Cut defense spending, says Eugene Robinson in this morning’s Washington Post. “The United States accounts for 46.5 percent of the world’s total defense spending,” he writes. “The next-biggest spender is China, which has undertaken an immense buildup to become a military as well as economic superpower – yet accounts for just 6.6 percent of the …
The internet is a funny and amazing thing. Last year, fooling around on one of those that finds people, I typed in my own name, and discovered the existence of another Jamie Malanowski. I found this surprising, since Malanowski is not a particularly common name; my father was one of ten sons, and so far …
New York Magazine rates The Disunion Blog at the apogee of the north-south Highbrow/Lowbow side of its Approval Matrix, and well on the Brilliant side of its east-west Despicable/Brilliant range. Thanks, New York! Just wait for the next few installments–it gets brillianter! The columns are going well. They have received a ton of reader comments, …
In his new memoir Decision Points, former President George W. Bush says that he personally approved the use of waterboarding against 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission human rights experts say could have legal consequences for him. Bush says that he was asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who …
In what is apt to be the single most provocative personnel change in Washington after the elections, the Washington Post reports that Congressman-elect Allen West, a Republican of the Tea Party persuasion, has hired Joyce Kaufman, a local conservative talk radio commentator known for her provocative and sometimes incendiary statements, as his chief of staff. …
Last night at Borders in Mount Kisco I had the pleasure of meeting Maneet Ahuja, one of the producers of Squawk Box, CNBC’s always informative, highly stimulating, and occasionally depressing morning program. The multi-talented Maneet is working on a book about hedge fund managers that promises to be one of the definitive studies of these …
In Sunday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins, Raven fullback Le’Ron McClain pretty clearly spit in the face of Miami linebacker Channing Crowder–an infraction of the rules, and probably a serious health code violation as well. After the game, a furious Crowder expressed his anger that none of the officials saw the …
The NFL Network, which Cablevision does not allow me to see, recently rated the top 100 players in NFL history. I’m not going to repeat the entire list–you can click here if you wish to see it–but here are my observations on the selections: I would not have listed Jerry Rice as Number One. He’s …
In The Hellhound of Wall Street, Michael Perino has just published an excellent account of the Pecora Hearings, the shorthand name given to the hearings of the Senate Banking Committe in February 1933, during the waning moments of the Hoover administration. The hearings were named not for the committee chairman, the well-motivated but less-than-charismatic chairman …
Nothing is going to get done about the abuses in Congressional redistricting that almost certainly going to take place next year, especially now that the GOP has seized the whip hand in so many states with victories in gubernatorial and state legislature races. As Aaron Blake reported yesterday in The Washington Post, “When the next …