Tipster Tadi Ciszak director our attention to sustainable development guru Jeffrey Sachs, professor to the stars, who made at cameo at today’s House Financial Services Panel regarding a possible bailout for automakers.

That’s Chrysler CEO Robert L. Nardelli in the front, who, along with other executives from G.M. and Ford testified on the Hill today.

Why is Jeffrey Sachs there? He’s a well-respected economist for sure, and was most likely brought in to offer his opinion. In fact, in another MSNBC video (after the jump), Sachs warns against letting the auto makers fail. We’ve been watching him for minutes, and at about 28 seconds in, he tussles his hair with boyish nonchalance, which seems to be some sort of window in his psyche. What else is he trying to tell us?

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For those of you who shied away from the fireworks and the humidity, here’s Bwogger Lydia DePillis’ dispatch from Washington DC’s 4th of July.

Washington DC on the fourth of July is the hothouse of American patriotism (in more ways than one). Having avoided it last year, this time around I thought I’d try immersing myself — kind of like seeing how long you can hold your breath underwater.

I didn’t actually end up doing the whole shebang. I only saw a section of the parade, and I skipped out on the Capitol Lawn extravaganza (complete with Taylor Hicks!). Perhaps that was why the whole thing never actually felt repellent: I hadn’t stuck around long enough for it to really sink in.

The parade, however, had a different twist than I was expecting. Sure, it had the blaring brass bands, the self-declared country western stars, West Virginia dairy princesses (okay, there was only one of those). But a good chunk was actually composed of immigrant groups asserting their love of America. Read more…

While many Columbia students voted in New York or nearby states on Super Tuesday,  others have voted, or will be voting, absentee.  Bwog contributor David Iscoe recounts his experience voting absentee in the District of Columbia, where they get to vote for at least one branch of the government.

Whether or not you believe in the Democratic party, registering Democrat in D.C. is essential to actually having a vote. The Democratic primary is pretty much the election for local officials, and no Republican presidential candidate has cleared 10% of the vote since 1988. This February 12th, I voted in my second primary, third election, and used my first absentee ballot.

There’s no line to vote absentee, and you don’t have to go any farther than the nearest mailbox, but it is much more bothersome in that it has multiple steps.  First, you have to either go downtown (rather than to your polling place) to pick up a ballot in person, or you have to navigate the internet (my generation kicks ass at this) and download and print your application form.  I had to go with the latter, since I left town before the ballots were ready.  Besides standard name and address info, the paperwork asked you to specify why you needed an absentee ballot.  Choices range from the cover-all “temporarily outside the District of Columbia” to more detailed options like “confined to an institution but not judicially declared incompetent.” I went with the first one.

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Last week, a posse of Columbia Dems converged on Washington D.C. (or, more likely, got the day off from their congressional internships) to talk with legislators about New Orleans. Unfortunately, Bwog was unable to send a correpondent, so we abandoned our standards of independent journalism and asked Dems media guy Jonathan Backer to send an account of the trip, which turned out–surprise!–very rosy.

“On the briefing day, Julia Moline CC/SEAS ’08 briefed us for much of the day on the details surrounding the issue of health care in the Gulf Coast region. She, in her role as a Katrina recovery policy expert for Speaker Pelosi’s office prepared the included materials for the trip.

Congressman Melancon’s (LA-3) chief of staff, Casey O’Shea, spoke to the group for about an hour. Because of Rep. Jefferson’s legal troubles, Rep. Melancon is de facto representing the congressional district of which Orleans parish is a part. He discussed the challenges of legislating effectively when Melancon’s constituents’ needs are so different from the rest of the country. One issue he discussed was how recover block grants are structured so that small slices of the grant individually fund 90% of several projects. The state must come up with the 10% of funding in order to begin a project. Because the state of Louisiana has been loathe to commit resources to recovery, very few rebuilding projects have gotten off the ground. Melancon’s CoS argued that that block grants to the region should be distributed as a lump sum so that the federal dollars will be put to use.

Lobbying went very well the next day. The three lobbying groups had a total of 15 meetings, 2 with members of Congress, and 13 with legislative assistants who focus
on health policy. The meetings with Senators Feingold and Brown were especially exciting for us. Senator Feingold was keenly interested in the topic and asked numerous questions throughout our discussion. During our meeting, he instructed his LA to contact Rep. Melancon’s office. He expressed a  desire to look into ways to improve the funding mechanisms to the region and to possibly ask the GAO to conduct an investigation on the topic.”

DC on a Sunday is about as exciting as Butler on a Thursday. So with press pass in hand, Bwog contributor Armin Rosen attempted to stave off the ennui the only way Washingtonians know how: with a couple strong shots of special interest politics.

My first thought upon arriving at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference’s first plenary session: should I feel inspired at being in a football-field sized room with more Jews than I’ve ever seen in one place in my entire life, or disgusted that we were watching a panel moderated by a former higher-up in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq? Failing to reconcile the two, I condemn them to a queasy coexistence, made worse when the panel, which included former CIA director James Woolsey expounded upon the existential threats posed to the Jewish state by various Islamist entities. Six humungous jumbotrons behind him shuffle through images of a maniacal-looking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and an impotent-looking Syrian president Bashir al-Assad. Israel advocacy is a high-stakes business, they beam at me.

How sinister is this scaremongering? I’m willing to write off Woolsey’s claim that preventing Iran from getting nukes is a “job for American diplomacy and the American military” as a convenient (albeit wildly irresponsible) turn of phrase, since packaging trumps substance at any “policy” conference like this one. The AIPAC conference seeks to prove that the American-Israeli alliance is worth defending. Saber-rattling aside, beginning the conference on a bleak, pessimistic, existential note sells that idea brilliantly. Manipulative? Sure. Alarmist? Probably. On point? In this blogger’s opinion, you better believe it.  Read more…

O tempore, o mores! Oh “Grannies for Peace” mingling with black-scarved anarchists! Oh one-block marches and celebrity speakers!

Yesterday, three chartered buses of Columbia students made the trek down to Washington, D.C. to participate in a massive anti-Iraq war troops “surge,” anti-Bush march. The march, which was organized by the activist group United for Peace and Justice, drew “tens of thousands” of protesters according to CNN, and “1.2 million” according to others. Columbia’s Dems, ISO, Students for Justice in the Middle East and Working Families Party (quite a melange of groups) helped send about 150 kids to the capital, and Bwog was there for the ride. Here’s the account.

5:30 AM – Bwog schleps down to 116^th and Broadway, where the Dems have spread out some lukewarm bagels and Dunkin Donuts coffee. We half-heartedly mingle.

5:55 AM – We finally board the buses.

8:15 AM – Bwog wakes up bathed in the neon glow of a highway rest-stop, not having been aware that we were sleeping. We suddenly recognize we are extremely hungry; however, we have a mere ten minutes to procure sustenance so all we have time to get our hands on are some fig Newtons, Wheat Thins, and bottled water.

8:38 AM – Buses pull out once everyone has finally returned. Apparently some kids had decided risking missing the buses was worth it for some Arby’s fast food.

10:00 AM – Overheard on the bus:

“Yeah, like, do you think we’ll get arrested or something?”

11:15 AM – We arrive at the Greenbelt Metro stop outside of DC, where we are informed we will be leaving the buses in order to take the Green line into the heart of the city. Dazed and hungry, we stumble off the bus. Students pick up ready-made signs provided by the Dems et. al. and make their way into the station, which is bursting to capacity with every stripe of activist. If one has been to a protest before/recently, one will understand this term, which encompasses hippies, preppie college kids, communists, suburban mothers, Vietnam vets, current war vets, old people, punk high schoolers, and others, usually organized into visually coordinated factions with names like “Make Hip Hop Not War” or “Code Pink” for women protesters.

11:25 AM – We are informed that after we board the Metro trains, we will most likely split up, but that we need to get back to the buses by 4PM or we will never get back to New York and rot away on the Mall, where they will find our remains in two hundred years covered with anti-Bush stickers.

12:40 PM – We reach the Mall, which is completely packed. Someone says that Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon are speaking, but we only have the chance to hear a veteran, an Iraqi man, and an angry woman of unclear ideological impetus. Again and again throughout the protest we hear about Jane Fonda, which warrants the question, “Who the fuck cares about Jane Fonda?” Read more…