Cato Institute

The other day, Rachel Harris of The New York Times' Paper Cuts blog, posted about some of the silly swag publishers send out to promote books since books alone are, like, so boring.

In an accompanying slideshow, Ms. Harris shows all the great junk, including a handmade mixtape, pictured above, to promote Charles Bock's Beautiful Children. "We liked the music," Ms. Harris writes. "But that's not the reason his novel was reviewed on our cover." (Sure, but how does she explain Charles McGrath's profile, Janet Maslin's review, and this "Inside the List" column about those very same tapes? Did someone send out a few collages or Papier-mâché projects to his favorite newspaper of record?)  read more »

The new issue of World Affairs ("A Journal of Ideas and Debate") features a short travelogue by P. J. O'Rourke called The Cleveland of Asia: A Journey Through China’s Rust Belt. In 2006, Mr. O'Rourke, a Cato Institute fellow and Atlantic correspondent, spent a month in China, visiting factories, Xi'an's famous Terra Cotta Warriors, the Three Gorges Dam and other charming locales to see how the place had changed since he was last there, in 1997, producing insights like the following: "The enormous dam was enormous. The scenic Three Gorges were scenic. And the mucky-looking reservoir that's filling the gorges looked mucky."

Mostly, it seems that Mr. O'Rourke was driven around in sleek black cars, invited to a lot of boozy meals by various factory owners and businesspeople (as well as someone who may have been Chinese secret police) and had a good time coming up with observational humor bits about Chinese people and Westerners that run along the lines of, "A white person eats like this. ... But a Chinese person eats like this!"  read more »

George Pataki gets a D from the conservatives at the Cato Institute.

Chuck Schumer raised more money for Senate Democrats than his Republican counterpart.

The New York Magazine blog isn't impressed with the senate debate in Connecticut.

John Faso plays against form by agreeing with Mike Bloomberg on guns.

The connections between the Siena pollsters and John Sweeney are explored here, here and here.

Karol Shenin gets excited about Wal-Mart's $4 prescription drug policy.

Greg Sargent translates Tom Friedman's column about Iraq.

The Working Families Party sings against Iraq.

John Edwards said people can "act patriotically about something besides the war."

Evan Bayh courts labor.

A reporter in Albany got arrested. [added]

And above is Prime Minister Tony Blair singing. Sort of.

-- Azi Paybarah

Leon Hadar of Cato Institute says that he has been openly critical of American policy vis-a-vis Israel. He cited his book Sandstorm, which I will get, so I can improve myself. Though I am keeping open my challenge re the major thinktanks in D.C.: How many thinkers do they employ who see Israel's occupation and its denial of civil and human rights to Palestinians as a big problem in U.S. relations with the Arab world?

I also said I thought David Gelernter was alone among the pro-Iraq intellectual brigades for actually having a son in the military. Mike Desch at Texas A&M says I'm leaving some other intellectuals out. "FYI: Eliot Cohen at SAIS served in the Army reserve and his son Rafi is a platoon commander in one of the brigades of the Ranger regiment. Also, Cliff Orwin at Toronto has a son at West Point (though his other son made Aliyah and just finished his hitch in the IDF). Your basic point is correct that not many neocons have laid it on the line in terms of military service but a few have."

My thanks to Hadar and Desch...

Ken Langone is set formally to launch his crusade against Eliot Spitzer at a speech to the Cato Institute today, Reuters reports.

Not exactly helpful to Spitzer, as Langone can presumably raise quite a bit of money for Tom Suozzi, creating a real primary.  read more »

On the other hand, the image of enraged, stymied tycoons pledging to crush the meddling Attorney General does nothing to dispell the image of Eliot as a crusader for ordinary citizens. It's sort of a cartoon, in fact. One wonders whether Langone will wear a top hat for the occasion.

And it's hard to see Eliot losing public relations points on the specific substance of his dispute with Langone: Dick Grasso's compensation from the New York Stock Exchange. When asked about the case on NY1 a few weeks ago, Suozzi raised some general questions; but Suozzi will have at some point to talk about whether he thinks Grasso's pay was appropriate.