The John Batchelor Show

Monday 30 July 2012

Air Date: 
July 30, 2012

On Oct. 5, 2008, just after coming within 25 kilometers (15.6 miles) of the surface of Enceladus, NASA’s Cassini captured this stunning mosaic as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.  

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is escorted during his visit to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, during prayers marking Tisha B’Av in Jerusalem’s Old City July 29, 2012. Tisha B’Av, a day of fasting and lament, is traditionally the date in the Jewish calendar on which the First and Second Temples were destroyed, respectively in the sixth century B.C. by the Babylonians and the first century A.D. by the Romans in Jerusalem. 

Monday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):   .John Avlon, CNN and Newsweek International, in re:  domestic politics. 1.5% GDP growth anticipated and both candidates for the presidency need to say clearly what their plans are to improve the economy. George Clooney will have the Santa Monica auction house Gooding & Co. auction his 2008 Tesla “Signature 100” Roadster to raise money for the Satellite Sentinel Project, an organization he founded that uses satellite images to monitor the borders of Sudan and South Sudan in an effort to help report on possible military operations, alleged mass graves, razed villages, and forced displacement in the politically unstable region.

Monday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):   .LouAnn Hammond, Driving the Nation.com, in re: Mystery at the Detroit suites of  GM, partially owned by the people of the Unitd States: the vice-president of marketing left suddenly. The frozen-hearted GM Human Resources Department issued a statement, "He failed to meet our expectations as an employee."  He began at Hyundai, was poached by Nissan, then grabbed by GM. He was too-swiftly made global marketing chief.  JB: How's that 60,000 Volts sales program going?  LAH: Maybe 15,000 people own a Volt and have made ads saying how they love the vehicle.  The Volt is a miniaturized house with a generator in it.  JB: The Tesla is a beautiful machine.  Bob Lutz, the legend of General Motors, says you have to make a car people are excited about.  The Tesla S will take over unless someone stops it.

Monday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):   .Lara M Brown, Villanova, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re:    OFA ads go down in Pennsylvania. Began with Obama being 6-1/2 pts ahead of Romney, maybe 10million people, but ads had reverse impact to what they were looking for.  Obama trying to define Romney before he defines himself. Also, they may be worried about money. The ads are heavy, overwhelming, vs Romney, in re swing states.

Monday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):   .David Drucker, Roll Call, in re:     Mitt Romney has a fundraising committee composed of four state Republican parties; they're part of the Romney Victory Committee because any overage raised will flow to these parties and can, later in the fall, be forwarded to other states where the money is needed. If the money went to a battle ground state, cd be used for effort not deemed critical by the Romney campaign. The Obama Victory 2012 Fund has raised over $200mil; did not designate Dem Senate and House Committees to be part of this, while the Republicans did: in the financial industry, limits on donations to state elected officials.  JB: Isn't this a bizarre entertainment?  JA: The FEC is toothless.  TG: The more rules you have, the darker it gets. Every time someone thinks he's fixing ht system by limiting the intake, all he does is create SuperPACs and 527s.

US President George W. Bush (R) smiles after receiving a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from British Ambassador to the US Christopher Meyer at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC 16 July 2001 Photo: AFP/GETTY

Monday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):   . John Fund, American Spectator, and Taegan Goddard, PoliticalWire, in re:  The definition of a political gaffe is that a politician tells the truth.  In London, people were locked out of Wembley stadium because somebody forgot the keys, and an Indian national who wasn't a member of the team marched around the Olympic stadium. However, Romney's trip hasn’t gone all that well because the point was to show him being presidential.  In Israel and Poland, a "pile-on" environment post-London.   The cover of Newsweek calling Romney a wimp. TG: An unforced error by Newsweek replicating an old cover from 25 years ago.  JB: Original bust of Winston Churchill given to   ; second bust given to the Bush Administration several years ago. Mr Romney said he'd restore the bust to the White House – which one?   Dinesh d'Souza will release a film next month focusing on Pres Obama's return of on of he busts to the Queen created quite a flap. 

Monday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):   . continued.   Bill Clinton is more popular than ever - post-Monica and the economy was good. "The Nineties were good times and Bill Clinton is a charmer."    Pennsylvania has a lot of elder, conservative voters who don’t like negative ads, and many who "cling to guns and religion."   There hasn’t been a poll this year that shows Romney ahead, but Obama has only negative ads.

Monday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):   .Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Syria fail, Iran fail, Panetta embassy, Romney trip to Israel.  In order to keep the US embassy from moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the president must by law state reaffirm every six months that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  Also 3,000 years of Jewish history having Jerusalem as capital, and no Arab nation ever has done so.  Universal recognition. On radio programs all day, incl on this station, saying that Tel Aviv is the capita of Israel. The question is: Will there be a Palestinian capital somewhere in East Jerusalem.  The US actually purchased land in Tel Aviv in order to  build an embassy, but the US ambassador's room in the King David Hotel is to be named a permanent venue. 

Carthage, Tunisia: SecDef Panetta meeting there in hours; says that effects of sanctions are not visible but need more time; looks like a signal to Israel to wait wait wait. Will be in Israel later this week. While Iran may be having problems with its missile program, the production of weapons-grade uranium is enormous. Fordo, Natanz. US Natl Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, said that he'd briefed Israel on a possible major strike on Iran: inaccurate. Bogus. Donilon did not meet the PM for dinner or one-to-one; did not brief the PM on possible strike plans vs Iran. 

The Obama natl sec apparatus continues to put enormous pressure on Israel to do nothing. Israelis concerned that the nuclear option is not being taken seriously in the Middle East. Also, regional security in the matter of Syrian chem./bio/nuclear weapons.  Nothing to show that even one centrifuge has been stopped.  Obama called Erdogan of Turkey and Morsi of Egypt.

Syria: Assad seems to have cornered and outdone the opposition for the moment; 50 soldiers and officers defect daily, but on the field the regime is ahead.  Iranians today issued strong comments vs the hated Arabs (Sunnis). Escalation. 

Monday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):   Gordon Chang, The Daily and Forbes.com, in re: Gu Kailai murder trial outside Shanghai is a witch trial to protect the Party bosses.  Hu jintao trying to orchestrate; bigger than they thought. Neil Haywood said to have had one envelope; the other envelope held by Bo Xilai. Would be convenient to have some grand negotiated deal where Gu gets convicted but not punished and Bo gets to keep his life and assets  Bo Xilai remains a threat to the Central Committee and will always be a possible coup master until and if he is gone from the scene. What's wrong with China is that it's a government of pettiness, backstabbing, shakedowns.

Saturn and its rings from Cassini robot looking toward the sun.

Monday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):   .  David Grinspoon,, Denver Museum of Natural Science in re:  Enceladus moon of Saturn spews water vapor and suggests bearing life.  Awaiting the Mars Curiosity landing in August.

Monday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):   .  Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re: small cities in California's Inland Empire wither away, larger cities lay off 10,000 workers. Green Tech fails jobs  for California. Jerry Brown wants to build an aqueduct for jobs.

Monday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):   . Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival by Dean King; 1 of 2 

Monday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):   . Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival by Dean King; 2 of 2  

 

Monday/Tues 1205A (905 Pacific Time):   Chris Gadomski  Bloomberg, in re:  Japan turns on a nuclear reactor; what's the future of nuclear power in Japan? Will sustainable energy join with nukes?  Japanese deficit due to LNG imports .

Monday/Tues  1220A (920 Pacific Time):   . Mary O'Grady, WSJ, in re: what is Mercosur trade association of Latin America, why is Brazil punishing Paraguay over Venezuela, what of Chavez influence? 

Monday/Tues  1235A (935P Pacific Time):   . Lara M Brown, Villanova, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re:    OFA ads go down in Pennsylvania. Began with Obama being 6-1/2 pts ahead of Romney, maybe 10 million people, but ads had reverse impact to what they were looking for.  Obama trying to define Romney before he defines himself. Also, they may be worried about money. The ads are heavy, overwhelming, vs Romney, in re swing states.  

Monday/Tues  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt.   Reza Khalili, author of A Time to Betray, in re: CAIR pursues Reza, and Panetta says sanctions are working on Iran but need more time. Reza says: out of time.   

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​100 years ago, typing on the way to the Internet.

Music (times based on Eastern Daylight Time broadcast)

9- hour: Sherlock Holmes (second season of TV series)

10-hour: Sherlock Holmes (first season of TV series)

11-hour:   Michael Clayton, State of Play, Babylon AD

midnight hour:  Beowulf, Spartacus

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