Archive for July, 2008

The Hotties

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Every summer The Hill newspaper puts out its 50 most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill list, a DC event like no other because hating Hill types is one of the favorite passtimes of non-Hill Washingtonians. It's also time for the annual DCeiver commentary on the list which is highly recommended. But ...

Oil man Pickens seeks “army” to back energy plan

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

TOPEKA, Kansas (Reuters) - Energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens said on Wednesday he is creating an "army" of business leaders and mainstream Americans to lobby for his plan to revamp U.S. energy policy in favor of wind power and natural gas over imported oil.

Dot Connection

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

One of the oddest aspects of some of the debates over the Bush administration and various forms of legal due process has been how unkosher it's viewed to suggest that the sort of powers Bush wants might be used abusively, in the manner of a Richard Nixon. It's odd because ...

Ah, Journalism

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

So it seems that Barack Obama said something like: It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best ...

Pants on Fire II

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

NBC News: "McCain and his campaign repeated at least two lines of attack against Obama, which when first said in early July, were called 'bogus,' 'wrong,' 'inflated' and 'misleading' by independent fact checkers." It looks like the McCain campaign's strategy of relying on frequent lying may be getting their candidate something ...

Active Grannies

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Mark Penn yesterday: In the relentless quest to find the soccer moms of this election, perhaps the answer will be found in the “active granny” vote — empty-nesters who have found a new freedom in their lives after the kids have left and who look at the world very differently than ...

Something About Mary

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Wow. Here's a weird story and some awesome reporting from Mother Jones. The article's subhead sums things up about as well as anything else: "Mary McFate was a prominent gun control activist. Mary Lou Sapone was a freelance spy with an NRA connection. They are the same person." Now, naturally, ...

Chrysler in talks with Tata and Fiat: sources

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler is in talks to lease U.S. production capacity and share retail distribution with Fiat SpA, allowing the Italian automaker to return the U.S. market for the first time in 25 years, people briefed on the talks said on Wednesday.

Changing Times

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Henry Farrell finds himself surprised to see "so little of the usual bombast" in the recent Phoenix Initiative report from CNAS. In general, I think it's a pretty remarkable document for typifying how the boundaries of what counts as a mainstream view have shifted over the past few years in ...

Morgan Stanley makes new hires to build momentum

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley is recruiting top bankers to strengthen its positions in derivatives, commodities and restructuring, having saved $1 billion from cutting other jobs this year.