Following up on the angst of Anne Applebaum, the Washington Post devotes ample front page ink to the devastating news that Great Britain’s defense budget has shrunk from $57.7 billion to $57.7 billion from 2004 to 3013, or from 2.4 to 2.3 percent of total gross national product. To the surprise of absolutely no one…
Author: Alan Vanneman
“AIPAC does so own our testicles!” Congressional Democrats proclaim.
Profiles in courage or pusillanimous pussies on parade? According to Burgess Everett at Politico, it’s totally the latter.
Of course the Logan Act shouldn’t be enforced against the Senate 47. Because the President has the discretion not to enforce “bad” laws.
There has been some discussion about whether the 47 Repubicans who sent a letter to the Iranian governnment with the barely concealed hope of overturning the current negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program should be prosecuted under the Logan Act. Well, of course they shouldn’t. Because the president has the power, and, really, the duty, not…
Anne Applebaum sez, “Great Britain ain’t so great!”
Remember when the right wing was constantly accusing the Obama Administration of “throwing our allies under the bus”? Well, now it seems our allies are doing that to us! Anne Applebaum is distressed to notice that the British aren’t all that interested in saving the world these days. Apparently, “The Iraq war turned many in…
Don’t blame me, I’m stupid
“It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm. I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.”—John McCain, explaining why he and 46 other Republican senators only acted like idiots. I mean, it’s not…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Damn! Who let the dogs out?” “Just remember, Smedley, if they don’t have a ceiling, we don’t have a floor.” “Wow! Who knew the San Andreas Fault could be the key to corporate advancement?” “I guess they think they’ve been oppressed too!” “Risk Management 101, Smedley. Never volunteer.” “Let this be our…
What critics don’t get about what Republicans don’t get about Iran
“Thanks, Tom Cotton. You Just Got Us a Hard-line Supreme Leader,” snipes the highly intelligent Mehdi Khalaji, writing in Politico Magazine. In their controversial letter to “the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and 46 other Republican senators suggested that even if Washington comes to a nuclear deal with President…
OSKA T.roia Quartet—“Four in One”
“Oska T” is a Monk composition. I don’t really understand the full meaning of the name for the “OSKA T.roia Quartet,” but here they are playing Monk’s “Four in One.” Luca Ventimiglia, vibraphone, Ilfat Sadykov, sax, Mattia Vendredi, bass, and Andrea Bruzzone, drums. Posted by MattiaParis
Alan Vanneman visits the world’s most notorious jazz club
That should be “visited 45 years ago,” because that’s when it happened. I recently came across an article in Jazz Times that revisited the memory of Slugs, a club on the lower East Side that was, according to James Gavin, “jazz’s most notorious nightclub, the gates of the underworld.” “[N]ight fell, and the unlit streets…
Cart before the horse
Daniel Larison has a post about Sen. Ron Johnson’s less than brilliant demand for military action against Iran. Dan remarks that “Iran hawks such as Johnson support preventive war against Iran because they are excessively afraid that Iran will eventually acquire nuclear weapons.” Actually, that’s backwards. It should run like this: “Iran hawks such as Johnson pretend…