Former U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was acquitted of a key charge against him for allegedly violating campaign finance law in using large sums of money from friends to help conceal his affair with Rielle Hunter. A mistrial was declared on the other five counts with the jury deadlocked.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … FOR OBAMA, MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AFTER IRAN AND NATO TALKS and JERRY BROWN FOR PRESIDENT + 20
** QUICK HITS. Governor Jerry Brown, appearing before county officials today in Sacramento, said he is going to get billions more in budget cuts from the legislature, despite resistance from Democratic legislative leaders who keep hoping for the best, whatever that is, endlessly. The budget deadline is June 15th. … Brown will speak tomorrow in Los Angeles at the memorial for Bishop H.H. Brookins, a longtime leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who passed away last Thursday at 86. Brookins was one of the all-time characters
** AMAZINGLY, MITT ROMNEY HAS NOT ONE BUT TWO HARVARD DEGREES (UNFORTUNATELY FOR HARVARD). Mitt Romney today made a surprise, secret visit to the shuttered Fremont plant of Solyndra, the late solar firm which got a half billion in loans from the Obama Administration before going under.
Trying desperately to turn attention away from attacks on his record as a corporate takeover specialist at Bain Capital, and from his close embrace of birther billionaire Donald Trump, Romney declared that Solyndra is “Obama’s Taj Mahal.”
His Taj Mahal?
Romney’s degrees are in business and law. He’s a professional man, not an intellectual. Still, he should know what the Taj Mahal is before he invokes it in such a goofy way.
The United Nations, placing the Taj Mahal on the World Heritage List, describes it thus: “The Taj Mahal is the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”
Is he really saying that the shutdown Solyndra plant is an aesthetic masterpiece, one of the greatest places in the world?
Yeah, probably not.
Romney simply doesn’t know what he is saying.
No wonder Romney has aligned himself so closely with the anti-Enlightenment forces in America.
Romney’s visit, and his latest adventure in talking like the Harvard he went to is Harvard Junior High in East Nowheresville, came after a big fundraiser last night at the 65,000 square foot Chateau Carolands in Hillsborough. The gardens are modeled after those at Versailles. Romney knows about that place. (A superhawk today, he was a Mormon missionary in France during the Vietnam War, which he strongly advocated.)
Let them eat cake!
** NEW SURVEY: UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that US unemployment has dipped in May, to 8.0%.
With seasonal adjustments, it’s 8.3%, still close to the lowest in a few years.
The decline in underemployment is exclusively the result of the decline in the unemployment component of the measure. The number of people working part time but wanting full-time work is essentially unchanged from April 2012 and is unchanged from a year ago. Although more people are finding work, the number of people struggling to find enough hours has persisted in a narrow range between 9% and about 10% since January 2011. …
Despite recent drops in unemployment reported by Gallup and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. employment situation remains fragile. Although Gallup’s unadjusted number is at a new two-year low, the adjusted number remains higher than January’s number, suggesting that the recent declines reported by the BLS may not continue. Further, many demographic groups, including young adults and minorities, continue to be burdened by unemployment rates that are significantly higher than the national average. Substantial improvements will need to be made before these groups feel relief.
Still, the situation is better than it was a year ago, and underemployed workers in the U.S. seem to sense positive momentum and are more optimistic about finding work than they were at the beginning of the year. …
The world has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main greenhouse gas changing the planet’s climate.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … FOR OBAMA, MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AFTER IRAN AND NATO TALKS and JERRY BROWN FOR PRESIDENT + 20
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
It’s a big day in the West Wing with the Bush family.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama then hosted lunch in the Red Room with former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President George H.W. Bush, former First Lady Barbara Bush, and Bush family members.
At 10:25 AM Pacific, the Obamas welcome former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush to the East Room for the official unveiling of their portraits. Biden, former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush are also in attendance.
At 12 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in the Oval Office.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** MAD MEN: CONTROVERSY AS JOAN LOWERS HERSELF TO RISE, PEGGY EXITS ANTICLIMACTICALLY (AND SCDP GETS ITS HALO CLIENT).As soon as I saw what happened, I figured there would be a lot of controversy about the latest episode of Mad Men, “The Other Woman.” And sure enough, there is.
As always, there be some spoilers ahead. Incidentally, you can see all my Mad Men pieces, going back to 2009, here in The Mad Men File.
Why the controversy? Well, because two of the show’s longtime characters did things that many, if not most, fans don’t like.
Peggy Olson, whom some have believed the series is really about, suddenly left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. And Joan Holloway (her divorce isn’t final but I’m more than happy not to call her Joan Harris despite the fashion of the time) had sex with a car dealer to help the agency close the deal on getting the Jaguar account. In exchange for which she is now a partner in SCDP, which she should have been all along since she’s probably the most competent person there.
I’ve made it clear from the first piece I wrote about this season that I don’t think Season 5 is as good as previous seasons. I find much of the plotting far too arbitrary, even capricious. The constant tossing about of obvious symbolism — which I suspect the writers do in part to stir up the fans, a la Lost — is grating. And too often the show presents itself as a morality play. Which I find to be frequently pointless.
After all, Mad Men is not The West Wing. (The only other series to win four straight Best Drama Emmys.)
This ain’t a show about the good guys and gals. These characters are not West Wing’s idealists, albeit frequently fallible ones. These characters are deeply compromised, at best.
The brilliant pilot for Mad Men made this very clear from the beginning. Sterling Cooper was working desperately to help its big tobacco company client get around the problem of pesky health regulations on its lethal product. An especially brilliant touch was having the characters, again, right in the pilot, talk about the unfolding 1960 presidential race and the agency’s plans to help one of the candidates. After all, Roger Sterling reasoned, there’s no reason that America can’t fall in love with a good-looking Navy hero like … Dick Nixon. (Not the actually good-looking actual Navy hero Jack Kennedy that one expects to hear. In addition to being decidedly unglamorous, Nixon had been a supply officer in the Navy.) That’s when I decided I was into the show, as it was such a delicious twist.
On to what happened in “The Other Woman,” dealing with Peggy first. …
Dolores Huerta received the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award, in a Tuesday ceremony at the White House. Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, is a longtime civil rights leader and backer of Governor Jerry Brown.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He will speak today to the California State Association of Counties about the state’s chronic budget crisis and his November revenue initiative.
I have a “Jerry-Rigging” coming up on the meaning of the new USC/LA Times poll, which finds good levels of support for Brown’s governorship and for his November revenue initiative.
It also found deep suspicion of the legislature with regard to state budget decisions.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule detached from the International Space Station very early on Thursday morning and returned to Earth to conclude its historic mission, with splashdown in the Pacific off the California coast at 8:42 AM Pacific.
Brown toured SpaceX facilities in 2010, inspecting the Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule.
A member of California’s compensation commission will propose today that state constitutional officers and legislators take a 5% pay cut to mirror what Governor Jerry Brown is pushing with state workers. I doubt Brown will have a problem with that.
Meanwhile, a new Field Poll shows sharply diminished support, as have other polls, for the latest tobacco tax initiative.
I guess multi-millions in tobacco industry advertising against it will have that effect.
I also think that the campaign for the measure has no particularly compelling rationale.
The measure now leads by only 50% to 42%.
But a measure to change the state’s term limits law, cutting the number of years allowed in the state legislature to 12 from 14 but allowing all 12 years to be served in one house — thus ending the ridiculous games of musical chairs that predominate — has a stronger shot.
That one is ahead, 50% to 28%.
Term limits really haven’t worked very well, producing a weak and not especially capable legislature, and the public may finally have caught on.
The Dragon spacecraft left the International Space Station early Thursday morning after a five-day visit. The world’s first commercial supply ship then left orbit and splashed down successfully in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
** THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES BIG STEPS FORWARD.A very important mission is about to wind up. The first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station, from California’s SpaceX Corp., has already achieved very notable historical firsts, successfully matching orbits with the ISS at 17,500 miles per hour, performing a series of complex maneuvers in close proximity to the station in the course of that rendezvous, and at last docking with it, bringing the first supplies for the ISS carried aloft by a private vehicle.
Till now, only governments — US, Russia, Europe and Japan — have sent missions to the space station. All that is changing in the post-space shuttle era. The US is dependent on Russia for getting astronauts to the ISS. But private enterprise is beginning to pick up the slack for orbital missions, with LA-based SpaceX, more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., leading the way with other companies rushing to compete. As private enterprise emerges, NASA is turning its focus to deep space, continuing with unmanned missions run out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in the LA area, and developing ambitious new manned missions to the asteroids and to Mars.
This is all in furtherance of Enlightenment ideals engrained in the fabric of American society by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin: Curiosity, exploration, scientific advancement turned into ingenuity and know-how to accomplish practical goals and maintain a sense of vision for further advances in knowledge.
Some believe that we have too many problems here on Earth to concern ourselves with space. But problems are part of the human condition. I believe that humanity can and will improve, though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. But improvement is not perfection. Which is all the more reason why we must continue to look beyond our own insularity and push outward and upward. … From my May 30th essay.
** MAD MEN: A GREAT LEAPER FORWARD? JOAN, JAG, DON’S RETURN TO ADVERTISING (AND OTHER, ER, TREKS). … From my May 23rd review.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $87 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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, and down about $27 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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 hacking scandal that may drive Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, owner of Fox News, out of its former base in Britain bubbled up again. Police have detained British Prime Minister David Cameron’s former spokesman on suspicion of perjury. Andy Coulson resigned from his post at Downing Street last year in the wake of the UK phone hacking scandal. Before joining Cameron’s team he’d been an editor at Murdoch’s News of the World, now shut down.
** QUICK HITS.SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will detach from the International Space Station very early on Thursday morning and return to the Earth to conclude its historic mission, with splashdown in the Pacific off the California coast tentatively set for 8:44 AM Pacific. … A member of California’s compensation commission will propose tomorrow that state constitutional officers and legislators take a 5% pay cut to mirror what Governor Jerry Brown is pushing with state workers. I doubt Brown will have a problem with that.
** NEW POLL: ONCE DEMONIZED MICHELLE OBAMA IS AN ASSET. Despite persistent efforts over the past several years by many on the far right to demonize her as an “anti-white” and “elitist” figure, First Lady Michelle Obama is quite popular according to a new Gallup Poll.
She’s not as popular as First Lady Laura Bush was, but she is more popular than First Lady Hillary Clinton was.
By an odd non-coincidence, Michelle Obama plays more of an overt political role than Laura Bush did, and less than Hillary Clinton did.
Sixty-six percent of Americans have a favorable view of first lady Michelle Obama, unchanged from nearly two years ago and in line with her ratings since Barack Obama was inaugurated as president. …
Michelle Obama’s current favorable rating is identical to her average 66% rating to date as first lady. Americans did not view her as positively during the 2008 presidential campaign, giving her favorable ratings no higher than 54%. Opinions of her became considerably more positive in January 2009, rising to 68%, just before the inauguration.
Americans also viewed each of the prior two first ladies positively, with Laura Bush averaging a 73% favorable rating and Hillary Clinton 56%. Clinton, now the U.S. secretary of state, currently receives favorable ratings from 66% of Americans. …
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney mathematically clinched the party nomination in Tuesday’s Texas primary. He accepted his victory last night in a speech in Las Vegas at Donald Trump’s Trump International Hotel on the Vegas Strip. Trump overshadowed things with more of his “birther” blather about President Barack Obama.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN: CONTROVERSY AS JOAN LOWERS HERSELF TO RISE AND PEGGY EXITS ANTICLIMACTICALLY, and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Following that, Obama attended an annual hurricane preparedness briefing in the Situation Room.
Obama then signed the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank in the South Court Auditorium.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama hosts a Jewish American Heritage Month reception in the East Room.
Obama’s Republican rival, former Massachusetts Governor and leveraged buyout artist Mitt Romney, mathematically clinched the party nomination yesterday with a win in the Texas primary.
But Romney’s victory was overshadowed by his supporter, Donald Trump.
Romney delivered his victory speech in Las Vegas, where he appeared at a big fundraiser at Trump’s casino on the Vegas Strip.
And, in yet another sign of his embrace of and by anti-Enlightenment forces, Romney’s day was dominated by Trump interviews in which the New York real estate billionaire again proclaimed his nonsensical opinion that Obama isn’t really an American citizen.
In an interview on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer told Trump that he was getting “a little ridiculous” with his continued pushing of birtherism.
To which Trump retorted: “I think you’re ridiculous.”
Did Romney denounce his host and patron’s vicious nonsense?
Of course not.
Meanwhile, serious doings for serious people …
Yesterday, eleven countries expelled Syrian ambassadors and diplomats following the massacre late last week in Houla of 108 people, including 49 children. The US, UK, France, and Germany all took part, as did Canada, but Syria’s patron Russia did not.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan complained again that his ceasefire is not holding and UN monitors are in danger. The US says that military intervention is not in the works.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on somewhat shadowy sex charges, has been dismissed by the UK’s Supreme Court on a majority verdict.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES BIG STEPS FORWARD.A very important mission is about to wind up. The first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station, from California’s SpaceX Corp., has already achieved very notable historical firsts, successfully matching orbits with the ISS at 17,500 miles per hour, performing a series of complex maneuvers in close proximity to the station in the course of that rendezvous, and at last docking with it, bringing the first supplies for the ISS carried aloft by a private vehicle.
Till now, only governments — US, Russia, Europe and Japan — have sent missions to the space station. All that is changing in the post-space shuttle era. The US is dependent on Russia for getting astronauts to the ISS. But private enterprise is beginning to pick up the slack for orbital missions, with LA-based SpaceX, more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., leading the way with other companies rushing to compete. As private enterprise emerges, NASA is turning its focus to deep space, continuing with unmanned missions run out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in the LA area, and developing ambitious new manned missions to the asteroids and to Mars.
But that’s mostly in the future. On Thursday, the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which is slated to carry astronauts to the ISS in a few years but will perform re-supply missions in the meantime, will return to Earth, carrying the take from scientific experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. Other supply vessels burn up in the atmosphere, but Dragon, designed from the outset for human orbital voyages in a few years, is reusable, like the old shuttles but without their complications and expense.
These accomplishments are building on existing technology developed for NASA. The success of their applications here in private enterprise form for missions around the Earth frees up NASA to focus on research and development for outward bound missions. And it paves the way for further development of a thriving space industry, with entrepreneurial applications that are not entirely foreseeable. Just as government-funded development of the semiconductor for government space and military programs in the 1960s paved the way for the private computer industry.
This is all in furtherance of Enlightenment ideals engrained in the fabric of American society by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin: Curiosity, exploration, scientific advancement turned into ingenuity and know-how to accomplish practical goals and maintain a sense of vision for further advances in knowledge.
Some believe that we have too many problems here on Earth to concern ourselves with space. But problems are part of the human condition. I believe that humanity can and will improve, though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. But improvement is not perfection. Which is all the more reason why we must continue to look beyond our own insularity and push outward and upward.
Back to what we are seeing with the SpaceX mission and what it may mean in the near future. What is still ongoing — returning the capsule to Earth is something that SpaceX has already done, albeit not from the ISS before — is a tremendous set of strides forward.
This was actually two missions in one. Originally, the culmination of this mission was to be the rendezvous without docking. The actual docking and carrying of cargo was to be another mission. …
From my new essay.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
This poll, unlike last week’s Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, was not taken in the midst of media coverage of the “surprise” increase in the state’s budget deficit.
Brown’s job approval was in notably better shape, with 49% of registered voters approving and 39% disapproving.
And his November revenue initiative is also in good shape, favored by 59% with 36% opposed.
But if voters think that the legislature, which they do not respect or trust, controls the increased funds, then support drops to 50%.
I’ll have more in a “Jerry-Rigging” coming up.
In other action yesterday, California’s high-speed rail board has picked a new executive director. He’s Jeff Morales, who served as head of the Department of Transportation during the Gray Davis Administration.
The California State Assembly took another big step toward implementing the cap and trade portion of the state’s landmark climate change program, setting up standards for how revenue generated by the program can be spent. The program was promoted by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed it into law in 2006, and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Under the bill passed today on a 47-26 vote, funds can only be spent on green energy, low-carbon transportation, protection of resources, and related R&D. $1 billion is expected in the first year, with more after that.
Brown has made a supportive statement, if not an endorsement per se, about Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, the Republican-turned-independent candidate for mayor of San Diego: “Nathan Fletcher stands out from the pack, especially when he voted to close a big tax loophole that rewards companies that ship jobs out of California. In the face of partisan pressures, he maintains his independence and calls it like he sees it.”
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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, and down about $26 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Eleven countries today expelled Syrian ambassadors and diplomats following the massacre late last week in Houla of 108 people, including 49 children. The US, UK, France, and Germany all took part, but Syria’s patron Russia did not. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan complained again that his ceasefire is not holding and UN monitors are in danger. The US says that military intervention is not in the works.
** QUICK HITS. Despite being docked a million dollars in aid for every year (33) of its sentence against a doctor who helped the US find Osama bin Laden, Pakistan is not backing away from its perverse decision to punish Dr. Shakil Afridi. In fact, authorities have upped the ante in a campaign of character assassination, dubbing him a corrupt assaulter of women. … California’s high-speed rail board has picked a new executive director. He’s Jeff Morales, who served as head of the Department of Transportation during the Gray Davis Administration. … The California State Assembly today took another big step toward implementing the cap and trade portion of the state’s landmark climate change program, setting up standards for how revenue generated by the program can be spent. The program was promoted by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed it into law in 2006, and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Under the bill passed today on a 47-26 vote, funds can only be spent on green energy, low-carbon transportation, protection of resources, and related R&D. $1 billion is expected in the first year, with more after that. … Governor Jerry Brown has made a supportive statement, if not an endorsement per se, about Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, the Republican-turned-independent candidate for mayor of San Diego: “Nathan Fletcher stands out from the pack, especially when he voted to close a big tax loophole that rewards companies that ship jobs out of California. In the face of partisan pressures, he maintains his independence and calls it like he sees it.”
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), MAD MEN: JOAN LOWERS HERSELF AND RISES, PEGGY EXITS ANTICLIMACTICALLY (AND SCDP GETS ITS HALO CLIENT), and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** NEW SURVEY: POST-GRADS HEAVILY “PRO-CHOICE,” NON-COLLEGE HEAVILY “PRO-LIFE.” A new Gallup Poll survey has some interesting results in how voters view the abortion issue, at least from a rhetorical standpoint.
While there is still significant support for a woman’s right to an abortion, those who call themselves “pro-life” on abortion now have a significant edge over those who call themselves “pro-choice.” Which to me suggests that more people now want to be seen as critical of abortion than actually are.
And it suggests that the pro-choice side is being overwhelmed rhetorically.
This is what happens when you have relentless anti-Enlightenment media megaphones at work, most notably, of course, Fox News.
But one group is not at all affected by the shift, and that is the constituency of those who have attained post-graduate levels of education.
There is also a big religious crosscut here, with those who say they are staunchly religious, and staunchly Christian, heavily pro-life, and those who are non-religious or agnostic, even atheistic, heavily pro-choice.
Most subgroups in the United States tend to describe their views on abortion as “pro-life” rather than “pro-choice,” reflecting the views of all U.S. adults. However, apart from the partisan distinctions in abortion ID that Gallup reviewed last week, there are two major exceptions to this — postgraduates and nonreligious Americans, both of whom lean heavily pro-choice. …
Americans with no religious attachment (self-identified atheists, agnostics, and those with simply no religious preference) identify as pro-choice by a 49-percentage-point margin over pro-life, 68% to 19%. This represents the strongest propensity toward the pro-choice position of any major U.S. demographic (as distinct from political) subgroup. This group is also more heavily pro-choice than Democrats, but its views are similar to those of political “liberals,” 74% of whom are pro-choice and 19% pro-life.
In contrast to Americans with no religious affiliation, majorities of those who identify with either of the two major U.S. Christian faiths call themselves pro-life: 54% of all Catholics and 57% of Protestants. The sample size of those who identify with a non-Christian religion is too small to allow meaningful interpretation.
The gap in abortion views by education is not as wide as that seen between Christians and non-Christians, but is still stark. Nearly six in 10 Americans with postgraduate education call themselves pro-choice and 37% are pro-life — a 21-point lead for the pro-choice position. The figures are nearly reversed among those with no college education, resulting in a 20-point “pro-life” lead. Americans whose highest level of education is either an undergraduate degree or some college education tilt pro-life by eight-point margins. …
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta delivered the commencement address this morning at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The veteran California political figure and former CIA director says that building U.S. maritime strength across the Asia-Pacific region will be the main project of the new generation of America’s naval officers.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), MAD MEN: JOAN LOWERS HERSELF AND RISES, PEGGY EXITS ANTICLIMACTICALLY (AND SCDP GETS ITS HALO CLIENT), and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 11:45 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 12:25 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama honor recipients of the 2011 Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the East Room.
The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. I’m pleased that a very old friend of mine, Dolores Huerta, is among the recipients.
Here is the full list of recipients:
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (Albright, an immigrant, was the first woman to serve as secretary of state)
Former U.S Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth
Basketball coach Pat Summitt
Rock music and songwriting legend Bob Dylan
Toni Morrison, author of such novels as “Song of Solomon” and “Beloved.”
John Paul Stevens, former Supreme Court Justice
Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.
Shimon Peres, president of Israel.
John Doar, who handled civil rights cases as assistant U.S. attorney general in the 1960s under Robert F. Kennedy
William Foege, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped lead the effort to eradicate smallpox.
Gordon Hirabayashi, who fought the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Jan Karski, a resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II.
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers of America.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in the Oval Office.
Over the weekend and on Memorial Day, Obama participated in various events commemorating the sacrifices undertaken by service members, including events at Arlington National Cemetery.
These events included the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration Ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, a speech at the Memorial Amphitheater, and a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.
The Egyptian presidential run-off, set for June 16-17, will feature two candidates.
The Egyptian presidential candidate who took a narrow lead after the two-day round of voting last Wednesday and Thursday, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, has a doctorate in engineering from the the University of Southern California. He went on to teach for several years in the ’80s at Cal State Northridge, also in Los Angeles. The USC alum’s two kids were born in California and are US citizens. Morsi also did some work for NASA on his engineering specialty, surface materials.
Morsi will face retired Egyptian Air Force General, Ahmed Shafiq, who served as longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.
Shafiq’s campaign headquarters in Cairo was firebombed on Monday.
The course of democracy does not run smooth along the Nile.
Shafiq, of course, is running as the candidate of much of the old Mubarak crowd.
Authorities say a powerful computer virus has been sweeping the Middle East, zeroing in on Iran. This latest virus, whose purpose is not entirely clear, is even eluding experts, who say it could be the most powerful malware ever developed.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $91 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $57 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $23 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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’s commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs laid out many of the themes that he will articulate again over Memorial Day Weekend.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2) and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** OBAMA ON MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events on Friday.
Over the weekend and on Memorial Day he will participate in various events commemorating the sacrifices undertaken by service members, including events at Arlington National Cemetery.
These events will include the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration Ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, a speech at the Memorial Amphitheater, and a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.
The Egyptian presidential candidate who has taken a lead in some exit polls after the two-day round of voting on Wednesday and Thursday, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, has a doctorate in engineering from the the University of Southern California.
He went on to teach for several years in the ’80s at Cal State Northridge, also in Los Angeles. The USC alum’s two kids were born in California and are US citizens.
Morsi also did some work for NASA on his engineering specialty, surface materials.
Morsi is apparently in a run-off next month against a former Egyptian Air Force general, Ahmed Shafik, running as representative of the old guard Mubarak forces.
The latest round of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program in Baghdad between Iran and the permanent five UN Security Council members (US,UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany turned out most inconclusively.
The international powers are pushing for Iran to limit its nuclear enrichment program, especially pulling back from the 20% level from which further enrichment to weapons grade is far easier. Iran claims it needs all that enrichment for a medical reactor.
Iran countered with an entirely new proposal, which among other things demands a pullback from the sanctions which are having a significant impact.
Iran and the six major powers will reconvene for a third round of meetings on June 17th. In Moscow. Russia has helped protect Iran from even tougher sanctions. But Iran is an historic opponent of Russia; that would be historic in the sense of the sweep of history and core national interest, not what happened in the last few years. And I don’t think the Russians want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, after a quick trip to Afghanistan, new French President Francois Hollande will pull out his country’s combat troops by the end of 2012, an accelerated timetable.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** JERRY-RIGGING: COMMUNICATING AND MANEUVERING FOR THE LONG TERM. In the aftermath of the “surprise” increase in California’s chronic budget deficit from the January proposal to the May revise — a surprise only to the arithmetically challenged, or those who weren’t paying attention to the dozens of things said by Brown and other state officials — Governor Jerry Brown has been doing some communicating and making some moves this week.
He got a good response, especially for a Democrat, Tuesday morning at the annual Host Breakfast sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce. One top business leader told me afterward that it was one of the best speeches he’s ever heard there.
Brown’s purpose, of course, was to further tamp down potential opposition to this big November revenue initiative. And to remind that California has great strengths and characteristics for the future, as well as chronic challenges in the present.
Brown rambled a bit, as is his wont, but what reads as rambling on the page (and it’s only on the page after he’s said it) I’ve noticed over many years, often plays as fun and rather exciting in the moment as he delivers it.
The new/renewed governor ran through a number of strengths and accomplishments, as well as problems, then got into a close which bears repeating on this Memorial Day weekend.
“Courage, it’s not only William James who talked about courage. It’s not only the military who showed courage in World War II right down to Iraq and Afghanistan, that courage is something Solzhenitsyn who spoke at Harvard said there’s nothing more important than having the courage and it’s the very virtue that I find lacking in western civilization today. So I think we have to prove him wrong. I think we can prove him wrong right here in California, and I come as someone rooted in the state.
“My great-grandfather August Schuckman, when he was 26, he left Germany came across the plains, came down to Placerville got a job driving a stagecoach. Went up to Colusa, bought some property in 1862, still have it, still the owner.
“Every time I walk up and down those mountains 12 miles west of Williams, I think of what he went through. He didn’t have a Medicare card, he didn’t have a doctor. They had to make it through a lot of opposition, they were pioneers. Now the courage and the pioneering spirit that we need is not the same. It’s not like being at war; it’s not like coming to the state of California right after the Gold Rush.
“But it’s equally as difficult, it’s composed of a lot of ideologies, a lot of stops and starts and people who see this as a path forward, and someone else says this. I just want to say I’ve been thinking about this a long time, and I’m going to give you the best that my mind can bring to the table. I’m going to get it done; we’ll make compromises when we need.
“We’re going to build for the future, we’re not going to steal from it, and we’re going to know California once again is the example, is the leader and maybe we’ll set the example for those folks in Washington to clean up their act as we have cleaned up ours.”
Brown continued in this vein as the long holiday weekend began, on Friday morning on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge, where he took part in the 75th anniversary commemoration of the iconic span.
The bridge opened on May 27th, 1937, completed during the Great Depression. It’s an ongoing example of the innovation, daring, and ability to unify that has long marked America.
Brown made a point of noting — as he does in the gubernatorial proclamation you see below — that the great feat was accomplished at a time which was much tougher than today.
“When we ‘couldn’t afford it,’ we built a great monument,” he said, “we invested in the future.”
“So don’t tell me about how much it’s going to cost this year, think about how much will it give us over the next 100 years,” he declared.
“We’ve got to get off this, ‘If it isn’t built tomorrow or it isn’t built now, I’m not going to do it.’ We are the result of those who came before us and we’re connected to those who come after us.”
He’s countering, of course, those who do the bidding, wittingly or not, of the old energy economy in opposing investing in high-speed rail, even though the funds to finance a great start to the system are already at hand.
And, in a larger sense, he’s countering those who don’t grasp that you can plan and build for a smarter and more sustainable future — which will save money down the line as well — while exercising discipline on present spending programs. It’s a conundrum for those with simpler minds and no sense of history.
And especially no sense of the history of California.
The Dragon spacecraft from California’s SpaceX Corp. made an historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday morning, captured by astronauts wielding a giant robotic arm. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and CEO, as well as co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors and chairman of Solar City, says this is just the beginning. The craft returns to Earth on May 31st.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He spoke Friday morning at the 75th anniversary celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge, at Bridge Plaza on the San Francisco side of the span linking the city with Marin County.
Brown has no scheduled public events over the weekend.
Brown issued this proclamation declaring Sunday, May 27th to be Golden Gate Bridge Day in California.
As you will see, he has penned a rather pointed little document, using the building of the iconic bridge to harken to issues of California’s present and future.
Whereas, since it first opened to traffic 75 years ago, the Golden Gate Bridge has demonstrated the ingenuity and boldness that California represents to the world; and
Whereas, the Golden Gate Bridge, designed by engineer Joseph Strauss, is one of the architectural marvels of the twentieth century and one of the world’s most recognizable structures; and
Whereas, the bridge was built over the objections of critics who pusillanimously claimed the project was neither economically viable nor physically possible; and
Whereas, in spite of these objections, the project helped restore both the economy and the pride of our state as we recovered from the Great Depression; and
Whereas, the Golden Gate Bridge symbolizes our strong ties to the entire Pacific Rim region; and
Whereas, the Golden Gate Bridge stands today only because of the daring and dedicated work of those who actually brought it to completion and those others who have maintained it during the ensuing 75 years since;
NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim May 27, 2012, as “Golden Gate Bridge Day.”
A “Jerry-Rigging” piece is upcoming later on Friday.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run 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 $90.67 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Energy markets are closed over the holiday weekend.
This is up about $57 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $23 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Egypt’s first presidential election since last year’s revolution toppled veteran dictator Hosni Mubarak wrapped up today without major incident. Some polling indicates that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, a USC alum, is leading. Official results are due on May 29th.
** QUICK HITS.Having passed an intricate series of tests early this morning after matching orbits and rendezvousing with the International Space Station, the Dragon spacecraft from California’s SpaceX Corp. is scheduled to dock with the space station tomorrow morning. The protocol for the first private spacecraft to journey to the ISS begins at 2 AM Pacific. If each step goes well, it should be accomplished by 6 AM Pacific. … While it is working with NASA, which can override as the spacecraft gets close to the ISS, SpaceX is running the operation out of its mission control center in Hawthorne, which is a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport. … Governor Jerry Brown will speak on Friday morning at the 75th anniversary ceremony for the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is a little older. He’ll be at Bridge Plaza around 10 AM. … The Egyptian presidential candidate who has taken a lead in some exit polls after the two-day round of voting on Wednesday and Thursday, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, has a PhD in engineering from the the University of Southern California. He went on to teach for several years in the ’80s at Cal State Northridge, also in Los Angeles. The USC alum’s two kids were born in California and are US citizens.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2) and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** NEW SURVEY: THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE, BROKEN DOWN BY WORK CATEGORY. A new Gallup Poll survey has some pretty interesting information on how President Barack Obama and conservative challenger Mitt Romney have strong appeal to intriguingly different groups by work classification.
Obama is the champion of professionals, and of service workers. Those are the two biggest slices of voters by work category.
Romney is the champion of business owners, executives — no surprise with either — and sales workers.
That’s very intriguing. I need to think about that one, rather than offer instant analysis.
The two are tied among office workers, and Romney leads among a swath of much smaller worker groups, such as construction and mining employees, and other small categories of blue collar workers.
Why would blue collar voters back Romney? Let’s think about that. Meanwhile …
Barack Obama has a significant lead over Mitt Romney among the 24% of American working voters who are classified as professionals, and among the 13% who are service workers. The two are tied among clerical and office workers. Romney leads among all other job categories, including in particular the small segments of voters who work in farming and fishing, construction, and who own a business. He also has an edge among executives and managers. …
Different types of American working voters have differing demographic characteristics, and given that these characteristics are related to political preferences, it is not surprising to find that workers’ vote choice is related to the type of work they do.
Support for the two major-party candidates by job category doesn’t follow strict socioeconomic class lines. Professional workers, who tend to be more highly educated than the average worker in America today, are more liberal and Democratic than average, and accordingly tilt toward support of Obama. On the other hand, traditionally blue-collar, less well-educated groups of construction, manufacturing, and installation or repair workers tilt strongly toward Romney. Business owners and managers or executives strongly support Romney, an MBA and former business executive, over Obama. …
The euro has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar in almost two years, following Wednesday’s late night meeting in Brussels. The talks in Belgium were meant to come up with an agreement on how to tackle the eurozone crisis. But no deal has been reached.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2) and OBAMA AFTER THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AND THE NATO SUMMIT.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in California and Iowa.
Obama attended a fundraiser early this morning at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California.
At 10 AM Pacific, he departs San Jose on Air Force One en route Newton, Iowa.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Des Moines.
At 1:55 PM Pacific, Obama tours TPI Composites, a wind manufacturer, in Newton, Iowa.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks urging Congress to act on his “To Do List” in Newton.
At 4:55 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center in Des Moines.
At 6:20 PM Pacific, Obama departs Des Moines on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 8:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 8:45 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
I’m told that all Obama fundraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area last night and this were sold out. Another very big Golden State take for the prez is in the offing.
David Crosby and Graham Nash sang at an event last night in Atherton, and Oscar nominee Don Cheadle appeared and spoke on Obama’s behalf.
Obama joked that he wouldn’t tell people about his basketball game with Cheadle, a pledge which Cheadle reportedly appreciated. I don’t think Obama has played basketball with Crosby and Nash.
More to follow on these Silicon Valley-oriented events, which I believe raised upward of $4 million.
The latest round of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program continued today in Baghdad between Iran and the permanent five UN Security Council members (US,UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany.
The international powers are pushing for Iran to limit its nuclear enrichment program, especially pulling back from the 20% level from which further enrichment to weapons grade is far easier. Iran claims it needs all that enrichment for a medical reactor.
Iran countered with an entirely new proposal, which among other things demands a pullback from the sanctions which are having a significant impact.
No meeting of the minds has taken place. With Baghdad’s airport closed due to a major sand storm, some informal talks continued.
Iran and the six major powers will reconvene for another round of meeting in three-and-a-half weeks.
In Moscow.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s presidential election continued today.
There have been no major disturbances thusfar.
I’ll write a lot more about this, along with the just concluded NATO summit in Chicago, when the massive round of geopolitical summitry, all of it connected, is concluded.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
Very early this morning, the Dragon spacecraft from California’s SpaceX successfully rendezvoused with the International Space Station, matching orbits with the ISS at over 17,000 miles per hour as it successfully performed an intricate series of test maneuvers in advance of Friday’s planned docking, as seen in this NASA video shot by ISS astronauts.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown signed legislation yesterday to expedite a big solar project in Southern California.
Meanwhile, a new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shows that support for the latest tobacco tax initiative has dropped sharply. No doubt due to the avalanche of tobacco industry advertising against it. But a term limits reform measure, which would cut the overall number of years a state legislator could serve from 14 to 12 while allowing all those years to be served in one house, is holding strong over 60%.
The poll also has Brown’s job approval dipping, with approval of his performance now matched by disapproval, with both in the low 40s.
This amounts to a drop of a few points from his usual mid to high 40s range in all polls, and a rise of disapproval, possibly from undecided ranks. (These numbers are among “likely voters.” Among all California adults, Brown is still in plus territory, though not by much.)
The poll was taken during the height of media coverage of the “surprise,” as many portrayed it, that the state’s budget deficit is significantly higher than projected in Brown’s January budget proposal, which the legislature has not acted on.
The poll also found that support for Brown’s November revenue initiative went up slightly. It has a lead of nearly 20 points.
Among other findings on a variety of topics — this poll doesn’t go in depth — is the latest confirmation that most voters reject the budget cuts that would be necessary if Brown’s initiative does not pass.
The rise in the budget deficit between the January introduction and the annual “May revise” is only a surprise to those who didn’t bother to add up the numbers contained in the reports issued regularly by Brown and other state officials.
Any journalist who affected surprise, and there are some, either didn’t bother to pay attention, can’t do arithmetic, or is being dishonest.
The fact that Brown didn’t add it all up for everyone and present it with a bow before his revised budget may well have helped his initiative, creating a sense of surprise since journalists hadn’t bothered to write up the emerging overall before it was presented to them.
That includes me, of course, but I had noticed the rising numbers and mentioned them dozens of times here and elsewhere.
But, if the poll, taken during the height of coverage of the budget “surprise,” is accurate, it’s hurt his numbers.
However, I have a feeling that his job approval may be going back up in the not terribly distant future.
** MAD MEN: A GREAT LEAPER FORWARD? JOAN, JAG, DON’S RETURN TO ADVERTISING (AND OTHER, ER, TREKS).
“Prepare for a great leap forward!”
– Chairman Mao Zedong, er, Don Draper
“Christmas Waltz” is an improved episode of Mad Men in this uneven fifth season of a longtime great TV series, an episode with a very welcome return to advertising. Too much of this season has been taken up with some fairly arbitrary soap opera doings.
The show is at its best, and most important, when the drama revolves around the advertising business. It’s the reason it’s called Mad Men, after all, and not, say, Unhappy People.
This season, not incidentally, after reaching new highs early on, ratings have slumped to the lowest level since Season 3. This latest episode, in fact, is the lowest-rated episode in this decade, with viewership little more than half that of the highly anticipated Season 5 premiere.
It’s not a surprise here, after the hairpin plotting that marked the first half of this season. Megan’s “Zou Bisou Bisou” birthday burlesque and Roger’s LSD trip were clever Twitter material, but didn’t really go anywhere. The agency losing the nearly-won Jaguar account when the almost-client’s wife discovered chewing gum in his pubic hair after the guys take him to a high-end bordello was a twist, all right, but it didn’t make much sense. Pete Campbell’s sudden, rather inexplicable, plunge into what many fans viewed as a pre-suicidal tailspin whetted an appetite for anticipatory destruction among many, but also didn’t go anywhere.
Actually, it’s Pete Campbell who is getting Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce back on an upward trajectory. With Jaguar.
The Jaguar exec from the bordello adventure has, conveniently, gotten himself fired, so his wife’s injunction against those bad-boy influencers at SCDP has no meaning. And Pete has been working Jaguar hard, recognizing how the car company from Coventry, England, can be the signature client that the agency needs to break through into the top ranks. Pete has made SCDP a finalist for the Jaguar account.
Jaguar Cars, Ltd. does not make baked beans. It makes what will be seen as the most iconic sports car of the 1960s, the Jaguar E-Type. (Known in the Austin Powers movies as the “Shaguar.”) Which, in the U.S. market, with some federal regulatory changes in place, is called the Jaguar XKE.
It makes the sort of product through the advertising of which Mad Men can again become a prism on the era. …
From my May 23rd review.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $91 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $57 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $23 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
2010 California Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman, now the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, is cutting nearly 30,000 jobs from the iconic firm once known for its humane “HP Way.” Whitman is a national finance co-chair for her longtime mentor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. She became HP CEO last September.
** QUICK HITS. I’m told that all Obama fundraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area tonight and tomorrow are sold out. Another very big Golden State take for the prez is in the offing. … Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation today to expedite a big solar project in Southern California.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), and MAD MEN: A GREAT LEAPER FORWARD? JOAN, JAG, DON’S RETURN TO ADVERTISING (AND OTHER, ER, TREKS).
Vice President Joe Biden, whose numbers haven’t been very good for the past few years, has reached a new low.
Or high, depending on how you look at it.
Unfortunately for the Veep, the high he has reached is his highest unfavorable rating.
Democrats are sharply favorable, while Republicans are sharply unfavorable. Independents tilt against him by 10 points.
Americans are about equally likely to have a favorable (42%) as an unfavorable (45%) view of Joe Biden, which has been the case for most of his tenure as U.S. vice president. Americans were much more positive than negative toward Biden from the time he was chosen as Barack Obama’s running mate through the first several months of the Obama administration. …
The May 10-13 USA Today/Gallup poll marks the first time opinions of Biden have tilted negative since he became Obama’s vice presidential pick, but they are not materially different from the closely divided but still net positive ratings of Biden from October 2009-March 2011. The current poll was conducted after Biden’s comments in favor of same-sex marriage on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, May 6 — comments that led to President Obama’s announcement that he too supported legalized same-sex marriage. The poll suggests those comments did not have a dramatic effect on how Americans view Biden.
Biden’s favorable rating peaked at 59% immediately after the 2008 election. His current 45% unfavorable rating is his highest so far, though his unfavorable ratings have been at least 40% since October 2009.
Fourteen percent of Americans do not have an opinion of the vice president, similar to the levels Gallup has measured since October 2008.
Predictably, Democrats are overwhelmingly positive toward the Democratic vice president, and Republicans overwhelmingly negative. By 47% to 37%, independents are more negative than positive. …
President Barack Obama declared Wednesday morning that the world has “a new feeling about America” and more respect for its leadership, weaving re-election themes into a commencement speech to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), and MAD MEN: A GREAT LEAPER FORWARD? JOAN, JAG, DON’S RETURN TO ADVERTISING (AND SOME OTHER STUFF).
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Colorado, and California.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then flew on Air Force One to Colorado Springs, Colorado, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
There he met with Air Force Academy personnel and their families, following which he delivered the commencement address.
Following that, he mingled and met with the Falcons and their families.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama departs Colorado Springs on Air Force One en route Denver, Colorado.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Denver.
At 2:35 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Denver.
At 3:35 PM Pacific, Obama departs Denver on Air Force One en route Mountain View, California.
At 6:10 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Mountain View, California, landing at Moffett Federal Airfield, the former Navy air station.
At 7:20 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a private residence in Atherton.
At 9:10 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City.
Obama RONs in San Jose.
His latest California trip continues tomorrow.
I understand that Obama will raise another $4 million-plus from Silicon Valley.
The latest round of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program began today in Baghdad between Iran and the permanent five UN Security Council members (US,UK, France, Russia, China) and Germany.
The international powers are pushing for Iran to limit its nuclear enrichment program, especially pulling back from the 20% level from which further enrichment to weapons grade is far easier. Iran claims it needs all that enrichment for a medical reactor.
Iran has countered with an entirely new proposal, details of which are not available.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s presidential election began today.
The election continues tomorrow.
There have been no major disturbances thusfar.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran could soon sign a deal on the UN agency investigating suspected weapons activities connected to the country’s nuclear program. Yukiya Amano, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday that he reached an agreement with Iran’s government after talks in Tehran, but failed to seal the deal because of “remaining, unspecified differences.”
I’ll write a lot more about this, along with the just concluded NATO summit in Chicago, when the massive round of geopolitical summitry, all of it connected, is concluded.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
California’s governmental efficiency commission, the so-called Little Hoover Commission (explanation for the odd name too lengthy for this space), voted unanimously yesterday afternoon to approve Brown’s plan to reorganize and streamline state government.
Brown’s plan will cut the number of state agencies from 12 to 10, ending many duplicative operations. Unless it is rejected by a majority vote of either house of the state legislature by July 3rd, the plan will go into effect.
Brown has scheduled another national media interview, on the heels of last Friday’s outing on CBS News’s new morning program, to air later this week on National Public Radio’s Marketplace program.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $90 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $56 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $24 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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, at his intended Chicago showcase NATO Summit, acknowledged that there are “hard days ahead” in Afghanistan as the alliance prepares to withdraw troops from the country and tries to define success.
** QUICK HITS.California’s governmental efficiency commission, the so-called Little Hoover Commission (explanation for the odd name too lengthy for this space), voted unanimously today to approve Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to reorganize and streamline state government. Brown’s plan will cut the number of state agencies from 12 to 10, ending many duplicative operations. Unless it is rejected by a majority vote of either house of the state legislature by July 3rd, the plan will go into effect. … Brown has scheduled another national media interview, on the heels of last Friday’s outing on CBS News’s new morning program, to air later this week on National Public Radio’s Marketplace program. … Another national poll shows President Barack Obama on top of conservative Republican Mitt Romney. Obama leads 47-43 in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. … Obama has a 7-point lead in the latest Fox News poll.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), and MAD MEN: A GREAT LEAPER FORWARD? JOAN, JAG, DON’S RETURN TO ADVERTISING (AND SOME OTHER STUFF).
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama has no public schedule today.
He’s back from several days of major summitry.
First came the G-8 Summit at Camp David, where world leaders seemed to be moving toward Obama’s overall view that the global economy needs stimulus more than austerity at this critical moment.
Then came the NATO Summit in Chicago, where Obama struggled with relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and, especially, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
And NATO as a whole struggled with its post-Cold War raison d’etre, and how to redefine success in Afghanistan.
The phrase “Afghan good enough” is now very current.
I’ll write a lot more about this when the massive round of geopolitical summitry, now moving on to the Iran crisis, all of it connected, is concluded.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, following a weekend trip to Tehran, says he is close to a deal with Iran to allow inspection of at least one suspected military nuclear site. But he discloses no details.
This followed talks last week in Vienna.
Negotiations between the P5+1 (US,UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) and Iran begin on Wednesday in Baghdad.
Obama is also prepping for a big trip to the West.
On Wednesday, he delivers a major address, the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, to which I was appointed by then U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, but which I did not attend.
He has a big fundraiser in Denver before moving on to some bigger fundraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I understand that Silicon Valley is in for another $4 million-plus.
I’ll have more on all this.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
The second time was the charm. California’s SpaceX, after a literally last-second abort early Saturday morning at Cape Canaveral, successfully launched the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station early Tuesday morning at the Cape. Much more to follow.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He delivered a largely well-received address early this morning at the annual Host Breakfast sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce.
I’ll have more on that, and what it means for the campaign for his November revenue initiative, tomorrow in a “Jerry-Rigging.” The piece will discuss messaging, which Brown is tightening, operations, and opposition, or lack of same.
Brown also declared today to be Harvey Milk Day in California, issuing the following proclamation:
“As one of the first openly gay politicians to hold office in the United States, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk is remembered as a hero in the movement for acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. His courage in facing a hostile public and his insistence on being treated the same as anyone else contributed greatly to the advancement of this cause. Milk succeeded because he was not just a gay leader but a champion for his district, a brilliant coalition builder and community organizer who brought the real concerns of ordinary people to city hall. His legacy lives on in the vibrant neighborhoods of San Francisco, which he helped restore to vitality at a time when American cities were in crisis.
“Today, on the 82nd anniversary of his birth, I urge all Californians to remember Harvey Milk for his contributions to the more open, free and honest society that we live in today. We should also remember how he died, at the hands of a fellow supervisor, a killing that Milk himself had anticipated because of the virulent opposition he faced. On this day, let us rededicate ourselves not only to the cause of equal rights for all people, but also to the peaceful and democratic process envisioned by our nation’s founders.”
** A BUCKET OF WOE: JERRY BROWN’S UNSURPRISINGLY UNHAPPY BUDGET. In one of the least surprising announcements of late, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday unveiled the annual spring revision of the California state budget, proposing steps to deal with what he says has become a $15.7 billion budget deficit, up from $9.2 billion in January. Absent more tough cuts, and passage of his November revenue initiative, things get much worse very fast, especially for the schools.
Meanwhile, things are apt to get significantly worse for social welfare programs and state workers.
The deficit number was a surprise to some, probably feigned in some cases, especially by Brown’s longtime conservative critics. … From my May 16th essay.
** MAD MEN: DANGER! SLIPPERY WHEN SOAPY (ESPECIALLY IN DARK SHADOWS). … From my May 15th review.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $58 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $22 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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 NATO Summit is upon President Barack Obama’s hometown Chicago, and so are thousands of demonstrators.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD (TAKE 2), and MAD MEN: “CHRISTMAS WALTZ.”
** FLAILING NATO? BIG QUESTIONS SURROUND OBAMA’S SHOWCASE CHICAGO SUMMIT.There’s a lot of confusion about the ballyhooed NATO Summit in Chicago, intended as a big boost to Obama’s geopolitical leadership, showcased in his hometown.
Questions about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded 62 years ago in the early days of the Cold War with the late Soviet Union and its aligned bloc, have abounded for decades. Especially since the fall of the Soviet Union, which removed NATO’s founding rationale for existing.
But they are getting very loud again. Both in the wake of NATO’s success in Libya — which pointed up how far behind the rest of NATO with respect to US capability its European members have fallen — and in the face of the looming debacle in Afghanistan.
Here are some big outstanding questions about NATO’s future. We’ll see how many get answers in Chicago.
* How will Pakistan play in the big discussion on AfPak strategy? …
* Are countries beginning a rush to the exits in Afghanistan? …
* How will NATO members advance technologically when their budgets are being tightened? …
* How will NATO handle relations with groups that wish to ally, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council, and with groups that may be rivals, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its members such as Russia and China? …
* Speaking of which, does NATO have a unified position on Iran? …
* Does NATO have a unified position on missile defense? …
* Does NATO have a unified position on its own expansion? …
As I noted three years ago here on the Huffington Post, when Obama visited Moscow, Putin had Obama come to his sumptuous dacha in a forest outside Moscow. They discussed ballistic missile defense, and Russian dislike of America establishing bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, NATO expansion, and the question of containing Iran, Russia’s decades-long friend of a sort (and centuries-long rival).
The two hour-plus meeting went long — in part because much of it was taken up by a Putin monologue — and Obama ended up late for his major address of the week at the New Economic School back in Moscow.
Having lectured Obama and made him late for the first time ever for one of his major addresses, Putin went over to visit a famous motorcycle club. Which was pointedly headed to a big motorcycle rally in Ukraine, a country which Putin was intent on keeping out of NATO, where pro-US politicians lost the subsequent election. …
There really is no shortage of fundamental questions surrounding NATO. It will be interesting to see how Obama spins up the impression of a success. …
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama says that Congress needs to move forward, not, er, backward, on Wall Street reform in the wake of JP Morgan Chase’s recently revealed $3 billion trading losses.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Maryland and Illinois.
Obama hosts the G8 Summit at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland and the NATO Summit in Chicago.
First the Saturday schedule for the G8 Summit, then the Sunday schedule for the NATO Summit.
On Saturday, at 6 AM Pacific, Obama attended the first working session with G8 Leaders at Camp David.
He then took part in a family photo with G8 Leaders.
Following that, he attended the second working session with G8 Leaders.
Obama then attended a working lunch on food security.
At 11:25 AM Pacific, Obama attends the third working session with G8 Leaders.
At 12:45 PM Pacific, Obama attends the fourth working session with G8 Leaders.
At 1:40 PM Pacific, Obama attends the fifth working session with G8 Leaders.
At 2:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers a statement.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, Obama departs Camp David on Marine One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 4:55 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart Joint Base Andrews on Air Force One en route Chicago, Illinois.
At 6:45 PM Pacific, the Obamas land in Chicago.
On Sunday, at 8:45 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at McCormick Place in Chicago.
At 10:35 AM Pacific, Obama meets with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at McCormick Place
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama takes part in the official greeting of the North Atlantic Council Leaders at McCormick Place.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama participates in the opening session of the North Atlantic Council at McCormick Place.
At 5:40 PM Pacific, Obama takes part in a NATO family photo at Soldier Field
At 6 PM Pacific, Obama attends a NATO working dinner at Soldier Field.
Meanwhile, Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng is coming to America to be a fellow at New York University, putting a capper on a recent crisis with the PRC.
Obama will shortly be raising more big bucks in Northern California. I expect him to raise another $4 million out of Silicon Valley.
Here’s what Obama’s week ahead looks like.
On Monday, Obama will attend meetings at the NATO Summit in Chicago. Later in the day, the President will travel to Joplin, Missouri, where he will deliver the commencement address at Joplin High School. Obama will return to Washington, DC, in the evening.
On Tuesday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to deliver the commencement address at the Air Force Academy.
Obama will then travel to Denver, Colorado for a fundraiser. In the evening, Obama will travel to California for campaign events in Atherton and Redwood City. He will spend the night in San Jose, California.
On Thursday, Obama will attend a campaign event in Palo Alto.
He will then travel to the Newton, Iowa, area to deliver remarks on the economy at an official event, where he will continue to push Congress to act on his so-called “To Do List,” largely around his economic themes.
Later, Obama will attend a campaign event in Des Moines before returning to Washington, DC, in the evening.
On Friday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss California’s problems and opportunities.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
** A BUCKET OF WOE: JERRY BROWN’S UNSURPRISINGLY UNHAPPY BUDGET. In one of the least surprising announcements of late, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday unveiled the annual spring revision of the California state budget, proposing steps to deal with what he says has become a $15.7 billion budget deficit, up from $9.2 billion in January. Absent more tough cuts, and passage of his November revenue initiative, things get much worse very fast, especially for the schools.
Meanwhile, things are apt to get significantly worse for social welfare programs and state workers.
The deficit number was a surprise to some, probably feigned in some cases, especially by Brown’s longtime conservative critics.
Fox News, to mention the most obvious of these folks, spinning furiously, claimed that Brown is actually worse than JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Why? Because Dimon only hid a $2 billion loss while Brown “hid” a “$16 billion deficit blunder.”
I mention this, not because I take the Fox report seriously, but because it is the preposterous hyper-partisan extreme that illustrates a common problem.
Which is that there is nothing surprising about the budget deficit number, not for anyone who has been paying attention to, and remembering, regular statements from Brown and state Controller John Chiang about revenues, and from Brown about budget cuts being blocked, by the courts and federal government, and balked at, by the legislature.
It was a simple exercise in arithmetic. Add up the revenue shortfalls reported for months, and repeatedly throughout April, with the blocked budget cuts, and you won’t be surprised. (An added factor, as Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain points out, is that revenue from corporate taxes is 6 percent lower than expected, and is actually down in absolute terms, even though corporate profits are booming. And corporate taxes make up a shrinking share of the state budget, due to tax breaks.)
Of course, the overall doesn’t get done much in an era of news nibbles via Twitter. And many like to hype the surprise when the overall becomes impossible to miss.
Which brings us to an interesting question. Does the air of shock around the latest in California’s chronic budget crisis count as a failure of Brown’s communications strategy? Or as a success? After all, a bad shock may be what the electoral doctor ordered for Brown’s November revenue initiative. I assume he noticed that the numbers weren’t being added up in the press. …
** 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.
A rocket from California’s SpaceX, set to be the first private spacecraft to travel to the International Space Station, roared to life for a history-making liftoff Saturday, but remained stuck on the ground following a last-second abort at Cape Canaveral. The onboard computer system shutdown the rocket after one of nine engines showed higher than desired internal pressure. This has happened with other test flights, which went off later the same day. But this mission had only a one-second launch window, so the next opportunity comes early Tuesday morning.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run 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 $91.48 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $57 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $23 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Iran’s petrochemical exports have plunged nearly 90 percent in the last two weeks, according to traders and shipping data, with Iranian failure to get insurance to transport cargoes due to EU sanctions. The sanctions banning European insurers and reinsurers from covering tankers carrying Iranian petrochemicals came into effect at the start of May. Similar EU measures aimed at crude and oil products will start in July.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE NEW SPACE ERA, AND CALIFORNIA, TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD and FLAILING WITH NATO.
** QUICK HITS. What will be a bigger influencer in global financial markets? Friday’s big Facebook IPO, or the woes of Greece, headed for another election on June 17th with anti-austerity sentiment strong and rising? … Governor Jerry Brown appears Friday morning around 7 AM on CBS This Morning for an interview with Charlie Rose on California’s fiscal situation. … In the latest kerfuffle that takes up so much attention in politics, a conservative super PAC planned then abandoned TV advertising hitting President Barack Obama for his former pastor’s incendiary comments back in the day, with Mitt Romney forced to disavow and various charges and counter-charges zzzz …
** AMERICANS ELECT FLAMES OUT, OR, HOW NOT TO DEVELOP A THIRD PARTY. Well, something I’ve given short shrift to turns out to deserve even less.
That would be Americans Elect, a group run by rich people in New York, funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, to develop a third party line for the 2012 presidential elections.
With that kind of money, they of course have been able to buy ballot access in a lot of states. But aside from boiler plate bipartisanship, they haven’t had much of a message other than to say what we already know about the problems of American politics.
And now they have acknowledged the obvious. The effort isn’t going anywhere.
What’s the problem, besides lack of a message and grassroots appeal?
Lack of a candidate.
Former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer led the way, as it were, in its online polling, with Ron Paul as the leading “draft” candidate.
But the group decided that neither of these worthies had enough support to take the ballot line.
Which is a wise choice, since neither would mean much in the race, although Paul could effectively end Mitt Romney’s candidacy.
But that would never happen, since Paul made it plain in the course of the Republican presidential race that he is a de facto ally of Romney, whom he never attacked during the campaign.
Here’s the Americans Elect statement, which claims success though it ended up failing:
There is a desire among Delegates and millions of Americans who have supported Americans Elect to see a credible candidate emerge from this process.
However, the rules, as developed in consultation with the Americans Elect Delegates, are clear. As of this week, no candidate achieved the national support threshold required to enter the Americans Elect Online Convention in June. The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end.
Americans Elect, from the outset, has been a rules-based process, with the rules publicly available and open to debate by the Delegates. Our key priorities have been to: 1) honor the trust Americans Elect has built with the Delegates and American public; 2) require candidates to earn the nomination by building support among the Americans Elect Delegate community and American voters; and 3) create a basis for a solid future for the Americans Elect movement.
This decision honors these priorities.
Through the efforts of thousands of staffers, volunteers and leadership, Americans Elect has achieved its operational goals, including:
· Creating a pathway for nationwide ballot access for a balanced presidential ticket
unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party to compete in the
2012 race;
· Building the technological platform for the first nonpartisan secure national online
primary at AmericansElect.org;
· Attracting a significant base of more than 4 million supporters, including Delegates,
petition signers and volunteers;
· Educating the national and local media on the Americans Elect mission; and
· Finishing an extensive candidate briefing program involving more than 100
potential candidates.
As always, we thank everyone who has helped build this organization and are grateful for the work, efforts, and trust so many people have placed in Americans Elect. We are continuing the Americans Elect mission of creating more choice in our political system, giving candidates unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party an authentic way to run for office and giving the American people a greater voice in our political process.
President Barack Obama yesterday posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for valor above and beyond the call of duty to Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., a paratrooper in the Vietnam War.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is prepping for two major summits coming up, both of which he is hosting.
On Friday, Obama travels to Camp David in Maryland for the G-8 Summit.
Late on Saturday, Obama travels to Chicago, where he will welcome NATO allies and partners for the NATO Summit on May 20-21.
The new Fox News poll shows President Barack Obama opening a significant lead over Mitt Romney, 46-39, with increased optimism on the economy.
I mention it only because it is Fox News.
When a conservative Republican is seven points down in the Fox News poll, that is a problem for the GOP.
However, the Romney/RNC team upped its fundraising in April to $40 million, nearly matching Obama’s $44 million haul.
Obama will shortly be raising more big bucks in California. More to follow on that.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** A BUCKET OF WOE: JERRY BROWN’S UNSURPRISINGLY UNHAPPY BUDGET. In one of the least surprising announcements of late, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday unveiled the annual spring revision of the California state budget, proposing steps to deal with what he says has become a $15.7 billion budget deficit, up from $9.2 billion in January. Absent more tough cuts, and passage of his November revenue initiative, things get much worse very fast, especially for the schools.
Meanwhile, things are apt to get significantly worse for social welfare programs and state workers.
The deficit number was a surprise to some, probably feigned in some cases, especially by Brown’s longtime conservative critics.
Fox News, to mention the most obvious of these folks, spinning furiously, claimed that Brown is actually worse than JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Why? Because Dimon only hid a $2 billion loss while Brown “hid” a “$16 billion deficit blunder.”
I mention this, not because I take the Fox report seriously, but because it is the preposterous hyper-partisan extreme that illustrates a common problem.
Which is that there is nothing surprising about the budget deficit number, not for anyone who has been paying attention to, and remembering, regular statements from Brown and state Controller John Chiang about revenues, and from Brown about budget cuts being blocked, by the courts and federal government, and balked at, by the legislature.
It was a simple exercise in arithmetic. Add up the revenue shortfalls reported for months, and repeatedly throughout April, with the blocked budget cuts, and you won’t be surprised. (An added factor, as Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain points out, is that revenue from corporate taxes is 6 percent lower than expected, and is actually down in absolute terms, even though corporate profits are booming. And corporate taxes make up a shrinking share of the state budget, due to tax breaks.)
Of course, the overall doesn’t get done much in an era of news nibbles via Twitter. And many like to hype the surprise when the overall becomes impossible to miss.
Which brings us to an interesting question. Does the air of shock around the latest in California’s chronic budget crisis count as a failure of Brown’s communications strategy? Or as a success? After all, a bad shock may be what the electoral doctor ordered for Brown’s November revenue initiative. I assume he noticed that the numbers weren’t being added up in the press. …
Which leads us to the coming campaign.
Last week, Brown and his allies turned in 1.5 million signatures for his initiative, about twice as many signatures as needed to qualify his November revenue initiative, and about twice as many as turned in by heiress Molly Munger’s minions for her income tax hike-for nearly all boost for schools, a zombie presence on the ballot which trails badly in all polling. But many of those signatures will be invalid, as they always are, which accounts for the overage.
While a number of consultants, strategists, and advisers will be involved in the campaign, the lead consultants will be San Francisco-based SCN Campaigns, whose senior partner is longtime Democratic consultant Ace Smith.
Smith was Brown’s campaign director in his landslide victory for California attorney general in 2006.
Then the two men had a bit of a falling out, as Smith, who managed Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s re-election campaign, seemed to feel that Villaraigosa was the likely next governor.
That was unfortunate for them both, because my observation was that Smith did a very good job teaming up with Brown and Anne Gust Brown, who always plays a senior management role.
That view may have been part of his vision of how things would play out in presidential politics. Smith picked Hillary Clinton as the future, serving as her state director in California, where she managed to beat Barack Obama, and in Texas, where Clinton and Obama split the dual primary/caucus contest. Villaraigosa was a national co-chair for Hillary, and as one of the country’s highest-profile Latinos would have loomed very large as a Clinton administration ally.
Brown, in contrast, ran against Bill Clinton in 1992, ending up the distant runner-up for the nomination, and was neutral in the race between Hillary and Obama.
But Hillary did not become president, and no one has ever beaten a Brown for a statewide Democratic nomination in California. This is a streak that goes back to 1946.
Villaraigosa dropped out of the Democratic primary race against Brown, as did everyone else.
But the relationship was not easy to patch up. Smith did aid Brown’s 2010 campaign with some independent expenditure efforts early on, which Brown appreciated. His committee, however, did not become the principal independent expenditure effort. …
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says it’s up to Oakland owner Lew Wolff to decide whether to consider additional sites for a new ballpark for the Athletics, raising the possibility of a move from the Bay Area.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but state Democratic legislative leaders are still talking about alternatives to some of the actual cuts in Governor Jerry Brown’s latest budget.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $58 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $22 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Karl Rove’s Crossroads super PAC has just dropped $8 million on this anti-Obama ad, which will run in eight swing states.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … A BUCKET OF WOE: JERRY BROWN’S UNSURPRISINGLY UNHAPPY BUDGET.
** QUICK HITS. The new Fox News poll shows President Barack Obama opening a significant lead over Mitt Romney, 46-39, with increased optimism on the economy. I mention it only because it is Fox News. … Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but state Democratic legislative leaders are still talking about alternatives to some of the actual cuts in Governor Jerry Brown’s latest budget.
** NEW POLL: SENSE OF OPTIMISM IN RECOVERY. A new Gallup Poll indicates that Americans are becoming much more optimistic than they have been in recent years.
In fact, as many Americans now feel they will be better off in a year’s time as felt that when George W. Bush took office as president, just over 11 years ago.
Which is very good news for President Barack Obama.
What is not such good news for Obama is that only 37% say they are better off now than they were a year ago.
Americans’ expectations for their personal financial situations have recovered from the low point of four years ago, with 63% now saying they expect to be better off a year from now, up from 52% in late May/early June 2008. The 18% who say they will be financially worse off in a year is by one percentage point the lowest since 2003. …
When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, financial expectations were about where they are today — 63% said they would be better off in a year, and 21% said they would be worse off. Americans became a little more pessimistic toward the end of the last decade, and by late May/early June 2008, 52% said they would be better off, while 31% said they would be worse off.
The current reading of 63% “better off” compares with 60% in January 2004, 66% in March 1996, and 51% in March 1992 — all years in which incumbent presidents were seeking re-election. In 2004 and 1996, incumbent presidents were re-elected, while the incumbent in 1992 — George H.W. Bush — was defeated. …
The LA Galaxy visited the White House yesterday, where President Barack Obama congratulated Becks and the boys on the team’s 2011 Major League Soccer Cup championship. Soccer, of course, is what the rest of the world calls football, and David Beckham is a longtime global star, having been captain of the England team longer than anyone else in history.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN’S UNSURPRISINGLY UNHAPPY BUDGET.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then held a roundtable discussion with small business owners and SBA Administrator Karen Mills.
Following that, he met for lunch with Congressional Leadership of both parties in the Private Dining Room.
At 12:10 PM Pacific, Obama posthumously awards the Medal of Honor to Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. A paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, Sabo performed his act of heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Vietnam War, then suffered the indignity of having his paperwork lost along with his life.
In the race with Mitt Romney, polling shows that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie doesn’t help Romney as a running mate in, well, New Jersey. He was unlikely to run anyway.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is taking the fight to Romney, hitting him on Bain Capital.
In larger matters, Iranian negotiators are in Vienna, dickering with the International Atomic Energy Agency ahead of next week’s session between Iran and the P5 + 1 (US, UK, Russia, France, China, and Germany).
The talks are cordial, but have not produced any breakthrough on the UN nuclear watchdog’s ongoing desire to inspect suspected sites, notably a military site which may be in the process of being sanitized.
No progress has been made for months on this issue.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to cut California’s budget further and raise revenues in a November vote is drawing international attention to the state’s chronic budget crisis.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown yesterday morning at a victims’ rights conference hosted by the California District Attorneys Association and the California Crime Victims Assistance Association at the Sheraton Grande Hotel.
There he made reference to this tough state budget revision, and his November revenue initiative, by saying that conservative Republicans react like Pavlov’s dog when the word tax is mentioned, with a reflexive “No.”
As I wrote over the weekend, Brown delivered a very rugged California state budget in the annual “May revise” release on Monday. Brown has been warning for months about the need for more cuts, and the legislature has refused. (As I have mentioned, oh, 50 or 60 times.) Now the situation is, all too predictably, worse.
Naturally, I have a piece coming up on this, as well as the political and media reaction to the situation.
Meanwhile, a peer review panel that previously gave thumbs down on California’s high-speed rail project delivered a measured thumbs up yesterday afternoon at a state Senate hearing.
** 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 AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. 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.
** 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 from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $59 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $21 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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