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?

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.

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.

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.