How Much Will Escalation Cost?
The L.A. Times has a fascinating article about the difficulties in accounting for estimated costs in a troop surge in Afghanistan. The calculations so far have produced a sweeping range. The Pentagon publicly estimates it will cost $500,000 a year for every additional service member sent to the war zone. Obama's budget experts size it up at twice that much. [...] The Office ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 24, 2009 11:13
Obama’s Europe Neglect Could Bring Bush Nostalgia
My first piece for ForeignPolicy.com, "Europe's Obama Fatigue," is online. Despite George W. Bush's defiant "you're with us or you're against us" public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and paying little attention to Europe. [...] It would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 06:10
Protests and Media Coverage
A meme is developing among a handful of Progressive blogs, with Media Matters, Hullabaloo, Discourse.net, and Brad Blog all complaining that the Washington Post and NYT gave A1 treatment yesterday to the 9/12 protests while relegating anti-war marches in 2002 and 2005 to the inside pages. Steve Benen follows up and observes, There are competing angles to explain something like this, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 14, 2009 07:27
Planning: USA vs. China
Matt Yglesias notes that Shanghai has a long-term plan for expanding their subway system and laments that we're not so forward thinking here in America. What’s striking is the extent to which we don’t operate like that here in the United States. I think everyone believes that over the next couple of decades the Washington, DC metro area will continue to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 10, 2009 12:48
DC Most Dangerous Driving City
Aaron Brazell passes along word that DC and Baltimore are the most dangerous driving cities, as calculated by Allstate Insurance. Bengt Havorson has the list: The Safest Driving Top Ten 1. Sioux Falls, SD 2. Fort Collins, CO 3. Chattanooga, TN 4. Cedar Rapids, IA 5. Knoxville, TN 6. Fort Wayne, IN 7. Lexington-Fayette, KY 8. Eugene, OR 9. Boise, ID 10. Colorado Springs, CO Bottom of the List – Riskiest Driving ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 20, 2009 15:27
DC Thriving During Recession
NYT urban planning professor Mitchell Moss has taken to the pixels of something called New Geography to point out what most of us already knew: Washington, DC thrives during bad times for the rest of the country. His historical discussion of the District's evolution from swampy backwater to major city is interesting. But this, I think, goes too far: Washington has always ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 14, 2009 08:19
State Liquor Stores
Glenn Reynolds points to a story by Doug Winship about Washington State's liquor stores running out of, um, liquor just in time for the July 4th weekend during which all good Americans celebrate their country's independence by getting hammered. Naturally, all liquor stores in Washington State are run by the government of the state of Washington who 1) screwed up ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 4, 2009 12:17
