See You and Raise

NPR interviews Somali rapper K'Naan. Money quote:

"K'Naan could not be mistaken for an American rapper: For one thing, he has a kind of vintage Bohemian look. He says he doesn't think that American rap has much credibility, because even the toughest American neighborhoods aren't nearly as dangerous as Mogadishu.

"Where rocket-propelled grenades are fired around you on a daily ... a guy bragging on TV talking about how gangster he is?" K'Naan says. "For us, it's more a source of entertainment. It's more like a comedy or something we watch. Say, 'Oh wow, that's kind of cute of American gangsters.' But it isn't hardcore, it isn't that bad. Let's get things in perspective, you know?"

Follow the money

Fred Kaplan at Slate quotes Richard Clarke re the appointment of Leon Panetta as Director of Central Intelligence:

"Leon was in all of the important national security meetings for years, both as [Office of Management and Budget] director and as chief of staff. He made substantive contributions well outside of his job description. And as OMB director, he was one of a very few people who knew about all of the covert and special-access programs."

That caused an "A-ha!" moment for me. Why?

Jack Lew's appointment as Hillary Clinton's deputy at State.

Because he's been Director of OMB as well. Which means, presumably, he knows where the line-items are buried as well, to a degree I can't think of being matched at State for the longest time, given how often they've been out of the loop.

"See the whole board."