• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2009-06-22

    • But Tapscott’s paper has gotten there first. After Anschutz’s Baltimore Examiner newspaper was closed in February, more resources were allocated to the Washington paper. They’ve been used to scoop up talent from other conservative media. Tim Carney wrote a column about the lobbying industry while still editing the Evans-Novak Political Report; when founder Robert Novak decided to shutter it in January, Carney moved to the Examiner full-time. One week later, the paper hired Byron York away from a nine-year stint National Review, where he’d been the magazine’s lead political reporter. At the start of June it poached David Freddoso also of National Review, the reporter who’d written the bestselling “The Case Against Barack Obama” for Regnery, and it hired J.P. Freire, who had recently left The American Spectator, to be the managing editor of the editorial pages.
    • As Jon and Kate’s big announcement draws near, People.com reported that the reality show couple filed documents to initiate a legal split at the Bucks County Courthouse in Reading, Pa., Monday afternoon.
    • The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.

      President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

      "There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

      "We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran," Kelly said. "We tried many years of isolation, and we're pursuing a different path now."

      But he said it was not clear if Iranian diplomats had accepted the invitations.

    • Police have charged the tour manager of the Black Eyed Peas with assault after he allegedly gave celebrity blogger Perez Hilton a black eye outside a Toronto nightclub.

      Hilton said he got into an argument with band members Fergie and will.i.am at the Cobra nightclub early Monday morning and was punched outside by Polo Molina, the band's tour manager. They were at the club following a Sunday night video awards show.

      Molina turned himself in and has been charged with assaulting Hilton, Toronto Police Constable Tony Vella said. Molina is due in court Aug. 5.

      Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, complained about the incident on the microblogging site Twitter. He tweeted at 4 a.m.: "I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke."

      (tags: Perez_Hilton)
    • Expectations for President Obama's stimulus package have diminished, with barely half of Americans now confident the $787 billion measure will boost the economy, and the rapid rise in optimism that followed the 2008 election has abated, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
      (tags: barack_obama)
    • Eroding confidence in President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy and ability to control spending have caused his approval ratings to wilt to their lowest levels since taking office, according to a spate of recent polls, a sign of political weakness that comes just as he most needs leverage on Capitol Hill.

      The good news for Obama is that his approval ratings — 57 percent in a Gallup tracking poll over the weekend — remain comfortably high by historical standards for presidents.

      But the trend lines among a variety of polls over the past several days are unmistakable: Independents and even some Republicans who once viewed him sympathetically are becoming skeptical, and many people of all stripes are anxious about economic and fiscal trends.

      (tags: barack_obama)
    • Sen. Chris Dodd writes, "Public officials aren’t supposed to change their minds. But I firmly believe that it’s important to keep learning."
      Hey, guess who now supports gay marriage? Chris Dodd. Gay Democratic donors, please note the reappearance of your fair-weather friend.

      UPDATE: Once again, Dick Cheney leads, Chris Dodd follows.

      I see that back in 1996, when the Defense of Marriage Act was up for debate, Chris Dodd said, "I agree with my colleagues who have risen and raised questions as to the motivations of why this legislation is before us. It is clearly, in my view, premature." Then . . . he voted for it anyway. Profile in courage!

    • U.S. President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup finals in South Africa next year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday.
      President Obama, whose late father was Kenyan, has indicated he will attend the event on June 11 next year when the first World Cup to be staged on African soil begins.

      Blatter told a media briefing: "The World Cup in Africa will go well, there is no doubt.

      "And the man who said, 'Yes we can do it,' will be there. President Obama has accepted an invitation to the opening ceremony.

      "Of course the schedule of heads of state can change, but he has said he will be there if he can."

      (tags: barack_obama)
    • The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford was unknown for nearly four days, and some state leaders question who was in charge of the executive office.

      But Sanford’s office told the lieutenant governor’s office Monday afternoon that Sanford has been reached and he is fine, said Frank Adams, head of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s office on aging.

      Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, had been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion Thursday in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but declined to be identified.

      (tags: Mark_Sanford)
    • President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France.
      In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved—braving critics who fear the issue is a marginal one and could stigmatize Muslims in France.

      "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.

      The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France.

    • In Hawaii, state employees are bracing for furloughs of three days a month over the next two years, the equivalent of a 14 percent pay cut. In Idaho, lawmakers reduced aid to public schools for the first time in recent memory, forcing pay cuts for teachers.
      And in California, where a $24 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year is the nation’s worst, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed releasing thousands of prisoners early and closing more than 200 state parks.

      Meanwhile, Maine is adding taxes on candy and ski tickets, Wisconsin on oil companies, and Kentucky on alcohol and cellphone ring tones.

      With state revenues in a free fall and the economy choked by the worst recession in 60 years, governors and legislatures are approving program cuts, layoffs and, to a smaller degree, tax increases that were previously unthinkable.

    • North Korea reminded the U.S. on Monday that it has nuclear weapons and warned it will strike back if attacked, as a U.S. destroyer continued to trail a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons.

      The Kang Nam, previously involved in weapons shipments, is the first vessel monitored under new U.N. sanctions adopted after the North's nuclear test last month. It could become a test case for interception of North Korean ships at sea – something Pyongyang has said it would consider an act of war.

      President Barack Obama said the U.S. is ready to cope with "any contingencies" amid reports the North appears to be preparing for a long-range missile test planned sometime around July 4, the Independence Day holiday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered additional protections for Hawaii as a precaution.

      (tags: north_korea)
  • Antonio Villaraigosa,  Lu Parker,  Mirthala Salinas

    Los Angeles Mayor Tony Villaraigosa Bows Out of Race for California Governor

    Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gestures during an interview Monday, June 22, 2009, at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Villaraigosa announced his decision Monday not to run for governor of California in 2010, because he wants to finish his job as mayor

    Not really a shock and Mayor Tony knows he cannot beat California Attorney General and former California Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown in a contested Democrat Primary anyway.

    Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced on national television today that he would not be running for California governor in 2010 after flirting with a bid for higher office for months.

    “I can’t leave this city in the middle of a crisis,” Villaraigosa said. Noting that Los Angeles is grappling with a $530-million deficit, a 12.5% unemployment rate and more than 20,000 people who have lost their homes over the last two years, the mayor said: “I feel compelled to complete what I started out to do.”

    Elected to a second, four-year term in March, the mayor broke the news to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room,” saying he wanted to devote his full attention to Los Angeles.

    The former state assembly speaker said he had been making up his mind “for a long time” and that the state’s challenges had made the decision an “agonizing” one.  Villaraigosa called the situation in Sacramento “an abomination,” but hinted at the political risks of announcing a statewide run so soon after being reelected to a second term. “I was elected mayor and reelected by the people of this city.They’ve given me the honor for a second term, and I feel compelled to complete the promise that I made to them. I’m going to dream, and I want the people to dream with me,” he said.

    Villaraigosa’s decision adds a dash of clarity to the race for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination which, at the moment, appears will be between state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Brown has yet to say if he will run, while Newsom already has announced his candidacy.

    In a personal note, Villaraigosa said the demands of the campaign trail would have kept him apart from his 16-year-old daughter, whom he called the “apple of my eye.” “She’s got two more years of high school and then she’s gone, and I don’t want to be campaigning for a year, and then leading the state in Sacramento and my little precious is, you know, finishing up her high school education.”

    Pundits will say Mayor Tony pulled out because of his self-inflicted summer of love affair with Mirthala Salinas or even his latest fling with television news anchor Lu Parker but it is really the candidacy of Jerry Brown that gives him pause.

    Mayor Tony will now simply wait until after Brown loses to Meg Whitman or Steve Poizner and then run for Governor at a later time or for Dianne Feinstein’s United States Senate seat when she retires.

    But, Villaraigosa will be judged on his second term
    as Mayor of Los Angeles and he had better do a better job.


    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Al Qaeda,  Pakistan

    Al Qaeda Says They Would Use Pakistani Nukes Against United States

    al-qaeda

    Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan Mustafa abu al-Yazid making statements from an unknown location

    Well, Duh…..

    If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday.

    Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda’s Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.

    “God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

    Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.

    “We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) … and that would be its end everywhere, God willing.”

    Asked about the group’s plans, the Egyptian militant leader said: “The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organisation in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny — the United States.

    “That can be achieved through continued work on the open fronts and also by opening new fronts in a manner that achieves the interests of Islam and Muslims and by increasing military operations that drain the enemy financially.”

    The United States damn well better have sufficient assets in the area to prevent the loss of those nukes in Palistan. Or pre-emptively, America should go ito Pakistan and take them. Or, at the very least render them inactive.

    Stay tuned…..


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Barack Obama,  Iran

    Day By Day by Chris Muir June 22, 2009 – I(Ran)

    daybyday062009b

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    I might have taken Chris Muir’s excellent cartoon series out of order but here is Saturday’s cartoon that I missed.

    Iran and citizen protests over a stolen election certainly are derailing President Obama’s agenda.

    The tumultuous aftermath of Iran’s presidential election more than a week ago has complicated the president’s plans to engage Tehran in a quest for a “grand bargain” to stop the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

    On Sunday, Iran’s government announced that five members of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s family have been arrested, suggesting a rift among Iran’s theocratic rulers, although state media later said they were released. The government also said at least 10 people were killed and 100 injured in clashes between demonstrators and police.

    Domestically, Mr. Obama’s massive health care reform effort has run into roadblocks on Capitol Hill. The reason: Lawmakers are worried about voting for legislation that could get them tossed out of office in 2010.

    You see, Obama has been skating by with teleprompter speeches and “straddling” the fence positions on everything from Guantanamo Bay, Gay Rights to foreign policy. Now, with Hillary Clinton laid up with an injury, Obama might actually have to conduct his own foreign policy with Iran AND take responsibility for it.

    Last week was not a good one for the President as he has sunk in the polls.

    Will he be able to recover or is the honeymoon indeed over?

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive


    Technorati Tags: ,