Have You Heard the One About The Polish "Diplomat?"

Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that the husband of Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, a former fellow at the American Enterprise Instiute, is in political hot water for telling ethnic jokes about America's President-Elect: (ht Drudge)

Radek Sikorski, an Oxford-educated politician who has lived in the US, was reported to have made the jibe by an opposition politician, Ryszard Czarnecki.

Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: "Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary."

A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

"Mr Sikorski did not tell a racist joke," said Piotr Paszkowski, the spokesman. "He was only giving an example of the unpalatable and racist 'jokes' that surround President Elect Obama."

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has made no comment on the affair. It appears that Mr Sikorski's position is not under threat despite calls from opposition politicians for an investigation to deter if the foreign minister broke anti-racism laws.

Stop Hillary Now!

More reasons Hillary would be a mistake as Secretary of State:

1. What has she ever done? What are her actual individual accomplishments? She didn't even have an opponent when she ran for Senator. During the primaries, Obama himself ridiculed her claims to have been closely involved in foreign policy.

2. Wouldn't Bill Clinton--an impeached former President--be perceived as an American version of Benazir Bhutto's husband, "Mr. 10 Percent," if Hillary were selected as Secretary of State? Is that the image of America Obama wants to project to the world?

3. Doesn't widespread publicity before an official decision has been made make things look more like the Old Clinton Administration than the New Obama Administration? Is that the Chicago way?

4. Speaking of which, Hillary's office was notorious for leaks.

5. Last but not least, unlike Obama, Hillary was in favor of the invasion of Iraq.

Charles Morris: America Needs a Recession

In yesterday's Washington Post, Charles Morris made the case for some creative destruction in the US economy:

Our economic model is broken, and trying to restart it will just dig us deeper into a hole. The massive changes that are required can be made only through the violent rejiggering that takes place during recessions. That may sound coldhearted, but there's a precedent.

From 1979 to 1981, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker masterminded a nasty slowdown that broke stagflation -- the noxious combination of rising prices and no growth. Among other moves, Volcker pushed the yield on three-month Treasury bills up to an unheard-of 20 percent, stopping the economy in its tracks. Millions lost their jobs; Volcker was burned in effigy on the Capitol steps.

But when Volcker finally broke inflation's back in 1983, healthy growth resumed almost immediately, and Ronald Reagan rode the result to a landslide victory in 1984 -- a little fact that people worried about a one-term presidency for Barack Obama should note.

A good reason to put Paul Volcker in charge of the Treasury in an Obama administration--he's done it before...

BTW, Ann Althouse pointed out that Peter Schiff called for a recession to clean the "phony wealth" out of the US economy over a year ago on TV: Here's a link to Schiff's company website: EuroPacific Capital, which carries opinions like this:

Bait and switch

Reminiscent of his Bazooka maneuver, quick draw Paulson reversed course quickly with his decision to not use any TARP funds to buy the assets that the plan was specifically funded to procure. Instead, he will simply dole out the loot to his buddies on Wall Street and use it for whatever seemingly worthy initiative strikes his fancy.

Although Congress loves to grandstand about oversight, it has thus far shown no courage to interfere, or even question, the change in strategy. Paulson claims that he is simply rolling with the punches. The truth however, is that the original plan was flawed from inception, as I clearly pointed out in a string of commentaries following his proposal. How could the Treasury Department, with all its funding and PhD’s, not make similar predictions? Paulson is either a liar or completely incompetent. My guess is he is both.

AAARGH...Obama Please Don't Pick Hillary for Secretary of State...

I hope this rumor goes the way of the John Kerry gossip...Reasons:

1. She is incompetent. She failed to get Health Care legislation through Congress in her own husband's administration. She failed to beat Obama despite every advantage in this election cycle. She did a really bad job on behalf of the arts in the Clinton administration--I was there and saw it. She just doesn't have good radar or people skills. Bad instincts. We need a diplomat, not a bully as Secretary of State.

2. She is a polarizer. She gets people mad, seriously.

3. She has baggage. Huma Abedin, plus who know what else we don't know about--not to mention Bill Clinton and sleazy international business deals like Kazakhgate and the Marc Rich pardon. Do you really want to open that can of worms?

4. She's not a fresh face. We are TIRED of Clintons and Bushes in Washington.

5. If you have to do something, send Hillary as Ambassador to France or the Court of St. James...but please don't appoint Hillary Secretary of State.

6. Forget the "Team of Rivals" fantasy. Pick the best people for the job.

7. Remember that America voted for CHANGE. Clinton would be the same old, same old...

Nikolai Timkov in Washington, DC

Enjoyed an exhibition of landscapes by Russian painter Nikolai Timkov now on display at the White-Meyer House in Washington.

Moody riverscapes, snowscapes, and townscapes. Brrrrr....

From Alison Hilton's catalog notes:

The beginning of Timkov’s career coincided with the establishment of Soviet Socialist Realism as the only authorized style of art. Prominent artists and writers joined political authorities in declaring that art and literature must depict the “reality of Revolutionary Russia.” Many artists turned to landscape painting as a way of avoiding overtly political subjects and glorification of Soviet leaders, while still celebrating a Russian identity. Unlike many of his peers, who adapted to the regulations by including appropriate, life-affirming genre motifs in their landscape paintings, Timkov concentrated firmly on the landscape itself. He kept his artistic integrity, perhaps at the expense of lost opportunities for advancement. Although he was admitted into the Union of Artists and participated in many exhibitions, he did not gain the prestige of colleagues who fulfilled the Party’s plans for monumental, representational art.

Which Private School for First Daughters?

Today's Washington Post reports it's one of three: Sidwell Friends, Georgetown Day, or Maret.

You can check their ratings at GreatSchools.com

Onion News Network Covers the Treasury Bailout

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Sarkozy Bashes Bush

From the BBC. For failing to resolve the Georgian crisis:

Receiving a prize in France for "political courage", he asked his audience "who defended human rights?" after the war erupted in August.

"Was it the president of the United States... Or was it France?" he asked.

Mr Sarkozy led a mission to Moscow that resulted in a ceasefire between Georgia and Russia.

Picking up the prize, awarded by Politique Internationale magazine, at a ceremony at his own Elysee Palace in Paris, Mr Sarkozy suggested the American president did not want to stake his credibility on a push for peace.

"When on 8 August someone had to leave for Moscow or Tbilisi, who defended human rights?" he asked rhetorically.

"Was it the president of the United States, who said 'This is unacceptable'? Or was it France which kept up the dialogue" between the leaders of Russia and Georgia, he asked, in a speech covered by the French AFP news agency.

"I remember the American president's call the day before our departure for Moscow: 'Don't go there, they [the Russians] want to go to Tbilisi, they're 40km away. Don't go, [just] condemn it'.

"I did go, along with [French Foreign Minister] Bernard Kouchner, and, as if by coincidence, while we were there the ceasefire was declared," Mr Sarkozy said.

.

FOIABlog Releases FBI 9/11 Videos

FOIA Blog has a scoop--10 previously unreleased 9/11 videos from the FBI.

The FBI recently released 10 videos of 9-11 footage to my client, Scott Bingham. The videos can be seen here.

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Michael Lewis on the Wall Street Crash

Michael Lewis explains how Meredith Whitney and Steve Eisman predicted the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry--and why a rating company 20-percent owned by Warren Buffett bears responsibility:

The funny thing, looking back on it, is how long it took for even someone who predicted the disaster to grasp its root causes. They were learning about this on the fly, shorting the bonds and then trying to figure out what they had done. Eisman knew subprime lenders could be scumbags. What he underestimated was the total unabashed complicity of the upper class of American capitalism. For instance, he knew that the big Wall Street investment banks took huge piles of loans that in and of themselves might be rated BBB, threw them into a trust, carved the trust into tranches, and wound up with 60 percent of the new total being rated AAA.

But he couldn’t figure out exactly how the rating agencies justified turning BBB loans into AAA-rated bonds. “I didn’t understand how they were turning all this garbage into gold,” he says. He brought some of the bond people from Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and UBS over for a visit. “We always asked the same question,” says Eisman. “Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I’d always get the same reaction. It was a smirk.” He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. “They were just assuming home prices would keep going up,” Eisman says.

As an investor, Eisman was allowed on the quarterly conference calls held by Moody’s but not allowed to ask questions. The people at Moody’s were polite about their brush-off, however. The C.E.O. even invited Eisman and his team to his office for a visit in June 2007. By then, Eisman was so certain that the world had been turned upside down that he just assumed this guy must know it too. “But we’re sitting there,” Daniel recalls, “and he says to us, like he actually means it, ‘I truly believe that our rating will prove accurate.’ And Steve shoots up in his chair and asks, ‘What did you just say?’ as if the guy had just uttered the most preposterous statement in the history of finance. He repeated it. And Eisman just laughed at him.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Daniel told the C.E.O. deferentially as they left the meeting, “you’re delusional.”

This wasn’t Fitch or even S&P. This was Moody’s, the aristocrats of the rating business, 20 percent owned by Warren Buffett. And the company’s C.E.O. was being told he was either a fool or a crook by one Vincent Daniel, from Queens.

Google Earth Adds Ancient Rome

Google Earth now doubles as a time machine, according to this BBC report:

popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.

Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one million people as long ago as AD320.
Users can zoom around the map to visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica.

Researchers behind the project say it adds to five centuries of knowledge.

"This is another step in creating a virtual time machine," said Bernard Frischer of Virginia University, which worked with Google on the Roman reconstruction.

Here's the link to Google Earth for Ancient Rome.

Journalist Sues CIA. . . Again

The FOIABlog reports on my complaint charging a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, in regard to a request for CIA documents about the May, 2005 outbreak of violence in Andijan, Uzbekistan. . .

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Happy Veteran's Day!

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, World War I came to an end...we celebrate it today in memory of all veterans. Here's a link to the official Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Friends 4ever?

(White House photo by Eric Draper)

Inside the Borgia Administration...

Friday night's cultural super-day was capped by the Washington National Opera's production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. The performance starred soprano Sondra Radvanovsky. The Berwyn, Illinois native sang beautifully, a lovely voice in a rather unlovely tragedy about murder by wineglass. Placido Domingo conducted the orchestra, and all the singing sounded first-rate. The stage direction was a bit strange--a distracting homosexual romance had been added to the plot by John Pascoe, in addition to Lucrezia slitting her own throat. His set and costume design featured what looked like fetish wear rather than beautiful clothes. The choreography, by Bulgarian Vladimir Angelov, was unfortunately not good...

But who cares... The music was great, the singing was great, and the story was great. A great show.

OperaLuvr's blog post about Renee Fleming's performance. IonArts review here.

Rachmaninoff in Washington

Before the Pompeii show, someone I know and I had been to a performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Opus 19, performed by Sean Neidlinger and Jennifer Yeo at the Arts Club. It was a lovely performance, and both of the musicians were excellent. They are two members of the Sage Chamber Players, and so good that I googled their website, where you may read about upcoming performances.

Pompeii Comes to Washington

Last Friday, someone I know and yours truly took in the National Gallery of Art's Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples. It's a nice show. Not the bordello paintings and priapic satyrs one associates with the ruined resort. Rather highbrow, dealing with Pompeii past, present, and perhaps future...

Not just Las Vegas, Pompeii had been a Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket of ancient Rome. Writers, orators, actors, even philosophers were respected--on display is a mosaic featuring Plato with students beneath a tree. Thoughts of 9/11 came to mind while looking at 19th-century paintings of the disaster by the likes of Joseph Wright of Derby. Photos of the ash-covered bodies re-created in Plaster of Paris likewise evoked the collapse of the World Trade Center. Some of the statues looked surprisingly contemporary--like art deco sculptures by Paul Manship. Painted walls for a dining room turned out to have descendants on display in hearing rooms of the US Capitol. And Sir Derek Jacobi's Masterpiece Theatre-like video orientation brought back the glory days of I, Claudius.

Highly recommended.

Scott Hodes on the Future of the Freedom of Information Act

From FOIA Blog.

Historically, Democratic Presidents (Carter, Clinton) have been much more pro-disclosure than Republican Presidents (Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Bush II). I would expect the Obama administration to be more like the Clinton and Carter FOIA model than that of the current administration.

Initially, I look for the Ashcroft memorandum to be stricken. This memorandum which came out in the Fall of 2001 said that any properly used FOIA exemption would be defended by the Justice Department. It superseded (without expressly stating that it did) the Reno memorandum of 1993 which said even if something could be withheld under a FOIA exemption, agencies should look to make discretionary disclosures of material as long as there was no foreseeable harm in government activities in releasing the material. For instance, privileged material in a document that could be withheld under FOIA exemption 5 should be looked at to see if the material could be released even though legally it could be withheld under FOIA exemption 5--the test was would the release do any foreseeable harm to the government. If the answer was no, the material went. Under current policy agencies don't have to ask, they just defend the withholding. Under the Obama administration I look for a similar foreseeable harm test to return.

I also look for an increased awareness in FOIA programs. FOIA Operations will get greatersupportt from those in charge of agencies. While money will be tight in the new administration, I look for investments in the use of new technology to streamline FOIA Operations making them more efficient and answerable to requesters. Additionally, I think the Department of Justice will provide more guidance in FOIA operations, both legally and procedurally.

Finally, I think agencies will overall be more pro-disclosure. I don't know how to quantify that idea, but I think there is a feeling in many FOIA Offices that they can't release information because the current administration doesn't want them to. I think this will slowly change and some agencies will release information they are now withholding. Again, I can't quantify it nor give specific examples.

How to Get a Job in the Obama Administration...

Go to www.change.gov. Scroll to the "Jobs: Apply Now" link. Fill out the form. Wait for the email...

I just did it. It takes about a minute.

There's also a link to the transition directory.

Coincidentally, at dinner last night, there was a discussion speculating on what Obama would do in foreign policy--especially over whom he might pick as Secretary of State. I mentioned that the only foreign policy expert on Obama's team I had seen in person was Susan Rice, years ago at an event at the National Press Club in relation to the 2004 election. She impressed me at the time as the only panelist who sounded like a normal human being. So, it was interesting to read that she seems to be in charge, according this leaked email from Politico.com:

TO: Obama Foreign Policy Experts
FROM: Tony Lake and Susan Rice
DATE: November 7, 2008
RE: Thank You

We want to thank you, and thank you again, for all that you have done to help elect Barack Obama President of the United States. Your wisdom and expertise have been invaluable. We will remain extremely grateful for your incredibly hard work and for your many personal and collective contributions.

We are obviously entering a new phase now with the transition. The transition will be a separate operation from the campaign, which is now disbanding. So too must our foreign policy expert teams disband.

The transition operation will be brief and comparatively lean. Given the need to complete this work expeditiously and efficiently, please understand that only a limited number of people will be able to support those activities. But, please also be assured that participation in the transition is in no way a prerequisite to, nor an assurance of, being offered any position in the Obama-Biden administration.

For those of you interested in applying for a position in the future administration, a transition website has been set up where you can (and, in fact, must) apply by filling out a form and submitting your resume. It is: www.change.gov. We hope very much that you will apply. You should follow the instructions to indicate your interest in being considered for a position in the government. This is a real website, which will be used to fill important positions in the government below the cabinet level. There will be no other channel through which applications will be accepted. Please also feel free to copy Mona Sutphen who will be tracking your applications at: REDACTED, with any resumes and materials you submit in the official channel.

Finally, and importantly, we ask each of you please do not under any circumstances speak to the press, any foreign officials, or embassies on behalf of the transition or President-elect Obama. Please also do not encourage solicitation of such contacts. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of this request. It would be highly damaging for foreign governments or media to receive information that they believe falsely to represent the views of the President-Elect.

If you receive any inquiries, please refer them to:

Dan Pfeiffer, REDACTED (for press inquiries)

Denis McDonough REDACTED or Mark Lippert REDACTED (for any inquiries from foreign officials and embassies)

Their new email accounts should be active by next week.

Thank you again for all that you have done to help make this historic moment possible.

Susan and Tony

A reminder of the Washington truism not to write anything that you don't want to see in the Washington Post the next day...

BTW, If Google's electronic news clippers are pulling names from blog posts for Obama, I'd like to see Susan Rice as Secretary of State. If not Rice, my other candidate is Bill Richardson--he has experience as UN ambassador, energy secretary, and governor. Richardson might send a strong signal to Latin America that the USA takes anti-American developments in the Western Hemisphere more seriously than President Bush appears to have done...

More information on Obama foreign-policy aide Mark Lippert in this Newsweek article. Wikipedia entry here.

A little bit on Dennis McDonough here. I see from the bio that he worked for Sen. Tom Daschle for years...perhaps Sen. Daschle is in the running for Secretary of State, as well?

Rik Freeman at the Arts Club of Washington, DC

The walls at Friday's Arts Club concert yesterday featured big paintings by Rik Freeman. I liked them, they reminded me of Thomas Hart Benton's murals, full of 1930s intensity, substance, as well as style. Well worth a visit. My favorite is Moses Train.