In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama marks the eleventh anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ELEPHANT: THE CONVENTIONS AND THE CLIMATE and CONSIDERING THE SEMI-BONDIAN DARK KNIGHT RISES (RISEN TO $1 BILLION).
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Florida and Washington, DC.
On Saturday …
Obama delivered remarks this morning at a campaign event at St. Petersburg College – Seminole Campus in St. Petersburg, Florida.
At 1:25 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Kissimmee Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida.
On Sunday …
At 8:40 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Charles & Ruth Clemente Center in Melbourne, Florida.
At 1:50 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the West Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
At 2:55 PM Pacific, Obama departs West Palm Beach, Florida on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews.
At 5 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 5:15 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Here’s what the week ahead looks like for Obama.
As usual, there is flexibility built in for crisis management and for dealing with emerging events.
On Monday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Tuesday, to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will gather on the South Lawn of the White House early in the morning to observe a moment of silence. Later that morning, the Obamas will travel to the Pentagon Memorial.
In the afternoon, Obama will travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and visit with wounded veterans of the Afghan War and the Iraq War who are being treated at the hospital.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada and Denver, Colorado for campaign events. Obama will remain overnight in Denver.
On Thursday, Obama will travel to Arvada, Colorado. He returns to the White House in the evening.
On Friday, the Obamas will welcome the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House to honor their participation and success in this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
As I discussed here yesterday, Mitt Romney didn’t get a bounce of any sort from his convention, but it appears that Barack Obama is getting a bit of a bounce from his.
The Gallup Poll shows Obama’s job approval up to 52%, the highest it’s been since the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden raid in May 2011. Disapproval is down to 42%.
Obama was not helped by the Friday jobs report which showed only 96,000 new jobs in August. It also showed that unemployment dipped to 8.1%, but that only because fewer people are looking for work.
The economy keeps shedding public sector jobs, which has kept a consistent downdraft effect on the overall picture. And the private sector growth was less than some had expected.
In a normal economic recovery, the public sector helps drive job growth. But the reverse is happening in this economy.
Since the great global recession bottomed out in mid-2009, the private sector has added 4.5 million jobs. But the public sector has cut over 600,000 jobs.
Nevertheless, it may well be that the tepid economic recovery is “baked in” to people’s expectations. And it can certainly get worse.
A suicide bomber struck outside ISAF headquarters in Kabul, killing at least six people, NATO and local officials said. The attack on Saturday, which officials say was carried out by a teenager, also wounded at least five others on a national public holiday to mourn the anniversary of the death of an iconic anti-Taliban leader.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wraps up her 11-day/six-nation tour of the Asia Pacific region this weekend with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging enhanced global trade and investment, as well as multiple reserve currencies for global markets. Which would undermine the dollar and the US role in transnational finance.
Russia and China, both loathe to empower international judgments about internal human rights, are again balking at taking steps to transition away from the Assad regime in Syria.
But Russia, or, rather, Putin, is making noises about working with the US to keep increasing nationalist sentiments in check, especially as Russia itself looks more to Asia.
Though given Russia’s role in European energy markets, I’m not yet convinced that Russia is going to, or is in a position to, undertake an Asia Pacific pivot of its own.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Hillary-Putin meeting.
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 Persian/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 Sacramento and Northern California.
Around 1:15 PM on Saturday, he will deliver remarks at a rally on the North Steps of the State Capitol and sign two bills at the North American Punjabi Association’s peace and unity rally on Saturday, held to celebrate religious coexistence and recognize the victims of the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin.
Brown is working on the many bills sent on to him by the legislature, which has ended its session for the year.
He’s also working on his November revenue initiative, and did lengthy newspaper editorial board interviews over the past few days.
Brown got major credit in the Los Angeles Times for his last minute intervention to push through a bill revamping the workers compensation system, again groaning under the weight of threatened rate increases and complaint about insufficient payments to injured workers.
In less happy news, Brown is contemplating a hidden attack from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Californian governance which in turn makes false attacks about supposedly hidden accounts in state government. As the Sacramento Bee points out, there is no such reality as “bureaucrats put $37 billion in hidden, unaudited accounts.”
The US Chamber of Commerce began these ads over Labor Day weekend. I’m not sure how much money is behind them.
I do know that the US Chamber — the state chamber is neutral — is evading the responsibility to report the actual contributors by pretending this is an informational issue ad rather than an attack on Brown’s Prop 30 revenue initiative.
I also know that the US Chamber did the same thing in 2010 with ads attacking Brown in the guise of informational issue advertising.
In the end, those ads didn’t amount to much.
In commemoration of the 162nd anniversary of the admission of California to the Union, Brown released this statement proclaiming Sunday, September 9th to be Admission Day:
Soon after the outbreak of war in 1846, United States forces invaded the Mexican province of Alta California. Seven months later, on January 13, 1847, representatives of both countries signed the Treaty of Cahuenga in the San Fernando Valley, ending the fighting. For three years thereafter, California remained under American martial law. During this period, our population exploded following the discovery of gold, giving impetus to the demand that California be admitted to the Union. In 1849, leaders from around the future state met in Monterey to draft the first constitution, which was approved on November 13 of that year by a vote of 12,064 to 811. Peter Burnett was elected governor, and in January, 1850, the State Legislature began its first two-year session.
As our lawmakers went about establishing the basic institutions of state governance, the United States Congress argued about whether to admit California to the Union as a slave or free state or as two separate states, one slave and one free. The issue was resolved by the famous Compromise of 1850, and on September 9th of that year California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state.
The observance of Admission Day was once prominent in the civic life of our state and nation. On September 9, 1924, by order of President Coolidge, the Bear Flag flew over the White House in honor of California’s admission to the Union. In 1976, I vetoed a measure to remove the observance of Admission Day as a state holiday, writing: “For 125 years California has celebrated its admission into the Union on September 9th. To change now comes a bit late in our history and hardly seems in keeping with the Bicentennial Spirit.” In 1984, however, Governor Deukmejian signed legislation eliminating our traditional observance of Admission Day on September 9th in favor of a “personal” holiday—convenient to some but in no way respectful of our storied founding.
California’s early history is too often neglected in schools and among our citizens. For that reason, I call upon Californians to pause and celebrate Admission Day this year by reflecting on how it was that California became the 31st state.
** WHILE ONE CLINTON WOWS AT THE OBAMARAMA, ANOTHER PIVOTS TO THE LONG GAME. … From my September 6th essay.
** SO WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED WITH CLINT EASTWOOD? (AND THE PERILS OF ARGUING WITH IMAGINARY OBAMAS). … From my September 4th essay.
** AFTER THE ROMNEYRAMA, AND MORE SERIOUS MATTERS. … From my August 30th essay.
** SPACE, JERRY BROWN’S PLACE, AND A RACE. … From my August 27th essay.
** AN INSULAR ROMNEY STRUGGLES WITH HIS SURPRISINGLY HEARTFELT VEEP PICK AFTER STRIKING OUT INTERNATIONALLY. … From my August 23rd essay.
** RECALLING TOTAL RECALL: INTRIGUE, ULTRA-VIOLENCE, HUMOR AND WHAT ELSE THAT IS MISSING FROM THE SCHWARZENEGGER REMAKES. … From my August 17th essay.
** LONDON’S GRAND OLYMPICS, ON AND OFF THE TRACK. … From my August 13th essay.
** FROM GOVERNATOR TO MOONBEAM. … From my January 3rd, 2011 feature.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM 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 $96.42 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $62 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 $18 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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| Comments (23) |
Good weekend address by President Obama on the anniversary of 9/11.
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the attack on the headquarters in Kabul.
Excellent speech, Barack avenged the victims of 9/11 last year.
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Good weekend address by President Obama on the anniversary of 9/11.
Sad…
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the attack on the headquarters in Kabul.
What a great win for JB!!
And California!!
BB:Brown got major credit in the Los Angeles Times for his last minute intervention to push through a bill revamping the workers compensation system, again groaning under the weight of threatened rate increases and complaint about insufficient payments to injured workers.
That didn’t work the last time they tried it either.
BB:In less happy news, Brown is contemplating a hidden attack from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Californian governance which in turn makes false attacks about supposedly hidden accounts in state government. As the Sacramento Bee points out, there is no such reality as “bureaucrats put $37 billion in hidden, unaudited accounts.”
The US Chamber of Commerce began these ads over Labor Day weekend. I’m not sure how much money is behind them.
I do know that the US Chamber — the state chamber is neutral — is evading the responsibility to report the actual contributors by pretending this is an informational issue ad rather than an attack on Brown’s Prop 30 revenue initiative.
I also know that the US Chamber did the same thing in 2010 with ads attacking Brown.
In the end, those ads didn’t amount to much.
I like that 10 point spread!
BB: The Gallup Poll shows Obama’s job approval up to 52%, the highest it’s been since the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden raid in May 2011. Disapproval is down to 42%.
Pretty good.
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Good weekend address by President Obama on the anniversary of 9/11.
The show that never ends…
Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Sad…
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the attack on the headquarters in Kabul.
I think this one is featured on the HuffPo now…
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ELEPHANT: THE CONVENTIONS AND THE CLIMATE
I hope it’s a quiet weekend so far so good.
APEC summit video?
Please not a summit video.
Why no link yet?
Jack Aubrey says:
September 8, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I think this one is featured on the HuffPo now…
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ELEPHANT: THE CONVENTIONS AND THE CLIMATE
Oh, I hadn’t gotten to it.
Haven’t seen good vid.
>
Jonas says:
September 9, 2012 at 11:55 am (Edit)
APEC summit video?
Jack Aubrey says:
September 10, 2012 at 8:29 am (Edit)
Please not a summit video.
Quieter than the week, with the conventions over.
> Len says:
September 9, 2012 at 10:37 am (Edit)
I hope it’s a quiet weekend so far so good.
Yes, and another besides.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 8, 2012 at 3:51 pm (Edit)
I think this one is featured on the HuffPo now…
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ELEPHANT: THE CONVENTIONS AND THE CLIMATE
Indeed.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 8, 2012 at 3:48 pm (Edit)
The show that never ends…
Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Sad…
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the attack on the headquarters in Kabul.
It’s pretty impressive.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 1:09 pm (Edit)
I like that 10 point spread!
BB: The Gallup Poll shows Obama’s job approval up to 52%, the highest it’s been since the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden raid in May 2011. Disapproval is down to 42%.
I don’t think it’s working now, either.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:52 pm (Edit)
That didn’t work the last time they tried it either.
BB:In less happy news, Brown is contemplating a hidden attack from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Californian governance which in turn makes false attacks about supposedly hidden accounts in state government. As the Sacramento Bee points out, there is no such reality as “bureaucrats put $37 billion in hidden, unaudited accounts.”
The US Chamber of Commerce began these ads over Labor Day weekend. I’m not sure how much money is behind them.
I do know that the US Chamber — the state chamber is neutral — is evading the responsibility to report the actual contributors by pretending this is an informational issue ad rather than an attack on Brown’s Prop 30 revenue initiative.
I also know that the US Chamber did the same thing in 2010 with ads attacking Brown.
In the end, those ads didn’t amount to much.
Yes, it had been a bit unsung.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm (Edit)
What a great win for JB!!
And California!!
BB:Brown got major credit in the Los Angeles Times for his last minute intervention to push through a bill revamping the workers compensation system, again groaning under the weight of threatened rate increases and complaint about insufficient payments to injured workers.
Too much sadness over the centuries there.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm (Edit)
Sad…
Jonas says:
September 8, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the attack on the headquarters in Kabul.