Good morning, and welcome to
July. 1 YEAR IN THE PENTAGON : A year ago
today, Leon Panetta walked up the river steps of the Pentagon and was sworn in
as the 23rd Secretary of Defense. His year of leading the 3.2 million men and
women of the Defense Department: "maintaining pressure on al Qaeda
leadership disrupting plots and removing key leaders from the battlefield,
ending the Iraq war and safely bringing home the troops, beginning a drawdown
in Afghanistan and transition to Afghan security lead, concluding the NATO
mission in Libya with fall of Qadhafi, developing a new defense strategy
focused on new capabilities and a rebalance towards Asia-Pacific and Middle
East, putting forward a budget to implement that strategy and achieve
Congress-mandated savings of $487 billion over 10 years, implementing the
repeal of [Don't Ask Don't Tell], opening 14,000 positions in the military to
women, and taking new measures to prevent and prosecute sexual assault."
OLYMPICS COUNTDOWN – Rafael Nadal will carry the Spanish
flag at the London Olympics.
TV NEWSER - "Savannah
Guthrie has been named co-anchor of NBC News' 'Today'" - NBC
release: "The announcement was made
... by NBC News President Steve Capus and is effective immediately. The new
'Today' anchor team of Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Natalie
Morales officially debuts Monday, July 9. Statement from ... Capus ... : 'In
just a few short years Savannah, has become a standout member of the news
division as well as the ultimate team player. She's anchored for Brian on
"NBC Nightly News," moderated for David on "Meet the
Press," co-hosted the 9 a.m. hour of "Today," reported for
"Rock Center" and "Dateline," and provided legal insights
in our Supreme Court Special Reports - and that was all within the last week!
She's got an undeniable range, and she's earned the trust of the news
community, her colleagues and our viewers alike.'.
WHITE HOUSE salary list released. http://1.usa.gov/OOUIol It
would be nice if some of our public and private educational institutions did
this announcement also.
SPORTS
BLINK - NFL Network plans live 6-10 a.m. "NFL AM" - NFL release : "Debuting Monday, July
30 just as training camps open, the new four-hour 'NFL AM' kicks off at 6 a.m.
ET every Monday through Friday. ... The show's discussion will cover a
wide-range of NFL-related topics including the cultural convergence of sports,
entertainment and music. Each morning, 'NFL AM' will collaborate with NFL.com
to take a look at the latest in fantasy football news and information. The
show's talent roster features Mark Kriegel from FOXSports.com, former San
Francisco 49ers Super Bowl-winning cornerback Eric Davis, Brian Webber from FOX
Sports Digital, Nicole Zaloumis from Comcast Sports Net-New England and Steve
Wyche from NFL Media. The show will be based at NFL Network's Culver City,
Calif., studios. No other sport is the sole focus of a show of this length each
and every weekday morning."
SECRETARY CLINTON last week was in
Finland, her 99th country as SecState. She also visited Latvia, #100. The previous
record, held by Madeleine Albright, was 96 -- and Secretary Clinton still has
(at least) six months to go. (If Obama is reelected, look for him to ask her to
stay on for a few months as a transition.) Her first country was Japan (along
with China, Korea, Indonesia). She "went West," signaling her
emphasis on Asia.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to:
George W. Bush (66), Tom Cruise (50), Larry David (65), Julie Nixon Eisenhower
(64), Luci Baines Johnson (65), Jack Lambert (60), Richard Petty (75), Nancy
Reagan (91), Doc Severinsen (85), Pam Shriver (50), Neil Simon (85), Ringo
Starr (72), United States of America (236), Jerry Vale (80).
PAUL
McCARTNEY - "His
ballad 'Yesterday' is one of the most covered songs in history -- but as he
turned 70 last week, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney shows no signs of settling back
to reflect on his extraordinary past. Fresh from wowing huge crowds at Queen
Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee concert and with another headline gig -- the
London Olympics opening ceremony -- booked for next month, retirement looks a
way off for the British legend. ... Between his years with the Fab Four, his
work with Wings and his solo career, McCartney has written or co-written more
than 50 top 10 singles. Macca, as he is affectionately known, released his
latest album 'Kisses on the Bottom' in February, and is just finishing a world
tour. And as he bounced onto the stage and belted out a string of hits in the
shadow of Buckingham Palace this month, he did not look like a man with eight
grandchildren. It may be the singer's third marriage, to US heiress Nancy
Shevell in October, that has put the spring back in his step.
"Born to working-class parents in [Liverpool,] the port city in
northwest England, McCartney met John Lennon at the age of 15 and the pair
formed the Quarrymen, the skiffle band that eventually metamorphosed into the
Beatles. ... Lennon and McCartney formed one of the most celebrated songwriting
partnerships of the 20th century, but their creative differences ultimately
helped bring about the Beatles' break-up in 1970. ... Of the four Beatles, two
have since died: Lennon when he was shot dead in New York in 1980 and Harrison
from cancer in 2001. McCartney is often mistakenly described as 'the last
remaining Beatle' -- something that the oft-overlooked drummer Ringo Starr, who
is also still recording, bears with good-natured amusement."
THE
ROMNEY OLYMPICS -- "This weekend, Mitt Romney is starting
his annual summer vacation on [Lake Winnipesaukee]... The Romneys, 30 in all
these days, [follow] a ... regimen of sports and games known as the 'Romney
Olympics.' The Romney Olympics have long included a mini-triathlon of biking,
swimming and running that pits Mitt and his five sons and their wives against
one another. But after Mitt once nearly finished last, behind a daughter-in-law
who had given birth to her second child a couple of months earlier, the
ultra-competitive and self-described unathletic patriarch expanded the games to
give himself a better shot. Now they also compete to see who can hang onto a
pole the longest, who can throw a football the farthest and who can hammer the
most nails into a board in two minutes - not exactly the kind of events they'll
be giving out gold medals for in London this month.
"By day, the Romneys kayak and water
ski - one sport at which Mitt
excels - play tennis and basketball, stage a 'home-run derby' and horse around
on a slip-and-slide. Most of the grandchildren (there are now 18) put on a
talent show on a stage that Papa, as they call Mitt, constructed in the
backyard. And he helps them roast s'mores over a campfire and leads them on
treasure hunts. He grills chicken and salmon and teaches the kids how to drive
his lawn tractor. At night, the adults gather for family meetings, with each
evening focused on a frank and full discussion of a different son's career
moves and parenting worries. Each member of the family picks a daily chore from
a 'chore wheel,' so as to share cleaning tasks evenly.
"And
... everyone poses on the lawn for a
portrait for that year's Romney family Christmas card. The grandchildren
coordinate outfits; last summer, the girls wore matching orange and yellow
polka-dotted dresses and the boys, blue checkered shirts. ... Romney's 13-acre
estate features a six-bedroom house, a horse stable with guest apartments above
it, a $630,000 boat house, tennis and volleyball courts and a shoreline
stretching 768 feet ... Romney and his wife, Ann, purchased the home in 1997
for $2.5 million and later bought adjoining land. This year, records show, the
estate was assessed at $8 million." Family photo http://wapo.st/QLvwfJ
DRIVING THE WEEK -
Congress is gone,
Mitt Romney is off the trail for his highly competitive extended family
vacation in Wolfboro, N.H. and Wednesday is the July 4th holiday. So it's going
to be a weird and mostly likely quiet week. But the June jobs report at 8:30
a.m. Friday will close things off with a significant bang. Consensus is for a
gain of 90K and no change to the 8.2% jobless rate.
On Tuesday, Fed and
FDIC plan to release portions of living wills submitted by nine big banks.
Analysts say it is unlikely any of the submissions will be rejected as
insufficient. If they are, it would be a very bad headline for the bank or
banks rejected ... ISM manufacturing out at 10 a.m. today expected to drop to
52.0 from 53.5 ... Construction spending, also at 10:00 a.m., expected to rise
0.2% ... ISM services on Thursday expected to be little changed from May's 53.7.
Next week, Jack Ass of the Month and summer movies.
Until Next Monday, Adios.
Claremont, CA
July 2, 2012
#III-10, 115
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