Potomac Fever

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Important SCOTUS case

Good issue to discuss with Marc Elias on September 16.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Lachlan quoted in Washington Times

Friday, September 4, 2009

Things to do in DC (Cheap food, free entertainment, and more)

Here's a few websites on stuff to do in DC, given to me by one of my colleagues in my office (US Marshals). Take a look at some of the events around Washington, especially the cheap eateries to find out where to get great food for less than $10. There's also an extensive listing of free entertainment around Washington and other free/cheap events.

Symphony Orchestra on the west lawn of the Capitol Building on Labor Day: http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NJLAB

Here’s a few more web sites that were passed on to me about living in DC, different events, and free or cheap excursions throughout the city.
http://dcist.com/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/cityguide/features/2008/interns-guide/index.html

Enjoy!

Business, GOP, and Obamacare

Interesting analysis of how Republicans pushed back against coalition of business interests that Obama White House had forged.

Schumer, Vilsack join forces to relieve bankrupt daily farmers in NY

Here is a link to the release of the press conference call I had to transcribe yesterday. Really exciting to listen to!

Gotta love the Hamilton connection: Tom Vilsack '72

Hilariously Truthful Website

A Blast from the Past..

I stumbled upon this on the Drudge Report and thought it was not only fun but related back to our trip to the Newseum this past Wednesday. It's crazy how quickly modern technology changes, and even crazier how dated these original designs appear! The New York Times website looks relatively similar, but the complexities have clearly grown with the popularity of online news sources. As we learned at the museum, news is dynamic and journalists and thier broadcasting companies will continue to push the limits to appeal to the public and make news as instantaneous and easy to obtain as possible. Enjoy!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-when-they-launched.html

Obama and FDR

The king of earmarks

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Question: How are we going to pay for health care? Answer: "I don't know..."

The Democrats out there who have been ranting about how poorly spoken health care town hall attendees have been shouldn't be so hypocritical. If the Democratic Congress is so bent on passing health care faster than they can say, "higher taxes for hard-working Americans", then maybe, just maybe, they should have some kind of concrete answer for how it will be paid for other than, "Well, I don't know."

One way Republicans are "getting support" to stop health reform

Hint: their "supporters" are scammed into supporting them.

Moderate advice for President Obama

Liberal advice to the President

Al Ham in Vanity Fair and other strange things

I saw this article on RCP. I like the mention of Hamilton, but more so I love the description of Paulson during the interview and the way the author stretches it to a metaphor. I find the line "I asked if he wouldn’t rather stop, and resume our conversation another time. “That’s O.K.,” he said. “I’m just going to go through this all. I won’t remember it. You know, I barely remember the details now.” particularly entertaining. A great insight into what it takes to get these major bills, etc. done.

“Nancy Pelosi to me was a wonder in this deal, and she was available 24-7, anytime I called her on the cell phone,” Paulson told me, his hulking frame unfolding in a comfortable chair in his office at the Treasury, dominated by an oil portrait of his first pred e ces sor, Alexander Hamilton. “She was engaged, she was decisive, and she was really willing to just get involved with all of her people on a hands-on basis.” Paulson paused. “Now let me … I’ll be there in one minute … Let me just make a … I have been, you know … I finished this thing on Thursday night, flew over to Tokyo, flew back, and I’m battling a bit of a stomach problem.”

And with that Paulson ducked into the private bathroom adjoining his office, closed the big paneled door, and audibly, violently, and repeatedly threw up. He emerged a moment later as if nothing had happened, but in a few minutes he did the same thing all over again. I asked if he wouldn’t rather stop, and resume our conversation another time. “That’s O.K.,” he said. “I’m just going to go through this all. I won’t remember it. You know, I barely remember the details now.”

In the months to come, I would think of Paulson’s perseverance in the face of gastric distress as a metaphor for the way he persevered through the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression. He never missed a day of work due to illness or indisposition in two and a half years, though he often awoke at one or two a.m., unable to go back to sleep. “I don’t mean to make light of this, because I felt awesome responsibility,” he told me on one occasion. “But as I said to someone—it may not be a great analogy, but once you’re boiling in oil, it doesn’t make much difference” what the temperature is.

Like the Dartmouth offensive lineman he once was (his nickname had been “The Hammer”), Paulson spent most of his time at Treasury slogging down the field, facing one crisis after another. History will decide whether Paulson’s policy choices were wise or ill-advised. Economists and politicians are already deeply divided. But watching him over many months, it was hard not to be impressed by the resolve with which this moderate old-line Republican—a man with a threshold faith in the wisdom of markets—became the greatest economic interventionist of his generation.