U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is moving ahead with her cap-and-trade climate change bill despite Republican threats to boycott next Tuesday’s mark-up session.

“That won’t stop us. We’re going to use every tool at our disposal to get that done,” she said this afternoon during a visit to Blue Bottle Coffee Co. on Webster Street near Oakland’s Jack London Square, at which she was touting her efforts to support small businesses through the economic downturn. Asked to elucidate on “every tool at our disposal,” she replied, “We’ll use the rules of the committee.”

“We are going to sit down on Tuesday, we’re ready to go, we’re not canceling it,” she said “I’m still hoping the Republicans will come to the committee room and do their work.”

Boxer said she can’t imagine why anyone with a chance to end America’s dependence on foreign oil, combat climate change and create jobs all at the same time would boycott such an opportunity, going “absent without leave, AWOL” at a moment so vital to the nation’s interests. She urged the committee’s Republican members to “try to work with us, let’s try to get something done.”

Part of the small-business support scheme of which Boxer spoke today was affordable health care, which she said absolutely must contain a public option. U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., this week said he’ll refuse to caucus with Senate Democrats to break a filibuster on any health care reform legislation containing a public option.

Boxer in 2006 was among Senate Democrats who went to Connecticut to stump for Lieberman in the Democratic primary – angering many of her more liberal constituents, given his support of the Iraq war and other stances – though she later supported Democratic nominee Ned Lamont in that year’s general election. And Senate Democrats have been kind to Lieberman since, including letting him keep his chairmanship of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, in hopes he would caucus with them on vital votes such as this.

Asked today what she thought of Lieberman’s health care stance, Boxer replied she “can’t answer for him, I just want to say that we have to get this (health care reform) done.”

“All of our colleagues will be making important decisions, but at the end of the day, we can do this with a majority, not a super-majority,” she said, making it clear she was speaking for herself and not for Senate Democratic leaders.

Democrats would need 60 votes for cloture to overcome a Republican filibuster and bring a health-care bill to the floor for a final vote, but there’s been talk that they might use a procedure called “budget reconciliation” to move the bill through with just 50 votes.

Carly Fiorina

The Tri-Valley Business Council sent out an email blast today inviting folks to listen to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina make a “very important” announcement in Pleasanton on Nov. 6.

Will this be her official official entry into the 2010 California senatorial race and a showdown with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.? (Why Pleasanton? I have no idea. Not that there is anything wrong with Pleasanton.)

Her Web site is already asking for contributions, so it sounds as though the real decision has already been made. I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.

The event starts at 9:30 a.m. at Goal Line Productions. RSVP required. Contact Matthew Del Carlo at msdelcarlo@sent.com.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele:

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain – President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

“Maria and I applaud President Obama for winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The President has consistently shown that he is committed to reaching out to other nations and positioning America to once again be the global leader for peace and prosperity. This is a great honor for our country and reminds us all of the promise our nation holds. I look forward to working with him to address future challenges facing our nation. On behalf of all Californians, I congratulate President Obama for winning this inspiring award.”

Lt. Gov. and 10th Congressional District candidate John Garamendi:

“I want to congratulate President Obama for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He has changed the tone of the worldwide debate on international issues including reducing nuclear arms and building better international relations based on mutual desire to improve economic and social conditions in all countries. His policy is changing America’s relationship with the world, a change that will foster cooperation and peace.”

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.:

“While this award was unexpected, I think it is a testament to President Obama’s extraordinary ability to inspire people from across the globe to come together and share a vision of a brighter, safer and more prosperous world. With the election of President Obama, we started America back on a path to regaining our status as a beacon of light for the world. Now it is crucial that we come together across party lines to make that promise a reality. The president was right in his humble response to describe this award as an affirmation of America’s leadership and a call to action to address the major challenges of our time.”

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:

“Today at the White House I had the privilege of personally congratulating President Obama for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. I believe the Nobel Committee’s decision reflects the fact that the United States has restored its credibility with the international community. It signifies that the goals articulated by President Obama have resounded with the rest of the world.”

UPDATE @ 2:22 P.M.: A few more…

Former Arkansas Governor and 2008 GOP primary presidential candidate Mike Huckabee:

“There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama’s nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining. The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican:

“I would say regardless of the circumstances, congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Prize. I know there will be some people who are saying ‘Was it based on good intentions and thoughts or is it going to be based on good results?’ But I think the appropriate response is when anybody wins a Nobel Prize that is a very noteworthy development and designation and I think the appropriate response is to say ‘Congratulations.”

First, some resources: Take a look at the Associated Press fact-check on the speech – it’s early, but relatively comprehensive and at least should indicate what questions to ask as the legislation takes shape. For the full text of the president’s speech, click here; for the Republican response, click here.

Now, on to some reactions from your electeds. I spoke earlier tonight with U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who told me she’d run into the President after the speech as she was heading back to her office.

“I told him I thought he hit it out of the ballpark. He said, ‘Now let’s get it done,’” Boxer said. “I loved it, and I’m ready, I’ve been ready. I think it’s the great moral issue of our time and it’s also a great economic issue.”

And she believes U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., also is “ready to go, ready to write a bill.” The Finance Committee is the last that must produce a bill before Congress sets about combining the several bills into one, and he’d said earlier today that he’s ready to push ahead with a bill in the week after next – with or without Republican support, but also without the public option for which President Obama made his case tonight.

Boxer thought he made that case, and the rest of the case for reform, well.

“The President did what he had to do tonight to jumpstart health care legislation. He put a human face on the issue, he addressed all the propaganda that’s been out there as a distraction… He made a moral argument,” she said, adding that as the President recounted the note he’d received from the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, “You could’ve heard a pin drop in that chamber – he really spoke from his heart and to our hearts.”

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said much the same when I spoke with her this evening.

“He really made us recognize that health care should be a moral imperative and it is an issue of social justice,” Lee said, particularly by voicing support for the public option that her caucus and others have demanded. “For him to continue to support it, with all the pressure on him to take it off the table, was what I wanted to hear.”

Now that the President has taken off the gloves to “dispel all of these terrible myths and lies” opponents have leveled this summer, “the work continues – now we have to make this happen,” she said.

More reactions from your electeds, after the jump…
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As conservatives continue their victory dance over Van Jones’ resignation, local progressives are sounding pretty steamed.

Rabbi Michael Lerner of Berkeley, co-chairman of the Network of Spiritual Progressives and editor of Tikkun magazine, published a column today calling Jones’ forced resignation “a huge defeat for the forces of sanity and humanity, and represents a deep failure of the Obama-ites to understand the nature of the challenge they face from an increasingly fascistic Right wing.”

The forced resignation of Van Jones demonstrates the lack of backbone of the Obama Administration.

Jones was a rare progressive appointment among the wide array of Wall Street sycophants and Inside-the-Beltway pragmatists who have misled Obama into a path that has caused him to lose his initial popularity and severely endanger his presidency.

The notion that Jones’ past could have a serious impact on the future of health care reform defies all plausibility–those who will oppose health care reform will do so just as strongly without Jones’ presence in the White House as they would have had he remained. The message being given by the Obama Administration is clear: if you on the Right critique us, we will pander to you and abandon our friends.

In conditions of expanding prosperity, this would create the possibility of a resurgence of McCarthyism throughout the society. in conditions of growing economic pain, this kind of mimicking of the worst behavior of the German middle-of-the-roaders during the Weimar Republic sets the stage for the possibility of a genuine home grown fascism in the U.S.

If, God forbid, that should happen, people will look back to the capitulations on health care, human rights, and many other policy areas of the Obama Administration, but will give equal importance to the abandonment of Van Jones and the signal it gives to the Right.

Oakland’s Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which Jones cofounded and directed for many years, issued a statement in his defense:

At this critical time in our nation’s history, the Ella Baker Center champions policies that lift people up and bring about renewed hope and optimism for all. We were outraged by the attacks that Van and his family have suffered. Those who have made it their mission to derail a clean, green, and just future for our country have denied the nation our most talented advocate in the fight against climate change and for rebuilding our economy.

“Smear campaigns designed to sabotage the movement for an equitable, green economy are attempts to distract people from what really matters: building a future that is green and just for everyone,” said Jakada Imani, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. “It’s our dream, shared by Van Jones and so many others, that this country once again becomes a beacon for the world by using innovation to simultaneously address both the economic and climate crises we face.”

Van Jones has been lauded as a modern day civil rights hero and champion of change. He has worked to bridge the gap between communities and across lines of race, class, and gender. For years, Van has helped lead the social and environmental justice movements with solution-oriented, market-based ideas that provide some of our most marginalized communities with effective tools to create lasting change in their lives — and for the greater good of their communities.

Under Van’s leadership, and continuing under the direction of Jakada Imani, the Ella Baker Center has led the charge to build California’s progression towards a green-collar economy that truly creates opportunity for all by fighting poverty and climate change at the same time. Through vibrant, cross-sector coalitions that bring together unions, green businesses, environmental organizations, social justice groups, and education and training institutions, we’ve helped craft cutting edge public policy solutions and pilot programs like the Oakland Green Jobs Corps that prove what’s possible. Our focus has always been — and will remain — providing solutions that lift people up rather than tearing them down. Solutions that unite, not divide. Our goal — and Van’s — is simple: save the planet and its people.

And Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, who this year succeeded Jones as CEO of Oakland-based Green For All, used Jones’ ouster as a call to action:

While Van may have stepped down from his formal position, now is the time for all of us to step up. Thanks to Van and countless supporters like yourself, the foundation for change has been set. We must continue to strengthen it — to build a more secure, clean and equitable future for our nation.

Now is the time for an inclusive green economy. Now is the time for action.

We need climate legislation that includes access and opportunity for all Americans. And we need your help to ensure that these provisions are part of it and that the promise of a clean-energy economy is realized. (click here to take a stand for our future – and forward this to all your friends and help keep the momentum going).

In the face of disappointment, now is the time for renewed resolve for our common goals.

When Jones was appointed in March, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, had issued a statement expressing pleasure that “a constituent, friend and strong advocate for green jobs” had gotten the job.

“Van has been at the forefront of the green jobs movement and has shown us all the way to utilize green collar jobs as a pathway out of poverty. Were it not for Van, we would not have been able to establish the Green Job Corps in Oakland, which provides local Oakland residents with job training, support and work experience so that they can independently pursue careers in the new energy economy,” Lee said at the time. “His expertise and vision in the area of green jobs will be a wonderful addition to the White House CEQ.”

Lee’s office indicated today she had no comment on Jones’ ouster.

U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also has praised Jones’ work in the past. Her office didn’t respond to requests for comment today.

As referenced in today’s article, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer visited Kaiser Permanente’s new Oakland medical building today for a demonstration of Kaiser’s electronic medical record system, a roundtable meeting with Kaiser staff and a news conference.

Boxer listened intently as Dr. Patricia Conolly, an internal medicine specialist, walked her through the medical record system, which Kaiser began phasing in in 2005; Conolly said it has made it easier for her and other Kaiser physicians to track and improve patient care while lowering costs. Everything from a patient’s complete medical history, including all previous Kaiser visits, to tools for diagnosis and prescription are available at the touch of a button by the patient’s bedside, Conolly said.

“Wow,” Boxer marveled, “did you invent this?”

“No,” Conolly replied as Kaiser staffers chuckled.

“Did Al Gore?” Boxer quipped.

California’s U.S. Senators, joined by much of the Bay Area’s House delegation, wrote to Toyota today to forestall closure of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, but apparently it’s too little, too late.

NUMMI is a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota; GM announced last month it will withdraw, and Toyota has been considering doing the same. The plant’s closure would cost 4,500 California jobs directly, and an estimated 35,000 or more indirectly.

The lawmakers wrote to Toyota Corp. President Akio Toyoda to emphasize NUMMI’s importance to California’s economy and to offer to work with Toyota to keep the plant open. Also, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reports she recently spoke on the phone with Toyota Motor America President Yoshimi Inaba about her willingness to help find solutions to keep the plant in operation’ other California lawmakers have talked to company officials as well.

But even as the lawmakers announced their effort, media began reporting Toyota’s decision to pull out of the venture and close the plant.

UPDATE @ 5:11 P.M.: Never say die, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office insists. The governor has talked with and written to the Toyota execs, too, and has formed a “Red Team” of stakeholders to work on keeping the plant open. “The Schwarzenegger Administration is actively engaged with NUMMI’s partners, Toyota, federal officials, local officials, labor, suppliers and other stakeholders to work together to ensure the future success of the facility,” David Crane, the Governor’s special advisor for jobs and economic growth, said in a release. “Our office will continue to respect Toyota’s wishes to keep discussions private as we work together to determine the best path for ensuring NUMMI’s continued operations in Fremont.”

See the letter, after the jump…
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Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo

Arizona GOP Sen. Jon Kyl has reportedly relented and released late this afternoon the hold he had on Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s nomination as undersecretary for Arms Control and National Security. (Click here for my story set for publication on Thursday.)

It’s unclear why Kyl changed his mind. His press secretary hasn’t returned my calls.

I did hear that several of Tauscher’s biggest supporters, the powerful California sens.  Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, lent their considerable clout to the negotiations with the junior Arizona senator.

In theory, Kyl could have held up Tauscher’s nomination indefinitely although that was unlikely. The hold is a common procedural tactic deployed by the minority party intended to make a political point or get the administration’s attention on a particular issue. The Cable, a Washington Post-owned foreign policy news site, reported on Monday evening that Kyl is concerned about the administration’s decision to pursue arms reduction treaty talks with Russia prior to the final release of the national Nuclear Posture Review.

The Senate is scheduled to recess Thursday night prior to July 4 recess and Tauscher’s nomination is one of many still in the hopper.

But if Tauscher can secure the nomination to her new job before the Senate recesss, it will be one heck of a wedding present.

She is set to marry on Saturday retired airline pilot retired Delta Airlines pilot Jim Cieslak.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says $7,721,355 will be split between six California airports – in Oakland, Bakersfield, Redding, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and San Diego — to update explosive detection systems and X-Ray units.

The money comes from the first $50 million spent by the Transportation Security Administration out of the total $1 billion included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act economic stimulus package. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she’s pleased as can be.

“The economic recovery package continues to help fund priorities in California and across our country,” she said. “In this case, I am so pleased that TSA is investing in equipment upgrades to make sure our airports have the most effective technology to keep us safe.”

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has welcomed her fourth grandchild.

Reyna Sofia Boxer — 6.2 lbs and 18 inches — was born Monday afternoon at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Reyna is the second child for the Senator’s son, attorney and Oakland Planning Commissioner Doug Boxer, and his wife Amy, who co-owns Welcome Home Furniture Rental & Staging; they live in Oakland, where the Senator keeps one of her California homes. She is the Senator’s first granddaughter.