Friday Foto Shop

Friday Foto: Schwarzenegger Passes Obama in Pomona

If the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin can have one First Amendment Friday every couple of years, we figured we could inaugurate an irregular feature--the Friday Foto Shop.

Through technical means available only here, we are able to present a Foto somehow missed by the other media.

We know that President Obama was in Pomona and, well, very, very close to Claremont late last month. And you may recall the fundraiser for Assemblyman Anthony Adams last week in Glendora that was attended by Governor Schwarzenegger. What was somehow missed by everyone (but us) is this apparent and nearly irrefutable fotographic evidence that these two worthies (the Pres. and the Gov.) actually passed each other in their repsective beefy, masculine, heavily-armored and authority-oozing black-vehicle convoys while driving on a Pomona street.

Now there might be some people who maintain this never happened. Who are you going to believe?--them or your lying eyes?

16, Meet 44; or Hello, Dali

One sometimes marvels at the surreal nature of the Inland Empire. Heck, no less a surrealist than David Lynch once made a feature with the I.E. in its title, though, as a fellow Insider has pointed out, you may not want to waste your time on that one.

What got us to musing on the surreal life was our posts on President Obama's visit here two weeks ago, particularly that pixilated close up of the Prez as he roamed Claremont and La Verne in Limo One:

Our President
from photo by Stephanie Arrelanes, University of La Verne's Campus Times

We've heard that the weight of the office of POTUS has an aging effect, leaving its occupants grayer and more frail on retiring from the White House than when they enter. We never noticed, though, how the Chief Executives also become less substantial or at least less resolved, digitally speaking.

For some reason, the effect is especially pronounced if the Prez in question hails from Illinois. Maybe it's the water:

Remember Where You Heard It First

We ended last Saturday's photo essay of President Obama's visit to Pomona (and Claremont--we promise) with a photo illustration of the presidential limo speeding past Mayor Corey Calaycay's home, on the way to cruise La Verne we averred.


So you can imagine our total lack of surprise when we read that Obama actually did travel by limo to La Verne and debarked at Brackett Airport, at Fairplex and Puddingstone Drive, boarding the Marine One helicopter awaiting him to take him to the Jay Leno show and his rendezvous with "Special Olympic" destiny.

David Allen covered this "secret stop" Tuesday in the Daily Bulletin,

IN HIS visit last Thursday to the 909, President Obama didn't stop only in Pomona - he made a stop in La Verne as well.

For his return trip to L.A., the president flew out of Brackett Field, La Verne's general aviation airport, aboard his helicopter, Marine One.

"It was very exciting," airport manager Jared Fox-Tuck told me Tuesday. Of the obscure facility, he admitted: "A lot of people don't even know we're here."

The White House, which apparently did know Brackett was there, had phoned the airport a week prior to inquire about using it. The Marines and Secret Service then visited in person.

Once the airport passed muster, the original plan was to land the president at 9 a.m. before his 10:30 appearance in Pomona.

However, fog on L.A.'s Westside prevented Marine One from taking off as scheduled. The president was driven to Pomona and the five choppers - his chopper-cade? - instead landed in La Verne at about 10:30 a.m.

The airport was locked down, with no flights departing or arriving. When the motorcade arrived from Pomona at about 11:45 a.m., Obama was swiftly transferred to Marine One for his flight to L.A.

"He wasn't here very long. There was no shaking hands or any of that," Fox-Tuck said.

The ULV Campus Times Online had already covered the story well, and had a nice image by Stephanie Arrelanes besides. Can't anyone get a picture of the front end of that limo?

Real photograph by Stephanie Arrelanes

Our President
from photo by Stephanie Arrelanes

Obama in Claremont?

We took note earlier of the visit of President Barack Obama to Pomona on Thursday. From what we hear, it's lucky we were not trying to drive on the "eerily empty freeways" between Beverly Hills and the Pomona Valley. Pomona Neighborhood Watch posted a picture of the presidential limousine driving in Pomona to the electric car battery factory on East End:

No Potemkin Village in Pomona.
Houses have garbage cans; deal with it.

Although it surprisingly went unnoticed in the press, the President's peregrinations took him through Claremont as well. Herewith a photographic record--another Insider exclusive:

No Potemkin Village here, either;
roadwork in front of Claremont High School goes on.

Councilmember and Democrat Larry Schroeder
looks for a little love from the Pres.

A quick run by the Mayor's house; he's not home.
"Driver, let's cruise La Verne!"

Obama in Pomona - Updated

UPDATED 8:20PM

David Allen has all the information on President Obama's mid-morning visit to Pomona. Obama will be touring the Edison International Vehicle Electrics Plant today at 10:30am and will be in Burbank later to tape an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Allen also notes that some special Pomona students will get to meet the President, which elicited a cheer in the form of a comment from Ms. Lois at the Pomona Library.

The Pomona event is for the presidential press pool only, so like anyone else who wants to catch a glimpse of Obama, Allen plans on being on the outside looking in.

* * * * *

In his column today, Allen also pointed out that, contrary to what State Assemblywoman Norma Torres has stated, Obama's visit was not unprecedented. In fact, with the help of a couple researchers, Allen found at four prior presidential visits to Pomona:

Those visits: Benjamin Harrison, 1891; William McKinley, 1901; William Howard Taft, 1911; and Herbert Hoover, 1932.

My thanks to Bruce Guter and Allan Lagumbay of the Pomona Public Library for rounding up the details for me Tuesday.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were more. Could 1933 to 2008 really have been devoid of presidential visits to P-town?

You'd think LBJ would have toured General Dynamics, or Nixon would've visited the L.A. County Fair. Or Clinton would've gone to Donut & Burger for one of each.

* * * * *

The Original Skrip, meanwhile, saw the president motoring over Pomona and also referred us to some photos and video of the motorcade over at Pomona Neighborhood Watch.

* * * * *

Plenty of area politicians got presidential shout-outs today, including Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, State Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Assemblywoman Torres and Pomona Mayor Elliot Rothman.

As the LAist blog noted, while speaking in Pomona the President also announced a new federal $2.4 billion electric vehicle development program.

You can see the speech here, if you missed it and are interested.

Obama also time to meet with high school students from Pomona's Village Academy High School. The Daily Bulletin's Politics Now blog had a post on what on.

Obama Coming to the IE

President Barack Obama will be visiting Southern California Wednesday and Thursday, and his itinerary includes a trip to Pomona. The president will fly into Long Beach Wednesday afternoon and then hold a town hall meeting at the Orange County Fair Event Center at 88 Fair Dr. in Costa Mesa at 4pm. Parking is $10.

Free tickets to the event are being given out beginning today at 10am, but seating is limited and people began lining up last night for the tickets.

On Thursday, Obama will come to Pomona to tour Southern California Edison's Electric Vehicle Technical Center. The Pomona visit is not open to the public. The President will end his trip by going to Burbank to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

You might recall that Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Pomona) campaigned for Obama last year during his run for the presidency. Torres' support might be one reason for the Pomona trip.

The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II reports on the trip and on Torres' appearance with Obama at the Edison facility Thursday:

This is the second time in less than a month that the city of Pomona has been tied to Obama.

In a nationally televised speech on March 10, Obama mentioned Pomona's Village Academy and a DVD put together by Michael Steinman's Advanced Placement English.

In the video, which is titled "Is Anybody Listening? - A Message from Village Academy High School Students," the class discussed how the economic crisis is affecting today's teenagers.

Torres said she did not know if Obama would visit Village Academy.

Torres, who will join Obama at the plant, plans to speak with him about unemployment, transportation and homelessness in Pomona as well as the region.

One thing you can bet on is the fact that, even more so than with other recent administrations, the President's trip will be very well-chronicled. Some critics on the right have accused the press and a good portion of the public of having an almost cult-like obsession with Obama. We don't know much about that, other than what we read in The Onion.

Senate Delays Vote on Solis

Bad news for Congresswoman Hilda Solis (right), President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor. USA Today reported on a small, 16-year-old L.A County tax problem Solis' husband Sam Sayyad had until he took care of it on Wednesday - two days before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee's scheduled confirmation vote and one day after USA Today posed questions about the issue to Sayyad.

Here's what USA Today said:

WASHINGTON — The confirmation of another Cabinet member stalled Thursday because of unpaid taxes after USA TODAY disclosed that the husband of Labor secretary nominee Hilda Solis paid about $6,400 this week to settle numerous tax liens against his business dating to 1993.

Solis and her husband, Sam Sayyad, were unaware of liens against his auto repair shop until USA TODAY asked about them Tuesday, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday. Vietor said Sayyad went to the Los Angeles County tax office and paid what he was told he owed — about $6,400 — to settle outstanding liens.

Sayyad plans to appeal, Vietor said. Anthony Yakimowich, chief deputy treasurer and tax collector for Los Angeles County, said his office notifies delinquent taxpayers by mail.

Disclosure of the long-unpaid taxes prompted the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday to abruptly cancel a scheduled vote on Solis' nomination. The committee wants the administration to review the matter and report back, said Anthony Coley, spokesman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's chairman.

The article went on to quote White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who said that the problems were Sayyad's, not Solis', so Solis should not be penalized. In any event, Solis' Senate committee vote has been postponed indefinitely until the matter can be sorted out.

Gary Scott also noted Solis' problems and remarked that there could be a ripple effect if Solis is unable to take the labor secretary position.

Solis' Claremont protégé Councilmember Sam Pedroza (left) may have been premature in celebrating his patroness' ascendancy to President Obama's cabinet. No doubt, the issue may not be serious enough to derail Solis' nomination, but it might have been more seemly if Sam could have at least waited until after the Senate approved the nomination before he started partying.

But then what do we know?

Inauguration Day

Although we generally stay away from national politics, given the historic nature of today's inauguration, we're going to take a break from the our ongoing exploration (sigmoidoscopy?) into the minutiae of our humble town to catch some of the goings on in Washington, DC.

If you're not watching today's events on a big screen somewhere, you can listen to live coverage from 3am to 8pm on 89.9FM KCRW's website and get a bit of a local angle to things. NPR will cover the inauguration ceremonies, the oath of office, and the new president's speech between 7am and 11am.

If you're taking the day off, you can always check out WineStyles' Inauguration Tasting Ball between 11am and 8pm. They promise "tastings of wines, light appetizers and specials on wines by the glass ($4.40) and bottles!!!" - that's three, count 'em, three exclamation points! WineStyles is located at 201 N. Indian Hill Blvd. in the Claremont Village Expansion.

Finally, we didn't realize it, but apparently we've elected a president of Irish descent. We were listening to American Public Media's show "Marketplace" yesterday, and, during a story about the views of some Europeans about the President-elect, we caught a bit of a song by an Irish band called The Corrigan Brothers (née Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys).

The song's called "There's No One as Irish as Barack [pronounced "BEAR-ack," with a rolled R. -ed.] O'Bama":

O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama
From the old Blarney Stone to the green Hill of Tara
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

CMC Trustee Named to White House Office

Wes Woods II in the Daily Bulletin reports that Claremont McKenna College trustee Louis Caldera has been chosen to be the Director of the White House Military Office for the incoming Obama administration.

Woods quoted CMC President Pamela Gann and President-elect Obama on the Caldera appointment:

"Claremont McKenna College is pleased that a trustee has been selected for this prestigious position in the new Obama administration," Gann wrote in an e-mail.

"Mr. Caldera has been previously an outstanding public servant in California, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., and the country will benefit greatly from his commitment to serving our country."

In a separate news release, Obama said, "Louis has served his country with distinction in uniform and in government, and his pedigree is second-to-none. I know he'll bring to the White House the same dedication and integrity that have earned him the highest praise in every post, from secretary of the Army to university president."

A West Point grad, Caldera was Secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration from 1998 to 2001. Caldera, who has an MBA and JD from Harvard, practiced law in LA before serving in the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1997. After his first White House stint, Caldera was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the California State University system. From 2003 to 2006, he served as the President of the University of New Mexico, where he is now a member of the UNM law school faculty.

Coincidentally, the LA firm Caldera practiced with from 1987 to 1990 was O'Melveny & Myers, the same firm CMC retained to investigate the Jonathan Petropoulos matter. O'Melveny is one of the oldest law firm in Los Angeles and, according to its Wikipedia entry, it is the 19th largest firm in the world. Former Clinton Secretary of State Warren Christopher is a partner, and former Reagan White House Counsel Arthur Culvahouse, Jr., is the firm's chair.

CGU's Loss is Obama's Gain

Nancy Bekavac hasn't landed a job with the incoming administration (yet), but the Claremont Graduate University is losing Susan Daniels to president-elect Obama's Social Security transition team, the Daily Bulletin tells us. Daniels is a visiting scholar at the CGU's Kay Center for E-Health Research.

According to the Bulletin's article, from 1988 to 2000. Daniels worked for several federal agencies, including a stint from 1994 to 2000 as a deputy commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs at the Social Security Administration.

It's indeed appropriate that Obama would look to graying Claremont for someone to for anything concerning Social Security. The article gave some of Daniel's background:

Daniels has been at the Kay Center for almost two years. She has helped to guide policy analysis and research in the technology for disability determination, officials said.

When reached by telephone, Daniels said she could not talk unless authorized by the transition team. A transition team spokesman said in an e-mail Thursday that members of the team were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Daniels is a co-chairwoman of the National Academy of Social Insurance's 18th annual conference, titled "Older and Out of Work: Social Insurance for a Changing Economy." Daniels has been a member of the organization since 2001.

Sue Feldman, assistant director for the Kay Center, said of Daniels "she excels at looking at the big picture, categorizing the important aspects and delegating tasks."

Feldman, who declined to answer specifics about how Daniels was chosen for the position, said she and Daniels have worked together on nationwide disability policy forums. The two tackled how policy at the federal level affects the United States.

A blog called Social Security News, by North Carolina attorney Charles T. Hall, had a negative review of the Daniels choice:

I do not want to go on and on about a person whose role whose role is likely to be over in about two months, but just try to find one example of Dr. Daniels speaking out about the enormous backlogs that have developed at the Social Security Administration. Where was she when she might have done some good?

Dr. Daniels is no well-respected elder statesperson. She should not have gotten this appointment. Any nomination of Dr. Daniels to serve in any official capacity at Social Security would be controversial. She does not even have any business on the Social Security Advisory Board and I think the SSAB is so worthless that it ought to be abolished.