the potential 2012 Republican presidential field.
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson tied New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for third place, with 6% each.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fifth with 5%.
Then came former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at 4%, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann at 4%, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels 4%, Sarah Palin 3%, Georgia talk radio host Herman Cain 2%, Mike Huckabee 2%, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum 2%, South Dakota Senator John Thune 2%, former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman 1%, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour 1%.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SUNDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Protesters began leaving Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak overthrown after 18 days of massive protests. But they may return if the new military government does not transition to democracy as promised. Meanwhile, others are staying, as statements from the new ruling military council are rather vague.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Maryland.
He has received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events.
He is getting out of the White House to attend daughter Sasha’s basketball game in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
But his day is again dominated by the crisis in Egypt, America’s longest-standing ally in the Arab world and the Arab world’s largest nation.
Yesterday, of course, in one of the most momentous days in recent history, President Hosni Mubarak stepped down after two-and-a-half weeks of massive protests against his 30-year dictatorship.
Power has been passed not to his chosen successor, longtime intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, but to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Which vowed today to effect a transition to democracy and to honor its peace treaty with Israel.
The shape of the transition remains unclear, so the story of Egypt’s revolution is still, despite the drama of recent days, in its early stages.
In its communique today, the military council said it would “pave the way for an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state.” But it set no timetable.
“The current government and governors undertake to manage affairs until the formation of a new government,” declared an army general reading the statement on Egyptian state television.
Meanwhile, mass protests spurred first by last month’s uprising and revolution in Tunisia spread today in the Arab world to Algeria.
Obama has dispatched Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Israel and Jordan for consultations and reassurance.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Tunisia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, as well as the still unfolding Wikileaks crisis.
Obama and his team are also monitoring the Republicans and their presidential contenders.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is taking place now in Washington, where it’s been completely overshadowed by geopolitical drama. Most of the candidates are appearing there.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama talks about fiscal responsibility.
CPAC is conducting a presidential straw poll this afternoon.
I’ll get into it this weekend.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SATURDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
He’s working on California’s chronic budget crisis and his nascent administration.
Next week should see some Republican reactions to his proposals beyond “No.”
In other words, the bargaining may surface as the current Republican stance of no/no/no looks, to put it politely, decidedly non-serious.
** IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STILL WAY BEHIND THE CURVE ON EGYPT?President Barack Obama’s comeback since the November elections has been very impressive professionally, if not always politically. What has not been at all impressive is how far behind the curve his administration has been on Egypt, a distressing development over the past few weeks that reached a nadir of sorts on Thursday with an epic level of confusion.
There are clear limits to American power. The failure of neoconservative adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan make that obvious. But there should not be many limits to American knowledge. Especially given the limits to American power.
Speaking Friday afternoon, after delaying his remarks for 90 minutes, Obama hailed the victory of the Egyptian protesters, saying: “There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people in Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.”
But for all Obama’s trademark rhetorical finery, deposing Hosni Mubarak may have been the simplest and most obvious move in the Egyptian Revolution. For, as the man who actually announced the change, veteran Egyptian spymaster Omar Suleiman, put it: “President Hosni Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency and has instructed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to take over the affairs of the country.”
The real power games have only just begun. And, this administration — stunningly, given Obama’s choice of Cairo for his great address to the Muslim world in 2009 — has been behind the curve repeatedly throughout the crisis thus far. …From my February 11th essay.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** 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 $85.58 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
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.
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, in an address this afternoon in the Grand Foyer of the White House, discussed regime change in Egypt so far.
** QUICK HITS. Not a good day to be out of the flow on Egypt … Top Republican presidential candidates appeared today at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington. Even though putative GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney gave an address, along with a couple of other guys, they garnered virtually no attention. I heard that a Sarah Palin lookalike caused a stir in the lobby. … Governor Jerry Brown, in Los Angeles on the second day of his first public swing outside the state capital since being inaugurated five-and-a-half weeks ago, got found his stint on a local LA TV talk show cut when it coincided with the fall with Hosni Mubarak. He was reportedly good-natured about it. … It reminds me of the time that his sister Kathleen was addressing the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York and Jerry chose to give a skybox interview with CNN. … Brown reportedly expects some Republican counter to his state budget proposals next week.
** IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STILL WAY BEHIND THE CURVE ON EGYPT?President Barack Obama’s comeback since the November elections has been very impressive professionally, if not always politically. What has not been at all impressive is how far behind the curve his administration has been on Egypt, a distressing development over the past few weeks that reached a nadir of sorts on Thursday with an epic level of confusion.
There are clear limits to American power. The failure of neoconservative adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan make that obvious. But there should not be many limits to American knowledge. Especially given the limits to American power.
Speaking Friday afternoon, after delaying his remarks for 90 minutes, Obama hailed the victory of the Egyptian protesters, saying: “There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people in Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.”
But for all Obama’s trademark rhetorical finery, deposing Hosni Mubarak may have been the simplest and most obvious move in the Egyptian Revolution. For, as the man who actually announced the change, veteran Egyptian spymaster Omar Suleiman, put it: “President Hosni Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency and has instructed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to take over the affairs of the country.”
The real power games have only just begun. And, this administration — stunningly, given Obama’s choice of Cairo for his great address to the Muslim world in 2009 — has been behind the curve repeatedly throughout the crisis thus far. …
OBAMA ADDRESS ON THE DEPARTURE OF EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK.
Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.
By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition. It’s a beginning. I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.
The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the rights of Egypt’s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table. For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change.
The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary — and asked for — to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I’m also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity — jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world.
Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.
We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like.
We saw a young Egyptian say, “For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I’m only one person, this is the way real democracy works.”
We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” — “We are peaceful” — again and again.
We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect.
And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed.
We saw people of faith praying together and chanting – “Muslims, Christians, We are one.” And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share.
And above all, we saw a new generation emerge — a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days…that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever.
This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism, not mindless killing — but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.
And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can’t help but hear the echoes of history — echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice.
As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, “There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.” Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note.
Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in.
The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people — of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world.
President Barack Obama will speak at approximately 12 noon Pacific on the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. You can watch it here live. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs will give his last briefing from the podium at 12:30 PM Pacific, joined by his friend the president.
OBAMA UPDATE. The President’s hastily scheduled 10:30 AM Pacific live statement on the regime change in Egypt has been delayed till 12 noon Pacific. You can watch it here live on NWN.
** MCCAIN HAILS MUBARAK RESIGNATION. U.S. Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, issued this statement hailing the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak:
“I applaud President Mubarak’s decision to step down. This was obviously a very difficult decision for President Mubarak, but it is the right decision for Egypt. History will note that President Mubarak’s last action in office was in the best interest of the country he loves.
“While this is a welcomed event, the Egyptian people are clearly saying that President Mubarak’s resignation should be the beginning, not the end, of their country’s transition to democracy. I completely agree. For the Egyptian people to achieve the legitimate and enduring democratic change they seek, representatives from Egypt’s pro-democracy parties and movements must be included in the transition government. In advance of elections later this year, Egyptians must be free to exercise their universal rights peacefully – to speak and express themselves without interference, including over the internet; to organize independent political parties; to register candidates of their choosing for office; and to participate in elections that are free and fair by international standards.
“In the days ahead, the Egyptian military will continue to have a critical role in maintaining order and stability while allowing their fellow Egyptians to exercise their universal rights in peace. The Egyptian people are demanding a meaningful and irreversible transition to democracy, and I urge the Egyptian military to faithfully support and secure the coming process of political change in Egypt.
“The United States stands fully ready to assist the Egyptian people and government as they begin the hard work of democratic reform.”
Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, looking every inch his country’s longtime spy chief and master of “renditions,” announced that President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down from office, ending his 30-year rule over America’s longest-standing ally in the Arab world.
TEXT OF SULEIMAN STATEMENT OF EGYPTIAN REGIME CHANGE:
“In the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.
“My fellow citizens, in these difficult circumstances that our country is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency and has instructed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to take over the affairs of the country.”
** FLASH (8 AM PACIFIC) — In a short but sweet statement just now on Egyptian state television and Al Jazeera, Vice President and longtime intelligence chief Omar Suleiman announced that President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down. The statement came at 6 PM in Cairo, a few hours after Mubarak flew to his estate 250 miles away at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.
The transitional government will be headed by the military. Needless to say, many questions remain.
In fact, getting rid of Mubarak may have been the simplest and most obvious move in the Egyptian Revolution.
In its “Communique No. 2″ early today, the Egyptian Armed Forces Supreme Council promised reforms, after the protesters go home. But protesters have continued to flood the streets across the country, the army has taken no action against them, and defiant President Hosni Mubarak has left the capital city of Cairo for the Red Sea resort Sharm el Sheikh.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events.
His day is again dominated by the crisis in Egypt, America’s longest-standing ally in the Arab world and the Arab world’s largest nation, where the governance situation remains chaotic the day after President Hosni Mubarak stunned the CIA and other observers by refusing to step down.
Protests continued and in fact grew today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Tunisia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, as well as the still unfolding Wikileaks crisis.
Were it not for the unprecedented crisis in Egypt, the spotlight would be on the latest AfPak crisis.
Last month, a seemingly low-level U.S. consular employee named Ray Davis shot and killed two Pakistanis he said were trying to rob him in the city of Lahore. It turned out that they had been following him for two hours. And that after shooting them with his 9 mm pistol, scoring nine hits in nine shots, Davis phoned for back-up which arrived in the form of a black SUV. Which managed to run over and kill a Pakistani bystander, but failed to extract Davis before he was arrested by the Pakistani police.
Davis, it turns out, is a former Green Beret whose wife is the owner of record of a security contracting firm. The Pakistani media says that the two men he shot and killed were not robbers but agents of the ISI intelligence service who were ostentatiously following him after he made contact with Islamic militants in Waziristan.
The U.S. officially denies this. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon have demanded Davis’s release on grounds of diplomatic immunity.
Pakistan refuses, and now is sending signals that it will not participate in an AfPak security summit two weeks from now in Washington.
Governor Jerry Brown addressed the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce last night at its annual dinner at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown L.A.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Los Angeles today.
Brown campaigns this morning with former state Assemblyman Ted Lieu, appearing at his campaign headquarters in Torrance.
Lieu is running in a special election next Tuesday for the state Senate and is the frontrunner. If he gets a majority of the vote, he wins the seat outright and avoids an April 19th run-off.
Lieu has already been using the governor’s endorsement in campaign advertising. Brown would prefer that he avoid a run-off more than two months away as he can definitely use his vote in the Senate for his accelerated state budget plans.
Brown made his first public appearances outside Sacramento since his inauguration yesterday in Los Angeles.
He held a media availability at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and addressed the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce dinner at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown L.A.
His principal topic, of course, was California’s chronic budget crisis.
He’s still working on getting Republican and Democratic votes for his austerity-with-revenues budget plan, and is looking for business support in a series of private meetings and conversations.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday instructed his longtime talent agents, Creative Artists Agency, that he is in the market for movie roles.
I’ll have a lot more about this as we go forward.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Schwarzenegger will deliver a keynote address at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit on March 1st outside Washington.
ARPA-E is the energy project of the Advanced Research Projects Agency.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 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 $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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stunned observers today when he announced, in another late night address, that he will not step down.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STILL WAY BEHIND THE CURVE ON EGYPT?
** QUICK HITS.Egypt is bracing for massive protests Friday in the wake of President Hosni Mubarak’s surprise speech refusing to step down. … Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is grappling for purchase on the crisis, starting with a clear view of what is going on. As you can see from my afternoon report, they were caught about as far off-guard by today’s events in Cairo as any White House could ever want to be. … Governor Jerry Brown flew down from Sacramento to LA by himself today on low-cost Southwest Airlines for his first public appearance outside the capital since becoming governor. In a media availability at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, Brown told reporters that he is still working on getting Democratic votes in the Legislature as well as the expected problem getting Republican votes for his controversial austerity-with-revenues budget. Democrats, in the familiar pattern, are balking at program cuts while Republicans say no to revenues. He’ll address the LA Chamber of Commerce tonight on California’s chronic budget crisis.
** MCCAIN AGAIN CALLS FOR MUBARAK TO STEP DOWN. U.S. Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, issued the following statement in the wake of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s refusal to step down:
“President Mubarak’s announcement that he will remain in power is deeply unfortunate and troubling. The voices of the Egyptian people are growing louder and more unified, and they are not demanding partial transfers of power or minor adjustments to the current government. They are calling for President Mubarak to step down as the beginning of a meaningful and enduring transition to democracy in Egypt. I fully support the peaceful aspirations of the Egyptian people, and I am very concerned that every day their demands go unmet, the possibility only grows that this hopeful call for change could be exploited by extremist or violent elements.
“When President Mubarak alleges that foreigners and outsiders are manipulating events in Egypt, he could not be further from the truth. The Egyptian people, and they alone, are the authors of the current outcry for democratic change in Egypt. I urge President Mubarak to begin listening to and trusting his people. The stability of Egypt and the wider region increasingly depend on it.”
** CAIRO CHAOS: MUBARAK’S DEFIANCE SURPRISES MOST AND CREATES A NEW CHAPTER IN THE EGYPTIAN CRISIS. Speaking 45 minutes later than finally scheduled, finally taking to the air at 10:45 PM Cairo time, President Hosni Mubarak sprung a big surprise after a seeming military coup earlier in the day led to widespread reports of his departure from Egypt’s presidency: He’s not going anywhere.
Well, not yet, anyway.
It was clear from his tone early on in the 17-minute address that Mubarak was sticking around. Referring repeatedly to the great youth of Egypt, and to himself as the country’s father figure, he promised to track down those responsible for killing protesters — something which shouldn’t be hard for him to do, as they are his backers — and to move forward with a new reform committee.
Watching the live feed from Cairo’s Tahrir Square on a split screen as Mubarak spoke, it seemed that the crowd was at first disbelieving of what they were hearing. But by the time Mubarak started droning on, in fatherly bureaucratic fashion, about chaning six specific portions of the Egyptian constitution, the disbelief in the square had turned to anger.
Friday was already scheduled to be a huge day of protest, plans which as today went on turned to celebration. Now the protest is back on. As are, I’m sure, the widespread strikes that spread over the past two days as the movement for political reform turned to a movement for economic justice, with growing anger about pervasive poverty coupled with rage over reports of the Mubarak family’s billions in ill-gotten gains.
Meanwhile, it became clear that no one really knew what was going on.
In Washington today for, as fate would have it, the annual Threat Assessment Hearings of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, CIA Director Leon Panetta said that he thought Mubarak was leaving office today.
Oops.
On Air Force One on his flight to Michigan to tout a new national wireless initiative, President Barack Obama was watching events unfold on television.
Pool reports from a gaggle with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs give a sense of the lack of clarity in the infosphere around the president.
“I am watching much of what you’re watching. We’re watching I think a very fluid situation. What we’re looking for and what the president spoke about many days ago remains our priority: an orderly transition to a free and fair election. What we’re looking for remains unchanged.”
Gibbs would not comment on Leon Panetta’s comments on whether Mubarak is stepping down. “I don’t know what question elicited what testimony so I want to, without having seen that I think that would be tough for me to come at,” he said. …
Later Gibbs said that, “We are in contact with our embassy obviously in Cairo. We are watching the reports that you are. I don’t know what the outcome of what is happening today will be.” Asked if Vice President Suleiman would indeed take control, Gibbs said he was “not going to get in over the tips of my skis on this one.”“I will endeavor to get us the best information throughout the day. But I don’t want to get into a series of hypotheticals,” he said.
Asked if power could indeed transfer to Suleiman according to the Egyptian Constitution, Gibbs said: “I have an inkling of that, but let me get better clarification from those that have a better reading of the Egyptian Constitutions.”
Asked if Obama would call Mubarak, Gibbs repeated: “We’re going to monitor what happens and react as the situation warrants.”
Gibbs would not say when Obama learned that Mubarak’s resignation was a possibility – if it was during a briefing he had with NSA Tom Donilon in the Oval Office before leaving or during the flight to Michigan. “We continue to be in contact with the White House and as this situation and events warrant we will keep you apprised.”
Alyssa Mastramonaco and Mona Sutphen were on board to brief POTUS, and “We obviously travel with a compliment of folks from the NSC can than keep the president apprised of any developments.”
On reports about the Egyptian government detaining citizens: Gibbs hadn’t seen them but said the admin’s position on protesters being able to demonstrate freely and that if anyone has been detained the WH urges their release.
Gibbs talked a bit about the WH having to balance crises and the message they want to get out on any given day.
“There’s a lot bandwith in the White House … to deal with multiple problems,” he said remarking on his own “Axelrodian pun.” …
On protests in Cairo: “Unless or until irreversible change comes, bigger crowds will happen.”
There are many signs of regime change in in Egypt, America’s longest-standing ally in the Arab world, but it hasn’t happened yet.
NOTE: A major technical glitch just wiped out today’s postings at 11:45 AM. It also prevented posting in the Forum section, so I moved what is now today’s make-shift edition to this posting position.
UPDATE: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to make a live television address at 12 noon Pacific.
You can watch it live by clicking on the regular Al Jazeera feed below.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Michigan.
Protests continued today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
A military coup is appears to be underway there.
Obama rolled out his National Wireless Initiative in an appearance at Northern Michigan University, but his trip was overshadowed by the crisis in Egypt.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento and Los Angeles today.
These are the first public appearances outside Sacramento that he has made in the 38 days since his inauguration as governor.
He has a media availability in Burbank after he arrives at Bob Hope Airport on Southwest Airlines.
Tonight at 7 PM he addresses the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce dinner at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown L.A.
He will, of course, discuss California’s chronic budget crisis.
The new/renewed governor’s job approval among adult Californians is down to 34%, a 7-point drop from January. Among likely voters, it’s 41%, down six points from a month earlier.
But while Brown’s job approval is not much higher than Schwarzenegger’s, his disapproval is much lower. More than 40% have no opinion of Brown as governor.
Why the decline in job approval for someone who won a landslide victory three months ago?
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
NOTE: A major technical glitch just wiped out today’s postings at 11:45 AM. It’s also affecting the Forum section, so I’ve moved a makeshift version of today’s edition to the posting position above.
President Barack Obama met with Republican congressional leaders today for lunch and agreed on various platitudes.
** QUICK HITS. U.S. Senator Jim Webb, a very old acquaintance whose victory in Virginia tipped the Senate to the Democrats in 2006, announced today that he will not run for re-election. The former secretary of the Navy, an exceptional writer who was the most highly decorated Marine officer in the Vietnam War, was never an easy fit in politics. Nevertheless, he was my favorite to be Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, an idea which got a lot of traction at the time. Democrats will not have an easy time holding on to his seat. … A new California poll coming off embargo in a few hours will have some not so good news for a very well-known political figure. … At a press conference this morning, Governor Jerry Brown looked askance at legislation to curb the governor’s commutation powers, a bill spurred by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last-minute cut in sentence for the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
** AS EXPECTED, BROWN CANCELS SALE OF CALIFORNIA STATE BUILDINGS. As expected, Governor Jerry Brown is canceling the sale of state buildings approved by former Governor Arnold Schwarznegger and the Legislature. The sale of 11 buildings would have garnered over a billion dollars in revenue. But since the buildings would have been leased back, the sales would have cost more over the next few decades.
“Selling and leasing back the state’s buildings for one-time gains is not prudent,” Brown said in a morning press conference.
The 2009-10 budget authorized the sale and leaseback of 11 state properties, and the 2010-11 budget assumes $1.2 billion in revenues from this deal. To replace the one-time revenue this would have generated, Brown proposes amending his budget proposal to include borrowing $830 million from special fund reserves.
** NEW SURVEY: YOUNG EGYPTIANS SEE THEIR POTENTIAL AS UNTAPPED.A new Gallup Poll survey shows why unrest in Egypt is likely to continue no matter what the regime promises in terms of reforms conveniently down the road.
Young people in several Arab countries became less likely in 2010 to believe their leadership fully uses their human capital. Young Egyptians’ perceptions experienced one of the largest declines: fewer than 3 in 10 15- to 29-year-olds say Egypt’s leadership maximizes youth potential, down from almost 4 in 10 in 2009. Young Egyptians have been an important force in ongoing demonstrations calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. …
Young people’s views of how their respective country’s leadership taps their talents also fell significantly in Jordan, Sudan, and Iraq. In late January, demonstrators took to the streets in Jordan to demand political and economic reforms, which led to the dismissal of the government’s cabinet. Mauritania is the only country where young people became statistically more likely last year to believe their country’s leaders maximize their potential.
In all other countries surveyed, the year-over-year change as to whether leaders harness young people’s human capital is not statistically significant. Although data for 2010 are not available in all countries, it is worth noting that young citizens of the richest Arab League states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) are among the most likely to say their country leaders maximize their potential.
As policymakers face the challenges of creating jobs across Arab countries, young people’s views about how leaders tap their potential reinforce the need to engage young Arabs as vital partners in the economic growth of their societies. The top predictor of their perception that leaders maximize their potential across the region is young people’s satisfaction with efforts to increase the number of quality jobs. The other top two predictors are young Arabs’ belief that children in their countries are treated with respect and dignity and that the government makes business paperwork easy enough for aspiring entrepreneurs. Previous Gallup research has shown that the belief that children are treated with respect strongly correlates with many economic and entrepreneurship measures. Such findings underscore the strong link between children’s status and job-creation initiatives in building prosperous and stable societies.
These results are based on the latest research to appear in the fourth edition of “The Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs,” which will be published in April. The Silatech Index report, prepared in partnership with Gallup, measures and analyzes young Arabs’ attitudes with respect to their hopes and desires, human capital, work, entrepreneurship, and obstacles to success.
Anti-government rallies are growing in Egypt despite attempts by the Mubarak regime to stem them with a wave of reforms.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden have lunch with House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy in the Private Dining Room.
At 11:45 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
Protests continued today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
After declining for a few days, the protests are again growing in size even as new Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman threatened a “coup” if the protests do not stop.
Protesters read that as a threat of martial law.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Yemen, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Korean peninsula, as well as the Wikileaks crisis.
The revolt in Egypt is prompting protests in Iraq.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento today.
Brown holds a press conference in the Capitol at 9:30 AM.
Since he eliminated the gubernatorial webcast as a budget-cutting move, his appearance will only be available to the remainder of the Capitol press corps in attendance.
At 10:15 AM, Brown attends the Assembly Republican Caucus retreat at the California Farm Bureau.
At 4:30 PM, Brown attends the Senate Republican Caucus retreat at the California Farm Bureau.
Brown is working on California’s chronic budget crisis and on developing his nascent administration.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today outlined a path forward for Egypt, including an end to arrests of protesters and journalists.
** QUICK HITS. Late this morning, Governor Jerry Brown released a schedule. (Huzzah!) He met with Democratic legislators today about California’s chronic budget crisis. Tomorrow he meets with Republican legislators. … Brown has not yet called a special election to replace L.A. Congresswoman Jane Harman, who has resigned to replace former House Intelligence Committee chairman Lee Hamilton as head of the Woodrow Wilson Center. Harman was a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee passed over for its chairmanship by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She isn’t someone who likes being in the minority. In 1998, she ran for governor of California, finishing third in the Democratic primary behind soon-to-be Governor Gray Davis and Northwest Airlines chief Al Checchi. She and her husband, Sidney Harman, a stereo mogul, are the owners of Newsweek magazine.
** OBAMA STATEMENT ON THE RESIGNATION OF L.A. CONGRESSWOMAN JANE HARMAN.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
February 8, 2011
Statement by the President on Congresswoman Jane Harman’s Resignation
Through nearly two decades in Congress, Jane Harman has been a champion of our national security, from standing up for our brave men and women in uniform to reforming our intelligence community after the 9/11 attacks. Michelle and I congratulate her on taking the next step in her career at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she will continue to advance the policies we’ll need to keep America strong and prosperous. We will miss her passionate voice in Congress and we join the people of California in thanking her for her many years of service.
** NEW POLL: ECONOMIC OPTIMISM HITS THREE-YEAR HIGH. There isn’t exactly a rip-roaring economic recovery under way, though the economy is clearly on an upswing, but a sense of optimism is returning.
A new Gallup Poll shows that economic optimism in the U.S. has just tied a three-year high.
Views are essentially even across the regions.
Forty-one percent of Americans in January said the economy is “getting better,” up from 35% in December and 38% a year ago. This level of optimism ties for the highest since Gallup Daily tracking began in January 2008. …
Half or more of upper-income Americans (those making at least $90,000 annually), younger Americans (those aged 18 to 29), and Democrats say economic conditions are getting better. This makes them the most optimistic among key demographic groups.
A comparison of January 2011 with January 2010 reveals that upper-income Americans (+7) and those aged 65 years and older (+5) have increased their optimism the most. Men show a larger increase than women in year-over-year expectations, while independents and Republicans show an increase and Democrats’ optimism is essentially unchanged. Democrats and young Americans have held — but not added to — their high level of optimism. …
Americans’ economic optimism is one of two measures that make up Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index. The other — consumers’ perceptions of current economic conditions — also improved in January, with 42% of Americans rating current economic conditions “poor,” a slight improvement from 44% in December 2010 and 45% in January 2010. At -21, the combined Economic Confidence Index also indicates that Americans are more positive about the economy than they have been at any time during the past three years. …
Consumer optimism about the future course of the economy is affected by what is happening on Wall Street, in the jobs market, and on Main Street. However, these factors tend to affect various groups of Americans differently.
Upper-income Americans are currently one of the most optimistic groups about the future course of the economy, and their optimism is up the most over the past year. This likely reflects that Wall Street has reached highs not seen since mid-2008 and the government has extended the Bush tax cuts. It is likely also a positive sign for the economy in 2011 because these consumers have the disposable income to spend if they feel comfortable doing so.
Younger Americans continue to be more optimistic than other age groups but their optimism has not increased from a year ago. It may be that their natural optimism and the modest improvement in job market conditions over the past year are sufficient for them to stay comparatively optimistic. However, the reality of anemic job growth more recently, particularly over the past five months, may be keeping them from becoming more optimistic.
Senior citizens and those 30 to 49 years of age are not as optimistic as their younger counterparts about the U.S. economy, but show a substantial increase in optimism. This upswing may be based partly on the improvements on Wall Street for the former group and perhaps on the modest improvements in the job market for the latter.
The comparatively high level of optimism among Democrats may have to do with their continued confidence in the Obama administration and the Democrats’ ongoing control of the Senate after the midterm elections. However, the loss of the House and, perhaps more importantly, the continued weakness in jobs may be keeping them from becoming more optimistic than they were a year ago. Republicans and independents are more optimistic after the November election results — and could feel that the economy and jobs situation are a little better than they were a year ago.
Whatever the reasons, it is a positive for the U.S. economic outlook that Americans are as optimistic as they have been at any time since in the past three years. A particular bright spot is the improved outlook among those with money to spend; still, the question is whether all of this optimism will translate into the increased consumer spending the economy so greatly needs.
President Barack Obama addressed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce yesterday in Washington.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with the National Policy Alliance in the Roosevelt Room.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
Closed Press
For his part, Biden will deliver remarks on the Obama Administration’s plan to build a 21st century infrastructure – from roads and bridges to high-speed rail at a station this morning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Protests continued today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
They have been, however, smaller than in recent days.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Yemen, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Korean peninsula, as well as the Wikileaks crisis.
Google marketing executive for the Middle East and North Africa Wael Ghonim, freed after being imprisoned for adminstering a Facebook page that helped spark the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, addressed the crowd today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Rumor has it that Brown will meet with legislative Republicans at their retreat at the California Farm Bureau.
Brown is working on California’s chronic budget crisis and on developing his nascent administration.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 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 $54 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.
Invoking JFK’s “Ask not what America can do for you,” President Barack Obama told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an address this morning that, despite differences, the White House and the corporate community can and must work together to improve the American economy.
** QUICK HITS. LA Congresswoman Jane Harman, frustrated first by Nancy Pelosi in her quest to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee, then by the Republican take-over, will resign her seat to become head of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, a think tank long headed by former House Intelligence Committee chairman Lee Hamilton. … This will give Governor Jerry Brown the opportunity to call his first special election for Congress. LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the sister of former LA Mayor Jim Hahn and daughter of the late LA County Supervisor James Jahn, is a likely candidate for the San Pedro port-based seat. She ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in last year’s Democratic primary. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a former state senator, is also a potential candidate. … Leaders of California’s University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges systems are not fighting, at least not in public, Governor Jerry Brown’s $1.4 billion proposed cuts to their budgets.
** NEW POLL: AMERICANS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT EGYPT. Showing once again that Americans are not by nature a pessimistic people, a new Gallup Poll indicates that a big majority believes that changes in the largest Arab nation in the world will be good not only for Egypt, but also for America.
And the general position of the protesters is very much favored in the U.S.
Not surprisingly, given the dynamics of the partisan groupings, Democrats are more positive about the outcome of the protests and more sympathetic to the protesters themselves than Republicans or independents.
Most Americans support the protesters who have called for a change in the government in Egypt, with 82% saying they are sympathetic to the protesters (including 42% who are very sympathetic), while 11% are unsympathetic. …
Overall, 69% of Americans are following the news about the political crisis and demonstrations in Egypt very or somewhat closely. This puts the Egyptian situation in the top half of all news stories Gallup has measured using this question format since 1991, slightly above the median of 60%.
Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say the political changes occurring in Egypt will be mostly good for that country, and a similar percentage (60%) say the changes will be mostly good for the United States. …
Democrats are more likely than independents or Republicans to say they are sympathetic to the Egyptian protesters. Democrats are also more likely to say the developments in Egypt are mostly good for both the country of Egypt and the United States. Overall, regardless of partisan orientation, majorities of all party groups are sympathetic to the protesters and view the changes to the Egyptian government positively. …
The Obama administration has so far reacted cautiously to the developments in Egypt, by all accounts attempting to support the idea of democratic reforms without appearing to interfere too much in the ultimate fate of the Egyptian government. The administration, diplomats, commentators, and other observers also continue to debate the ultimate ramifications of the changes in Egypt for combating terrorism, maintaining stability in the Middle East, and protecting the supply of oil to the U.S. But the potential risks related to the likely change in government in Egypt do not appear to be prominent in Americans’ minds. The overwhelming majority are sympathetic to the protesters seeking to oust the current government and are generally optimistic that the outcome of the situation will be positive for the U.S. and for Egypt.
As protests continue, talks are underway between the Egyptian government and opposition groups. Some reforms have been agreed to, but President Hosni Mubarak remains in office.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A big week in presidential politics and in California politics, though schedules looking ahead are even more vague than usual.
President Barack Obama continues to struggle with shifting events in Egypt and reaches out to corporate America. While Governor Jerry Brown keeps working on his state budget plan and ventures to Los Angeles for a major speech.
Let’s run through Obama’s see-through block schedule for the week first. On Monday, Obama delivers remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has have lunch with Paul Volcker at the White House.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, he holds those proverbial meetings at the White House.
The on Thursday, Obama goes to Marquette, Michigan to highlight a next generation wireless broadband network which has helped local businesses grow. This is to highlight his National Wireless Initiative, a key part of his new innovation and competitiveness agenda.
Then on Friday, it’s back to those undisclosed meetings at the White House.
More on Obama and Obama-related matters in a moment.
In California politics, Governor Jerry Brown keeps working on his state budget plan, and his plan for a special election in June. It’s not clear how well that is going, as Brown is doing virtually everything behind the scenes. He releases no block schedule for the week, and seldom advises the press on his schedule, making the rather elusive Arnold Schwarzenegger look like an avatar, as it were, of openness.
He will, however, address the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce awards dinner on Thursday night. This will be his first public appearance outside Sacramento since he was inaugurated as governor last month.
How is it going? I’ve been some private conversations, too, on that very point. And my answer is that it’s hard to say. The observer effect on such things can have an impact on their outcome. But we’ll know in a few weeks.
Now back to the world of Obama.
In Egypt, the current regime is making some concessions and playing for time as protests continue and, perhaps, tire. Or not.
It’s not easy to say, and the Obama Administration has found itself far behind the curve before on Egypt, and the deep-seated unrest sweeping across the Arab world.
Protesters failed in Friday’s “Day of Departure” to get President Hosni Mubarak to step down. His son Gamal, whom Mubarak had hoped to install as his successor, and the other members of the steering committee of the ruling National Democratic Party resigned today. But Mubarak himself remains as head of the party, as well as the government.
New Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq made several statements over the weekend indicating that the government is trying to finesse and wait things out while the protest burns out its white heat. He and new Vice President Omar Suleiman have begun negotiating with some opposition leaders, itself a step from previous opposition demands that Mubarak resign before any negotiations take place.
The Obama Administration is increasingly focusing on Suleiman as the key transitional figure, while wanting Mubarak to step away.
But the special envoy Obama dispatched to try to persuade Mubarak, Reagan era U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, told the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday by video hookup from New York that he thinks his old friend Mubarak should remain in power until the scheduled elections in September. Which may be one reason why Obama yanked him back from Cairo so quickly. That and the fact that Wisner’s law firm has represented the Mubarak regime.
Over the weekend in Munich Munich, where top national security professionals from around the world gather every year around this time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered remarks focusing on Suleiman as the transitional leader.
She warned that the entire Arab world is in grave danger of instability and must, with the assistance of Western powers, undertake reforms.
This is a big turnaround for Clinton.
Because only last week, the secretary of state was saying that Egypt is “stable.” The State Department has its own intelligence service, as well as professional diplomats on the ground.
The U.S. media seems uncertain and behind the curve on how to proceed on the Egyptian crisis.
Not surprising, since it’s very complex.
One outlet which has not been behind the curve consists of my colleagues at the Huffington Post. Not that HuffPo necessarily has the answers, mind you.
The Huffington Post was a major ally of Obama in his rise to the presidency, and has since been supportive if at times sharply critical. It has become one of the ten biggest news sites in the world.
So a new development with regard to HuffPo is a major development in the president’s world.
The Huffington Post is being acquired by America Online for a cool $315 million, $300 million of that in cash. The deal was settled yesterday in Dallas at the Super Bowl between Arianna Huffington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong.
But, though its is being acquired, HuffPo will function as it has been doing with the same sort of independence.
That’s because it is not so much being acquired as it is gaining vast sums of money and new reach.
My old friend Arianna Huffington is not only continuing as editor-in-chief of HuffPo, she is becoming the head of a new Huffington Post Media Group, which consists not only of HuffPo but of all AOL content properties. These include sites on technology, entertainment, media, and politics.
Here’s how she put it in an early morning e-mail today: “Far from changing the Huffington Post’s editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, it will be like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We’re still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we’re now going to get there much, much faster.”
You know, I think that I suggested to her when we organized the Shadow Conventions in 2000 that they be featured on the Internet. Which almost certainly means I should get some, er, credit for founding the Huffington Post, right?
Sadly, no.
Incidentally, the live video of Ronald Reagan Centennial events carried on NWN over the weekend around the late president’s 100th birthday will continue throughout the year.
The Huffington Post, a major media player in the rise of President Barack Obama which is now one of the largest news sites in the world, is being acquired by America Online for $315 million. Founder Arianna Huffington will be in charge of all online content for AOL, including the Huffington Post.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, he delivered remarks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at U.S. Chamber of Commerce Headquarters.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama has lunch with Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman and former chairman of Obama’s economic recovery advisory board, in the Private Dining Room.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet in the Oval Office.
Protests continued today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
They have been, however, smaller than in recent days.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Yemen, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Korean peninsula, as well as the Wikileaks crisis.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is working on California’s chronic budget crisis and on developing his nascent administration.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column. Green Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers seeks to become the first former Cal quarterback to win a Super Bowl when the Packers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Super Sunday. Once he made it to Cal, Rodgers was on the path to stardom. But getting to Cal from rural Butte County in Northern California proved to be rather difficult.
Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers discusses the Green Bay Packers’ win in the Super Bowl. Rodgers, a native of Chico, California, is the first former Cal quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
** 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 $55 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.
Watch the 100th birthday celebration for former President and Governor Ronald Reagan here live. The musical program begins at 10 AM Pacific, while the official program begins at 11 AM Pacific.
** REAGAN CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION SUNDAY AT 11 AM PACIFIC.
Ronald Reagan Day, Sunday, February 6th, is a California state holiday signed into law last year by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This Sunday is Reagan’s 100th birthday, and you can watch the official Reagan birthday celebration — which takes place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library outside Los Angeles in Simi Valley — here on NWN from 10 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific. The first hour is a musical program; the actual ceremony gets underway at 11 AM.
The program includes a 21-gun salute, an F-18 flyover, keynote remarks by former Secretary of State and White House chief of staff James Baker, and the official laying of a presidential wreath on the Reagan memorial site.
Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed Sunday to be Ronald Reagan Centennial Day in California, and had this to say about the first movie star he succeeded as governor of California:
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 to a family of modest means. He served his country with honor and distinction as the 33rd Governor of California and as the 40th President of the United States of America. Having risen from humble Midwestern beginnings to the towering heights of our democracy, Ronald Reagan embodied the American dream.
As California’s governor, he worked with members of the Legislature from across the political spectrum to advance this State’s fiscal future, thereby elevating collaboration above ideology whenever the common good was at stake.
As President of the United States, his enduring legacy is likewise defined by his eschewal of political dogmatism when confronted with the practical needs of the Nation. To that end, he took bold steps to reduce the threat of nuclear war and worked with members of Congress from both parties to enact pragmatic fiscal reforms.
On February 6th, I ask that all Californians celebrate Ronald Reagan’s legacy on the centennial anniversary of his birth. His buoyant optimism and deep faith in America are as inspiring today as they were when he served the Nation as our President.
NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim February 6th, 2011 as “Ronald Reagan Centennial Day”.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 4th day of February 2011.
New Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, the country’s longtime intelligence chief, met at length today with opposition leaders and agreed to a series of beginning reforms, but not to the immediate removal of President Hosni Mubarak.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Obama does a Super Bowl pre-game interview on Fox with Bill O’Reilly.
While protests continue in Egypt on Sunday, the situation has quieted somewhat.
The regime continued in a new series of conciliatory gestures, with longtime intelligence chief-turned-new Vice President Oma Suleiman negotiating at length today with opposition representatives, most of whom are secularists but which also include the formally outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Suleiman agreed to a variety of beginning reforms, none of which would lead to a major immediate transfer of power or the immediate end of Hosni Mubarak’s presidency.
By virtue of negotiating with Suleiman, opposition leaders are granting him legitimacy as the key transitional power figure in the country. And Suleiman may be banking on his ability to blunt the edge of a possibly tiring protest movement.
Another leader looking to blunt the edge of protest, indeed, to head it off, is Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
At the end of the week, Maliki announced that he would cut his salary, believed to be at least $360,000 a year in a country which can barely keep electric power on for a few hours a day, in half.
On Saturday, Maliki announced that he will not seek another term as prime minister when this one, which he barely procured after months of stalemate following March 2010 parliamentary elections, comes to an end in 2014.
But it’s not all crisis for Obama.
Though his Chicago Bears were defeated at home in the National Football Conference championship game by the Green Bay Packers — led by former Cal star quarterback Aaron Rodgers — another of his favorite teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers, takes on the Packers today in the Super Bowl.
Over at Ice Station Zebra, er, Deep Freeze Dallas.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SUNDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
You can watch A Concert for America: A Tribute To Ronald Reagan live here on NWN on Saturday night from 7 to 9 PM Pacific.
** REAGAN CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE CONCERT SATURDAY NIGHT AT 7 PM PACIFIC.
2011 is the Reagan Centennial marking the 100th year of the birth of former President and California Governor Ronald Reagan.
His actual birthday is Sunday, February 6th, a California state holiday signed into law last year by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Saturday night sees a festive concert in Reagan’s honor sponsored by the Reagan Foundation at the Reagan Presidential Library outside Los Angeles in Simi Valley, California.
The evening consists of live music and tributes from various national and world leaders.
Included are live performances by the Beach Boys, Lonestar, and Lee Greenwood, and in-person and video tributes by a number of figures including former President George H.W. Bush, who served as Reagan’s vice president, and former President George W. Bush.
You can watch the show live here on New West Notes.
On Sunday, which is Reagan’s 100th birthday, you can watch the official Reagan birthday celebration here on NWN 10 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific.
The program includes a 21-gun salute, an F-18 flyover, keynote remarks by former Secretary of State and White House chief of staff James Baker, and the official laying of a presidential wreath on the Reagan memorial site.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama pushed his “win the future” theme of “out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building” the rest of the world.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
His day, clearly, is again dominated by the crisis in Egypt.
Protests continued today in Egypt, where the time is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
They have been, however, smaller than in recent days.
Opposition leaders have called for big protests on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday.
Protesters failed in yesterday’s “Day of Departure” to get President Hosni Mubarak to step down. His son Gamal, whom Mubarak had hoped to install as his successor, and the other members of the steering committee of the ruling National Democratic Party resigned today. But Mubarak himself remains as head of the party, as well as the government.
New Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq made several statements indicating that the government is trying to finesse and wait things out while the protest burns out its white heat. He and new Vice President Omar Suleiman have begun negotiating with some opposition leaders, itself a step from previous opposition demands that Mubarak resign before any negotiations take place.
The Obama Administration is increasingly focusing on Suleiman as the key transitional figure, while wanting Mubarak to step away.
But the special envoy Obama dispatched to try to persuade Mubarak, Reagan era U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, told the annual Munich Security Conference today by video hookup from New York that he thinks his old friend Mubarak should remain in power until the scheduled elections in September. Which may be one reason why Obama yanked him back from Cairo so quickly.
Today in Munich, where top national security professionals from around the world gather every year around this time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered remarks focusing on Suleiman as the transitional leader.
She warned that the entire Arab world is in grave danger of instability and must, with the assistance of Western powers, undertake reforms.
This is a big turnaround for Clinton.
Because only last week, the secretary of state was saying that Egypt is “stable.”
The State Department has its own intelligence service, as well as professional diplomats on the ground.
The head of Egyptian Army central command went to Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to try to persuade protesters to leave.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Yemen, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Korean peninsula, as well as the Wikileaks crisis.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SATURDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California today.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is working on California’s chronic budget crisis and on developing his nascent administration.
** JERRY BROWN 2.0: HOW’S IT GOING?So how’s Jerry Brown 2.0 going? The new/renewed governor of California won a landslide victory over billionaire Meg Whitman 90 days ago, took over from Arnold Schwarzenegger four weeks ago, and has worked on laying out an austerity-with-revenues budget plan and slowly building his administration ever since.
It’s going, well, well enough. Well enough to begin to straighten out the state’s chronic budget crisis in the first half of this year? We’ll see.
In his State of the State address Monday evening, Brown discussed his budget proposal, which dispenses with past gimmicks used to paper over ongoing deficits, offending left and right alike in the process with deep program cuts and a continuation of the 2009 tax hikes. He called the Republican Party’s strategy to try to block a public vote on his plans “unconscionable,” noting the irony of Republican efforts to block democracy as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt and Tunisia fire the world’s imagination. He also pointed out that the naysayers are continuing their practice of providing no alternatives.
But how is he really doing? Is he allowing various interests to predictably vent and act out before joining in common sense common cause? (Incidentally, opposition to major cuts and support for a tax hike-only budget is well under 10%.) Or is he being overwhelmed by disparate power centers united only by self-interested opposition? … From my January 31st feature.
** OBAMA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JFK INAUGURAL 50 YEARS ON.Why, 50 years after the fact, did official Washington celebrate the inauguration of a most imperfect man who served less than one term as president, and had far fewer accomplishments than many other presidents?
The answer undoubtedly lies in why John F. Kennedy continues to be rated higher in polling than all other modern presidents, and why Barack Obama became a major political figure in the first place and is resurgent today. Ideology, policy, even accomplishment has remarkably little to do with it. … From my January 22nd essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
Green Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers seeks to become the first former Cal quarterback to win a Super Bowl when the Packers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Super Sunday. Once he made it to Cal, Rodgers was on the path to stardom. But getting to Cal from rural Butte County in Northern California proved to be rather difficult.
** 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 $89.03 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $55 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.
| Comments (40) |