Washington Babylon

First see this from the Washington Post: What does it tell you when banks, investment houses, insurance companies and derivatives traders are so pleased with their regulators that they are…

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Kevin Baker has an excellent piece in the July issue of the magazine (available to subscribers) about the similarities between our current president and our thirty-first, Herbert Hoover: The comparison…

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From Politico: The son of the couple at the center of the sex scandal that has engulfed Sen. John Ensign was being paid by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in…

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From Politico: Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), whose name turned up in an investigation of an alleged prostitution ring in 2007, said Ensign was going through “personal difficulties they’re going through…

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The indispensable Laura Rozen reported that Matthew Bryza, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs, “is being recommended by supporters as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan.” Rozen…

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Intelligence Online reports that the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has hired an advisory firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton to help him get a visa to enter the United…

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From the Washington Post: Federal prosecutors laid out their bribery case against former U.S. representative William J. Jefferson yesterday, telling jurors that he squeezed hundreds of thousands of dollars in…

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From the Washington Post: Ensign is considered a leading voice among social conservatives in the G.O.P. In 1998, as a House member running against Reid, he called on President Bill…

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From MSNBC: The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to…

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It’s always so hard to know what’s really going on in places like Iran, given the combination of government repression/censorship and the Western-centric reporting of so many journalists. Ahmadinejad is…

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“How do you look at Nazis and think they’re right-wing?” he asks. “We’re surrounded by people who want to control you.” The point of Beck’s raving–believe it or not–is that…

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As Laura Rozen and I have reported, it appears that President Obama is soon to name David Goldwyn, an adviser to oil companies and dictators, to a key administration post,…

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Just because it’s always good to look at the past with open eyes, here’s a new piece by Matt Dallek: Criticism of Reagan has been largely absent from the political…

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From Inter Press Service: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in…

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As first reported here, international energy consultant David Goldwyn, “will likely be named U.S. special envoy for energy. That comes from an item yesterday by Laura Rozen at The Cable.…

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Ted Disante of Tucson wrote an interesting note about this item from last week, which referred to Washington as a gigantic lobbying operation: Here’s an additional tidbit to support your…

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Dana Milbank had a good story in today’s Washington Post about Congress larding up the defense bill: This meeting of the Senate Military-Industrial Caucus will now come to order. The…

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From the Washington Post: President Obama has been taking flak of late for giving fat-cat donors cushy ambassadorial posts. Despite some early signals that merit — knowledge of the local…

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From the Center for Public Integrity: Despite the Pentagon’s big budgets, DOD personnel routinely accept free flights, accommodations, and hospitality from outside interests, according to a Center for Public Integrity…

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The former Clinton bagman goes down in Virginia. How delightful. As with Tom Daschle, Barack Obama’s misguided choice to run Health and Human Services, it seems Americans are tired of…

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From the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, via Americans for Peace Now: They are the focus of President Obama’s interest in the Middle East and are even liable to cause…

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From Associated Press: A federal judge dismissed two of three campaign finance violation charges Monday against a prominent Los Angeles attorney for allegedly funneling $26,000 to Sen. John Edwards’ 2004…

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The rich really are different. From the Los Angeles Times: Coffee tables made from barrels. Lamps crafted from brooms. Chairs swathed in burlap and sackcloth. Look at the some of…

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From Indian Express: Mumbai: On June 3, the high-security Arthur Road Jail saw a new superintendent taking charge….[J]ail superintendent Rajendra Dhamne…is responsible for guarding 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab, one of…

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Life without Jesus is like a donut, because there’s a hole in the middle of your heart. Via Dan Savage.

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From Bloomberg: California billionaire Igor Olenicoff had already invested $200 million with UBS AG in 2001 when his Swiss bankers ushered him to an underground vault in Geneva. Olenicoff, a…

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At times it seems like Washington is one gigantic lobbying machine. To wit: Insurers and drug companies are working to gut health care reform. Big Tobacco wrote the tobacco bill.…

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If you are Congressman Robert Wexler, the answer is three. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) paid more than $6,700 in legal fees in the first quarter of this year, funds spent…

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