Today at the London Olympics, American swimmer Michael Phelps, competing in his fourth Olympiad at the ripe old age of 27, broke the career record for most Olympic medals. He now has 19, edging Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who competed in the 1950s and 1960s.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … ROMNEY’S DANGEROUS BUFFOONERY.
** QUICK HITS.California High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Dan Richard today received the Transportation Innovator Champion of Change award at the White House. The Obama Administration is very pleased that California is moving forward on high-speed rail after the Tea Party and lobbyists for the old energy economy succeeded in squelching bullet train projects in other states. … Speaking this morning at a union convention in Las Vegas, Richard’s boss, Governor Jerry Brown, declared his confidence that Proposition 30, his temporary tax hike for the rich and temporary sales tax hike for all, will win if the campaign properly “motivates and mobilizes” people. … The No on 30 side raised only about $10,000 by June 30th, despite a lot of noise in the press from the usual professional anti-tax/anti-government lobbyists. … Meanwhile, in more serious news, India has gone through a second day of massive blackouts, blackouts which make the momentary and limited blackouts of California’s electric power crisis in 2001 look like the after-effect of a transient storm. Fully 600 million Indians are without power right now, the result of a very inefficient power grid. That’s over half the population of the second most populous country on earth affected. The Indian grid is a complete fiasco. This is in sharp contrast to neighboring China’s heavy investment in infrastructure.
** NEW POLL: CLINTON VERY POPULAR AS HE UNDERTAKES THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION SPEECH FOR OBAMA. A new Gallup Poll survey makes President Barack Obama’s choice of his official nominator at the Democratic national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina look very good.
Former President Bill Clinton will deliver the nominating speech in prime time the Wednesday night of the convention for the man who defeated his wife in the hard-fought race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
As Clinton prepares to do so, he is at a high point in his popularity with American voters.
66% have a favorable opinion of the former president. That ties his previous high in Gallup Poll, recorded back in January 1993 as he was inaugurated for the first time as president.
Clinton has had some real ups and downs in popularity.
He was down following his bruising 1992 Democratic nomination battle with former/future Governor Jerry Brown, who once considered Clinton — then the youngest ex-governor in modern American history — to be his gubernatorial chief of staff after future Governor Gray Davis departed for the Beverly Hills seat in the California Assembly.
But Clinton bounced back in the general election against President George Bush and after, only to fall again during the big miscues of his first presidential term; a gays in the military policy that no one liked and, of course, the debacle of national health care legislation.
Clinton recovered again, and won a sizable re-election victory against Senator Bob Dole in 1996, only to hit the skids again with the scandal of his second term.
Yet he grew popular once again, with his Clinton Foundation activities buttressing it all after he left office.
Only to fall once again, in 2008, when his attacks on Obama during the primary campaign offended many.
Now he’s back up again. As is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also has a 66% favorable rating.
Two-thirds of Americans — 66% — have a favorable opinion of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, tying his record-high favorability rating recorded at the time of his inauguration in January 1993. Clinton nearly returned to this level of popularity at two points in his second term, but has generally seen lower ratings, averaging 56% since 1993. …
Along with his record-high favorable rating, Clinton now has a near-record-low 28% unfavorable rating, according to the July 9-12 Gallup poll. The only times since 1993 that his unfavorable rating has been lower — 26% and 27% — were in January of his inaugural year. …
Clinton is viewed favorably today by most men, women, whites, and nonwhites, and across all major age groups. He also enjoys broad favorability among independents as well as Democrats. And while more Republicans view him unfavorably than favorably, it is by a relatively narrow 50% vs. 44% margin. …
In 2008, former President Bill Clinton was a crucial symbol of party unity at the Democratic National Convention as Obama sought to win over former supporters of Hillary Clinton. While not wildly popular with any key voting blocs at that time, he sent an important intra-party signal that it was time to come together around Obama.
By contrast, Clinton’s solid popularity with Americans today might help attract new support to Obama from outside the party, particularly from whites, men, seniors, and political independents — all important voting groups that Obama is struggling with in trial heats against Republican Mitt Romney.
In contrast to then Senator Barack Obama’s flawless 2008 presidential campaign tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, Britain, France, and Germany, there is 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s gaffe-filled tour of Britain, Israel, and Poland, which has actually heightened global tensions when not consumed in buffoonery. Romney claims that the massive Israeli edge over Palestinians is due to a superior culture, “neglecting” to mention the massive restrictions on trade exercised over the Palestinian Authority by Israel and insulting Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in the process.
** 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 has no scheduled public events.
First Lady Michelle Obama left London last night, where she rallied the U.S. Olympic team, appeared at the various Olympic venues, where she was well-received by the British and international crowd, and met with US military personnel and their families at American bases.
She will speak at the first night of the Democratic national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But the big news about the convention is something else.
Former President Bill Clinton will make the nominating speech for President Barack Obama.
That should put an end to any lingering notions that Clinton, who fought furiously against Obama’s nomination in 2008, wants Obama to lose this year.
Obama campaigns in swing states Ohio, Florida, and Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday.
While in Poland, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ignored shouted questions from reporters. Asked why Romney has taken just three questions from American reporters during the entire week-long trip, traveling Romney press secretary Rick Gorka said, “Shove it.”
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Las Vegas abd Northern California.
Brown spoke this morning at the California School Employees Association’s (CSEA) 86th annual conference at the Paris Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
Today brought word that Brown raised $6.3 million for his November revenue initiative from the first of the year through June 30th, with more than $5 million on hand at that time. Fundraising has of course continued.
Opponents have not raised an appreciable amount of money.
And that Brown has $6.1 million cash on hand in his gubernatorial campaign account.
Most of that is money left over from Brown’s smashing November 2010 win over billionaire Meg Whitman and her biggest spending non-presidential campaign in American history.
Brown has not declared his intentions regarding another term as governor, but, as readers know, I expect him to go for it.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Finance is crashing on completing a review of all the special funds in state government, of which there are some 560.
Some wild figures have been thrown around in the media regarding how much “extra” money there may be in those accounts beyond what the finance department has previously reported, but I expect the actual number to be much lower.
In any event, according a budget document I have, this is a phenomenon that dates back at least to the administration of Republican Governor Pete Wilson.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The American womens gymnastic team lived up to their considerable hype and then some Tuesday night, routing Russia and everyone else on their way to their first Olympic title since 1996.
** 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.
Conservative Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney on Sunday identified America’s top priority in national security with that of the current Israeli government, headed by his old friend and business colleague, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyah. He said that preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon “must be our highest national security priority.”
** ROMNEY, SEEKING TO RECOUP FROM LONDON DEBACLE, GOES FOR THE TOUGH OPTION IN ISRAEL. Mitt Romney bombed in spectacular fashion on the first stop of his three stage international tour Thursday and Friday in London.
He never recovered from his gaffes in criticizing British Olympic preparations as he was about to meet with Britain’s leaders, from forgetting the name of the Labour Party leader with whom he had just met, nor from disclosing his customarily confidential courtesy meeting with the head of MI6, Britain’s Special Intelligence Service.
The obvious move to recover is to distract, and Romney certainly distracted on Sunday, rather breathtakingly declaring that America’s top national security priority must be that of Israel and its current government, the most conservative in the nation’s history.
He said that preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon “must be our highest national security priority.”
This makes an already very complex and very tense Gulf crisis all the more so.
Romney is trying to rally a hawkish conservative Republican base vote, much of it fundamentalist Christian, with his backing of military strikes against the Iranian nuclear program and to peel just enough Jewish votes away from Obama to narrowly swing one or two swing states.
By saying that America’s top defense priority is actually that of Israel, Romney seeks to give Obama less room to maneuver in an already very tight corner, made all the tighter by Iran’s intransigence refusing to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog agency.
But is preventing an Iranian nuke really the most important thing in the world for the US?
Are there ways to further contain Iran?
And when, if ever, will Romney ever address the obvious questions of what would happen if strikes against Iran took place?
Paul McCartney closed a spectacular and whimsical opening ceremony for the London Olympics, conducted in quintessentially British manner, with a Beatles classic in a show that began with the Queen of England and her most famous secret agent, James Bond, as portrayed by Daniel Craig.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
First Lady Michelle Obama is in London, where she is rallying the U.S. Olympic team and made a well-received appearance at Friday’s Opening Ceremony for the 30th Olympiad.
Conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in London for the opening of the Olympics as well, as you may have heard, but tried for a very low-key presence at the Opening Ceremony.”
“Mitt the Twit” was one of the kinder headlines about Romney’s gaffe-filled debut on the international stage, and that was in the conservative Sun tabloid owned (still) by Rupert Murdoch.
Ann Romney is staying on as her husband moves on to Israel, where he hopes for a better reception. She has a role at these Games, too, though it’s not an especially athletic one.
Ann Romney is part-owner with two other rich women of a horse entered in the dressage portion of the equestrian competition. The horse’s rider, a German emigre, is her personal riding tutor.
She hopes for a gold medal, though, if her part-owned horse wins, because the owners get the awards even though they do not actually compete.
I think she is much better off if she does not get an Olympic medal in this way, don’t you?
Oh, and how was the Olympic Opening Ceremony, conceived and coordinated by Britain’s Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)? I watched much of it in real time and loved it.
Entitled “The Isles of Wonder,” the ceremony was quintessentially British, humorous, quirky, provocative, and magnificent by turns, a fabulous reminder to the world of just how much of global culture has come from the sceptred isle.
Reviews were generally outstanding, and the show won a record audience in the US, eclipsing that of the somewhat overbearing but nonetheless spectacular show from Beijing — geared to announcing the emergence of a rather regimented superpower — four years ago.
Only Olympics staged in America have ever won a bigger audience for an Olympics opening ceremony, and those not by much. And not at all in absolute terms, as the audience is larger now.
“With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony,” wrote correspondent Sarah Lyall, “a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is.”
“People said Beijing’s opening ceremony was the hardest act to follow, but for Britain, it was the easiest. The Chinese government had so much to prove. The 2008 extravaganza, with all those waves of drill teams, dancers and drummers, thousands of anonymous performers synchronized to represent the invention of movable type printing, was a paean to regimentation, discipline and collective self-effacement that was magnificent, awe-inspiring and unenviable. (It didn’t help that the adorable little girl in a red party dress who sang an ode to the motherland later turned out to be lip-syncing with the voice of a child who sang better but wasn’t quite as perfect-looking.)
“Britain confidently opted for a celebration of individuality, idiosyncrasy and even lunacy. The showmanship was entrusted to the British filmmaker Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”), and he favored pop music, movies, make-believe and Britain’s top export commodity: celebrities. David Beckham drove a bearer of the Olympic torch to the arena in a speedboat. Kenneth Branagh, dressed as the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, recited lines from “The Tempest,” and J. K. Rowling, the creator of “Harry Potter,” read from “Peter Pan.” Paul McCartney closed the evening with “Hey Jude.””
Back to politics for the moment. Sigh.
Romney has high hopes for a better outing on the second leg of his ballyhooed geopolitical tour, this weekend in Israel. The third and final leg takes him to Poland during the coming week.
Romney’s old friend, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, worked with the financier/politician learning the managing consulting and finance businesses at Boston Consulting Group in the ’70s. And everything Romney says is geared to go along with the priorities of Netanyahu’s Israeli government, the most conservative in the history of the Jewish state.
Obama knows that Romney is trying to rally a hawkish base vote with his backing of military strikes against the Iranian nuclear program and to peel just enough Jewish votes away from Obama to narrowly swing one or two swing states.
Obama has a big lead over Romney among Jewish voters, 68-25, despite relatively poor relations with Netanyahu. That’s down 10 points from what he got against John McCain in 2008.
So on Friday, Obama surrounded himself with key Jewish figures, including Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Congressman Howard Berman of Los Angeles, to sign legislation giving Israel more military assistance.
In particular, Obama is funding Israel’s “Iron Dome” anti-missile system.
And Obama will soon dispatch Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Israel to confer on the Gulf crisis. The US has built up naval, air, and ground forces in the Gulf of late as Iranian nuclear negotiations go nowhere and threats to close the Strait of Hormuz continue.
In the week ahead, Obama campaigns in several swing states and works behind the scenes on crisis management. His schedule, as always, barely reflects the latter and has plenty of flexibility built in to allow him to respond to breaking developments.
On Monday, Obama will participate in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony at the White House. In the afternoon, he will travel to New York City for fundraisers before returning to the White House that night.
On Tuesday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Mansfield, Ohio and Akron, Ohio for campaign events. He returns to the White House that night.
On Thursday, Obama will travel to Orlando, Florida and Leesburg, Virginia for campaign events, before returning to the White House 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, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
James Bond joins the Queen of England to open the Olympic Games in London. Why does she have Jerry and Anne Brown’s little dog?
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
While some wild rumors fly around, the California Department of Finance is closing in on finishing a crash audit of various special funds ordered by Governor Jerry Brown.
It has only lately become known that the finance department and the state controller’s office frequently have very different numbers for the special funds, which are separate from the general fund which forms the basis of the state budget and are usually funded by user fees, or so I understand. The controversy of course stems from the previously unknown $54 million cached away in two special funds at the troubled state Department of Parks and Recreation. And different accounting methods are sometimes used as well, which can account for differing numbers.
How far back does it go? Apparently to the mid-’90s, I’m being told, and perhaps further than that.
In any event, the great bulk of the money is probably not applicable to the California general fund, which is what the battles over cuts and taxes are all about.
** 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 $90.13 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 $2r 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.
Universally derided in the UK press today following his multiple gaffes on what should have been an easy day Thursday in London, his debut on the international stage, Mitt Romney is struggling to move on from his unforced errors.
** QUICK HITS. While some wild rumors fly around, the California Department of Finance is closing in on finishing a crash audit of various special funds ordered by Governor Jerry Brown. It has only lately become known that the finance department and the state controller’s office frequently have very different numbers for the special funds, which are separate from the general fund which forms the basis of the state budget and are usually funded by user fees, or so I understand. The controversy of course stems from the previously unknown $54 million cached away in two special funds at the troubled state Department of Parks and Recreation. And different accounting methods are sometimes used as well, which can account for differing numbers. … In any event, most of the money is probably not applicable to the California general fund, which is what the battles over cuts and taxes are all about. … Mitt Romney is eager to move on to the next stop on his three-nation world tour as he continues to be derided far and wide in Britain following his three big London gaffes on Thursday’s eve of the Olympics.
** NEW SURVEY: ROMNEY’S NEXT STOP WILL HELP WITH HIS BASE VOTE, AS ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER HAS INCREASED POPULARITY WITH REPUBLICANS, THOUGH NOT WITH DEMOCRATS OR INDEPENDENTS. Reeling from his derisorily received international debut Thursday in London, Mitt Romney heads next to Israel, where he will find a decidedly friendlier reception.
After all, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is Romney’s old friend from the ’70s, when they both worked at the Boston Consulting Group.
Netanyahu was fresh from a stint as an officer in Israel’s elite Sayeret Matkal special operations force, in which he was a decorated veteran of several combat operations. His brother Yonatan was commander of the unit, and was the only Israeli killed in the legendary raid on Entebbe. (Romney, in contrast, sat out the Vietnam War, which he vociferously supported, as a Mormon missionary in France.)
A new Gallup Poll survey finds that Romney’s next host has a net positive rating in the US, though it’s the same as it was when he was prime minister from 1996 to 1999.
Actually, Netanyahu’s rating has declined since then among Democrats and independents.
But it has shot up among Republicans.
Netanyahu and Romney have both been talking up a potential war with Iran, occasioned by the Iranian nuclear program.
That seems to be a popular position among Republicans, but not among independents or Democrats.
Americans have a more positive (35%) than negative (23%) view of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though four in 10 are not familiar enough with him to rate him. Views of Netanyahu are similar to what they were in Gallup’s last measurement — in May 1999, during the latter part of his first term as prime minister. …
The July 9-12 poll was conducted in advance of Netanyahu’s scheduled meeting with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this weekend in Israel as part of Romney’s overseas trip. The Netanyahu-Romney meeting may take on added significance, given the controversy over remarks Romney made about London’s preparation for the Olympics during his visit there, which could call into question his readiness for the international stage.
Netanyahu traveled to the U.S. earlier this year and met with President Obama. The relationship between Obama and Netanyahu has been tense at times due to their public disagreements about possible borders in an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.
Romney’s visit to Israel may be designed to show he would be in closer agreement with Netanyahu and Israel as president than Obama is. Israel is a key U.S. ally and Americans generally have a positive view of the country. In Gallup’s February World Affairs survey, seven in 10 had a favorable opinion of Israel and six in 10 said their sympathies lie more with the Israelis than the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.
The Romney-Netanyahu meeting may also help put the Republican candidate in a positive light among Republicans. That is because Republicans are especially positive toward Israel — with 80% viewing the country favorably, compared with 71% of independents and 65% of Democrats, according to the February poll.
Republicans also show much greater affinity toward Netanyahu than Democrats do. The July poll finds 50% of Republicans viewing him favorably and 16% unfavorably, for a net favorable rating of +34. In contrast, Democrats’ opinions of Netanyahu are more negative (31%) than positive (25%). Independents’ opinions are slightly more positive than negative. …
Bells rang out across Britain and the Olympic flame traveled down the River Thames in the sumptuous royal barge, as London made its final countdown to the opening ceremony. The Olympic torch was rowed on Friday along the Thames on board the Gloriana, Queen Elizabeth II’s vast red and gold barge, on the last day of its 10-week, 12,800-kilometre relay around Britain and Ireland.
** 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 signed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act in the Oval Office.
This move, on the eve of conservative Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel, gives Israel more military assistance.
Obama and Biden then met with US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker in the Oval Office.
Following that, Obama and Biden met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
There is a lot to talk about with regard to the big geopolitical pivot.
Nuclear negotiations with Iran, which have gone nowhere, are on the verge of collapse with Tehran demanding a scaling back of sanctions before discussing anything of substance.
As the diplomatic track drags, Iran has ramped up its forces, threatening attacks on US Navy ships in the Gulf.
And halfway round the world, China’s moves in the South China Sea are increasingly aggressive.
Obama then attended a fundraiser at the Jefferson Hotel.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Obama departs the White House en route McLean, Virginia.
At 2:25 PM Pacific, Obama attends a fundraiser at a private residence in McLean, Virginia.
At 4:35 PM Pacific, Obama makes remarks at a fundraiser at a private residence in McLean, Virginia.
At 5:25 PM Pacific, Obama departs McLean, Virginia on Marine One en route the White House.
At 5:35 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Meanwhile, Obama’s conservative Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, was roundly ripped on all sides yesterday and today in the UK and US media for his various gaffes yesterday on the first day of his big international trip.
Romney’s unaccountable errors made him a figure of derision in London the day before the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.
I discussed those in detail in the Thursday edition of NWN.
Mitt Romney on the international stage. Oh, my. London Mayor Boris Johnson declared his city ready to host the Olympic Games as he and a large and raucous crowd responded with derision to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s description of London’s preparations as “disconcerting.”
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** SUNRISE IN CALIFORNIA?In his inimitable fashion, Governor Jerry Brown declared during Wednesday’s roll-out of his peripheral canal, er, tunnels plan to ship water from the Sacramento River to agriculture and thirsty populations to the south while protecting the Sacramento Delta, that he wants to “get shit done” as governor. By which he means pushing forward the water, renewable energy, high-speed rail priorities he has identified and shares with some of his predecessors, as well as stabilizing the state’s present budget, for which he has enacted major cuts and seeks new revenue.
“Analysis paralysis is not why I came back 30 years later to handle some of the same issues,” Brown declared in a Sacramento appearance with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, part of working with the Obama Administration on these issues.
Mindful of significantly improved economic news of late, he continued Thursday with an event to start up the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, a 117-mile long project which now links solar and wind farms in the Imperial Valley with the grid in the San Diego metropolitan area, carrying more than 1,000 megawatts. This is especially key with the San Onofre nuclear power plant, which has been offline for months due to problems with corroded pipes, continuing to be offline during peak energy usage in the summer and may be offline into next year.
>>>>>>video
Then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger presided over the groundbreaking of the 117-mile Sunrise Powerlink transmission line in December 2010. As of now, Sunrise is carrying renewable power from solar and wind farms in the Imperial Valley to the grid in the San Diego metropolitan area, critical with the San Onofre nuclear plant off-line for months if not longer.
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Brown at this event. Schwarzenegger started the Sunrise project in the middle of his time as governor, and fought a hard slog to get it over numerous hurdles.
Schwarzenegger presided over the groundbreaking in December 2010 and was on hand to join Brown and a few others in flipping the large industrial switches for the transmission line.
The night before, Schwarzenegger told me that it had been a long struggle getting the Sunrise project through, but very much worth it. Backed by business and labor organizations, it was opposed by a variety of mostly local groups, as frequently happens with development projects, but not the major environmental organizations.
“We worked through 11,000 pages of environmental impact report,” said Schwarzenegger, “and answered many concerns to move it through the desert. The important thing always was to move forward to bring clean energy power of wind and solar from a place where it is abundant to places which need it.”
Brown says that his job as governor is “to build for the long-term future.” Which means new infrastructure for a sustainable California, in energy, transportation, and water, infrastructure that takes advantage of new technology to avoid traps of the past.
Brown was the original champion of renewable energy and energy efficiency as governor in the 1970s and 1980s, derided by some of his same media critics today for supposedly “flaky” policies which most thinking people now view as correct. But it is Schwarzenegger who amped up those efforts during his governorship, after backing and then expanding the renewable portfolio standard enacted by Brown’s former chief of staff, then Governor Gray Davis.
Mindful of the start of the Olympics, the sportsman Schwarzenegger told me that in building for the future, it is “like a relay race, with one governor taking the torch from the other and handing it off to the next, always seeing the vision of the finish line ahead.”
Like the renewable energy and conservation issues he continues to push as an advocate working with the United Nations, water and high-speed rail are two more “building for the future” issues that he shares with Brown.
Brown pushed a comprehensive water development and environmental protection program through the state legislature in 1982, only to see it shot down at the polls in a strange bedfellows referendum campaign conducted by conservative Central Valley farmers and Northern California environmentalists. The new plan is different. Some environmental critics worry that the North will be sucked dry through these “straws.” Brown promises that won’t happen, and says also that much will be done to protect the Sacramento Delta, which I’ve boated through in my Navy days and beyond. This time, water users will pay for the conveyance system.
Schwarzenegger got the first big water bonds measure in nearly 30 years through the legislature in 2009. But electoral conditions had it postponed from 2010 to 2012, then to 2014, with some trimming likely. Critics say it has some pork that needs to be eliminated. While one person’s pork is another’s deal maker, that has to be done to gain passage at the ballot box.
Meanwhile, Brown has the new proposal to move water from one of the West’s great rivers to thirsty and growing environs to the south.
And there is high-speed rail, controversial, with major elements of the right wing, the old energy economy, and the media out to kill it as has happened everywhere else in Tea Party-ized America, but failing to do so despite very concerted efforts.
Schwarzenegger, as I wrote two weeks ago here on the Huffington Post, championed the project till the very end of his governorship and champions it now.
“We have to keep moving forward,” he says. “We have to stay focused on the big picture and find ways to make government more efficient and rein in an out-of-control pension system and figure out how to finance the next phases of high-speed rail.”
Schwarzenegger’s predecessor as governor, Gray Davis, who played a key part in most of this as well — first renewable energy standard, first greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions law, crafted the $10 billion high-speed rail bonds measure and got it through the legislature — says there is a big spur that will ultimately trump those who oppose the Think Big agenda.
China.
“When I worry about all the opposition to doing these important things,” he told me, “I think of China. Soon it will pass the United States as the biggest economy in the world.” (Incidentally, California is the world’s ninth largest economy.)
“In China,” Davis said, “they are building for the future, doing all these things. Renewable energy, bullet trains, water projects, they are doing it all. If we don’t keep up with our own needs, we will be overwhelmed.”
Davis praised Schwarzenegger, who defeated him in the dramatic 2003 recall election but with whom he since became friendly, for thinking big on infrastructure, noting that he had planned a big infrastructure package for his second term but that the $42 billion-plus bond measure Schwarzenegger won enactment of in the November 2006 election was much bigger than he had dared.
>>>>>>video
Governor Jerry Brown, decrying “declinists,” signed legislation authorizing the start of construction of California’s high-speed rail program, the only one in America. Most of the rest of the advanced industrial world has high-speed rail.
The first phase of the high-speed rail program that Davis pushed into being as governor and Schwarzenegger championed is moving forward, with opponents dropping their ballyhooed campaign to block it with an initiative in 2014.
On July 18th, Brown joined state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other state and local officials as he signed the high-speed rail funding and construction authorization bill at Union Station in Los Angeles, and later at the future Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.
This is the $8 billion program for the first phase of the the bullet train project, fueled with federal grants and state bond dollars, encompassing some $2 billion for improvements and high-speed prep for the existing systems in the Metro LA and San Francisco Bay Area regions and the rest for construction of the spine of the system in the Central Valley.
Like the Sunrise transmission line, as Schwarzenegger notes, it will give a boost to a job market that has been very anemic since the great global recession hit very hard four years ago. But there were already signs of better days ahead.
With California’s economy, and the job market in particular, perking up notably in the last two months, could it be time to retire the sack cloth and ashes of the past few years?
Brown had decidedly mixed news on July 20th. On the one hand, a very promising report on the state economy. On the other, a bizarre controversy around the state parks department.
First, he had to get rid of the top two officials at the California Parks & Recreation Department after two things emerged when he put new financial managers in place: A scheme for a secret vacation buy-out program, which cost a few hundred thousand dollars, and a secret surplus of some $54 million even as parks were closing.
So state parks director Ruth Coleman, who has served since 2003 after becoming chief deputy director in 2002, has resigned, and the department’s number two official, Michael Harris, was fired.
California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said that the department had under-reported its funds for the past dozen years. Oddly, while the state finance department did not have records of the funds, the state controller’s office did. Why the logical communication did not take place is very unclear.
The unexpected $54 million is in two special funds generated by user fees of the state Parks and Recreation Department. Neither is part of the state’s general fund. It’s interesting to note that less than half of that money could be readily used to prevent the closure of parks, since most of it is in an account for off-roading having nothing to do with parks.
So the funds wouldn’t have gone all that far in keeping parks open over the past few years.
And the larger issue of the parks, which have a billion dollar-plus of unfunded needed improvements, is not addressed at all by the hidden funds.
In the bigger news, California economy expert Steve Levy reported in missives to journalists and others that the state added over 38,000 jobs in June and about 46,000 jobs in May, for half the national job growth in the past two months.
“The state’s unemployment rate is down to a still very high 10.7%, third highest in the nation,” reports Levy. “And the number of unemployed Californians fell below 2 million for the second month in a row.
“This two month surge takes place in a national and world economy under tremendous strain from the European recessions, slowing consumer spending and the upcoming fiscal tightening (fiscal cliff) still scheduled for January 1 next year.
“On the other hand the idea that California is a lagging economy being passed by in comparison to other states can now, hopefully, be put to rest. Tech, trade, tourism, a strong agricultural sector and the stirrings of a construction recovery give hope for the near and long term future. This week’s successful IPOs provide another hopeful sign on what will still be a long recovery to regain pre-recession job and unemployment levels.”
Bad news indeed for the doom and gloom about California crew.
** 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.
Big Ben, the hour bell of the landmark Palace of Westminster clock, has chimed for three minutes from 8:12 to ring in the London Olympic Games.
** 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 $2r 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.
It’s the eve of Friday’s Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Look to a festival of Britain and the world, with, among other things, flavorings of Shakespeare, the Beatles, and Bond.
** JERRY-RIGGING: OUT TO GET SHIT DONE AT SUNRISE. In his inimitable fashion, Governor Jerry Brown declared during Wednesday’s roll-out of his peripheral canal, er, tunnels plan to ship water from the Sacramento River to agriculture and thirsty populations to the south while protecting the Sacramento Delta, that he wants to “get shit done” as governor. By which he means pushing forward the water, renewable energy, high-speed rail.
“Analysis paralysis is not why I came back 30 years later to handle some of the same issues,” Brown declared in a Sacramento appearance with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
He continued today with an event to start up the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, a 117-mile long project which now links solar and wind farms in the Imperial Valley with the grid in the San Diego metropolitan area.
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Brown at this event. Schwarzenegger started the Sunrise project in the middle of his time as governor, and fought a hard slog to get it over numerous hurdles.
Schwarzenegger presided over the groundbreaking in December 2010 and was on hand today to join Brown and a few others in flipping the large industrial switches for the transmission line.
Last night Schwarzenegger told me that it had been a long struggle getting the Sunrise project through, but very much worth it. Backed by business and labor organizations, it was opposed by a variety of mostly local groups, as frequently happens with development projects, but not the major environmental organizations.
“We worked through 11,000 pages of environmental impact report,” said Schwarzenegger, “and answered many concerns to move it through the desert. The important thing always was to move forward to bring clean energy power of wind and solar from a place where it is abundant to places which need it.”
Brown says that his job as governor is “to build for the long-term future.” Which means new infrastructure for a sustainable California, in energy, transportation, and water, infrastructure that takes advantage of new technology to avoid traps of the past.
Brown was the original champion of renewable energy and energy efficiency as governor in the 1970s and 1980s. But it is Schwarzenegger who amped up those efforts during his governorship, after backing and then expanding the renewable portfolio standard enacted by Brown’s former chief of staff, then Governor Gray Davis.
Mindful of the Olympics, the sportsman Schwarzenegger told me that in building for the future, it is “like a relay race, with one governor taking the torch from the other and handing it off to the next, always seeing the vision of the finish line.”
Like the renewable energy and conservation issues he continues to push as an advocate working with the United Nations, water and high-speed rail are two more “building for the future” issues that he shares with Brown.
Brown pushed a comprehensive water development and environmental protection program through the state legislature in 1982, only to see it shot down at the polls in a strange bedfellows referendum campaign conducted by conservative Central Valley farmers and Northern California environmentalists.
Schwarzenegger got the first big water bonds measure in nearly 30 years through the legislature in 2009. But electoral conditions had it postponed from 2010 to 2012, then to 2014, with some trimming likely. Critics says it has some pork that needs to be eliminated. One person’s pork is another’s deal maker.
Meanwhile, Brown has the new proposal to move water from one of the West’s great rivers to thirsty and growing environs to the south.
And there is high-speed rail, controversial, with major elements of the right wing, the old energy economy, and the media out to kill it as has happened elsewhere in America, but failing to do so.
Schwarzenegger, as I wrote two weeks ago, championed the project till the very end of his governorship and champions it now.
“We have to keep moving forward,” he says. “We have to stay focused on the big picture and find ways to make government more efficient and figure out how to finance the next phases of high-speed rail.”
Schwarzenegger’s predecessor as governor, Gray Davis, who played a key part in most of this as well — first renewable energy standard, first greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions law, crafted the $10 billion high-speed rail bonds measure and got it through the legislature — says there is a big spur that will ultimately trump those who oppose the Think Big agenda.
China.
“When I worry about all the opposition to doing these important things,” he told me, “I think of China. Soon it will pass the United States as the biggest economy in the world.” (Incidentally, California is the world’s ninth largest economy.)
“In China,” Davis said, “they are building for the future, doing all these things. Renewable energy, bullet trains, water projects, they are doing it all. If we don’t keep up with our own needs, we will be overwhelmed.”
Davis praised Schwarzenegger, who defeated him in the dramatic 2003 recall election but with whom he since became friendly, for thinking big on infrastructure, noting that he had planned a big infrastructure package for his second term but that the $42 billion-plus bond measure Schwarzenegger won enactment of in the November 2006 election was much bigger than he had dared.
With California’s economy, and the job market in particular, perking up notably in the last two months, could it be time to retire the sack cloth and ashes of the past few years?
** NEW SURVEY: OBAMA MOST APPROVED BY PROFESSIONALS, LEAST APPROVED BY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS AND FARMERS.A new Gallup Poll survey of President Barack Obama’s job approval by career grouping over the past quarter has some interesting insights.
His support among small business owners declined, to roughly the same level as that of farmers and fishing industry folks.
It stayed the same among professionals and rose a bit among service workers.
Small business owners were the only group in which Obama’s performance dropped over the second quarter of 2012.
These numbers don’t reflect anything that has happened lately, much less the daily/weekly dynamics of the race.
U.S. business owners’ approval of President Barack Obama fell in the second quarter of 2012 to 35%, essentially tying farmers and fishers for the lowest approval among major occupational groups. Overall, professional workers remain the most approving, at 52%. …
Across occupational groups, installation and repair workers, as well as clerical and office workers, became significantly more approving of Obama in the second quarter. Business owners were the sole group that became significantly less approving, with their second-quarter approval of 35% reflecting a decline from 41% in the first quarter. …
One of conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s gaffes today in London was in forgetting the name of British Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband, with whom he had just met.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … SUNRISE IN CALIFORNIA? and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** 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 met with Veteran Affairs Secretary General Eric Shinseki, former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Oval Office.
Obama and Biden then met for lunch in the Private Dining Room.
At 11:10 AM Pacific, Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Roosevelt Room.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the Oval Office.
First, Romney insulted his British hosts by questioning London’s ability to host the Olympic Games, which are already underway.
The opening ceremony, which Romney will attend, is on Friday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who as head of the Conservative Party is affording Romney every courtesy, was moved to publicly rebuke the former head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.
“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world,” said Cameron, visiting Olympic Park following his meeting at 10 Downing Street with Romney. “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
Cameron of course was referring to the winter Games Romney ran in his native Utah.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, another Conservative, also rebuked Romney, saying: “London is as ready as any city has ever been in the history of the Olympic Games.”
Romney’s second gaffe was in not knowing the name of Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband, with whom he also met.
His third strike came when he said publicly that he had also met with the head of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, Sir John Sawers. The practice is that foreign leaders are not to announce that.
Syrian government forces have continued to battle opposition fighters across the country, including in Syria’s major cities. The violence has focused on the power centers of Aleppo, Damascus and Homs. The government appears to be using heavy artillery.
Before Romney arrived, an unnamed Romney advisor told the conservative London Daily Telegraph that Romney will be better in dealing with Britain because, unlike Obama, “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the advisor said of Romney. “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in San Diego and Northern California.
Brown appeared early this morning in Alpine, a San Diego County community, to dedicate the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, which will now begin transmitting power from renewable energy resources — solar and wind — in inland Southern California into the grid.
It will carry more than 1000 megawatts of power from solar and wind farms in the Imperial Valley to San Diego. This is especially key with the San Onofre nuclear power plant, which has been offline for months due to problems with corroded pipes, continuing to be offline during peak energy usage in the summer.
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who started the Sunrise project during his administration and shepherded it through much of the regulatory and developmental thicket of things, joined Brown for the dedication ceremony.
The two governors were themselves joined by federal, local, and business officials, including members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and California Public Utility Commission and the head of San Diego Gas & Electric.
As attorney general, Brown worked with Schwarzenegger in moving the project forward.
** 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 $89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $55 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $25 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.
Conservative Republican challenger Mitt Romney keeps saying that President Barack Obama said he doesn’t think entrepreneurs built their businesses. That’s not at all what Obama said. But the facts aren’t stopping the Romney campaign. (Just as they didn’t stop the campaign of Romney protege Meg Whitman in her run against Governor Jerry Brown.)
** QUICK HITS.Three presidential debates are now set for the fall, along with one vice presidential debate. … October 3rd at the University of Denver in Colorado, focusing on domestic policy, with a standard moderator Q&A format. October 16th at Hofstra University, which is on Long Island in New York, on domestic and geopolitical issues, in town hall format. And October 22nd at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, focusing on geopolitical issues, with standard moderator format. … The vice presidential debate will be October 11th at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, on domestic and geopolitical issues, with standard moderator format. … The U.S. Senate today passed Obama’s plan to extend current tax cuts for all income up to $250,000, on a vote of 51 to 48. The House, holding out for extending tax cuts for all levels of income, will not do so. But that should stop a lot of talk that Democratic senators wouldn’t pass the bill. … Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s empire was rocked again today with no fewer than eight of his current and former editors and reporters formally charged today in the UK hacking scandal. They include Andy Coulson, former communications chief for British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative Party, and Rebekkah Brooks, former head of News International, the Murdoch newspaper empire in the UK, dubbed Murdoch’s de facto daughter and a close friend of Cameron.
** NEW SURVEY: WARNING SIGN FOR OBAMA. A new Gallup Poll survey has some sobering news for President Barack Obama.
While he is either ahead of or even with conservative Republican opponent Mitt Romney in all credible polls, and is doing well in most of the swing states, he has what could be a serious problem.
Democratic enthusiasm for voting is considerably less than that of Republican enthusiasm.
This number has bounced around at times, and Republican enthusiasm may turn out to be a problem for them, too, founded as I suspect it is on enthusiasm for Romney’s hard right policies, but it presently shows a big enthusiasm gap between the two parties.
Maybe there is something to running a campaign with some vision and narrative to it, unlike the Obama campaign’s current approach of mostly tactical positioning and attacks. You never know, right?
Democrats are significantly less likely now (39%) than they were in the summers of 2004 and 2008 to say they are “more enthusiastic about voting than usual” in the coming presidential election. Republicans are more enthusiastic now than in 2008, and the same as in 2004. …
These results are based on a July 19-22 USA Today/Gallup poll. They suggest a shift in Republicans’ and Democrats’ orientation to voting in the coming presidential election compared with the last two, with Republicans expressing more voting enthusiasm. The current 51% to 39% Republican advantage in voter enthusiasm is slightly larger than the 53% to 45% GOP advantage Gallup measured in February of this year. …
Don’t look now, but while all these other crises are taking place, new satellite images have revealed that almost all of Greenland’s surface ice has suddenly started melting. There is an awful lot of ice up there. It’s unclear how deep the melt will go.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in the State of Washington, Louisiana, and Washington, DC.
Wrapping up his Western campaign swing, Obama flew this morning on Air Force One from Seattle to New Orleans, Louisiana.
At 1:25 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in New Orleans.
At 1:50 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at a private residence in New Orleans.
At 3:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the House of Blues in New Orleans.
At 5 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks the National Urban League convention in New Orleans.
At 6:25 PM Pacific, Obama departs New Orleans on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews.
At 8:40 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 8:55 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** CHINA MOVES SWIFTLY ON NEW “CITY” ENCOMPASSING SOUTH CHINA SEA, GULF CRISIS SIMMERS.While the Gulf crisis simmers with the defection of the centrist Kadima party from the short-lived Israeli unity government and Israeli leaders saying last week’s murder of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria is just the latest example of global Iranian terrorism, events accelerated in the South China Sea crisis.
The People’s Republic of China, which claims almost the entire sea as it territorial waters, is accelerating its attempt to create a fait accompli. Last month it declared hundreds of islands all around the sea to be a city called Sansha.
Over the past few days, the PRC announced winners of an election to the brand-new Sansha People’s Municipal Congress — its 45 members represent 1100 people spread across hundreds of islands — and announced that a military garrison will be dispatched to the islands to protect the new government.
Of course, by claiming the tiny islands, which have little if any indigenous population, as part of China, the PRC also claims the nearly 800,000 square miles of the strategic South China Sea — through which much of the world’s shipping passes and which holds large oil, natural gas, and mineral reserves and vast quantities of sealife — that it uneasily shares with several other nations.
Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei have some claims on parts of the South China Sea, which runs practically from Taiwan and Hong Kong down to Singapore and Indonesia, which stake no particular claims but rely on unfettered access, as do most major nations including India, which seeks energy projects there. But it is Vietnam and the Philippines which are most immediately outraged by China’s increasingly aggressive moves.
Each claims islands close to it, which the PRC insists belong to it. And each has engaged in tense naval and military stand-offs with China.
Vietnam, of course, fought a short-lived land war with the PRC in the wake of Hanoi’s defeat of the US in the Vietnam War. And Vietnam and China have engaged in some fierce fighting in the South China Sea, with nearly a hundred Vietnamese killed.
The Philippines, which fought valiantly against Imperial Japan in World War II before being conquered and during the occupation, have less of a martial tradition than the Vietnamese but aren’t backing down, either. Indeed, in his state of the nation address Monday in Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III — whose reformer father was assassinated by backers of longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos just after returning from exile in 1983 — refused to budge in opposition to PRC claims to islands off the Philippine coast and announced plans to upgrade the Philippine military, which is a small fraction the size of China’s, including a navy with a collection of Coast Guard cutter type vessels and no submarines, and a tiny air force of sub-sonic aircraft easily splashable by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (the world’s third largest, after those of the US and Russia).
The US is pushing multilateral negotiation to settle the welter of conflicting and frequently obscure claims that China and its neighbors have in the South China Sea. The PRC, which is much larger than any of its neighbors, prefers to deal with each one at a time, a process in which the correlation of forces will always advantage the PRC, which has accelerated its military spending over the past decade.
As I discussed here on the Huffington Post in “Crises Chaotic and Bubbling: The Gulf and the South China Sea,” China’s longtime ally Cambodia, which held the host chair, effectively blocked the Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) from issuing a summit communique for the first time in 45 years because it would have contained references to the conflicting claims in the South China Sea.
The South China Sea and the Gulf are two ends of the big geopolitical pivot which the US is undertaking — going from over-engagement with the Islamic world of the Middle East and Central Asia to increased engagement with the very broadly define Asia Pacific region — but not the only two.
The geopolitical pivot is a great big ongoing story that will help define the future of America and the future of the world. And it’s really not being done properly, since it’s largely ignored, or seen only in a momentary and compartmentalized view. …
The mayor of Anaheim, California says federal officials have agreed to review two deadly police shootings after a fourth day of violent protests in the home of Disneyland, the happiest place in the world. Governor Jerry Brown hasn’t commented on the controversy.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
Brown joined U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Assistant NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) Administrator Eric Schwab this morning at the Natural Resources Agency Building in Sacramento to unveil the proposed path forward for the Sacramento River Delta protection and and state water transfers.
Brown proposed a peripheral canal in 1982, which was passed by the legislature and turned down by voters in a referendum campaign two months before he left office.
This plan is similar, yet quite different. Two large pipes would be used to move water from the Sacramento River, California’s largest, to the agricultural fields in the Central Valley, emerging Central Valley population centers, and of course to the mass populations in Southern California.
Some environmental critics worry that the North will be sucked draw through these “straws.” Brown promises that won’t happen, and says also that much will be done to protect the Sacramento Delta, which I’ve boated through in my Navy days and beyond.
This time, water users will pay for the conveyance system.
** 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 $89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $55 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $25 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.
Speaking this morning at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada, where he was to lay out his geopolitical vision, Mitt Romney — who sat out the Vietnam War, which he vociferously supported, as a Mormon missionary in France — claimed today that President Barack Obama leaked for political gain classified details of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and of covert actions in Iran.
** QUICK HITS.Governor Jerry Brown joins U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Assistant NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) Administrator Eric Schwab — apparently Dirk Pitt was unavailable — Wednesday morning in Sacramento to unveil the proposed path forward for the Sacramento River Delta protection and and state water transfers. Brown proposed a peripheral canal in 1982, which was passed by the legislature and turned down by voters. … Vice President Joe Biden put out a strong and detailed rebuttal to Mitt Romney’s substantively shallow and ultra-hawkish geopolitical vision speech today in Reno, Nevada. He noted, among other things, that Romney opposed the policy which resulted in the take-down of Osama bin Laden.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … CHINA MOVES SWIFTLY ON NEW “CITY” ENCOMPASSING SOUTH CHINA SEA, GULF CRISIS SIMMERS and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** MITT ROMNEY’S GEOPOLITICAL VISION SPEECH (FULL PREPARED TEXT FROM TODAY’S ADDRESS TO THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS IN RENO, NEVADA):
My quick comment. Romney’s “vision” speech is heavy on attacks and light on substance. It is not a coherent strategic point of view. So much for the vision thing.
Thank you. Commander Richard DeNoyer, I appreciate the introduction, and I’m proud to see a combat veteran from Massachusetts serving as National Commander of the VFW.
Ladies Auxiliary President Gwen Rankin, incoming National Commander John Hamilton, incoming Ladies Auxiliary President Leanne Lemley, Adjutant General Allen “Gunner” Kent, Executive Director Bob Wallace, distinguished guests and members of the VFW: Thank you for your generous welcome.
I want to start today with a few words about the unimaginable tragedy in Colorado last week. We’ve since learned that among the victims were four people who had served – or were serving – our country in uniform. Today, our hearts go out to the families of John Larimer of the U.S. Navy; Rebecca Wingo, an Air Force veteran; Jesse Childress, an Army veteran and member of the Air Force reserve; and Jonathan Blunk, a Navy veteran who died shielding his girlfriend from the spray of bullets. The loss of four Americans who served our country only adds to the profound tragedy of that day. All Americans are grateful for their service and deeply saddened by their deaths. We mourn them and we will remember them.
The VFW is now over two million strong. It has a special place in America’s heart. Some of you fought recently, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Others are old enough to have marched, flown, or sailed by orders of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Whatever your age, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, whenever you served – there’s one thing you have in common: You answered the call of your country in a time of war. From December 7 th , 1941 to September 11, 2001, whenever America has been tested, you stepped forward. You come from our farms, our great cities, our small towns and quiet neighborhoods. Many of you have known violence so that your neighbors could only know peace. You have done more than protect America; your courage and service defines America. You are America at our best and it is an honor to address you.
Our veterans are part of a proud tradition that stretches back to the battlefields at Lexington and Concord – and now to places like Fallujah and Kandahar. Year after year, our men and women in uniform have added proud achievements to their record of service. And President Obama pointed to some of them yesterday in his speech.
Any time our military accomplishes a vital mission it is a proud moment for our nation. But we owe our veterans and our military more than just an accounting of our successes. They deserve a fair and frank assessment of the whole picture – of where we are and where we want to be. And when it comes to national security and foreign policy, as with our economy, the last few years have been a time of declining influence and missed opportunity.
Just consider some of the challenges I discussed at your last national convention:
Since then, has the American economy recovered?
Has our ability to shape world events been enhanced, or diminished?
Have we gained greater confidence among our allies, and greater respect from our adversaries?
And, perhaps most importantly, has the most severe security threat facing America and our friends, a nuclear-armed Iran, become more or less likely?
These clear measures are the ultimate tests of American leadership. And, by these standards, we haven’t seen much in the President’s first term that inspires confidence in a second.
The President’s policies have made it harder to recover from the deepest recession in seventy years … exposed the military to cuts that no one can justify … compromised our national-security secrets … and in dealings with other nations, given trust where it is not earned, insult where it is not deserved, and apology where it is not due.
From Berlin to Cairo to the United Nations, President Obama has shared his view of America and its place among nations. I have come here today to share mine.
I am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of this country. I am not ashamed of American power. I take pride that throughout history our power has brought justice where there was tyranny, peace where there was conflict, and hope where there was affliction and despair. I do not view America as just one more point on the strategic map, one more power to be balanced. I believe our country is the greatest force for good the world has ever known, and that our influence is needed as much now as ever. And I am guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion: This century must be an American Century.
In 1941, Henry Luce called on his countrymen –just then realizing their strength – “to create the first great American century.” And they succeeded: together with their allies, they won World War II, they rescued Europe, they defeated Communism, and America took its place as leader of the free world. Across the globe, they fought, they bled, they led. They showed the world the extraordinary courage of the American heart and the generosity of the American spirit.
That courage and generosity remains unchanged today. But sadly, this president has diminished American leadership, and we are reaping the consequences. The world is dangerous, destructive, chaotic. And the two men running to be your commander-in-chief must offer their answers to the challenges we face.
Like a watchman in the night, we must remain at our post – and keep guard of the freedom that defines and ennobles us, and our friends. In an American Century, we have the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, we secure peace through our strength. And if by absolute necessity we must employ it, we must wield our strength with resolve. In an American Century, we lead the free world and the free world leads the entire world.
If we do not have the strength or vision to lead, then other powers will take our place, pulling history in a very different direction. A just and peaceful world depends on a strong and confident America. I pledge to you that if I become commander-in-chief, the United States of America will fulfill its duty, and its destiny.
American leadership depends, as it always has, on our economic strength, on our military strength, and on our moral strength. If any of these falter, no skill of diplomacy or presidential oratory can compensate. Today, the strength of our economy is in jeopardy.
A healthy American economy is what underwrites American power. When growth is missing, government revenue falls, social spending rises, and many in Washington look to cut defense spending as an easy out. That includes our current President.
Today, we are just months away from an arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would saddle the military with a trillion dollars in cuts, severely shrink our force structure, and impair our ability to meet and deter threats. Don’t bother trying to find a serious military rationale behind any of this, unless that rationale is wishful thinking. Strategy is not driving President Obama’s massive defense cuts. In fact, his own Secretary of Defense warned that these reductions would be “devastating.” And he is right.
That devastation starts at home. These cuts would only weaken an already stretched VA system and impair our solemn commitment that every veteran receives care second to none. I will not allow that to happen.
This is not the time for the President’s radical cuts in the military. Look around the globe. Other major powers are rapidly adding to their military capabilities, some with intentions very different from ours. The regime in Tehran is drawing closer to developing a nuclear weapon. The threat of radical Islamic terrorism persists. The threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation is ever-present. And we are still at war and still have uniformed men and women in conflict.
All this and more is ongoing in the world. And yet the President has chosen this moment for wholesale reductions in the nation’s military capacity. When the biggest announcement in his last State of the Union address on improving our military was that the Pentagon will start using more clean energy – then you know it’s time for a change.
We’re not the first people to observe this. It is reported that Bob Gates, the President’s first secretary of defense, bluntly addressed another security problem within this administration. After secret operational details of the bin Laden raid were given to reporters, Secretary Gates walked into the West Wing and told the Obama team to “shut up.” He added a colorful word for emphasis.
Lives of American servicemen and women are at stake. But astonishingly, the administration failed to change its ways. More top-secret operations were leaked, even some involving covert action in Iran.
This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a national security crisis. And yesterday, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, quote, “I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks.”
This conduct is contemptible. It betrays our national interest. It compromises our men and women in the field. And it demands a full and prompt investigation by a special counsel, with explanation and consequence. Obama appointees, who are accountable to President Obama’s Attorney General, should not be responsible for investigating the leaks coming from the Obama White House.
Whoever provided classified information to the media, seeking political advantage for the administration, must be exposed, dismissed, and punished. The time for stonewalling is over.
It is not enough to say the matter is being looked into, and leave it at that. When the issue is the political use of highly sensitive national security information, it is unacceptable to say, “We’ll report our findings after Election Day.”
Exactly who in the White House betrayed these secrets? Did a superior authorize it? These are things that Americans are entitled to know – and they are entitled to know right now. If the President believes – as he said last week – that the buck stops with him, then he owes all Americans a full and prompt accounting of the facts.
And let me make this very clear: These events make the decision we face in November all the more important. What kind of White House would reveal classified material for political gain? I’ll tell you right now: Mine won’t.
The harm done when national security secrets are betrayed extends, of course, to the trust that allies place in the United States.
The operating principle of American foreign policy has been to work with our allies so that we can deter aggression before it breaks out into open conflict. That policy depends on nurturing our alliances and standing up for our common values.
Yet the President has moved in the opposite direction.
It began with the sudden abandonment of friends in Poland and the Czech Republic. They had courageously agreed to provide sites for our anti-missile systems, only to be told, at the last hour, that the agreement was off. As part of the so-called reset in policy, missile defenses were sacrificed as a unilateral concession to the Russian government.
If that gesture was designed to inspire good will from Russia, it clearly missed the mark. The Russian government defended the dictator in Damascus, arming him as he slaughtered the Syrian people.
We can only guess what Vladimir Putin makes of the Obama administration. He regained the Russian presidency in a corrupt election, and for that, he got a congratulatory call from the Oval Office. And then there was that exchange picked up by a microphone that President Obama didn’t know was on. We heard him asking Dmitry Medvedev to tell Mr. Putin to give him “space.” “This is my last election,” President Obama said, and “After my election I’ll have more flexibility.”
Why is flexibility with Russian leaders more important than transparency to the American people?
President Obama had a moment of candor, however, just the other day. He said that the actions of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez have not had a serious national security impact on us. In my view, inviting Hezbollah into our hemisphere is severe, serious, and a threat.
But at least he was consistent. After all, this is the president who faltered when the Iranian people were looking for support in their struggle against the ayatollahs. That uprising was treated as an inconvenient problem for the President’s policy of engagement, instead of as a moral and strategic opportunity. That terrible misjudgment should never be repeated. When unarmed women and men in Tehran find the courage to confront their oppressors, at risk of torture and death, they should hear the unequivocal voice of an American president affirming their right to be free.
I will leave Reno this evening on a trip abroad that will take me to England, Poland, and Israel. And since I wouldn’t venture into another country to question American foreign policy, I will tell you right here – before I leave – what I think of this administration’s shabby treatment of one of our finest friends.
President Obama is fond of lecturing Israel’s leaders. He was even caught by a microphone deriding them. He has undermined their position, which was tough enough as it was. And even at the United Nations, to the enthusiastic applause of Israel’s enemies, he spoke as if our closest ally in the Middle East was the problem.
The people of Israel deserve better than what they have received from the leader of the free world. And the chorus of accusations, threats, and insults at the United Nations should never again include the voice of the President of the United States.
There are values, causes, and nations that depend on American strength, on the clarity of our purpose, and on the reliability of our commitments. There is work in this world that only America and our allies can do, hostile powers that only we can deter, and challenges that only we can overcome.
For the past decade, among those challenges has been the war in Afghanistan. As commander-in-chief, I will have a solemn duty to our men and women in uniform. A president owes our troops, their families, and the American people a clear explanation of our mission, and a commitment not to play politics with the decisions of war.
I have been critical of the President’s decision to withdraw the surge troops during the fighting season, against the advice of the commanders on the ground. President Obama would have you believe that anyone who disagrees with his decisions is arguing for endless war. But the route to more war – and to potential attacks here at home – is a politically timed retreat.
As president, my goal in Afghanistan will be to complete a successful transition to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014. I will evaluate conditions on the ground and solicit the best advice of our military commanders. And I will affirm that my duty is not to my political prospects, but to the security of the nation.
We face another continuing challenge in a rising China. China is attentive to the interests of its government – but it too often disregards the rights of its people. It is selective in the freedoms it allows; and, as with its one-child policy, it can be ruthless in crushing the freedoms it denies. In conducting trade with America, it permits flagrant patent and copyright violations … forestalls American businesses from competing in its market … and manipulates its currency to obtain unfair advantage. It is in our mutual interest for China to be a partner for a stable and secure world, and we welcome its participation in trade. But the cheating must finally be brought to a stop. President Obama hasn’t done it and won’t do it. I will.
We’ll need that same clarity of purpose and resolve in the Middle East. America cannot be neutral in the outcome there. We must clearly stand for the values of representative government, economic opportunity, and human rights. And we must stand against the extension of Iranian or jihadist influence.
Egypt is at the center of this historical drama. In many ways, it has the power to tip the balance in the Arab world toward freedom and modernity. As president, I will not only direct the billions in assistance we give to Egypt toward that goal, but I will also work with partner nations to place conditions on their assistance as well. Unifying our collective influence behind a common purpose will foster the development of a government that represents all Egyptians, maintains peace with Israel, and promotes peace throughout the region. The United States is willing to help Egypt support peace and prosperity, but we will not be complicit in oppression and instability.
There is no greater danger in the world today than the prospect of the ayatollahs in Tehran possessing nuclear weapons capability. Yet for all the talks and conferences, all of the extensions and assurances, can anyone say we are farther from this danger now than four years ago?
The same ayatollahs who each year mark a holiday by leading chants of “Death to America” are not going to be talked out of their pursuit of nuclear weapons. What’s needed is all the firmness, clarity, and moral courage that we and our allies can gather. Sanctions must be enforced without exception, cutting off the regime’s sources of wealth. Negotiations must secure full and unhindered access for inspections. As it is, the Iranian regime claims the right to enrich nuclear material for supposedly peaceful purposes. This claim is discredited by years of deception. A clear line must be drawn: There must be a full suspension of any enrichment, period.
And at every turn, Iran must know that the United States and our allies stand as one in these critical objectives. Only in this way can we successfully counter the catastrophic threat that Iran presents. I pledge to you and to all Americans that if I become commander-in-chief, I will use every means necessary to protect ourselves and the region, and to prevent the worst from happening while there is still time.
It is a mistake – and sometimes a tragic one – to think that firmness in American foreign policy can bring only tension or conflict. The surest path to danger is always weakness and indecision. In the end, it is resolve that moves events in our direction, and strength that keeps the peace.
I will not surrender America’s leadership in the world. We must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose, and resolve in our might.
This is very simple: if you do not want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I am not your President. You have that President today.
The 21 st century can and must be an American Century. It began with terror, war, and economic calamity. It is our duty to steer it onto the path of freedom, peace, and prosperity.
Fewer members of the Greatest Generation are with us today – and they can’t hold the torch as high as they have in the past. We must now seize the torch they carried so gallantly and at such sacrifice. It is an eternal torch of decency, freedom and hope. It is not America’s torch alone. But it is America’s duty – and honor – to hold it high enough so that all the world can see its light.
Believe in America.
Thank you and God Bless the United States of America.
Speaker of the House John Boehner made clear Tuesday morning that the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado will not be used to push new gun legislation.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … CHINA MOVES SWIFTLY ON NEW “CITY” ENCOMPASSING SOUTH CHINA SEA, GULF CRISIS PERCOLATES and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in California, Oregon, and the State of Washington.
Obama departed San Francisco this morning on Air Force One and flew to Portland, Oregon.
At 11:40 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Portland, Oregon.
At 1:50 PM Pacific, he attends a campaign event at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
At 5:05 PM Pacific, Obama departs Portland on Air Force One en route to Seattle, Washington.
At 5:50 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Seattle.
At 6:15 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at a private residence in Hunts Point, Washington.
At 8:15 PM Pacific, he delivers remarks at a campaign event at a private residence in Hunts Point.
Obama spends the rest of the night in Seattle.
Conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was to have unveiled his geopolitical vision this morning in a speech to the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada, where Obama spoke yesterday.
From there, Romney jumps off to a week-long international tour of Britain, Israel, and Poland.
More to follow on all the Romney stuff.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen 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.
Brown yesterday used his executive authority under economic development legislation he sponsored last year to help clear the path for Apple’s new “spaceship” campus in Silicon Valley.
Steve Jobs was a member of Brown’s California Commission on Industrial Innovation the first time that Brown was governor.
Jobs also served on Brown’s National Commission on Industrial Innovation after Brown left the governorship. I was an advisor to the NCII as assistant to Regis McKenna, the Silicon Valley marketing/PR guru who served as the commission’s president. Brown was the chairman.
Apropos of all this, Brown just signed a bill by state Assemblywoman Alyson Huber reviving the California Commission on Industrial Innovation.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The Olympic Games in London are about to get an early start with soccer, what the rest of the world calls football, getting underway two days before Friday’s opening ceremony.
** 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 $89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $55 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $25 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 latest evidence that Iraq is not cured. Coordinated attacks in a dozen Iraqi towns killed more than 100 people, making Monday the deadliest in the country so far this year.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in California and Nevada.
On very short notice, Obama dramatically altered his weekend schedule and flew on Sunday to Colorado to honor the victims of the horrific mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
He then flew to San Francisco.
At 8:25 AM Pacific, Obama departs San Francisco, California on Air Force One en route Reno, Nevada.
At 9:10 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Reno, Nevada.
At 9:35 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the 113th National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Reno Sparks Convention Center.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama departs Reno, Nevada en on Air Force One route Oakland, California.
At 11:50 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Oakland.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the he Scottish Rite Center in Oakland.
At 2:35 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at a private residence in Oakland.
At 4:55 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Fox Theatre in Oakland.
Obama will spend the rest of the night in San Francisco.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH.”
“You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little … push.”
-The Joker
The Dark Knight, 2008
Make no mistake. I like The Dark Knight Rises, which I saw in a midnight screening in California as horrific events were unfolding in Colorado, very much. And I do not believe that movies force people to be crazy, or even that movies are the principal source of violent images in the culture. There’s too much real news for that. But even a movie can become a focal point for irrationality and rage, and a telling index of the culture.
Just before the unconscionable shootings during the first public showing of The Dark Knight Rises, not far from the site of the Columbine massacre of 1999, something ominous took place around the launch of this excellent film. Movie critics who dared to give it bad reviews received unprecedented amounts of vitriol from commenters on the popular Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator site, including death threats. For the first time, the site shut down the comments section.
That none of these furious folks had actually seen the movie before they clicked publish on their viciousness mattered not a bit. In an us vs. them world, the world of politics and media in America today, of instantaneous judgments of complex matters and casual boorishness in debate, they were chomping at the bit to lash out.
As to what precisely motivated the evident shooter in Colorado, that remains to be seen. But he was clearly very angry, had no respect for others, and lashed out in the most shocking manner possible.
This is a culture with too much anger, too little reflection, and too many guns.
About the guns. Many are saying it’s time to get rid of guns. That might be a better world, but it’s not going to happen. Pretending it might does no good.
But that doesn’t mean that assault rifles have to be tolerated. There is simply no good reason why assault rifles have to be available.
The Colorado shooter entered that movie theater carrying an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols, with the assault rifle his primary weapon.
His AR-15 is the civilian version of the M16, in one form or another the principal rifle of the U.S. Armed Forces since the Vietnam War. I know this weapon. I earned the Navy expert rifleman medal (the actual non-PC name of the award) shooting the M16.
The AR-15, which is what the rifle was called before it was bought by the U.S. military, and the M16 are essentially the same weapon. With one difference. Only the M16 can fire automatically, in what most people think of, without getting into the technical weeds, as machine gun mode. (Though the AR-15 can be converted to full auto, and you can look that up on the ever helpful Internet.)
But even if is “only” semi-automatic, the AR-15 can deliver a devastating stream of rapid fire rounds, and much more accurately than the popular AK 47, which has far more recoil. I’m a gun owner, but I can’t imagine why anyone would need one outside a combat zone. A real one, that is, not one in some very misguided or deranged person’s head.
There’s certainly no true sport in hunting with one. For a good shot, it’s much too easy.
So what happens next?
If the past is any guide, not much. We’ll learn a lot more than we really want to know about the accused shooter, a UC Riverside grad who was a doctoral student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado.
The media will obsess and kvetch, as it has done with every sensational crime since the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, when it found the formula, and people will talk and talk.
Will there be new limits on assault rifles? I’d like to think so. But the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, and no attempt to reinstate it has so much as reached the floor of Congress.
There is an assault weapons ban in California, and specifically on the AR-15, but there seem to be some ways around it.
Even last year’s near assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords led to nothing.
Hopefully, this time around will be different.
As for this being a culture of too much anger and too little reflection, well, I had thought the vitriol peaked in the reaction against the rise of Barack Obama. In 2008.
That proved to be, er, overly optimistic.
But I suspect there will be fewer online calls for the outright deaths of movie critics.
Oh, and The Dark Knight Rises? It’s a fascinating and provocative film, which I’ll discuss very fully in a forthcoming essay.
It shattered The Avengers’ box office record for opening midnight screenings but its performance does seem to be affected by the tragedy surrounding it. Still, it will flourish. The film is just too intriguing for it not to. …
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – MONDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
However, I do expect Brown to be on hand tonight at President Obama’s fundraiser at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
Brown had the Fox Theater, a landmark in disarray when he became mayor of Oakland, thoroughly renovated.
It is now the home of one of Brown’s charter schools, the Oakland School for the Arts.
It was also the site of his 2010 victory party.
Brown is also going through a raft of legislation, as well as dealing with the unexpected $54 million in two special funds generated by user fees of the state Parks and Recreation Department. Neither is part of the state’s general fund.
The top two officials in the department are now out, and there are red faces all around.
It’s interesting to note, however, that less than half of that money could be readily used to prevent the closure of parks, since most of it is in an account having nothing to do with parks.
So the funds wouldn’t have gone all that far in keeping parks open over the past few years.
And the larger issue of the parks, which have a billion dollar-plus of unfunded needed improvements, is not addressed at all by the hidden funds.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the tragedy in Colorado, its victims, and those who survived them and are struggling to recover.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH” and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events on the weekend.
Obama and conservative Republican opponent Mitt Romney both suspended their active campaigning in the wake of the horrific shootings very early Friday morning in Aurora, Colorado.
Both Obama and Romney have very active and expansive weeks coming up.
Romney embarks on an international tour which will take him to Britain, Israel, and Poland.
He kicks things off on Tuesday in an address at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. There he will lay out his geopolitical vision.
Following the Reno speech, Romney heads to London. He will spend a few days in the UK, raising money and holding meetings with British leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband.
Romney will also attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London, which are on July 27th, as well as some of the early sporting events.
From there, Romney goes to Israel, where he will meet with his old business colleague, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and other members of the country’s conservative government. He will also meet with leaders of the Palestinian Authority.
After Israel, Romney moves on to Warsaw, where he wraps up his trip meeting with Polish leaders. Poland is the least pro-Obama country in Europe, and its leaders are perturbed about his “re-set” policy with Russia and his backing away from basing the controversial missile shield project — ostensibly aimed at Iran — in Poland.
Romney will deliver major addresses in Jerusalem and Warsaw.
For his part, Obama will have a very active campaign week, focusing mainly on the West.
He will have the customary plenty of time and flexibility in his schedule to manage geopolitical crises.
On Monday, Obama will travel to Reno, Nevada to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention and to hold campaign events.
Obama will then travel to Oakland, California for campaign events. Obama will remain overnight in San Francisco.
On Tuesday, Obama will travel to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington for campaign events. He will remain overnight in Seattle.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana for campaign events and to deliver remarks at the National Urban League conference. Obama will return to the White House that evening.
On Thursday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Friday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House and campaign events in Washington, DC and McLean, Virginia.
The attack which resulted in the killing of Assad’s crucial advisors and operators spurred the Syrian rebels’ wave of momentum across the country. But Assad regime forces are counter-attacking.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – THIS WEEKEND. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events this weekend.
Brown has a significant problem on his hands in the revelation that the state Parks and Recreation Department has been hoarding funds for many years.
The amount, some $54 million, kept in special funds separate from the state’s general fund and generated from user fees, is not a significant amount in terms of solving the chronic budget crisis. Though it will undoubtedly be spun up as such by Brown opponents who thrive on public ignorance about the budget and seek to throw the state into chaos by defeating his November revenue initiative.
The deeper problem is that Brown, like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger before, has proposed to shut down many state parks due to the budget crisis.
In addition to being a way to share the burden of rugged fiscal times, this was also an important and highly visible political signal bringing home the reality of the budget crisis.
But the hidden funds, which became apparent over the last several months as a new appointee in the department looked into things, while not significant in overall terms, were enough to prevent park closures.
So those Californians devoted to the parks, who saved many of them from closure by private fundraising activities, aren’t going to be very happy about this revelation.
If you’re holding a bake sale to help keep a nice park open, and the state parks department is sitting on more than enough funds to make that unnecessary, it does not engender happy feelings.
How did this remain unknown for so long?
The appointees who ran the parks department, including now departed director Ruth Coleman, who became chief deputy director under Governor Gray Davis and state parks director under Schwarzenegger, say they didn’t know about it.
Which is certainly not impossible.
But the state controller’s office says it did know about it, and included the funds in their annual accounting of assets.
Which raises two questions. First, why didn’t the state finance department take note of this in preparing budget proposals.
Second, why didn’t the state controller’s office aggressively bring this fact to the attention of the state finance department, not to mention leaders of the parks department, the governor’s office, legislative budget committees, and so on.
The media also fell down here.
While the state’s press corps is much diminished, with little institutional memory and much faulty recall among what does exist, there are reporters detailed to cover the state budget. Yet no one compared and contrasted among the state controller and finance department numbers.
Even though cuts to the state parks system were very controversial and high-profile stories for the last several years.
Of course, this is a press corps which largely acted as though it had no idea that the state’s budget shortfall had expanded, even though Brown and other officials made regular reports about revenue shortfalls and other budget problems. All one needed to do was add them up and there was no surprise in the least to be found in Brown’s May budget revise.
** 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 $91.83 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.
Security is on the minds of some movie-goers in California in the wake of last night’s horrifying shootings at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Arapahoe County, Colorado, the same county in which the infamous Columbine shootings occurred. This accused shooter is a graduate of the University of California at Riverside and was enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Colorado Medical School.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH” and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** JERRY-RIGGING: GOOD JOBS REPORT, BAD PARKS DEPARTMENT. Governor Jerry Brown got some mixed news today.
First, he had to get rid of the top two officials at the California Parks & Recreation Department after two things emerged: A scheme for a secret vacation buy-out program, which cost a few hundred thousand dollars, and a secret surplus of some $54 million even as parks were closing.
So state parks director Ruth Coleman, who has served since 2003 after becoming chief deputy director in 2002, has resigned, and the department’s number two official, Michael Harris, was fired.
California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said today that the department had under-reported its funds for the past dozen years.
In better news, California economy expert Steve Levy reports that the state added over 38,000 jobs in June and about 46,000 jobs in May, for half the national job growth in the past two months.
“The state’s unemployment rate is down to a still very high 10.7%, third highest in the nation,” reports Levy. “And the number of unemployed Californians fell below 2 million for the second month in a row.
“This two month surge takes place in a national and world economy under tremendous strain from the European recessions, slowing consumer spending and the upcoming fiscal tightening (fiscal cliff) still scheduled for January 1 next year.
“On the other hand the idea that California is a lagging economy being passed by in comparison to other states can now, hopefully, be put to rest. Tech, trade, tourism, a strong agricultural sector and the stirrings of a construction recovery give hope for the near and long term future. This week’s successful IPOs provide another hopeful sign on what will still be a long recovery to regain pre-recession job and unemployment levels.”
President Barack Obama says the horrific movie theater shooting in Colorado that left 12 people dead and nearly 60 wounded is a reminder that life is fragile. He says the event “reminds us of all the ways that we are united as one American family.”
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE DARK KNIGHT SHOOTINGS: “ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE PUSH” and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Florida and Washington.
Obama canceled a second day of campaigning in Florida in the wake of the horrifying shootings at this morning’s midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. The film shattered the previous box office record for opening midnight screenings, with more than $30 million across the US to The Avengers‘ $18 million.
Obama did speak at a scheduled campaign rally early this morning in Fort Myers, Florida, calling for a day of reflection and mourning.
Conservative Republican challenger Mitt Romney also pulled back from his campaign schedule today.
And both sides pulled their ads in Colorado, a key swing state where Obama currently has an edge.
It’s unclear when the ads will begin again.
With China and Russia issuing twin vetoes yesterday of the latest UN Security Council resolution on Syria, it’s unclear what if anything the US and its European and Arab allies have in store to rescue the situation from a very dark denouement.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY.I have to confess that I find Mitt Romney pretty boring. He’s a pleasant enough fellow to meet, certainly on the surface, but he doesn’t have much of interest to say, except when he puts his foot in his mouth. But the real reason he bores me is that he is so much like his former Bain protege, Meg Whitman, whom I grew thoroughly tired of during the 2010 California gubernatorial race.
That they should be alike is hardly a surprise, since her candidacy was his idea, as they eagerly acknowledged and I reported here in “The Mitt & Meg Show: ‘Taking Care of Business’” on the Huffington Post back in March 2010, when Romney appeared with Whitman on his birthday.
Whitman, of course, ran the biggest-spending non-presidential campaign in American history, spending some $180 million, mostly hers, in a campaign that wowed most of the media with its money, endless tactical gambits and techniques, and panoply of big name, big money consultants. Only to be blown away, 54% to 41%, in a Jerry Brown landslide even as Republicans were taking the U.S. House of Representatives.
Romney and Whitman are basically two peas from the same pod: Bland, entitled, attacking, possessed of no clear beliefs other than enrichment through financialized capitalism. No wonder they have so much in common as political figures.
Let’s count the ways.
* Sheer Opaqueness
Whitman wouldn’t reveal much about her finances. Her Republican primary opponent, then California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, himself a super-rich former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, challenged her to match him releasing tax records. She wouldn’t do it, with her spinners arguing privately that she was the frontrunner and didn’t have to. She wouldn’t do it in the general election, either, where I never felt she was the favorite, though quite a few others did, and where she never had a real lead.
Romney, as is glaringly obvious every day, also won’t reveal much about his finances.
The problem for candidates like this is that this is their calling card. Without it, they aren’t contenders.
It’s not like they have compelling ideas or intriguing personalities.
* The Same Program
Whitman ran on Romneynomics, a program of big tax cuts for the rich and corporations. She claimed that eliminating the capital gains tax and instituting another round of tax cuts for corporations — the state just granted big corporate tax cuts last year as part of its barely cobbled together budget deal — would create millions of new jobs and actually decrease the state budget deficit. What those cuts would actually have done is cost the state billions in revenue, adding to an already yawning budget gap.
And, like Romney, she filled out her big business wish list of an agenda with attacks on regulations. In her case, she called for an end to all new regulations.
* The Problem With the Positive and the Accent on the Negative
Each has evidenced a problem with the positive in campaigning. Whitman struggled trying to launch her campaign advertising. In fact, her campaign tried 22 introductory TV spots on focus groups and none of them worked.
Little surprise then that her campaign came to rely so heavily on negative ads.
So too with Romney, who only fended off his flawed but very persistent primary rivals with tons of negative ads.
* It’s All About the Money (Campaign)
Without the money to fund all those negative ads, there would never have been either this Romney campaign, nor the campaign of protege Whitman that preceded it.
Whitman massively outspent her primary and general election opponents, even factoring in help that Jerry Brown received from organized labor.
Romney won his nomination this year on the backs of massive spending by his own formal campaign and a closely aligned super PAC run by his 2008 presidential campaign aides. Without that advantage, he would have lost to Newt Gingrich or to Rick Santorum. As it was, he suffered huge primary defeats, even though Gingrich, Santorum, and the rest were all deeply flawed political figures.
Now Romney’s allies, taking advantage of the terrible Citizens United Supreme Court decision making unlimited spending legal, are aggregating massive super PAC funds to go after Obama.
It’s like it’s 1896 all over again, with Mark Hanna organizing the robber barons for William McKinley’s campaign to stave off the populist surge of William Jennings Bryan.
But Barack Obama, who tip-toed around Wall Street reform for most of his first term, is no sane person’s idea of a wild-eyed populist. Yet the super PAC money is flowing anyway.
Why?
Because it can.
* It’s All About the Money (Life)
It’s no surprise that Mitt Whitman and Meg Romney’s campaigns would be, in the most fundamental sense, all about money. For that’s what their lives seem to be about.
Whitman mouthed a lot of platitudes about caring deeply about education, jobs, the environment, fiscal responsibility, i.e., things that poll well, but there was no depth or passion to it. And she’d never bothered to do so much as spin up an op-ed piece before running.
Her signature move as she began her campaign for governor was to pose, complete with riding gear, on the cover of Fortune magazine with a horse (which was rented for the occasion).
So too with Romney, who only ever gets passionate talking about the untrammeled freedom to make money, intones that “Corporations are people” and thinks little of betting $10,000 during a presidential debate.
These are empty, uninteresting people. At least Newt Gingrich, for all his wackiness, had some flavor.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The Paris premiere of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, set for Friday night, has been cancelled after a gunman killed 12 people at a Colorado screening of the film. The Dark Knight Rises had premieres earlier this week in New York and London. It’s midnight showing across the US last night shattered the box office record just set by The Avengers. Mexico City and Tokyo premieres next week may still be on.
** 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.
Campaigning today in Florida, President Barack Obama said Mitt Romney and Republicans are set to make seniors pay thousands more for Medicare so the rich can get more tax cuts. Obama declared the GOP plan would tell the elderly “You’re out of luck.”
** QUICK HITS.With China and Russia issuing twin vetoes of the latest UN Security Council resolution on Syria, it’s unclear what if anything the US and its European and Arab allies have in store to rescue the situation from a very dark denouement. … Game Change, the HBO movie about the John McCain for President campaign and the rise of Sarah Palin, garnered a whopping 12 Emmy nominations today, including one for Woody Harrelson for his depiction of McCain campaign director and 2006 Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt. Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, and Sarah Paulson also earned Emmy nods for playing Palin, McCain, and McCain advisor Nicole Wallace, who started out in California politics.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** NEW POLL: BY A LARGE MARGIN, VOTERS WANT MORE ROMNEY FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE. A new Gallup Poll survey shows that President Barack Obama’s strategy of hammering super-rich conservative Republican challenger Mitt Romney for secretiveness about his finances is good politics.
By a big margin of 54% to 37%, voters want Romney to reveal more about his finances beyond the partial returns from the two most recent years.
There is no sign whatsoever that he will do this, of course.
It’s much like the situation with his protege, billionaire Meg Whitman, who ran for governor of California in 2010. Before disappearing under a Jerry Brown landslide, Whitman also refused to reveal much about her great wealth.
The problem for candidates like this is that this is their calling card. Without it, they aren’t contenders.
A majority of Americans (54%) say Mitt Romney should release additional tax returns, while 37% say he should not, according to a USA Today/Gallup snapshot poll conducted Wednesday night. Predictably, Democrats strongly favor his releasing more tax returns, Republicans have the opposite view, and independents mirror the national tendency to favor Romney’s releasing more returns.
While presumptive Republican presidential nominee Romney has released his 2010 tax return and has promised to release his full 2011 return when it is filed, he has balked at the idea that he release returns from previous years.
The Obama campaign has been pressuring Romney to release more tax returns, presumably because it would call further attention to the way in which Romney acquired and managed the wealth he developed as head of the private equity firm Bain Capital. Romney’s years at Bain have become a centerpiece of the Obama campaign’s criticisms of Romney in campaign ads, speeches, and media appearances. …
Even after the dramatic events in Damascus, Russia and China this morning again vetoed a Western-backed U.N. resolution Thursday aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad’s government to end the escalating 16-month conflict in Syria.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN (OR TWO), HIMSELF, AND US.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Florida.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then flew on Air Force One to Jacksonville, Florida.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville.
At 12:05 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, Obama departs Jacksonville, Florida on Air Force One en route to West Palm Beach, Florida.
At 2:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in West Palm Beach.
At 3:20 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Century Plaza in West Palm Beach.
At 4:35 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the Century Plaza in West Palm Beach.
Obama will spend the rest of the night in Manalapan, Florida.
Netanyahu says this attack shows the world that Iran is behind terrorist activity around the world.
Netanyahu was already shaken by the collapse late Tuesday of his national unity government. The opposition centrist Kadima Party, which actually finished first in the most recent Israeli national elections, pulled out of the government it entered with fanfare a few months ago. This may lead to an election that seemed to have been postponed from this year till next.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hasn’t been seen or heard from since the dramatic assassinations of his defense minister, interior minister, deputy president, and brother-in-law inside a very high-security complex in Damascus.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown, decrying “declinists,” signed legislation authorizing the start of construction of California’s high-speed rail program, the only one in America. Most of the rest of the advanced industrial world has high-speed rail.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
On Wednesday, Brown joined state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other state and local officials as he signed the High-Speed Rail funding bill (SB 1029) at Union Station in Los Angeles, and later at the future Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.
This is an $8 billion program for the first phase of the the bullet train project, encompassing some $2 billion for improvements and high-speed prep for the existing systems in the Metro LA and San Francisco Bay Area regions and the rest for construction of the spine of the system in the Central Valley.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The Dark Knight Rises, perhaps the key film of the year, opens across North America on Friday. It opened today in Australia and New Zealand, but no spoilers will be revealed here yet. Needless to say, I’ll have an essay on it.
** 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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, the legendary icon of the anti-apartheid struggle, celebrated his 94th birthday today. Former President Bill Clinton was a surprise visitor in Mandela’s home village.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY and THE DARK KNIGHT FALTERS AGAINST A GRITTY BOND VILLAIN, HIMSELF, AND US.
** QUICK HITS.Israel today blamed Iran for a bomb blast that killed six Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu pledged “a strong response.” … Netanyahu was already shaken by the collapse late yesterday of his national unity government. The opposition centrist Kadima Party, which actually finished first in the most recent Israeli national elections, pulled out of the government it entered with fanfare a few months ago. This may lead to an election that seemed to have been postponed from this year till next. … Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hasn’t been seen or heard from since the dramatic assassinations of his defense minister, interior minister, deputy president, and brother-in-law inside a very high-security complex in Damascus.
** NEW SURVEY: SATISFACTION STILL LOW BUT UP TO HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE 2009. A new Gallup Poll survey finds that satisfaction with life is rising in the US. It’s still low, but it’s as high as it’s been since several months after President Barack Obama took office.
Satisfaction among Republicans is very low and unchanged from that low level. But satisfaction among Democrats and independents is rising.
These aren’t good numbers for Obama, but the trend line is. And the numbers are over twice as high as they were when Obama took office.
Twenty-eight percent of Americans are now satisfied with the way things are going in the country, up from 20% in June and roughly matching the highest levels recorded at various points since 2010, of either 26% or 27%. Satisfaction has dipped much lower during this time period, but the last time satisfaction was statistically higher was in mid-2009. …
Most Americans — 69% — remain dissatisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. according to the July 9-12 Gallup poll; however, this is the first time since 2009 that the figure has registered below 70%.
Democrats’ satisfaction increased to 45% in July, up from 34% in June, but similar to the 43% seen in May. Independents’ satisfaction also increased, rising to 26%, from 17% in June and 20% in May. But, Republicans’ satisfaction was statistically unchanged at 10%. …
Americans are significantly more satisfied today than they were in January 2009, just before Barack Obama took office. At that time, 13% were satisfied. The percentage satisfied surged to 36% within the first seven months of his administration, but gradually fell to the mid-20s and has since averaged 21%, with a period of lower ratings in the second half of 2011. Today’s 28% thus marks an encouraging departure from the norm seen over the past three years. …
Following the bombing in Damascus that killed at least three top Syrian officials including the Assad regime’s defense minister, interior minister and the president’s brother-in-law, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta this morning expressed concern over the increased violence and called on the international community to pressure the Assad regime to step down.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … MITT WHITMAN = MEG ROMNEY.
** 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 met with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the Oval Office to discuss the efforts to respond to the drought.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet for lunch in the Private Dining Room.
At 11:25 AM Pacific, Obama honors the 2012 NCAA Women’s Basketball Champion Baylor University Bears in the East Room.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in the Oval Office.
At 2:40 PM Pacific, Obama attends a fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
Obama is spending a lot of time today on managing several crises, notably the crises in the Gulf and the South China Sea, which are discussed in depth my essay excerpted and linked below, and the fighting in Damascus, capital of Syria.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
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 time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** CRISES CHAOTIC AND BUBBLING: THE GULF AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.Two crises, a half a world away from each other on very strategic, very different bodies of water. One I believe, the one in the South China Sea — a major key to America’s geopolitical pivot from over-engagement with the Islamic world of the Middle East and Central Asia to heightened engagement with the rising Asia Pacific — is going to U.S. plan. Or at least it was until China upped the ante. The other, in the Persian Gulf, which most countries in the region call the Arabian Gulf, is close to spiraling out of control.
I’ve been to these places and know them, but I’m not there now so I’m sure I’m missing some of the telling detail, the enlivening color, that can make a big difference in analysis.
Yet several themes seem to be emerging: The perpetual powder keg that is the Gulf is increasingly unstable. The failure of the People’s Republic of China’s Southeast Asian neighbors to achieve consensus on China’s increasingly aggressive moves in the South China Sea primes the pump for greater U.S. involvement. But China is upping the ante there with even more aggressive moves. The “Open Door” which the U.S. has promoted in East Asia for more than 110 years swings in more than one direction. And, while the prospect of confrontation between the U.S. and China is ratcheting up, the likelihood of war, between the two at least, is not.
Taken together, these developments of just the past few days point up once again why the big geopolitical pivot is arguably the biggest (though wildly under-covered) story in the world.
Incidentally, you can check a number of my related articles here in The Pivot Archive. …
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Brown will be joined state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez and other state and local officials when he signs the High-Speed Rail funding bill (SB 1029) at Union Station in Los Angeles, and later at the future Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.
Brown’s first signing event is at 10 AM at Union Station in Los Angeles.
His second signing event is at the Transbay Transit Center construction site at 2 PM in downtown San Francisco.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The Dark Knight Rises, arguably the key film of the year, opens on Friday.
** 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.
| Comments (40) |