** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. A 20th day of searching by thousands of US troops south of Baghdad for the two remaining surviving American soldiers captured in an ambush by Al Qaeda has ended. The prisoners have still not been located.
** SCHWARZENEGGER ON CANADA’S WEST COAST. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is wrapping up his three-day tour of Canada on its Pacific coast, doing a number of events in the lovely city of Vancouver, British Columbia. There he signed the previously reported upon climate change accord with BC Premier Gordon Campbell, toured a major public/private partnership rail project, and wore a colorful Indian blanket. But unless he wears a hat, NWN will not run such pictures.
** OCEAN’S 13 STARS BACK OBAMA. And the movie’s premiere is in Chicago. Hmm. The movie’s set in Las Vegas. Natch. If the premiere’s in Vegas, NWN is all over it. If it’s in Chicago … Ocean’s 13 goes into national release on June 8th.
** ROMNEY IN CALIFORNIA. The presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, which previously announced state Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman of Orange County and former state controller nominee Tony Strickland as its state chairs has announced more members of its Califonria leadership team. San Diego/Sacramento consultant Duane Dichiara, who did campaigns for Congressman Brian Bilbray and Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, will be Romney’s state director. Checking in as Romney senior advisors are conservative stalwarts Rob Stutzman and Mike Schroeder. Stutzman was former Attorney General and 1998 gubernatorial nominee Dan Lungren’s communications director, along with holding the same post during the more conservative phase of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship. Schroeder, a powerhouse Orange County political lawyer, is a former state Republican Party chairman and another stalwart of the right wing.
** FREEH BACKS RUDY. Bill Clinton’s FBI director, Louis Freeh, has today in New York City endorsed Republican Rudy Giuliani for president.
“Rudy Giuliani’s optimistic leadership is responsible for making the city of New York what it is today –one of the safest large cities in the country and a place where the world feels safe to visit. Through Rudy’s use of innovative crime fighting programs like CompStat, he demonstrated that with determination and strength, solutions can be crafted to seemingly intractable problems. I have known and admired Rudy for his law enforcement leadership and innovation for over twenty-five years. His devotion to public safety and the rule of law, plus real life knowledge about crime reduction turned one of the country’s most dangerous cities into the model for law and order.”
Freeh will serve as senior homeland security advisor to Giuliani and as Delaware chairman of his campaign.
** NEW POLL OF CALIFORNIA. The new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shows Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger very popular (61% job approval), the Legislature not so popular, investing in another set of infrastructure bonds very popular, concern about the state budget rather low, support for changing term limits to 12 years total in the same house at a marginally acceptable though still popular rate (53% to 41%), and a generally sunny outlook for California’s future. So long as bipartisan cooperation continues.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. Thousands of American troops are now in the midst of a 20th day of searching for the remaining two US soldiers captured by Al Qaeda in an ambush south of Baghdad. They have had no luck so far. But the activity may be preventing Al Qaeda from having the time and space to film the captives in a propaganda bonanza.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Most crude oil prices are in the $63 to $64 per barrel range on reports of unexpected shortages in US supplly.
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44 Comments
Jonas Blane:We’ll never get those soldiers back. This is the only site that cares.
May 31, 2007 - 9:23 am Brasky:“So long as bipartisan cooperation continues.”
Group hug anyone?
http://www.tvfodder.com/archives/MTM.jpg
May 31, 2007 - 9:50 am Juan Cortina:from the PPIC report: “57 percent of Republicans, 53 percent of Democrats, and 50 percent of independents say they would vote yes.” (on the term limits initiatve)
I wouldn’t have guessed so many Republicans support this initiative.
May 31, 2007 - 10:39 am richard locicero:It also showed a pretty abyssmal ignorance of state government. Only three percent knew how bonds were paid for!
May 31, 2007 - 10:45 am NickM:Juan - the Republican support may evaporate when it is publicized that it will allow current incumbents to in many cases stay longer than 12 (or 14) years. Don “I use campaign donations to live in luxury” Perata will become the poster child for the no campaign.
May 31, 2007 - 11:34 am Brasky:Nick - spot on. The support evaporates under the hot sun of the campaign, unless Arnold provides cover.
May 31, 2007 - 11:51 am Jonathan Hemlock:The term limits issue is something of a nothing.
May 31, 2007 - 12:04 pm Jonathan Hemlock:The term limits issue is something of a nothing.
May 31, 2007 - 12:08 pm Bill Bradley:Richard, odd as it may seem, the average Californian does not read New West Notes!
May 31, 2007 - 12:46 pm Bill Bradley:Or perhaps, Dr. Hemlock, it is nothing of a something.
May 31, 2007 - 12:48 pm Brasky:“Meat” Romney is still looking for his Crash Davis…
May 31, 2007 - 1:08 pm Brasky:Bill - You got to go to St Louis this August. Looks like every Reep presidential candidate will be there, except McCain.
May 31, 2007 - 1:27 pm Ann:Stutzman should screw things right up for Romney. lol
May 31, 2007 - 1:27 pm Bill Bradley:Brasky, are you trying to get me to go or convince me not to?
May 31, 2007 - 1:33 pm Barbara:On Stutzman/Romney…
Mike Murphy/DC Navigators is often quoted as saying that he is abstaining from working with either McCain or Romney because he and I assume his company DC Navigators have both a previous working and personal relationship with both candidates…yet Stutzman is DC/Navigator employee…so is he working for him as an individual or as an employee of his company?
Romney …if there is no CIRA passed for sure we will see him “pull a Wilson” here in California , maybe nationally on illegal immigration with a repeat of those horrid political ADs of Wilson…
May 31, 2007 - 1:43 pm Capitol Boy:Romney’s getting the right-wingers’ right-wingers.
May 31, 2007 - 1:43 pm Brasky:“Brasky, are you trying to get me to go or convince me not to?”
Come on man! You got to get us inside the Forbiden City of Right Wing Nut Jobs. Just imagine the crazy stuff you could get on video.
And you got your PJ press pass. Just put on a t-shirt with a “Don’t Tred on Me” flag on it and you are set!
May 31, 2007 - 1:51 pm Brasky:Barbara: Didn’t “Meat” Romney fire Murphy?
May 31, 2007 - 1:55 pm Hap Hazard:With the unsurprising addition of Freeh to the Guliani camp, I bet that, if required to produce one, Hillary (and Bill) would place Guliani at the top of their list of opponents they would least like to face in ‘08. I think that Fred Thompson would be their next least favorite, for different reasons.
As to Obama, I have a more difficult time imagining who he might not prefer to face off against in the republican field. Maybe McCain because of the contrast in experience and qualifications?
May 31, 2007 - 2:08 pm Barbara:Brasky, I don’t know all that stuff….but Mr. Murphy is a partner in DC Navigators and Mr. Stutzman and employee…and Mr. Murphy frequently appears on TV as a commentator and often says that he is not working for McCain or Romney due to the previous his relationship with both…it seems to me that he can not say that anymore, with this Stutzman hire…unless you tell me that in the political consulting business this happens all the time …corporate consulting does not work this way …you could not say that you (a Partner) in a firm did not have an interest in a client if he was represented by someone in your firm…
May 31, 2007 - 2:13 pm Juan Cortina:re: “Perata will become the poster child for the no campaign.”
Seems like a rather low-profile person (in terms of recognition) to base a statewide campaign on. I excpect the “no” side to come up with something beter than “Fire Don Perata.”
May 31, 2007 - 2:15 pm Hap Hazard:Interesting note about Ocean’s 13 cast and Obama. It makes we wonder, who, if anyone, in the entertainment industry will be left supporting Hillary to the end. Support for Bill clearly does not transfer freely to Hillary.
May 31, 2007 - 2:15 pm Bill Bradley:Very good point, General Cortina. Despite the best efforts of NWN, Don Perata is nonetheless not a household name in California.
May 31, 2007 - 2:20 pm Kandy Kid:Before folks try to predict the outcome of the term limits election, they should show voters this ad and then ask them how they will vote….
Meet Senate Leader Don Perata. This career politician has served 10 years in the State Senate and the FBI is investigating his personal use of campaign funds. When he heard the first version of Proposition 100 kept him from running again, his buddy Speaker Nunez wrote a special exception so he can serve 14 years instead of just 12. Vote No on Proposition 100, it wont make our government work better, it will keep shady politicians in office longer.
May 31, 2007 - 2:20 pm Bill Bradley:… Whereas Willie Brown was, and is, a really well-known guy.
You point up a fundamental problem for the term limits classicists.
Because of term limits, no legislator is especially well-known — hence a good target — in the state.
May 31, 2007 - 2:22 pm Bill Bradley:Having been through this, Hap, my observation is that Hollywood collectively wants to be all over Barack Obama.
It’s holding back, some, out of respect for Hillary, and remembrance of the old love affair with Bill.
But if Obama gets it going in the early states, it’s going to be the most passionate political affair we’ve seen since JFK.
May 31, 2007 - 2:24 pm Brasky:Thanks for the Time article - that was a real bombshell. I mean, Steven Soderbergh is Swedish?!
May 31, 2007 - 2:36 pm Bill Bradley:KK, my friends in the Bay Area don’t really know who Perata is. They sure know Willie Brown!
Term limits passed barely in the first place. This is still term limits.
Throw Arnold in the mix and you’ve got a winner.
May 31, 2007 - 2:39 pm Bill Bradley:Brasky, I thought you were going to say Ellen Barkin is the bombshell. Now that she’s away from that dwarf stiff Ron Perelman.
May 31, 2007 - 2:40 pm Brasky:I’ve had a thing for Ellen Barkin since The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
May 31, 2007 - 2:44 pm Paul Burton:from East Bay Express:
Living Large
How state Senator Don Perata uses campaign cash to finance his lavish lifestyle. First of two parts.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-05-23/news/living-large/
Campaigning the Perata Way: Second of two parts
Published: May 30, 2007
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-05-30/news/my-fair-lady/
May 31, 2007 - 3:06 pm Brasky:Just read the Chronicle article on the “anti-Iraq War” measure to go on the ballot. This tidbit is in the last paragraph:
“The last time an advisory question was on the California ballot was Proposition 12 in November 1982. Voters were asked if they favored nuclear disarmament between the U.S. and what was then the Soviet Union. It won 52 percent to 48 percent.”
A bilateral nuclear disarmament advisory vote won by 4% in California. I’m sure that’s what stopped the Cold War 7 years later.
Two things to consider: 1) This is stupid. 2) Hippies don’t vote.
May 31, 2007 - 3:12 pm richard locicero:I believe that was the “Nuclear Freeze” Initiative (freeze on more nukes NOT disarmament) and a four point win at a time when the state had half the defense procurement budget spent here and was a Republican as you could get (last Dem winner here was LBJ in 1964, and before that FDR!) I’d say it was pretty good.
May 31, 2007 - 3:34 pm Ann:La Times political blog checks out. That didn’t last long.
Goodbye to all that
This is my last posting on Political Muscle. After a decade of covering California governors, lawmakers, the gubernatorial recall, the Florida recount, dozens of propositions and endless campaigns, I’ve decided to take the buyout offer from the L.A. Times. It’s time to travel in a different direction.
It will be difficult to leave such a remarkable news operation with such talented reporters and editors. The Political Muscle blog has been fantastic real estate for the Sacramento bureau. It has allowed us to spotlight the floating opera of California politics in playful, occasionally serious and sometimes outrageous ways. And we poked fun at the king in public. What could be more important than all that?
Stay tuned for a new Political Muscle blog after a brief hiatus. Meanwhile, get your fix of California political news from the L.A. Times here. Take care.
- Robert Salladay
May 31, 2007 - 3:42 pm Vladimir Bierko:Kid, the problem won’t be the ad copy, but the ability to air it enough to have any effect.
The pro folks have already tested messaging in focus groups. The con folks have just ranted. As Governor Phil will attest, a rant does not a message make.
May 31, 2007 - 4:03 pm Capitol Boy:I know I should be excited about this, but I’m not.
May 31, 2007 - 4:16 pm Bill Bradley:A relatively slow afternoon, so I look around the daily newspaper blogs.
Nada.
I was once very concerned about them, since they have scores of reporters between them, and could simply overwhelm me with numbers …
May 31, 2007 - 4:55 pm Jonas Blane:There has to be an Obama connection having the Ocean’s 13 premier in Chicago. It’s too bad you won’t be there for it.
May 31, 2007 - 5:49 pm Brasky:Richard, it’s still a pretty poor showing. Especially since the majority of the military defense complex of the Cold War wasn’t dedicated to the delivery of nuclear payloads but conventional warfare.
May 31, 2007 - 6:15 pm Jonathan Hemlock:I wonder why there is so little commentary on the American prisoners of al-Qaeda. It is most curious.
May 31, 2007 - 6:17 pm Barbara:oh let’s forget politics for the night! Tonight the night for a BLUE MOON!!!!! as you are out and about tonight …look up and smile! Toodles!
May 31, 2007 - 6:17 pm RM 'Auros' Harman:Isn’t Steven Spielberg backing Hillary?
Jun 1, 2007 - 12:18 pm Bill Bradley:Yes, he is, along with helping Obama.
Jun 1, 2007 - 12:53 pm Bill Bradley:Incidentally, NWN passed 31,000 comments sometime last week.
Jun 5, 2007 - 2:03 pm