Photo: Nathaniel Goldberg

Stay cool being hotter than the Summer heat… 

GQ: Killer Khakis

Get Back in Khaki

Funny thing about a khaki suit: Whether you drop a few hundred or a few grand on one, you’ll get loads of compliments. Partly, it’s because it’s different: It’s not your typical gray or navy business suit. It gets you noticed. Also, you can wear the hell out of it. A couple of years ago, I found my perfect one (slim in the legs, stiff in the shoulders), and I’ve worn it every which way—to the office (like Milo here), to summer weddings (white shirt, black straight tie), with a polo and sneakers, and with jeans (white or black, but for some reason not blue). At the first hint of warm weather, I pull mine out of the closet, and I dread the cold, damp day I have to stick it back in there.—adam rapoport

Suit, $1,695, by Armani Collezioni. Shirt, $325, by Isaia. Tie, $135, by Ralph Lauren Black Label. Tie bar by Gucci. Sunglasses by Blinde. Pocket square by Robert Talbott. Car: Aston Martin DB9.

More than 100,000 people have attended a “day of mourning” rally in Tehran to remember eight people killed while opposing Iran’s election result.

The rally was called by presidential challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi. Iran’s most influential body has said it is investigating 646 complaints from the three defeated candidates.

They say there was widespread fraud in the 12 June poll which re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with almost two-thirds of the vote.  The Guardian Council has invited the three challengers to talks on Saturday.

Mr Mousavi had called supporters to take to the streets wearing black in memory of those shot by members of the pro-government Basij volunteer militia on Monday.  The protesters heeded the call, waving black banners and holding aloft placards asking, ”Why did you kill our brothers?” Some banners carried pictures of the dead.

Read full story HERE

Verb: To impede legislation by irregular or obstructive tactics, especially by making long speeches.

Big on style and modern comfort, then California gubenatorial candidate Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy shared a Pacific Palisades home that rivaled his pal Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs pad.  Here they pose for LIFE Magazine photographer Bill Ray with their son Ron Reagan in 1965. 

US President Barack Obama announced USD 73 million aid for poverty-stricken Zimbabwe on Friday after meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, the southern African country’s Prime Minister, at the White House.

Following a White House meeting, Morgan Tsvangirai said he had a productive visit. Still, he is leaving with only a promise of USD 73 million in conditional aid, a very small figure compared to the scope of Zimbabwe’s problems.

In a joint appearance, Obama made clear he is not persuaded that Tsvangirai can turn the country around in partnership with President Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of human rights abuse, corruption and government mismanagement that has left his country impoverished.

Read full article HERE

On a platform overshadowed by the blue dome and twin minarets of a mosque, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is addressing yet another multitude of frenzied, flag-waving followers of the sort that has convulsed Tehran, day and night, for two weeks.

It is the last day of campaigning before tomorrow’s election. The Iranian President is fighting to survive amid a late surge of support for the opposition led by Mir Hossein Mousavi. Elsewhere on the streets of Tehran demonstrators chanted their disgust at the Ahmadinejad rule. But at the rally the President exuded defiance and scorn for his critics.

“Bush said ‘You don’t need nuclear power’,” he declared. “My opponents asked why we needed nuclear power. They were echoing the words of our enemies. They were siding against your little brother [himself]. But Iran has become a nuclear state despite them, and it is a great and honourable achievement.” The thousands of true believers erupt into deafening chants — “Ahmadi, we love you” and “Nuclear energy is our right”.

They are for the most part poor, pious and ill-educated and, rightly or wrongly, they adore this man who presents himself as the champion of the oppressed, the scourge of Iran’s corrupt elite with its loose morals, a leader who has stood up to the bullying West and restored their country’s pride. No matter that rampant inflation and chronic unemployment have made their lot much worse: he is their man, and they prove their love through sheer endurance.

Read full article HERE

James Dean as oil tycoon Jett Rink in Giant (1956)  

Oil prices broke through the $70 a barrel level, a new seven-month high, amid fresh economic hopes and rising stock market prices.

A weak dollar has also made more oil attractive to investors.  US light sweet crude hit $70.32 per barrel $69.21 before sliding to $68.75. London Brent was at $68.60 a barrel.  Oil prices have risen sharply from lows of near $30 a barrel, but are still less than half of the peak of $147 reached in July last year.Read full article HERE

Historians Robert Caro and Robert Dallek consider Lyndon B. Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader in history. He was unusually proficient at gathering information. One biographer suggests he was “the greatest intelligence gatherer Washington has ever known”, discovering exactly where every Senator stood, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses, and what it took to win him over.

Currently I’m reading Caro’s Master of the Senate, the third book in the Years of Lyndon Johnson series that began with The Path to Power (1982) covers Johnson’s life up to his failed 1941 campaign for the United States Senate and was followed by Means of Ascent (1990) which commences in the aftermath of that defeat and continues through his election to the Senate in 1948.

Known for moving legislation, building coalitions, and effective use of Senate procedures, Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) accomplisshed much of this with the use of  “The Treatment,” which was described by Rolaland Evans and Robert Novak:

“The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the LBJ Ranch swimming pool, in one of LBJ’s offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate itself — wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator within his reach.

 

Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint and the hint of threat. It was all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless.”

LBJ would hold the position of Senate majority leader until his election as Vice President in 1960.

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