Free Republic

For state lawmakers, ringing in the New Year also means getting ready for what's shaping up to be another painful budget season. They'll return to the Capitol Jan. 4 to tackle a deficit that is expected to swell to $6.3 billion by the end of the fiscal year. Filling that hole -- and the $21 billion deficit projected for the next 18 months --tops Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's list of priorities for the new year. Steinberg said in an interview with The Bee that while further cuts and new revenues will be needed to close that gap, the...

Steinberg says he'll sue Schwarzenegger SACRAMENTO — Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg waded into a legal confrontation Friday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, announcing he plans to sue the state's top politician for "abuse of his executive powers" by making a series of extra budget cuts worth nearly $500 million. The Sacramento Democrat called the cuts — blue-pencil line-item vetoes that fell particularly hard on the poor and disabled — illegal and unconscionable. "We elected a governor, not an emperor," Steinberg said in a Capitol news conference. "The governor forced punishing cuts on children, the disabled and patients (in a fight) that...

Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2009 California Republican Party Joins Working Californians And Taxpayer Advocates To Demand Action From Democrat Leaders On The State Budget SACRAMENTO - Citing the continued inaction by Democrat legislative leaders in adopting budget solutions without more taxes - punctuated this week by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' "boycott" of budget negotiations - the California Republican Party announced it will join with working Californians and taxpayer advocates, including Lew Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee and radio personality Mark Williams, at the capitol today to demand action from Speaker Bass and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Taxpayers will gather...

A handful of high-ranking Obama administration officials this month delivered private briefings at the annual invitation-only conference held by an elite international organization known as the Bilderberg group. The closed meeting of some of the most powerful business , media and political leaders in North America and Western Europe heard from top Obama diplomats James Steinberg and Richard Holbrooke, who detailed the administration’s foreign policy, while economic adviser Paul Volcker, chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, also gave a presentation at the heavily guarded seaside resort in Greece that hosted the event. The Bilderberg group, which takes its...

State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg has a "loud and clear" message about education, health, public safety and other services. If the May 19 special-election ballot measures fail to pass, then California's budget deficit will balloon and will have to be backfilled by deep cuts in spending, warned Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "Is it a scare tactic?" he said during a meeting with reporters at the Capitol. "No. It's reality. The numbers are the numbers." Steinberg also said passage of Proposition 1C, which permits the state to borrow against future California Lottery earnings, would give the state an estimated $10 billion in borrowed...

A measure that would require utilities to receive one-third of their power from renewable energy sources by 2020 passed off the Senate floor Tuesday with the bare minimum of 21 votes. The bill, SB 14 by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-San Jose, has been tagged as a top priority for Senate leader Darrel Steinberg. The bill’s passage was the first major policy decision in which Steinberg muscled a proposal out of his house, despite reservations from many within his own party. When Steinberg took the leadership gavel in December, he noted three top legislative priorities that could give the Legislature “a...

The Obama administration has conducted a vigorous internal debate over its new strategy for Afghanistan, expected to be unveiled by the president in a speech Friday. According to two U.S. government sources close to the issue, senior policymakers were divided over how comprehensive to make the strategy, involving an initial boost of 17,000 U.S. troops. On the one side were Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, who argued in closed-door meetings for a minimal strategy of stabilizing Afghanistan that one source described as a "lowest common denominator" approach. The goal of these...

WASHINGTON -- A former top aide to ex-President Bill Clinton will be tapped as Hillary Rodham Clinton's No. 2 at the State Department this week, The Associated Press has learned. James Steinberg, a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, will be nominated for deputy secretary of state as early as Tuesday, people familiar with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment is not yet public.

At Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's first press conference on his first day as leader of the California Senate, he was asked whether he would make sure the budget was in print for 24 hours before a vote was taken. Yes, he replied, he would. Well, so much for that. Continuing in the long tradition of last-minute legislation, the state Senate and Assembly passed its $18 billion package of cuts, taxes and fund shifts this afternoon with the ink barely dry on the bills.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is leaning toward selecting retired Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, ABC News reported on Thursday. Jones is among several candidates under consideration for the job, which coordinates foreign policy throughout the administration. James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton's administration, is also a candidate for the job. The ABC report said Jones had emerged as the leading candidate for Obama, who is said to value his advice and likes the idea of hiring someone for the job with more than four decades of active military...

A state senator from Sacramento received a nod from his Democratic colleagues Thursday to replace Senate President Don Perata of Oakland when the East Bay legislator is forced out by term limits at the end of the year. Senate Democrats, who hold the majority in the upper house, met Thursday morning and agreed to get behind Sen. Darrell Steinberg to succeed Perata. But the caucus will not vote until Aug. 21, a week before the legislative session is scheduled to end. "At the right time, after Sen. Perata's term ends, I will be ready to go," Steinberg said at a...

This 90 minute documentary looks at the role of entertainers during the years surrounding World War II. It stars nearly 90 major celebrities and is a reminder of the scope of that industry's role in escapist entertainment, bond rallies, overseas trips to entertain the troops, the need for propaganda films. A fast moving entertainment documentary filled with nostalgia. Hosted by comedian David Steinberg, this DVD highlights the role of celebrities during the Second World War. Whether it was propaganda films, bond sales activities, or the Command Performance radio programs, Hollywood was there -- even Donald Duck argued that it was...

...Just my luck I only got a chance to meet one president, personally, and talk with him at length and that president -- lucky me -- was Jimmy Carter. He had been out of office a few years, was flogging a book, and a magazine sent me to Los Angeles to meet him. We spoke about half an hour and, frankly, I didn't like Carter. He was sour and grumpy and he did something that really annoyed me. His wife, Rosalynn, his supposed co-author, was there too, but whenever she tried to say anything, Carter would talk right over her,...

Two items: [1] From Laurie Mylroie's "Iraq News" Newsletter - Tue, 17 May 2005 20:03:39 -0400 Subject: Michael Rubin, Prior Isikoff Use of Faulty Source From the list of Michael Rubin, previously at DoD and now at AEI (May 17, 2005): This was not the first time Michael Isikoff has used faulty or fabricated sources. In reporting the myth that Doug Feith’s office created its own intelligence unit, he relied on Karen Kwiatkowski, who associated with the Lyndon LaRouche movement. Kwiatkowski said on tape that she was Isikoff’s chief source. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Report on the U.S....

Columnist Has Ties to Anti-Kerry Book By JACQUES STEINBERG Published: August 30, 2004 mong the stoutest defenders of "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," the best-selling book arguing that Mr. Kerry lied about his record of service in Vietnam, is the columnist Robert Novak. In his syndicated columns and on the CNN program "Crossfire," Mr. Novak has lauded the book and referred to veterans who criticize Mr. Kerry - most notably John E. O'Neill, the book's co-author - as "real patriots." Unmentioned in Mr. Novak's columns and television appearances, however, is a personal connection he...

On May 13, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy berated Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemning "disaster after disaster" in U.S. Iraq policy. Well before the Abu Ghraib revelations, Kennedy has sought to transform Iraqi freedom from a philosophical and strategic issue into a partisan debate, without regard either to reality or result. On April 6, Kennedy called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam." On March 5, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, took the president to task for allegedly exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq: "The evidence so far leads to...

Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, a key Democratic player in budget talks, on Friday blamed a band of shopping mall-heavy cities for holding up budget negotiations over the matter of protecting their bank accounts. Steinberg said he and other lawmakers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and local government groups agree that city and county treasuries must be protected in the state constitution. But he said cities, in particular those paying their bills from large sales tax bases, are asking for too much, to the possible peril of other government services, and are balking at important changes to the system through which the...

Child Killer Gets TV JobIt doesn't seem like 17 years have passed since Joel Steinberg was convicted of killing little Lisa, his 6-year-old illegally adopted daughter. Steinberg, the once prominent New York attorney, is scheduled for release next June after serving two thirds of his prison sentence, his maximum term under New York State law. Back in 1987 the Steinberg case shocked the nation. It isn't every day that a well-to-do Manhattan attorney is accused of torturing his entire family for perhaps years, eventually leading to the murder of his daughter. It was society's first realization that child abuse resulting...

After reading Howard Dean's stance on healthcare reform and his comments on healthcare for the elderly, I decided to research his wife's practice to see what she is doing to help the elderly in Vermont. Apparently, not much. According to medicare.gov's participating physician directory, (http://www4.medicare.gov/Physician/Search/PhysicianSearch.asp then search by name or location) Judith Steinberg, MD is NOT a participating provider in the Medicare program. Medicare participating providers agree to accept Medicare's approved amount as payment in full for covered services. Physicians who do not participate in the program are not restricted to Medicare approved fee amounts and may also require their...

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html Why is this poll so lopsided among the Misses: Dean/Steinberg/ Heinz/Kerry and Edwards? Anyone have any serious guesses? Any comical guesses?

FYI it's being carried live on Cspan. They said coverage starts at 7 pm ET, with the actual caucus at 7:30 pm ET.

If you did not recognize this woman, you would not a alone. She is Howard Dean's wife Judy, and she is "coming out" into the primary season, accompanied by puff-pieces like the one below from AP: Judy Dean, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, sits in her medical office in Shelburne, Vt., Feb. 6, 2003, where she is an internist in private practice. If her husband wins the presidency, America's next first lady could be a doctor tending to her patients while her husband tends the country. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, file) Howard Dean's wife is...

<p>Organizers of an initiative that would make it easier for the Legislature to pass budgets and raise taxes said Wednesday that they have more than enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.</p> <p>"It's a broken process that we're facing, and this is what's going to fix it," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a statewide coalition that advocates for health care coverage.</p>

The executive editor of The New York Times told a town-hall-style meeting of newsroom staff members yesterday that he accepted blame for the breakdown of communication and oversight that allowed a Times reporter to commit frequent acts of journalistic fraud in recent months. But the executive editor, Howell Raines, spent much of his time at the nearly two-hour meeting responding to often angry complaints and questions about his management style, according to people who attended the session. One business reporter, Alex Berenson, asked Mr. Raines if he had considered resigning, to which Mr. Raines responded that he would not step...