links for 2009-02-04

India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks “barking up the wrong tree” if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

MK Narayanan, India’s national security advisor, said that the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies in a bid to bring about improved ties between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

Bailed-out bank Wells Fargo says it's reconsidering whether to hold a corporate junket to Las Vegas amid criticism from Capitol Hill.

The company had planned a posh outing for its top mortgage writers to kick off this week at the Wynn Las Vegas. The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests.

After The Associated Press reported that this year's event was about to kick off despite the company's $25 billion bailout, the company defended its decision. But after swift outcry from Capitol Hill, a company spokesman says it's reconsidering its plan.

Nearly 4,800 rejected absentee ballots may be reconsidered in the U.S. Senate recount trial, after the presiding three-judge panel issued a ruling today defining boundaries for the proceeding.

The court granted Democrat Al Franken’s request to limit the universe of ballots that Republican Norm Coleman can seek to have counted, rejecting Coleman’s attempt to have about 11,000 rejected absentee ballots reconsidered. But Franken had asked the judges to limit the review to only the 650 ballots cited by Coleman when he filed his lawsuit last month challenging the recount.

With Franken holding a 225-vote lead after the recount results were certified, the 4,800 ballots that may be reconsidered would appear to be enough to put the ultimate outcome in doubt.

Wells Fargo & Co., which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month.
Wells Fargo, once among the nation's top writers of subprime mortgages, has booked 12 nights at the Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas beginning Friday, said Wynn spokeswoman Michelle Loosbrock. The hotels will host the annual conference for company's top mortgage officers.

Our advice to President Obama and Congress is to recognize the urgency by granting and encouraging the use of streamlined public procedures for our nation's governors to use as your field commanders. Governors must be enabled to work with their state and local leaders to combine these federal streamlining measures with their own state emergency powers to get federal stimulus dollars where they will have the best chance for both timely job creation and strategic, long-term economic benefits.

And because the nation's infrastructure needs so far exceed federal funds available, it is critically important that the stimulus package not only permit, but encourage private partnership and investment in these federal, state and local efforts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 18 other governors (if you count the Virgin Islands) sent a letter to President Barack Obama supporting the stimulus plan working its way through Congress.

The $800 billion-plus spending package could help California close its roughly $40 billion budget deficit as well as pump money into infrastructure projects in the state.

"We urge the Congress to reach prompt resolution of all outstanding differences and you to sign the bill when it reaches your desk," the bipartisan group of governors write.

The final accounting on the most expensive political campaign in Ventura County history was completed Monday, and after all the numbers were crunched, the bottom line was this: $10,970,263.31.

That’s the total amount spent by the winner, Republican Tony Strickland; the loser, Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson; and by independent interests groups advocating for the two candidates in the 19th Senate District race. The figures were revealed in final campaign finance reports filed Monday with the secretary of state.

Tom Daschle backed the patron who paid him a million-dollar salary and supplied him with a free car and driver for a job inside the Obama administration, two Democrats said Monday.

Leo Hindery, whose InterMedia Partners employed the former Senate majority leader, had been mentioned as a possible secretary of commerce or U.S. trade representative.

ABC News' Jason Ryan reports that officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no comment on the arrest request filed by the conservative group ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration) for President Obama to honor his proclamations about upholding the rule of law deporting his Aunt Zeituni Onyango.

Two Silicon Valley tycoons who are expected to face off in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary had the political cash registers ringing in 2008, according to year-end major campaign donor statements.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who earned his fortune in satellite positioning devices for mobile phones, spent $1.7 million last year in positioning himself for a run for governor and seeing to it that termed-out lawmakers didn't get an encore in office.

Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO who became a billionaire helping pack rats sell their stuff, spent $634,000 to help the state Republican Party and stop Proposition 5, a measure that emphasized treatment over incarceration for drug offenders.

When the state Republican Party holds its convention in Sacramento Feb. 22, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina will be there and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be there.
ut California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is nowhere on the official agenda.

Given that the convention is often showtime for the party's most conservative members, it's not surprising that the pro-choice, pro-tax and not-all-that-conservative governor has found somewhere else to be at convention time, as he has at times in the past.

But the governor might have to stay out of the elevator to avoid this convention – which takes place in the Hyatt Regency, not too many floors below the rented suite he's lived in since taking office in 2003.
+++++++
They will add him where they have a hole in the wchedule. Trust me.

Nearly 14,000 donors — including homemakers, priests and a former member of the Los Angeles Dodgers — poured millions of dollars into the last two weeks of the campaign to pass Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California. According to a campaign finance report made public on Monday, in all, both sides spent more than $83 million.

A tech guru from Facebook may jump into the Democratic race for state attorney general, joining potential candidates Kamala Harris, San Francisco's district attorney, and Rocky Delgadillo, Los Angeles' city attorney.
Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at the social networking site and former education adviser under ex-President Bill Clinton doesn't have traditional AG credentials like Harris and Delgadillo.

But supporters say Kelly is well-versed in information technology, white-collar crime, identity theft and other Internet-related issues

NBC News has learned that the president's choice for "chief performance officer" — technically a deputy OMB director post — could end up having to withdraw over a number of issues, including tax problems. The withdrawal of Nancy Killefer could happen as soon as today. So far the White House has no comment on the situation.

Siddiqui was charged in mid-December on allegations that he was part of a $65 million kickback scheme, where he supposedly charged vendors exorbitant fees to place their products on Fry's shelves, and pocketed the money to pay off huge gambling debts. He was formally charged in January on nine counts of wire fraud and money laundering. The Palo Alto resident is on house arrest and is scheduled to appear in San Jose's federal court Wednesday morning.