Read Stuff, You Should

L'Shanah Tovah, and best wishes to all who are observing Rosh Hashanah.  That includes me, so after one more item I won't be posting anything else until Friday evening, when I should be back for the usual baseball post.  I'll have the usual Sunday questions, and then finally return to a normal posting schedule on Monday (hey, by the way -- are there any groups of readers out there beyond liberals and conservatives of whom I should be asking questions?  Please leave any ideas in comments below).

The upcoming post, later this afternoon/evening, is the long-promised discussion of the Imperial Presidency.  For those coming in late to the discussion, the argument is that Richard Neustadt's textbook presidency is inherently a (relatively) weak office, one that is constantly constrained by executive branch bureaucracies, interest groups, party leaders, Congress, the courts, the press, and others.  What if, however, the president can dispense with all that by simply ordering those he can order -- especially those who work at the White House, who don't have the institutional restraints and multiple masters common to executive branch departments and agencies?  Is that a danger to the constitutional system?  If so, what could prevent such a president from becoming a virtual dictator? So I have a very long post on that topic that I'll post in a bit.

Meanwhile, lots of stuff to recommend:

1. Mark Blumenthal rounds up midterm projections by political scientists.  John Sides follows up.

2.  Ezra Klein is way smart.  This time, on how where you sit determines what you say.

3.  Some economics from Matt Yglesias.  Also, Bruce Bartlett finds gold.  Must read.

4.  Palinology, from Noam Scheiber.  Also, Paul Waldman has at Jerry Brown.

5. Jamelle Bouie on memory and Jim Crow.  Which sort of goes with Alex Massie's thumbsucker on Tea Partyism. 

6.  A baseball link: J.C. Bradbury on why the current revenue sharing scheme doesn't make any sense (at least not if the goal is competitive balance).