President-elect Barack Obama appeared yesterday in his new home of Washington, calling for rapid action on a deteriorating economy in a post-partisan spirit. But his message was muddied by Dianne Feinstein’s objection to Leon Panetta as CIA director.
After finally accepting Obama’s pick of fellow Californian Leon Panetta – the former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, senior congressman, and Iraq Study Group member – as the next CIA director, she allowed as how Roland Burris should be seated as the next senator from Illinois. Well, yes, as I mentioned a week or more ago. But nice of her to change the subject after her embarrassing performance on the CIA directorship.
** THE BUSH DYNASTY TAKES A BREATHER. Although dad George Herbert Walker Bush talked him up as a future president during New Year’s week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has decided against running for the seat of retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez, calling it “just not the right timing.”
Good call, considering that Barack Obama took Florida out of the Republican presidential column two months ago.
As I point out in the column, it won’t be hard to link Kappes to excesses of the recent past.
** POIZNER ANNOUNCES GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE. A day after former eBay CEO Meg Whitman quit her corporate board memberships in anticipation of a race for the Republican nomination for governor of California, the apparent frontrunner, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, announced his campaign steering committee. Here’s the roster: William Bloomfield, Katherine Boyd, Elliott Broidy, Hon. Jim Brulte, Brad Freeman, Susan Groff, Brian Harvey, Jeff Henley, Buck Johns, Linda Law, Paula Kent Meehan, Steve Merksamer, Burt McMurtry, Deedee McMurtry, Frank G. Myers, Susan Myers, Charles Munger Jr., Mick Pattinson, Ron Plotkin, Lenny Sands, Mary Belle Snow, Hon. Michelle Park Steel, Marc Stern, Hon. Van Tran, Frank Visco, Hon. Mimi Walters and Buzz Woolley.
** CIA: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.Let’s parse Barack Obama’s pick of Leon Panetta to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s stirring up some controversy, even among Democrats. Which is probably a good sign about this very capable, amiable, non-arrogant fixture of decades on the California political scene. And while we’re at it, let’s give some depth to his background beyond the usual shorthand “former Clinton chief of staff,” which doesn’t really explain him at all, as he comes out of the almost forgotten liberal Republican tradition.
Panetta’s fellow Californian Dianne Feinstein, the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is miffed that word of the appointment got out before she was notified, saying that she’s always thought the post should go to an intelligence professional. It also turns out that she may have had her own candidate, a career CIA insider, a sign that Feinstein’s grasp of the political atmospherics today is, let’s say, not strong. …
In any event, the contention of Feinstein — a highly-briefed senator who was absolutely convinced of the existence of Iraqi WMD, incidentally, speaking of getting it dead wrong — that an intelligence professional is always better than a non-professional ignores some of America’s most important history. In the 1950s, CIA Director Allen Dulles was widely acknowledged as one of the world’s pre-eminent spymasters. But it’s hard to say how good he was, because most of what he did was shrouded in secrecy.
One thing that was not shrouded in secrecy was the Bay of Pigs, that famously dunderheaded plan to invade Cuba in 1961 which Dulles and some warhawk generals conned the young JFK into approving. After that, Kennedy vowed to “smash the CIA into a thousand pieces.” After calming down, he made his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the overseer of the intelligence community and brought in another Californian with no intelligence background, businessman John McCone, to run the CIA. McCone proved to be a highly effective CIA director, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There’s no reason to think that Leon Panetta can’t be a very good CIA director following another period of notable CIA failures and scandals. … From my new column.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … C.I.A.: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama meets with his economic team to go over the federal budget situation. It’s in massive deficit, of course, after eight years of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and is going to get into even bigger deficit with the need to stimulate the bad economy.
Obama has some personnel matters to attend to, including finding a replacement for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson at commerce secretary. There’s some word that it might be LA Congressman Xavier Becerra, who turned down the post of US trade representative. More about that later.
Obama also has some ruffled feathers to smooth around his reported coming appointment of former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, and California Congressman Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. The appointment leaked before anyone talked with incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who is clearly miffed and says she wants an intelligence professional in the job. The record of “professionals” and “amateurs” as CIA director is not what she suggests, as I’ll be getting into in an upcoming column.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues, with the UN saying a quarter of the more than 500 killed so far were civilians.
Obama, receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings, is also monitoring the Israel-Hamas clash in the Gaza Strip. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who many on the far right imagined was a fellow traveler, is in the region to try to broker a ceasefire.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public appearances. Schwarzenegger is working on getting a budget deal prior to next week’s state of the state address.
Not surprisingly, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is suing to prevent the complex Democratic plan to raise taxes as fees.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END.With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL.Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading in the $50 to $51 per barrel range. Crude oil is up about $15 per barrel since Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas began just after Christmas.
The drop of $97 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of previous geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Malia and Sasha Obama went off to their new school this morning in Washington, DC. Their father, the president-elect, arrived last night at the family’s pre-inaugural quarters at the Hay Adams Hotel.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … C.I.A.: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.
“‘I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,’ said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress.
” ‘My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.’”
I believe she’ll come around.
** WHITMAN EDGES FURTHER TOWARD GOVERNOR’S RACE. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has stepped down from three corporate boards – Procter & Gamble, DreamWorks Animation, and eBay – in advance of a possible run for California governor.
Whitman, a billionaire Republican, was national co-chair of the McCain for President campaign and national finance co-chair of the Romney for President campaign. She recently lost top Republican consultants Steve Schmidt and Adam Mendelsohn.
Should she decide to run, the former FTD CEO will face a tough primary against another super-rich Republican from Silicon Valley, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the apparent GOP frontrunner with the backing of a majority of Republican legislators. Either would face a difficult time in a California general election, probably against former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Both Whitman and Poizner were campaign officials for John McCain, who was crushed in California by President-elect Barack Obama, 61% to 37%.
** LEON PANETTA TO BE NEW C.I.A. DIRECTOR. Former White House chief of staff and California Congressman Leon Panetta is Barack Obama’s pick to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta, who long chaired the House Budget Committee before serving in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet as director of the Office of Management and Budget, has little previous direct experience in the intelligence field, although he was a key member of the Iraq Study Group and as former OMB chief has a handle on the intelligence budget.
But he’s a widely respected figure with strong roots in the pragmatic center/left of the Democratic Party.
Panetta played a lead role in corraling Hillary Clinton supporters to come over to the Obama camp after the freshman Illinois senator’s nomination victory had become evident to most. He described some of the diehard Clintonites as having a sense of “entitlement.”
His selection points up the difficulty Obama has had in filling the post. Too many intelligence professionals can be linked to the highly controversial practices of the Bush/Cheney Administration on torture, rendition, and widespread surveillance. Even LA Congresswoman Jane Harman, who wanted the post, had problems in that area for supporting some of the Bush/Cheney moves. Panetta is a strong opponent of torture.
Panetta will work with and under retired Admiral Dennis Blair, who I noted not long after Obama’s election was going to be Obama’s director of national intelligence.
Panetta, who had been talked up several times as potential candidate for governor of California, has been heading up his own public policy center at Cal State Monterey Bay. An ally of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the featured guest at a big fundraiser for the Panetta Center in late 2008, Panetta has also been a co-chair of a new centrist political reform outfit called California Forward. Obviously, he’ll be too busy for that now.
Panetta is also on the board of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), whose poll NWN subscribes to.
** CARS STILL SKIDDING.US car sales continue their tailspin. GM posted a 31% drop in U.S. light-vehicle sales for December, while Ford reported a 32% fall. Even Toyota, frequently held out as the global car exemplar, saw a 37% decline, and Honda saw sales drop 35%, closing out the auto industry’s worst year in more than 15 years. Chrysler is set to report its figures later today. So much for the notion that we don’t need an economic stimulus.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
A very big week on tap in presidential politics, geopolitics, and California politics. President-elect Barack Obama is now in Washington. He has meetings today with the vice president-elect, congressional leaders and his economic team on the big economic stimulus package he will propose. Later in the week, he’s expected to give a major address on the economic crisis, probably at a venue outside Washington.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden is going to Pakistan later this week, leading a congressional delegation, to urge resolution of the Mumbai crisis. Pakistan, acknowledging a significant Pakistani connection to the terrorist siege of India’s commercial center of Mumbai over Thanksgiving, has promised action but not delivered much, and preparations for war continue, with ill affects for the US strategy in deeply troubled Afghanistan.
Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas continues as well, as do Hamas rocket attacks into Israel. Obama has been notably silent on the matter, and the US blocked a UN Security Council move for an immediate ceasefire over the weekend.
Russia, continuing its political moves to destabilize the Ukrainian government and block NATO expansion to its borders, cut off natural gas supplies to the former Soviet republic, citing its failure to pay. In response, Ukrainians are taking some of the natural gas flow through pipelines transiting the country intended for other European nations, accelerating the crisis.
Back to presidential politics. One-third to two-fifths of Obama’s emerging stimulus plan will be various tax cuts, mostly targeted for consumers, who continue to sit on their wallets. The rest of the plan will be heavy spending on infrastructure and green tech and jobs development. The plan won’t be passed by Congress by the date of Obama’s inauguration, January 20th.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has been selected as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee by President-elect Barack Obama.
Obama is likely getting a boost today with Minnesota poised to certify comedian Al Franken as the winner of that razor-close Senate race over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. But it’s not clear what the Senate is going to do with embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s pick to replace Obama, former state Attorney General Roland Burris. On the other hand, it looks like Obama’s friend Caroline Kennedy is about to be named to replace Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton as New York’s junior senator.
Obama also needs a new commerce secretary, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrawing over the weekend as it became clear a federal grand jury probe into his administration wouldn’t be completed in a timely fashion. There are allegations that a California financial firm I’d never heard of got a state contract in return for donations.
And on the ceremonial front, President Bush hosts a luncheon for Obama on Wednesday with all the other living presidents: His father, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, back in California, the Legislature reconvenes for its new session with, as usual, the state’s chronic budget deficit foremost on the agenda. On New Year’s Eve, Governor Arnold Schwarznegger put forward a budget proposal consisting of new taxes, cuts, and borrowing. And so the game begins, not anew, but renewed.
** OBAMA TODAY. Having checked in to the Hay Adams Hotel on Sunday afternoon, and with his daughters safely off this morning to their first day of school at Sidwell Friends, President-elect Barack Obama is in Washington for his daily intelligence/national security briefing, and meetings with his economic team and top congressional leaders.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Returned from his vacation at his home in Sun Valley, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public appearances.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END.With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL.Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $101 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday night, the US blocked a move for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
** OBAMA TODAY - SUNDAY. With Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha having moved to Washington yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama follows this afternoon, joining his family at the Hay Adams Hotel.
Obama meets tomorrow with congressional leaders to discuss his agenda, notably his big economic stimulus program. (Which he discusses in the weekly address you see below.)
He also needs to find a new secretary of commerce, as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is withdrawing. Richardson is under investigation for allegedly granting state contracts in exchange for financial support for his 2008 presidential bid. He insists he is innocent, but the investigation won’t be completed prior to his Senate confirmation hearing.
Meanwhile, Israel continues its ground offensive in Gaza, and Obama continues his silence on the matter.
Using armor, the IDF has apparently split Gaza City off from the rest of the Gaza Strip and is moving against rocket launch sites. Israel is a little vague about its ultimate goals. It seems unlikely that its leaders want to get bogged down in a guerilla war in one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
What may be happening is that Israel is out to destroy as much of Hamas’s offensive capability as possible, then press for a peacekeeping force from other nations. And that the IDF will be pulling out right around the time of Obama’s inauguration.
In other action, comedian Al Franken has a 225-vote lead over incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman with the recount completed in the Minnesota race. Coleman is now trying to get the state Supreme Court to order that other ballots be counted, and to start the recount over with different counters (from the state, not the normal county officials).
President-elect Barack Obama delivers his weekly video/radio address coming out of the holiday season.
** ISRAELI GROUND ASSAULT ON GAZA BEGINS. The Israeli army has entered the Gaza Strip in a further escalation of its offensive against Hamas. The Israelis have been gearing up for this for days.
How long will the IDF be in Gaza? What are its objectives? They’ve said they want to stop Hamas from being able to keep firing rockets into Israel, and to block the so-called “smuggling tunnels” which bring military materiel and other supplies in to Hamas.
The IDF essentially lost its war with Hezbollah in 2006. Now they’re entering one of the most densely populated places in the world. Will they fight house-to-house there?
** OBAMA TODAY - SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama is back in Chicago following a 12-day Christmas vacation with his family in Hawaii.
Today, incidentally, is the first anniversary of Obama’s “surprise” breakthrough victory in Iowa, which was expected here on NWN.
The Obamas are packing up this weekend for a quick move to Washington on Sunday, where they will take up residence at the historic Hay Adams Hotel in advance of the inauguration on January 20th.
The girls start school on Monday at Sidwell Friends. And dad has a few meetings, too … with the top congressional leaders on his agenda.
He talks about some of this in his weekly video/radio address, which you can watch above and read below: “As the holiday season comes to end, we are thankful for family and friends and all the blessings that make life worth living. But as we mark the beginning of a new year, we also know that America faces great and growing challenges – challenges that threaten our nation’s economy and our dreams for the future. Nearly two million Americans have lost their jobs this past year – and millions more are working harder in jobs that pay less and come with fewer benefits. For too many families, this new year brings new unease and uncertainty as bills pile up, debts continue to mount and parents worry that their children won’t have the same opportunities they had.
“However we got here, the problems we face today are not Democratic problems or Republican problems. The dreams of putting a child through college, or staying in your home, or retiring with dignity and security know no boundaries of party or ideology.
“These are America’s problems, and we must come together as Americans to meet them with the urgency this moment demands. Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach.
“That’s why we need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. And this plan must be designed in a new way – we can’t just fall into the old Washington habit of throwing money at the problem.We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan – which is to create three million new jobs, more than eighty percent of them in the private sector.
“To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year. To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. And to put more money into the pockets of hardworking families, we will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers.
“I look forward to meeting next week in Washington with leaders from both parties to discuss this plan. I am optimistic that if we come together to seek solutions that advance not the interests of any party, or the agenda of any one group, but the aspirations of all Americans, then we will meet the challenges of our time just as previous generations have met the challenges of theirs.
“There is no reason we can’t do this. We are a people of boundless industry and ingenuity. We are innovators and entrepreneurs and have the most dedicated and productive workers in the world. And we have always triumphed in moments of trial by drawing on that great American spirit – that perseverance, determination and unyielding commitment to opportunity on which our nation was founded. In this new year, let us resolve to do so once more. Thank you.”
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END.With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL.Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev delivers his New Year Address.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $46.34 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
The drop of $101 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
“Things Can Only Get Better,” the theme song of New Labour’s smashing 1997 victory.
December 30th through January 2nd.
NOTE: NWN is in New Year’s week publishing mode, which means that material will be moved every day, but not all that frequently. And we’ll see more holiday/entertainment video here.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END.With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
** NEW POLL: LIBERAL CONFIDENCE IN OBAMA EXTREMELY HIGH, CONSERVATIVE CONFIDENCE IMPROVING.According to a brand new Gallup Poll, liberal confidence in President-elect Barack Obama is beyond sky-high, at an amazing 93%. And confidence in him amongst conservative Republicans is up to nearly a third.
This comes despite a lot of carping on the left about some of Obama’s Cabinet picks, from the centrist range, and especially around his selection of Orange County pastor Rick Warren – an opponent of same-sex marriage – to deliver the invocation at his inaugural.
More than 9 in 10 liberal Democrats have expressed confidence that Obama will make a good president since Gallup began tracking these opinions after the election last November. Moderate and conservative Democrats show nearly as high levels of confidence. …
Perhaps because his choices may signal a more politically moderate approach to governing, conservative, moderate, and liberal Republicans have become more confident in Obama’s potential in recent weeks.
Now, a slim majority of moderate and liberal Republicans, 51%, say they are confident Obama will be a good president, up from 44% in November. Conservative Republicans remain largely skeptical of Obama’s abilities, but in recent weeks his stock has risen slightly among this group, from 23% to 29%.
The place the president-elect just left behind: Kailua.
** OBAMA TODAY - FRIDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and First Lady-to be Michelle Obama are back in Chicago today, following their working vacation in Hawaii. They’re packing this weekend and heading on Sunday to Washington, where they’ll take up residence at the historic Hay Adams Hotel prior to Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States on January 20th.
Why the move? Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, start school on Monday. And dad has a few meetings. He’ll meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to go over his big economic stimulus program and other matters. Then the three will meet with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may wish he could use this negotiation technique in California’s chronic budget crisis. The Terminator was named this week by the Library of Congress as an American movie classic.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE - FRIDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is vacationing with First Lady Maria Shriver and their family through the weekend at their home in Sun Valley. On New Year’s Eve, his state budget director, Mike Genest, unveiled a proposal to deal with California’s budget woes over the next 18 months. It would cover a more than $41 billion budget deficit by making a variety of cuts, raising the sales tax, tapping the state lottery, shortening the school year, and borrowing almost $5 billion.
It got the now customary response from legislative leaders. Liberal Democrats sorta liked it, while disliking the cuts. Right-wing Republicans hate the tax hike, while proposing nothing meaningful themselves as an alternative. The game will continue next week.
** OBAMA TODAY - THURSDAY. After celebrating New Year’s Eve in at a party with friends in Kailua, President-elect Barack Obama and his family end their Hawaiian vacation this afternoon and return to Chicago.
They won’t spend much time in Chicago, as they are packing some things up and moving to Washington over the weekend. The Obamas will take up temporary quarters at the historic Hay Adams Hotel in the run-up to his inauguration on January 20th. Barack and Michelle’s daughters Malia and Sasha start school next Monday. And dad has something to do that day, too. He’s meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to go over the agenda.
In the meantime, despite percolating world crises and a terrible economic downturn, Obama managed to get some rest and relaxation before formally inheriting the mess from the Bush/Cheney Administration.
From today’s Honolulu Advertiser:President-elect Barack Obama will leave today after a 12-day, low-profile vacation in the Islands spent golfing, working out, taking his family on a few outings and memorializing his grandmother, who died two days before his historic election.
The holiday — meant as a quiet reprieve before his Jan. 20 inauguration — thrilled Obama supporters here, many of whom tracked down the president-elect for autographs, photos or even a quick glimpse, pat on the back or handshake. It also delighted the small Kailua neighborhood where Obama stayed.
“It’s been very exciting,” said Linda Oifer, who lives down the street from the Kailuana Place compound where the Obamas spent the holidays. She added that the extra security in the community, including a flood of Secret Service agents, hasn’t been much of a hassle. Any inconvenience, she said, was worth it since they got to wave to Obama almost daily as he passed by in his motorcade. Mike Kilpatrick, who also lives in the area, agreed. “It was no inconvenience at all,” he said. “We hope that he comes back.”
On his last full day in the Islands yesterday, Obama’s motorcade left his rental compound at 7:40 a.m. and arrived at the Semper Fit Center at Marine Corps Base Hawaii within 10 minutes. He worked out for about an hour, and stopped outside the gym afterward for about three minutes to greet at least 100 well-wishers, some of whom got themselves photographed with Obama.
“Thank you for your service, guys,” Obama told Marines in the crowd. …
During his stay in the Islands, which began Dec. 20, Obama has played several rounds of golf, worked out almost every day, and has taken his family to Sea Life Park, for shave ice at Koko Marina Center and to the Honolulu Zoo. On Christmas Day, he dropped by Marine Corps Base Hawaii for about an hour to share holiday greetings with mostly single Marines and sailors eating a holiday meal.
And on Dec. 22, Obama and his family finally got the chance to honor the memory of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who raised him in the Islands. After a private service, he scattered her ashes at Lana’i Lookout, the same spot where Obama scattered the ashes of his mother in 1995. …
Obama was born in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School. He has routinely made Christmas visits to the Islands but missed a trip in 2007.
Highlights of USC’s victory in the 2008 Rose Bowl.
** NEW YEAR’S DAY. A time to contemplate, to think back, to think ahead … to recover from a hangover and enjoy the biggest day of college football of the year. A week till the national title game between Oklahoma and Florida, but today has five big bowl games. Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. South Carolina. Gator Bowl: Clemson vs. Nebraska. Capital One Bowl: Georgia vs. Michigan State. Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. USC. Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech.
The biggest game is the Rose Bowl, featuring two teams that came close to the national championship themselves. Had USC, with a great defense led by national defensive player of the year Rey Maualuga and good offense led by quarterback Mark Sanchez, not fallen asleep in the first half against Oregon State, just five days after their trouncing of Ohio State in the much- touted “game of the year,” they’d be undefeated and ranked first in the country. As it is, they’re in the Rose Bowl, as usual, expected to beat the Big 10 champion, as usual. But in Penn State, they face a team that also nearly made it to the national title game.
Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, yesterday appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the post. Federal prosecutors want two more months to prepare an indictment.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL.Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA TODAY - WEDNESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday in Hawaii, and private work on his presidential transition.
This coming weekend, Obama and his family will move to Washington, where he will stay at the historic Hay Adams Hotel, in advance of his inauguration on January 20th.
Meanwhile, Israel has rejected a temporary ceasefire, instead launching fresh air attacks in the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy tunnels through which arms and other materiel are smuggled to Hamas terrorists. Israel appears to be prepping for a ground offensive, judging that days of air attacks have failed to take out the Hamas offensive rocket capability.
And Blagogate, which hasn’t touched Obama in the polls or in any direct way in the storyline of events, just had another twist. Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is going to ask for a few more months to put together his indictment of the the Illinois governor.
This comes on top of his surprise appointment yesterday of former state Attorney General Roland Burris to take Obama’s vacated Senate seat. With Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, the ex-Black Panther leader who easily defeated Obama in a 2000 Democratic primary, on hand to insist that Burris be seated to ensure that the Senate continues to have a black member. Many legal experts think that Burris will be seated, despite the wishes of Senate and other state leaders.
The Terminator has just been picked by the Library of Congress as an American movie classic. Here the titular character, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, has located his target Sarah Connor in an LA police station.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE - WEDNESDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues his holiday vacation in Sun Valley with First Lady Maria Shriver and their children.
This shouldn’t surprise you, but it doesn’t look like any solution to California’s chronic budget deficit is coming this week, notwithstanding some breathless reports of major progress at the beginning of the week.
Schwarzenegger’s finance director, Mike Genest, will release a proposed budget this morning to deal with the projected $41 billion deficit over the next year and a half. It won’t be pretty.
But the week brought a new honor to the former action superstar. The film which yielded his signature role, The Terminator, directed by James Cameron, was picked yesterday for the permanent collection of the Library of Congress as an American movie classic. The Terminator was added to the National Film Registry along with several other films such as The Asphalt Jungle, Deliverance, A Face In The Crowd, and In Cold Blood.
Israel says it’s in “a war to the bitter end” against Hamas.
** OBAMA RELEASES STATEMENT DENOUNCING BLAGO MOVE.“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”
** BLAGO MAKES A MOVE. Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant seat in the US Senate, has appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat. After earlier signaling he would not make an appointment.
The press conference was apparently quite a show. On hand for the show this afternoon was Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, the old Black Panther leader who defeated Obama when he ran for Congress in the 2000 Democratic primary.
Rush insists that Burris must be admitted to the Senate, because otherwise there will be no black member with Obama’s elevation to the Presidency.
Senate leaders, and other Illinois state leaders, vow to block the appointment. But I’ve scanned material on this and it may be that there is no way to stop the appointment.
** BROWN SUES FEDS ON ENVIRONMENT. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced this morning that the State of California is suing the Bush Administration for trying to change the Endangered Species Act in its waning days by eliminating requirements mandating scientific review of federal agency decisions that may threaten endangered species and their habitat.
Brown filed suit late yesterday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. He charges that the US Departments of the Interior and Commerce are violating “the Endangered Species Act by adopting regulations that are inconsistent with that statute; the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider the environmental ramifications of the proposed new regulations; and the Administrative Procedures Act by not adequately considering public comments submitted by the Attorney General and numerous other organizations and concerned citizens.”
“The Bush Administration is seeking to gut the Endangered Species Act on its way out the door,” Brown said. “This is an audacious attempt to circumvent a time-tested statute that for 35 years has required scientific review of proposed federal agency decisions that affect wildlife.”
** BLAIR TO MEDIATE IN GAZA FIGHT. ISRAEL TO ACCEPT A TEMPORARY TRUCE? Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Mideast Quartet (US, UK, Russia, European Union) is going to the Middle East to attempt to broker a peace agreement.
Since his appointment in late 2006, Blair has made significant moves to strengthen the Palestinian Fatah government in the West Bank but has been hamstrung around the overall Israeli-Palestinian struggle. First the Bush/Cheney Administration moved for elections in the Gaza Strip, not realizing that Hamas would likely win. They did. Then Bush and Secretary of State Condi Rice insisted on taking the lead in overall peace negotiations. Which predictably went nowhere.
In order for negotiations to work, a ceasefire would have to be in place. Israel is contemplating one now. Of course, most of the aerial targets it can hit have already been hit. Britain, along with the EU, is stepping up its call on Israel to cease its military response to Hamas rocket attacks, calling it disproportionate and counter-productive.
** OBAMA TODAY - TUESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday vacation in Hawaii with his family. While he’s receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings and is continuing work on his presidential transition, he has no public appearances or statements planned.
He’s monitoring the Gaza crisis, which is a shooting war, and the Mumbai crisis, which could become a shooting war. The US is backing Israel, which is retaliating heavily for rocket attacks launched against it by Hamas.
While visiting Israel over the summer, Obama expressed solidarity for Israeli victims of rocket attacks. He has also condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The US backs Israel in the fight with Hamas over Gaza. Ironically, it was a miscalculation by the Bush/Cheney Administration that gave Hamas the opportunity to win elections there.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE - TUESDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is vacationing and holding private talks about the state’s chronic budget crisis. He’d like to see a solution come together this week. He’d have preferred to have seen one before Christmas.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $109 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Israel prepares for a possible ground assault on the Gaza Strip.
** VOTERS SAY “FREE MARKET” … BUT WANT MORE REGULATION. The new Republican Rasmussen poll has discovered something obvious in American life. Most voters say they prefer the free market to socialism, by 70% to 15%.
But most also say they want more regulation of big business, not less, by 52% to 35%.
It’s not really the dichotomy it seems on the surface. America was founded on a suspicion of centralized authority.
But that extends to private authority as well as public authority. And private authority has been having a big run of it in America these past eight years.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Another short week in presidential and California politics. Probably. Though not in geopolitics.
President-elect Barack Obama continues his family holiday sojourn in the Aloha State, with no public appearances or statements on tap save for his weekly video/radio address.
But geopolitical crises may impinge.
On the geopolitical front, Israel is continuing its assault, begun just after Christmas, on Hamas-related targets in the Gaza Strip, retaliating for repeated rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory. Hundreds have been killed in the attacks, carried out by air. Now there are signs that Israel is preparing a ground offensive.
In the Mumbai crisis, Pakistan is moving tens of thousands of troops from its border with Afghanistan – where they are part of the US fight against a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda – to its border with India. Indian jets in the past week have probed Pakistani air defenses and several battalions of special operations troops have been dispatched to the Pakistani border, as India remains unsatisfied by Pakistani attempts to crack down on Islamist elements judged to be behind the attacks just before Thanksgiving.
Whether the move is a further slide to war or not, it is likely to have a serious effect on the renewed Afghan War, which hasn’t been going well for the past few years.
In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders continue to talk about a possible solution to the state’s chronic and deepening budget crisis.
We’ll see how that goes.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday vacation in Hawaii with his family. While he’s receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings, he has no public appearances or statements planned.
Obama spent seven hours yesterday attending a party at the home of a high school friend.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding private talks about the state’s chronic budget crisis. He’d like to see a solution come together this week. He’d have preferred to have seen one before Christmas.
Over the weekend, Schwarzenegger’s friend Robert Graham, the famed sculptor, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 70. A native of Mexico City, Graham was married to Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston.
Graham was known both for his monumental public sculptures, which grace the Olympic Games and the FDR Memorial, and for his female nudes. I have one of his bronzes, a gift from a good friend.
Schwarzenegger said this on Graham’s passing: “Maria and I were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Robert Graham. Robert was an amazing sculptor who forever shaped the presence of sculpture art throughout California and the world. His work was truly influential and he will forever remain an icon in this state. Our thoughts and prayers are with Robert’s wife Anjelica and his entire family during this difficult time.”
Not long before his death at the UCLA Medical Center, Graham was inducted into the California Museum’s California Hall of Fame on December 15th. Graham actually designed the “Spirit of California” medal for the California Hall of Fame.
The San Jose State grad’s work has been the subject of over eighty solo exhibitions and three retrospective exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan and Mexico, and is included in many national and international museum collections. He designed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Gates and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C., as well as the Joe Louis Memorial in Detroit, and monumental sculptures depicting jazz giants Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker in New York and Kansas City.
The UN Security Council has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
The drop of $109 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Does a movie about the plot to kill Hitler sound like a big holiday hit? We’ll see with Valkyrie.
** OBAMA TODAY - SUNDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and his family continue their holiday vacation in Hawaii. Obama is receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings and planning his presidency.
This is a quiet day in American politics. And global crises are aiding in the quiet, although the Mumbai crisis is on a knife’s edge and Israel is continuing its attack in the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas has launched repeated rocket attacks in recent days.
** OBAMA TODAY - SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama and his family mostly slept through a major power outage last night during a big thunderstorm on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where Obama was born.
Obama has daily intelligence/national security briefings. Two items undoubtedly high up on today’s agenda: The tense Mumbai crisis. And the growing tit-for-tat attacks between Palestinians and Israelis. Yesterday saw one of the largest losses of life in decades. Terrorists in the Gaza Strip have been launching rocket attacks against Israel. The Israelis retaliated yesterday with air strikes against Hamas targets, killing nearly 200.
Pakistan today tried to downplay tensions with India in the wake of last month’s Mumbai massacre. But yesterday, thousands of Pakistani troops began moving from the country’s border with Afghanistan – where they play a key ostensible role in the struggle to tamp down a resurgent Al Qaeda and the Taliban – to the border with India. This move comes in the wake of India repeatedly probing Pakistani air defenses with sorties across the border and moving special ops troops up to the border.
It may be that Pakistan is moving the troops away from the struggle with Islamists as a way to get the US to pressure India to back down on its demands that all the links with the Mumbai terrorist siege inside Pakistan be pursued fully.
So Obama has more on his mind today than post-Christmas shopping and seeing the sights in one of the world’s most beautiful places.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, vacationing with his family in Sun Valley, has been negotiating via videophone with state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass about the state’s deepening, chronic budget crisis. They’re said to be getting close to an agreement.
Of course, we’ve heard this all sort of thing before. One of the staples of coverage of California’s chronic budget crisis is breathless talk of a solution being almost at hand. With lots of utterly disposable details. Let’s see what we think on Monday.
Incidentally, California’s not the only state in big trouble in the midst of the sharp economic downturn accelerated by the near-cratering of Wall Street. Ohio and other states and localities are asking for many billions in federal bail-outs.
** EMERALD BOWL: CAL VS. MIAMI. The Golden Bears of the University of California take on the Miami Hurricanes Saturday evening in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Cal, with its powerful ground game, led by sophomore speed merchant Jahvid Best, and strong defense, should be able to handle the fabled Miami program, a bit down on its luck these days. A Cal win will put them back in the national rankings and position the team for yet another run at dynasty USC for West Coast supremacy.
Caroline Kennedy, seeking appointment to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designee Hillary Clinton, spoke Friday with the Associated Press.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my Monday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $37.71 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
The drop of $110 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
The annual Doctor Who Christmas Special, entitled The Next Doctor, aired Christmas night in the UK to big ratings. The show airs next year in the US.
NOTE: NWN is in Christmas week publishing mode, which means that material will be moved every day, but not all that frequently. And we’ll see more holiday/entertainment video here.
** MUMBAI CRISIS HEATS UP. As I mentioned might happen in the Monday Morning Quarterback column, the Mumbai crisis is heating up. Pakistan is moving tens of thousands of troops from its border with Afghanistan, where they ostensibly help in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, to its border with India.
This comes after weeks of word of some Pakistani connections to the Thanksgiving attacks, the incursions of Indian jets into Pakistani airspace, and the move of some Indian special ops units to the border.
Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said. The move represents a sharp escalation in the standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors and will hurt Pakistan’s U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban taking place near Afghanistan’s border.
Two intelligence officials said the army’s 14th Division was being redeployed to Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border. They said some 20,000 troops were on the move. Earlier Friday, a security official said that all troop leave had been canceled.
** GALLUP POLL: OBAMA IS MOST ADMIRED. The new Gallup Poll shows that President-elect Barack Obama is the man Americans most admire in the world. In the 60-year history of this question being asked, Obama is only the second president-elect so designated. The first was Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.
** OBAMA TODAY - FRIDAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues his holiday sojourn in Hawaii. No public appearances are expected, nor any announcements from the Obama transition team. Obama receives intelligence/national security briefings every day and is continuing to plan his presidency.
President-elect Barack Obama delivers his weekly video/radio address, focusing on support for the US Armed Forces in this Christmas and holiday season, and hope for struggling Americans in the economic downturn, pointing to the inspiration of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware during the American Revolution.
** OBAMA TODAY - THURSDAY. MELE KALIKIMAKA! President-elect Barack Obama wished “Mele Kalikimaka” (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) to wellwishers outside Marine Corps Base Hawaii yesterday, where he’s been working out every day of his working vacation in the Aloha State.
Obama and Michelle Obama, with their daughters Malia and Sasha, are celebrating Christmas today in Kailua, where they’re staying in a rented beachfront home. Kailua is a Windward Oahu town, a half-hour drive from the relative bustle of Honolulu. I’ve driven there, down the Pali Highway, then through a tunnel and out again to confront a beautiful panoramic view dominated by ocean and some of the best beachfront in the world. The Obamas are opening presents in the morning and having their traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and ham later in the day.
Obama also has his daily intelligence briefing. In that setting, even more than most of Hawaii, it’s easier to approach even the most distressing news with Zen-like composure.
From Obama’s video/radio address: Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty. This Christmas and holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted, knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table. In distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and -women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home. …
This season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans.
If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day. …
It was Christmas Day — Dec. 25, 1776 — that Washington and his troops fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River. Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season — the same lessons that guide us to this very day: That hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible. …
“Please Come Home For Christmas” by, oddly enough, the Eagles. (The programmed Christmas lights version.)
** OBAMA’S CHRISTMAS HONEYMOON.A brand-new CNN poll, released on Christmas Eve as President-elect Barack Obama vacations in longtime honeymoon spot Hawaii, shows increased, sky-high support for Obama’s presidential transition.
The widely-publicized kerfuffles around Rod Blagojevich and Rick Warren haven’t hurt a bit, as anticipated.
Eighty-two percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday morning approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition. That’s up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December. Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Obama’s handling his transition, down 3 points from our last poll.
The 82 percent approval is higher than then President-elect George W. Bush 8 years ago, who had a 65 percent transition approval rating, and Bill Clinton, at 67 percent in 1992.
“Barack Obama is having a better honeymoon with the American public than any incoming president in the past three decades. He’s putting up better numbers, usually by double digits, than Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, or either George Bush on every item traditionally measured in transition polls,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS.With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA TODAY - WEDNESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in Hawaii with his family for the holidays. He has no public events today. While he is continuing to work on transition matters, and is receiving a daily national security briefing, no Obama transition announcements are expected on Christmas Eve.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser: President-elect Barack Obama spent much of yesterday honoring the memory of the grandmother who raised him, and then scattering her ashes at Lana’i Lookout, the same spot where Obama scattered the ashes of his mother after her death in 1995.
The White House press corps traveling with Obama on his third O’ahu visit of the year was not allowed into First Unitarian Church for a one-hour service in memory of Madelyn Dunham, who died of cancer at age 86 just two days before Obama’s presidential victory. And media were not allowed to accompany Obama, his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, her husband, and Obama’s immediate family of wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia as they picked their way down to Lana’i Lookout and its wave-swept, rocky shoreline yesterday afternoon.
Obama scattered the ashes of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, at the same location after she died of cancer at the age of 53. During a family vacation in August, Obama returned to Lana’i Lookout to toss a lei into the ocean in memory of his mother.
While local and national media were kept at a distance yesterday, Lauray Gouveia of Kaimuki managed to snap several photos of the Obama entourage of about 12 people that visited the lookout for 20 minutes. Gouveia suffered her own health scare in May when she came down with pneumonia, and yesterday she sympathized with Obama’s emotions. “To lose someone that close, I felt his pain,” she said.
Gouveia wanted to be close to Obama and capture his image but would not allow herself to photograph him scattering his grandmother’s ashes.
“It’s too personal,” she said. “It’s pono. You’ve got to do the right thing.” …
Dunham and her husband, Stanley Dunham, raised Obama in their two-bedroom, 10th-floor apartment on Beretania Street while his mother traveled and pursued her graduate studies in Indonesia with his sister. Obama called his grandmother “Toot,” after the Hawaiian name for grandparent, tutu. Her husband was “Gramps.” The ashes of Stanley Dunham — a sergeant in Gen. George Patton’s 7th Army in Europe — are inurned in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
Madelyn Dunham was suffering from osteoporosis and cancer when she fell in her apartment and broke her hip in early October. Within days, Obama’s presidential campaign announced his sudden decision to cancel appearances so he could make the long flight home to visit Dunham. Family friends at the time said Obama did not want to relive his experience in 1995, when he arrived too late to say goodbye to his mother.
He had been raised by both of his maternal grandparents: Stanley — the gregarious and fun-loving pal, who struggled to sell furniture and then insurance on O’ahu; and Madelyn, the stern, no-nonsense banking executive who draped young Barack in equal parts Kansas values and grandmotherly love.
During his campaign for the presidency, Obama’s grandmother represented the last surviving close adult figure from his childhood, having already lost his mother, father and grandfather. In his first public comments after Dunham’s death, Obama told a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., that she was a “quiet hero.”
“Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this morning,” Obama said to supporters after her death. “She has gone home. She died peacefully in her sleep, with my sister at her side, and so there’s great joy as well as tears. I’m not going to talk about it too long because it’s hard to talk about. I want everybody to know, though, about her. Her name is Madelyn Dunham. She was born in Kansas in a small town in 1922, which means she lived through the Great Depression, she lived through two world wars.” …
Many of Obama’s political opponents on the far right claimed that his October trip to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother was actually an attempt by the candidate to cover up the “fact” that he is not an American citizen.
America is on the brink of a “surge” … in deeply troubled Afghanistan.
** OBAMA TODAY - TUESDAY. President-elect Barack Obama left Chicago over the weekend for a 10-day holiday trip to Hawaii. He will spend the holidays with family and friends and, with the Cabinet appointed, continue to do transition work during his stay in the Aloha State. Vice President-elect Biden will be in Delaware.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Team Obama will release its internal report on its dealings with embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell appointment to Obama’s Senate seat. Nothing dramatic is expected, and Obama won’t be commenting from Hawaii on the situation.
Obama is receiving national security briefings every day. He’s doing transition work, meeting with longtime senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who flew out to Hawaii with the Obamas and talking with other advisors and Cabinet members around the country on his emerging economic stimulus plan and filling out his administration. He’ll also hold a private memorial service for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died just before his election as president.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold another event around California’s chronic budget crisis Tuesday afternoon, at Shorebird Park in Sacramento. He talked at length on Monday with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg in search of a solution and will meet with them this morning.
Last week, the Pooled Money Investment Board voted to stop $3.8 billion in infrastructure financing over the next six months. Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for the State of California, calling the Legislature into a second Prop 58 special session to address this emergency. He also issued an executive order to prepare state government and its employees for the worsening state budget crisis with possible work furloughs and layoffs.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
A “natural gas OPEC” is being discussed now at a summit of major gas producers in Moscow.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Christmas Eve at $35.35 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on Christmas Day.
The drop of $112 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
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