Addressing a rally today at George Mason University in swing state Virginia, President Barack Obama said that when it comes to issues important to women’s health and jobs, Mitt Romney is distancing himself from his positions and suffers from a case of “romnesia.”
** QUICK HITS. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney showed well last night at the Al Smith Dinner, the annual Catholic charities event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. They were poised, funny, and polished, poking fun at themselves in the process. Naturally, it didn’t last. … More polling shows that Obama won the second presidential debate. And his position in swing states seems largely to have stabilized. … But Obama is going to have deal once again with the Benghazi disaster in next week’s debate on foreign policy and geopolitics. It’s still a significant problem for him. Because, although he personally described the attack as terrorism very early on, most of his administration did not, despite it being obvious that it was not some protest that somehow got out of hand. Nobody brings machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to a protest. … California Common Cause is demanding that the Fair Political Practices Commission investigate the true source of $11 million from an Arizona super PAC washed through the Small Business Action Committee into the No on 30 and Yes on 32 campaigns. (See below.) Just guessing that the money isn’t really from Arizona.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … BOND AT 50: A NOTABLE PREMIERE HARKENS BACK TO BOND’S BEGINNINGS.
** CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC: PASS THE BANANAS. Jerry Brown may have thought that the bad old days of campaign finance were gone. At least for a fleeting historical moment. The really bad old days, that is, of unreported spending and cash sloshing everywhere through the system. But now he’s finding himself in the midst of some bad new days.
Brown played the lead role in getting rid of the problems mentioned above and a lot more besides when he co-authored and championed the Political Reform Act of 1974, a winning initiative campaign in June 1974 which helped set the stage for his first election as governor of California five months later.
But money in politics, like water, has a way of making its way to the sea. Even big mystery money, for the anything-goes-days of campaign finance are back with a vengeance. It’s especially true this season of California politics, in which the grand old bear flag California Republic is increasingly redolent with the unmistakable scent of bananas.
Truly massive amounts of money from a relative handful of individuals, some of them totally hidden from view, have made their way into campaigns against Brown’s Prop 30 revenue initiative (which would raise taxes temporarily on the rich, along with a quarter-cent sales tax hike) and for the Prop 32 initiative to neuter public employee union campaign funds. And billionaires are self-funding pet project initiatives to enact major changes in California law.
Brown has seen the ebbs and flows of political money in his long and varied career as California’s only three-term Democratic governor, mayor of a big city, state attorney general, and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination.
He had some very interesting observations in conversation about his initiative with regard to the rich who would bear 5/6th of its burden as part of his drive to balance the state budget and prevent major cuts to the schools and public universities.
“The top one 1% in California get 22% of the state’s income,” Brown notes. “In a $1.9 trillion economy that is roughly $400 billion.” (Gross domestic product equates to gross state income.)
The temporary tax hikes “amount to $5 billion from the 1% (i.e., the richest 1% in society) and $1 billion from the rest” through the temporary quarter-cent sales tax hike.
With the proposed change in rates, Brown says, “That is 1.25% more from the 1%; with federal deductability it’s less than 1%.”
Apparently there are some folks who really don’t want to pay even a little more.
But their identities are being shielded from TV viewers by political operators, and in some cases hidden entirely from everyone, even the news media.
There is still no information on the true source of a stunning $11 million funneled a few days ago through a shadowy Arizona super PAC (“Americans for Responsible Leadership”) thence through the “Small Business” Action Committee (SBAC) political laundry into the No on 30 and Yes on 32 (anti-public employee union) campaigns.
The newly hired spokesperson for the “Small Business” committee, which is a useful laundry to avoid state law requiring that major funders be revealed on ads (and which has suddenly come up with nearly $35 million in the past couple months after raising only $60,000 in the first half of the year), says she knows very little about the money. Veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox, former head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, for all you know, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
Fox also runs a blog called Fox and Hounds, almost entirely written by conservative to very conservative activists and lobbyists, and gets involved, usually on the very conservative side side of things, in California campaigns.
In 2010, he used his Small Business Action Committee — of which I see no real evidence of small business involvement, aside from the committee itself — as a vehicle for nearly $2 million in attack ads against Brown. They were supposedly issue advocacy ads, so Fox refused to divulge the actual contributors.
But you can bet they weren’t small businesses. No one other than Fox himself is cited as a current member of the Small Business Action Committee on the entity’s website.
No board of directors is identified, no board of advisers — well, you get the picture. I believe that James Lacy, a well-known hard right political lawyer, is the SBAC legal counsel. So that would make two members I know of.
Then there are the Mungers, the children of billionaire Charles Munger, business partner of Warren Buffett.
Before his sister Molly, the heiress self-funding her own tax hike for schools initiative, Prop 38, emerged from relative obscurity — I’d never heard of her before she surfaced as someone supposedly knowing better than the state’s elected leadership — Charlie Munger, Jr., as he is known, was the younger Munger of note in California political circles.
He only began in politics eight years ago as a volunteer in future former state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s 2004 Assembly race in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is before Poizner, who ran for the legislature in 2004 and was elected state insurance commissioner in 2006 as a moderate Republican, went hard right in his run for the 2010 gubernatorial nomination.
Munger then became a big backer of political reform, notably redistricting reform and open primary initiatives.
Which makes his biggest financial venture to date in politics all the more ironic, given how the state’s campaign reform laws can shield his role as principal funder of ads behind the rubric of the faux “Small Business” committee.
Along with Molly Munger, whose Prop 38 initiative has always trailed in all public polls, and who launched $5 million in attack ads on Prop 30 in apparent determination to make sure that if she can’t get her way no one else can (she backed off after nearly a week of attack ads), there are two other initiative promoters of billionaire vintage.
George Joseph, owner of Mercury Insurance, has spent over $16 million on his Prop 33, which opponents say will overturn state law disallowing previous lack of coverage or gaps in individual auto insurance coverage from being a factor in setting rates.
Then there is hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer’s Prop 39, which will close a $1 billion a year corporate tax loophole, benefiting multi-state corporations based outside California, enacted as part of the convoluted 2009 budget deal to gain more revenue overall, devoting most of the money for the first five years into renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The tax revenues the budget deal generated were temporary and have long since expired, but the huge tax break lives on, confounding today’s budget-makers.
While Steyer’s measure would also contribute to the state’s general fund, especially after the first five years, it’s problematic in its own way.
Steyer is a good man. I’ve had lunch with him and, much more to the point, he joined forces with then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and others to crush a November 2010 initiative that would have effectively eliminated California’s landmark climate change program.
I’m all for green energy, as readers are well aware, and have been since the ’70s. But is this the absolute best use of these funds?
It’s a good use, and I’m for the initiative. But we’re presented with a huge fiscal choice containing no other options.
Of course, from Steyer’s perspective, he probably figures that if he waits for the California state legislature to do anything else, he will wait for a very long time. Indeed, two previous efforts to reverse the big tax break and direct the funds to economic development and education uses — one by Brown and one by Assembly Speaker John Perez — have come up short.
So I’m not lumping his effort in with the rest of the banana republic crew, just noting that it’s a hell of a way to run a railroad.
And to think that I used to love bananas.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES DROP IN OHIO AND CALIFORNIA (AND 39 OTHER STATES). Good news for national Democrats and California Democrats in brand new unemployment data.
Unemployment has dropped in Ohio, where it was already significantly below the national rate. This is critical because if President Barack Obama wins Ohio, he is all but guaranteed re-election.
In fact, in even better news for Obama, unemployment dropped in 41 states last month. You can look at all the state rates at the link.
Unemployment has also dropped in California, where Governor Jerry Brown is struggling with a long dysfunctional political culture in one of the epicenters of the great global recession.
In Ohio, the unemployment rate is down to 7.0%, after sitting at 7.2% for the past three months.
In California, the unemployment rate is down to 10.2%. That’s still one of the nation’s highest rates, topped only by neighboring Nevada — which far right types used to tout as the sort of laissez faire model that California should emulate — and Rhode Island. But New Jersey, home to GOP keynoter and would-be Brown basher Governor Chris Christie, is coming up, to 9.8%.
California’s unemployment dropped by 0.4% over the previous month. It’s down a whopping 1.5% over the past year.
As readers know from the Gallup survey featured here a few days ago, national unemployment shows many signs of dropping again for October. In September, it dropped below the 8% figure long touted by Obama opponents.
President Barack Obama’s appearance last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart took a serious turn when Obama discussed the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Obama said when something goes wrong, his job is to fix it.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC: PASS THE BANANAS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then departed the White House for Fairfax, Virginia.
At 8:45 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Obama departs the White House on Marine One en route the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland countryside.
I’m hearing some good news for Obama on new polls of Midwestern battleground states Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
Vice President Joe Biden is campaigning in swing state Florida, where the race is even.
Conservative Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is campaigning in Florida.
Congressman Paul Ryan is also campaigning in Florida.
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 Southern California and Northern California.
At 12:45 PM, he speaks in Burbank at the annual business forecast conference of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, one of many business groups which back his Proposition 30 revenue initiative.
On Saturday, he will speak in San Francisco at a Service Employees International Union headquarters.
Brown held a rally yesterday at Sacramento City College with 500 students in favor of the Prop 30 revenue initiative.
Still no information on the true source of mega-millions funneled through a shadowy Arizona super PAC (“Americans for Responsible Leadership”) thence through the “Small Business” Action Committee laundry into the No on 30 and Yes on 32 (anti-public employee union) campaigns.
The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
** OBAMA TAKES DEBATE 2: SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? … From my October 17th essay.
** GEOPOLITICS: OBAMA FACES BIG CHALLENGES DESPITE DEBATE WINNER ROMNEY’S LATEST POLICY WHIFF. … From my October 9th essay.
** JERRY BROWN GETS AN OCTOBER SURPRISE. … From my October 8th feature.
** RECALLING TOTAL RECALL: SCHWARZENEGGER’S COMEBACK PROCEEDS WITH A BIG (NATURALLY) BOOK. … From my October 5th essay.
** BOND AT 50: DR. NO IS A TIME CAPSULE FROM THE EARLY MAD MEN ERA. … From my October 4th essay.
** OBAMA PASSES THROUGH THE MINEFIELD OF U.N. WEEK (BUT SETS UP A POTENTIAL EXPLOSION NEXT YEAR). … From my September 28th essay.
** IS POST-PARTISANSHIP PASSE? SCHWARZENEGGER AND COMPANY (AND BILL CLINTON) SAY NO. … From my September 26th column.
** DETHRONED: MAD MEN‘S DOWN SEASON OPENED THE DOOR FOR A SUPERLATIVE HOMELAND. … From my September 24th column.
** JERRY BROWN: GEARING UP A CAMPAIGN AT LAST? … From my September 22nd feature.
** HOW ROMNEY SHOULD HAVE ATTACKED OBAMA: ANATOMY OF A GEOPOLITICAL CRISIS. … From my September 19th 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.
China is conducting naval drills in the East China Sea that are likely to further strain relations with Japan. The two countries are involved in a bitter dispute over the islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $58 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $22 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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| Comments (41) |
Good video of President Obama on the Jon Stewart show.
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the China- Japan crisis.
Barack does a great job talking about the tragedy in Benghazi…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:21 am
Good video of President Obama on the Jon Stewart show.
More bad stuff to learn…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the China- Japan crisis.
Really good article, again on HuffPosty.
** OBAMA TAKES DEBATE 2: SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? … From my October 17th essay.
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
I hooe there is video soon. Love the battleground state polls!!
BB: At 8:45 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
The polls are getting reassuring again. We can’t be over complacent, however.
Why is the California media not tearing at them?
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:17 am
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
I didn’t know there is a California media.
lol
Syria- Turkey crisis video today?
“Romnesia,” that’s cute. Hope it ain’t too cute.
Heh.
Ann says:
October 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm
I didn’t know there is a California media.
lol
Bad liars too…
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:17 am
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
Yeah, but he wasn’t really optimal.
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:08 am
Barack does a great job talking about the tragedy in Benghazi…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:21 am
Good video of President Obama on the Jon Stewart show.
Feeling good about Obama.
Cool.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … BOND AT 50: A NOTABLE PREMIERE HARKENS BACK TO BOND’S BEGINNINGS.
Great news…
… More polling shows that Obama won the second presidential debate. And his position in swing states seems largely to have stabilized. …
Susan Rice shouldnt have said what she said.
… But Obama is going to have deal once again with the Benghazi disaster in next week’s debate on foreign policy and geopolitics. It’s still a significant problem for him. Because, although he personally described the attack as terrorism very early on, most of his administration did not, despite it being obvious that it was not some protest that somehow got out of hand. Nobody brings machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to a protest. …
Good on Common Cause. Where do you think the $$$$ is from??
… California Common Cause is demanding that the Fair Political Practices Commission investigate the true source of $11 million from an Arizona super PAC washed through the Small Business Action Committee into the No on 30 and Yes on 32 campaigns. (See below.) Just guessing that the money isn’t really from Arizona.
Romnesia is the perfect way to call what Romney is trying to do, deceive the American people again about his belief system. He is a racist greedhead, too reckless to be trusted with the Bomb or the Budget or our private lives.
It’s a perfect word for what Mittens is trying to pull. Make fun of him, that’s what he deserves!!
Lebanon-Syria crisis video today?
Incidentally, NWN passed 125,000 comments sometime in the past several weeks.
Yes, there was.
> Jonas says:
October 20, 2012 at 10:04 am (Edit)
Lebanon-Syria crisis video today?
It’s a good one.
>
marcos leon says:
October 19, 2012 at 7:36 pm (Edit)
Romnesia is the perfect way to call what Romney is trying to do, deceive the American people again about his belief system. He is a racist greedhead, too reckless to be trusted with the Bomb or the Budget or our private lives.
Capitol Boy says:
October 20, 2012 at 8:39 am (Edit)
It’s a perfect word for what Mittens is trying to pull. Make fun of him, that’s what he deserves!!
I’m not sure.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 5:32 pm (Edit)
Good on Common Cause. Where do you think the $$$$ is from??
… California Common Cause is demanding that the Fair Political Practices Commission investigate the true source of $11 million from an Arizona super PAC washed through the Small Business Action Committee into the No on 30 and Yes on 32 campaigns. (See below.) Just guessing that the money isn’t really from Arizona.
Even with some supportive intel, it defied credulity.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 5:31 pm (Edit)
Susan Rice shouldnt have said what she said.
… But Obama is going to have deal once again with the Benghazi disaster in next week’s debate on foreign policy and geopolitics. It’s still a significant problem for him. Because, although he personally described the attack as terrorism very early on, most of his administration did not, despite it being obvious that it was not some protest that somehow got out of hand. Nobody brings machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to a protest. …
More like good news …
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 5:31 pm (Edit)
Great news…
… More polling shows that Obama won the second presidential debate. And his position in swing states seems largely to have stabilized. …
Good.
> Cooper Hawks says:
October 19, 2012 at 4:10 pm (Edit)
Feeling good about Obama.
Heh.
> Jack Aubrey says:
October 19, 2012 at 3:11 pm (Edit)
Yeah, but he wasn’t really optimal.
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:08 am
Barack does a great job talking about the tragedy in Benghazi…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:21 am
Good video of President Obama on the Jon Stewart show.
Quite.
> Jack Aubrey says:
October 19, 2012 at 3:11 pm (Edit)
Bad liars too…
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:17 am
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
Indeed.
> Jack Aubrey says:
October 19, 2012 at 2:45 pm (Edit)
Heh.
Ann says:
October 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm
I didn’t know there is a California media.
lol
It seems to be working.
> Jack Aubrey says:
October 19, 2012 at 2:44 pm (Edit)
“Romnesia,” that’s cute. Hope it ain’t too cute.
Where have you been?
> Ann says:
October 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm (Edit)
I didn’t know there is a California media.
lol
It’s a sketchy situation.
> Requiem says:
October 19, 2012 at 11:21 am (Edit)
Why is the California media not tearing at them?
Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:17 am
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
Especially since they are not wildly reassuring.
> Requiem says:
October 19, 2012 at 11:20 am (Edit)
The polls are getting reassuring again. We can’t be over complacent, however.
Her statements are ridiculous.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:17 am (Edit)
THEY ARE SUCH LIARS!!!!
BB:The “Small Business” committee spokesperson, veteran Republican operative Beth Miller, a former Pete Wilson press secretary, says that neither she nor SBAC operator and career anti-tax/small government operative Joel Fox knows where the $11 million actually comes from.
Really now. No one serious in politics takes $11 million from an unknown out-of-state outfit without knowing the source of the funds.
Otherwise, you may be accepting money from any godawful source, such as a drug cartel.
Clearly, the claim has no credibility.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:16 am (Edit)
Really good article, again on HuffPosty.
** OBAMA TAKES DEBATE 2: SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? … From my October 17th essay.
He did well.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:08 am (Edit)
Barack does a great job talking about the tragedy in Benghazi…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:21 am
Good video of President Obama on the Jon Stewart show.
Indeed.
> Capitol Boy says:
October 19, 2012 at 10:11 am (Edit)
More bad stuff to learn…
Jonas says:
October 19, 2012 at 9:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the China- Japan crisis.