Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. California Group: Pelosi Will Boost Immigration
2. Hillary, Rudy Lead in New Poll
3. Washington Insiders: It's McCain vs. Hillary
4. Congress Doubles U.S. Weapons Storage in Israel
5. Harry Reid Helps Milk Lobby Crush Innovator
6. Imus Criticized by Jewish Paper
7. We Heard: Mel Gibson, Roger Simon
1. California Group: Pelosi Will Boost Immigration
A California organization has launched a radio campaign warning that future
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will push for large increases in immigration
to the Untied States.
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is running the radio spots in
Los Angeles and San Diego, and plans to launch them in other California markets
in 2007.
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, has supported Social Security benefits for
illegal aliens, as well as in-state tuition and driver's licenses, according to
U.S. Newswire.
She has voted against border security, workplace verification programs and
immigration-related terrorism safety measures.
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CAPS President Diana Hull said: "At a time when immigration is overwhelming
California, it's horribly ironic that our state's own representative is the one
pushing for open-ended increases in immigration. Californians want less
immigration, not more, and so do most Americans.
"Now that Representative Pelosi is becoming Speaker Pelosi, it's time for her
politics to grow up for the good of this state and the country."
According to U.S. Newswire, current legislative proposals, if approved, could
push the U.S. population to 500 million by 2050.
CAPS declares on its Web site: "America's open-door policies have left
California, and the nation, with a continued and unsustainable flood of
immigration. And something must be done."
Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are the
clear leaders for their party's nomination for president in 2008, a new NBC/Wall
Street Journal poll reveals.
In the poll conducted from Dec. 8 to 11, respondents were shown a list of
potential Democratic candidates and asked whom they would vote for if the
primary were held today.
Hillary garnered 37 percent of the vote, more than twice the vote of the
second-place finisher, Sen. Barack Obama at 18 percent.
The complete breakdown:
Hillary Clinton: 37 percent
Barack Obama: 18 percent
John Edwards: 14 percent
John Kerry: 11 percent
Joe Biden: 4 percent
Evan Bayh: 3 percent
Bill Richardson: 2 percent
Tom Vilsack did not receive a vote, while 3 percent of respondents chose another
candidate; 3 percent chose none; and 5 percent said they were not sure.
On the GOP side, Giuliani beat out John McCain by 5 percentage points. The
breakdown:
Rudy Giuliani: 34 percent
John McCain: 29 percent
Newt Gingrich: 10 percent
Mitt Romney: 8 percent
Sam Brownback: 2 percent
Mike Huckabee: 2 percent
George Pataki: 1 percent
Tommy Thompson: 1 percent
Two percent chose another candidate; 3 percent chose none; and 8 percent were
unsure.
Another recent poll, this one by ABC News and The Washington Post, also showed
Giuliani leading all GOP contenders with 34 percent of the vote, ahead of No. 2
McCain at 26 percent.
Rudolph Giuliani may presently be the people's choice for the Republican
nomination for president in 2008, but influential Washington insiders believe
that when the general election rolls around, it will pit Hillary Clinton against
John McCain, not Rudy.
The National Journal asked 220 Democratic and Republican insiders members of
Congress, party activists, consultants, fund-raisers, lobbyists, and
interest-group leaders to list and rank the top five contenders for their
party's 2008 nomination.
The results differed significantly from a similar National Journal survey in
May. Back then, McCain led among Republicans, and Sen. George Allen of Virginia
was second. After Allen's election defeat in November, he has fallen out of the
picture, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has taken the No. 2 spot.
Among Democrats, Hillary led in May and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was
second. He too has fallen after announcing he won't be a candidate, and Illinois
Sen. Barack Obama has now taken the second spot.
John Edwards placed third among Democrats in the new survey, while Al Gore was
fourth and Evan Bayh fifth.
On the GOP side, Rudy Giuliani was third after McCain and Romney, followed by
Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee.
"For the first time since National Journal's initial 2008 presidential survey
was conducted in April 2005, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia broke
into the top five rankings," the Journal disclosed.
"Allen's defeat and departing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's recent
decision not to run have created a huge opening for Gingrich."
The survey also found that 33 percent of Democratic insiders believe Hillary
Clinton's gender would help her in the general election, while 28 percent think
it would hurt, and 39 percent say it would have no impact.
Democratic insiders also believe that Barack Obama's race would hurt him in the
general election: 48 percent say it would hurt; 26 percent believe it would
help; and the rest think it would have no impact.
A majority of Republican insiders 52 percent believe Mitt Romney's Mormon
religion would hurt him in the general election, and only 2 percent believe it
would help; 46 percent say it would have no impact.
4. Congress Doubles U.S. Weapons Storage in Israel
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have approved the doubling of
American arms stored in Israel for emergency use.
The United States stores arms and equipment in classified facilities called War
Reserve Stockpiles (WRS), to be used if needed in wartime. Outside Israel, most
WRS facilities are located in NATO countries, according to
IsraelNationalNews.com.
Meanwhile, another media outlet in Israel is reporting that the U.S. is building
a massive new base for the Israeli military on the West Bank border.
The IsraelInsider.com Web site reports that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
claims the base will be used as a storage facility for reservists' equipment.
"Still, the base's massive size dozens of huge warehouses, with reinforced
bunkers, watchtowers, and tunnels casts a shadow of doubt over this singular
explanation for its use," according to IsraelInsider.
The Web site reports that investigative journalist Barry Chamish tried to visit
the base and was told by a guard about the facility: "You've never seen so many
computers and cameras in your life."
And a former American soldier who examined photographs of the base told
IsraelInsider: "I saw these kind of installations when I was in the military.
For years I was stationed at a base where a major part of it was like this.
These are not barracks of any kind. The metal facilities built up on the rocks
are huge electronic facilities, probably filled with CIA and extensive phone and
other electronic monitoring stuff . . .
"It is a missile launch bunker. Somewhere within a mile to five miles are silos
with the missiles in them."
But an IDF spokesman insisted the base is a storage facility for reservists'
equipment, to be used in an emergency.
According to a 2001 report in the Jerusalem Post, the U.S. has agreed to build
new bases to replace bases in the West Bank if and when the territory comes
under Palestinian control.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid helped torpedo the efforts of a
maverick dairyman to slash the price consumers pay for milk.
Dutch-born dairyman Hein Hettinga began bottling his own milk in Arizona and
selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less than competitors operating
under the government's price-control system.
The milk lobby spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions
and enlisted the aid of lawmakers, including Nevada Democrat Reid.
In March, Congress passed a law that basically ended Hettinga's efforts, The
Washington Post reported.
"I had an awakening," said Hettinga, 64. "It's not totally free enterprise in
the United States."
Most American dairy farmers adhere to a government system set up in the 1930s to
give farmers a guaranteed price for their milk.
The system was originally designed to aid small dairy farmers, but today the
industry is dominated by huge food companies and cooperatives. In fact, the
watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste estimates that the government
program costs consumers at least $1.5 billion a year.
Enter Hettinga, who had half a dozen dairies in California and Arizona in the
1990s. He built his own bottling plant in Yuma, Ariz., and began selling milk at
below-market prices.
"United Dairymen of Arizona, a cooperative that handles 85 percent of the
state's milk, complained that by keeping his milk outside the Arizona pool" of
milk producers, "Hettinga was affecting the USDA price-setting formula, lowering
returns for other dairies," the Post reported.
In late 2001, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, proposed a measure that would have forced
Hettinga to contribute to a pool that pays out money to major milk producers.
In the House, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., introduced a bill that would have
barred Hettinga's "unregulated" milk from being sold in California. Nunes
collected $130,000 in campaign contributions from dairy interests for his first
congressional campaign, according to the Post.
Both efforts stalled in Congress.
But in 2003, Harry Reid entered the picture and agreed to support legislation
cracking down on Hettinga. He had earlier supported Kyl's efforts to protect
Arizona dairies from low-priced Nevada milk, and had engineered a provision
exempting milk plants in the Las Vegas area from federal pricing rules.
In 2004, Reid received $5,000 in political contributions from Dean Foods, the
nation's largest producer of dairy products.
In 2005 and the first half of 2006, milk interests spent more than $5 million on
lobbying as lawmakers continued to work on a milk bill.
Finally on Dec. 16, 2005, with the Senate chamber almost empty, Reid brought up
the milk bill, which passed by "unanimous consent," meaning that no roll call
vote was required.
After the bill also passed in the House, Rep. Nunes called it a victory "for
every dairy farmer in America except those who were gaming the system."
The new law required Hettinga to pay the pool of Arizona dairy farmers $400,000
a month, a "crippling sum," he said.
Hein Hettinga has filed a lawsuit charging that the milk bill was
unconstitutional because it was aimed at penalizing a single person, the Post
noted.
Mary Keough Ledman, a dairy economist who observed the conflict between Hettinga
and the industry, said lawmakers and major dairy producers "wanted to make sure
there would be no more Heins."
The Jewish publication Forward has likened radio host Don Imus to Mel Gibson and
Michael Richards for the "anti-Semitic vitriol" he spewed on-air on Nov. 30.
That morning, Imus was preparing to host the Blind Boys of Alabama, a group of
gospel singers, and he recalled that station supervisors had voiced reservations
about the group before an earlier appearance, Forward reported.
"I remember when I first had em on a few years ago. The Jewish management at,
whoever we work for, CBS, were bitchin' at me about it," Imus said.
"I tried to put it in terms that these money-grubbing bastards could understand.
I said: They're handicapped, they're black, and they're blind. How do we lose
here?' And then a light bulb went off over their scummy little heads."
Imus' co-host Larry Kenney then said: "They probably were trying to push a more
Semitic group on you. I don't know, maybe the Paralyzed Putzes of Poland or
something like that."
THAT political columnist and best-selling author Roger Simon is joining Allbritton Communications' new multimedia political news venture.
Simon will write a regular column on presidential politics and help anchor the
yet-unnamed venture's coverage of the 2008 White House campaign.
The new paper and Web site will launch on Jan. 23, according to U.S. Newswire.
Simon is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who
has covered every presidential election since 1976.
He has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Baltimore Sun and was
syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate. Simon has also been a White House
correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, political editor of U.S. News & World
Report, and chief political correspondent for Bloomberg News.
"We are committed to creating the next generation of political journalism," said
Robert Allbritton, publisher of the new venture.
"Simon is rightly regarded as one of the most dynamic and respected political
journalists in the country. He is a tireless reporter with a reputation for
breaking news and engaging readers in print and on television and the Web."
THAT Mel Gibson says he won't be returning to acting anytime soon.
Gibson, whose latest directorial effort "Apocalypto" debuted at No. 1 at the box
office, hasn't had a major acting role since 2003.
"I just haven't felt the pressing desire to hop in front of the camera and tap
dance," he said in comments reported by contactmusic.com.
"It's not that I don't want to do it; it's just that it hasn't been on the menu
for me for a while."
Meanwhile, a published report discloses that Gibson last year donated another $8
million to his A.P. Reilly Foundation, named after his late mother and set up to
run his privately built Holy Family Catholic Church near Malibu.
Holy Family celebrates the mass in Latin and doesn't recognize the reforms of
the 1965 Vatican II Conference, which, among other things, absolved Jews of
guilt in Christ's death.
In 2004, Gibson donated $5 million to the foundation.
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