Al Kamen

More kudos for Bryan Cranston's portrayal of LBJ -- but the "Edith Bunker"-ing of Lady Bird J is no sale

No shrinking violet she: Al Kamen reports that former LBJ chief of staff Jim Jones "said there was a scene where Johnson dismissed [Lady Bird] with a curse -- which he said 'would never happen.' "by KenSince I devoted a post last week ("Bryan Cranston as LBJ, according to people who worked with him") to Al Kamen's WaPo "In the Loop" item "

Bryan Cranston as LBJ, according to people who worked with him

Bryan Cranston portrays former President Lyndon B. Johnson on Broadway in Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way, directed by Bill Rauchby KenEven those of us whose strong memories of Bryan Cranston go back beyond Breaking Bad not just to hilariously bumbling but dangerous dad Hal on Malcolm in the Middle but to his appearances as agenda-driven dentist Tim Whatley on Seinfeld, his post-Breaking Bad incarnation as former President Lyndon B.

So, just to be clear, the NSA is or is NOT "Peeping While You're Sleeping"?

LibertyManiacs.comby KenI missed this story the last time around, in November, when our Washington Post "In the Loop" pal Al Kamen originally reported on the lawsuit filed by Public Citizen on behalf of a vendor who had dared to misappropriate its apparently sacred seal, and that of the Department of Homeland

Are there qualifications for the people we send to foreign countries as our ambassadors?

With her Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings to serve as ambassador to the Bahamas coming up Monday, former White House lawyer Cassandra Butts better be prepared to have a genius like Young Johnny McCranky or Marco Rubio ask her "the ever-been question."by KenIt's not exactly news that many if not most of our ambassadors to foreign countries don't count high among their credentials any great familiarity with the countries they're tapped to represen

Economic inequality will become a thing of the past with a wave of the magic wand at the Masters of the Universe World Economic Hoedown in the Alpine Fairyland of Davos,

The Alpine Fairyland of Davos, site of the Mastersof the Universe Annual World Economic Hoedown"[J]ust days after a stunning report was issued by Oxfam saying that the 85 richest people in the world are as wealthy as the poorest half of the global population, or about 3.5 billion people[,] a good chunk of those 85 are likely to be fretting on the slopes about this horrible state of affairs."-- Al Kamen, in his

Why on earth would anyone pay any attention to Village hack Bob Gates? (Just 'cause he wrote some crummy book?)

UPDATE: Who knew what about thefall of the "Evil Empire"? (See below)The thing to remember, looking at this portion of Wikipedia's table of U.S. SecDefs (click on it to enlarge), is whom Bob Gates replaced -- as if anyone could replace Donald Rumsfeld.by KenLike most of our readers, we spend a lot of time here at DWT criticizing President Obama. Goodness knows, there's plenty to criticize.

The JFK assassination a half-century later -- marginal notes on an event that really did change everything, or nearly

Bosom buddies -- um, not hardlyby KenI don't know about you, but I'm mostly numbed by the prospect of enduring yet another JFK assassination anniversary. It's like we've been through this 50 times already.Don't you hate it when a bunch of clichés and bromides turn out to be true? An event that changed everything. The day America lost its innocence. And so on and on. You can pick at them all.

Would you be comfortable telling your boss that you're uncomfortable fetching his lunch?

"I would hope if they felt uncomfortable doing it, they would tell me. And if they did feel uncomfortable, then that would be okay. You know, they wouldn't have to do that."-- Steven Calvery, director of the PentagonForce Protection Agency (PFPA)by KenYou've worked for bosses, right? So let's look at a hypothetical case.