US
03/16/08 -
RBC - Yes, and fire burns. Obama is then doomed, as will.i.am is no brow, at best. (I wonder if "I got it from my mama" is meant for Obama, as well.) Where to go for highbrow campaign music? Anna Netrebko didn’t make a video for Medvedev, and I doubt that Esa Peka Salonen is composing a symphony for…whoever runs Finland (but Lordi might). I won’t argue that they’re highbrow, but Georgia’s...
03/16/08 -
Angry Bear - I know, start firing away about the need to not tie the bosses hands so tight, free markets in labor...etc, etc, etc. Personally, I see this as a step toward moving labor from an identity of “commodity”. Besides, the labor department has been against labor for about 8 years now....
03/16/08 -
will wilkinson - I think we can all grasp that it possible to reject some moral distinctions and accept others. In this case, it would seem that Ross understands the answer perfectly well. Children are not consenting adults. So there you have it....
03/14/08 -
concurring opinions - I think the court got this one right. There needs to be a case-by-case analysis if there is a specific and immediate government interest in conducting the drug search before invading public employees' Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure....
03/14/08 -
Max Sawicky - Senator Barack Obama has become renowned for his eloquence, and it’s almost unfair. He gets accused of being all sizzle and no steak. I’d even say there is a racial subtext to the criticism — that he is more preacher than statesman....
03/14/08 -
African Conflict - On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on Evaluating US Policy Options on the Horn of Africa. Two panels testified; the first consisting of government officials, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Jendayi Frazier, assistant administrator for Africa at USAID, Katherine Almquist, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for African Affairs, Theresa Whalen....
03/13/08 -
OMB Watch - erday evening, EPA announced its long-awaited decision on the national standard for ozone, a.k.a. smog. As expected, EPA chose to tighten the primary standard to 0.075 parts per million (ppm) from its current level of 0.084 ppm. The secondary standard for ozone will remain identical to the primary standard....
03/13/08 -
Election Geek - Race is now a major part of the Democratic nomination fight and yesterday saw the resignation of Clinton advisor Geraldine Ferraro after a racially insensitive remark. Last night Hillary Clinton herself apologizing to black voters for other statements made by her husband which were seen in the black community as racist....
03/13/08 -
Donklephant - A new Pew Research Poll shows 53% of Americans believe we will succeed in Iraq. That’s the highest percentage since the summer or 2006 and 11 points higher than last September. The percentage of people believing the war is going “very well” or “fairly well” has also jumped, from 30% six months ago to 48% now. ...
03/13/08 -
Jack and Jill Politics - Michael Chabon proved that a brilliant literary mind doesn't necessarily lend itself to politics, mostly because politics deals poorly with all but the most simple abstractions. The same can be said of Orlando Patterson's critique of the 3 A.M. ad, which most political observers saw as Patterson accusing the Clintons of being explicitly racist towards Obama....
03/13/08 -
MojoBlog - On Tuesday, Indiana's 7th Congressional District elected 33-year-old Andre Carson to the House of Representatives in a special election. Carson, a Muslim and a former cop, replaces his late grandmother, Julia Carson, the first African-American and the first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress. Julia died in December of last year....
03/12/08 -
Douglas Farah - The relatives of five American missionaries who were abducted and murdered by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have filed suit against Chiquita Brands International Inc., accusing the banana company of secretly financing and arming the rebel (and terrorist) group. ...
03/12/08 -
Joel C. Rosenberg - The head of U.S. Central Command -- responsible for all American military operations in the Middle East -- resigned Tuesday over a firestorm that has erupted over his continuing criticisms of the Bush administration's tough line against Iran. Navy Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon has been an outspoken critic of even the possibility that the administration might need to go to war to prevent Iran from...
03/12/08 -
Covering Florida - The latest in a long line of substances that can make a person feel “otherwordly” is a type of Salvia the Associated Press says “could be the new marijuana.” Legislatures in a number of states, including Florida, are considering bills that would make possession of Salvia Divinorum a felony. Reportedly, the high that comes from smoking this type of Salvia resembles the high those who use LSD...
03/12/08 -
Larry James' Urban Daily - Sitting in federal immigration court here in Dallas provides insights into the current national struggle for reform, as well as the heritage we enjoy as a people. While often enraged by the manner in which our current policy is working against so many great people who desire to be part of our national life, I am moved by the personal stories that unfold in the courtroom....
03/12/08 -
Vision & Values - Senator Barack Obama, the eminently likable possible Democratic nominee for president, has sponsored a “Global Poverty Act” that would require the United States to increase foreign aid by approximately $65 billion per year. If the Senate passes this bill, it will be Mr. Obama’s first significant legislative accomplishment in Washington (he has only been a senator since January 2005). As such,...
03/12/08 -
Informed Comment - Sunni Arab Iraqi guerrillas launched a four-pronged attack on their enemies on Monday. They killed eight US troops in two separate bombings, one in the al-Mansur district of Baghdad and one in the small town of Baladruz east of the capital in Diyala Province....
03/11/08 -
Poligazette - University of Minnesota Professor Ronald Krebs notes the relative lack of participation by Iraq war veterans in the ongoing debate over the war, especially on the anti-war side. In contrast to the Vietnam era when future Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” group boasted 30,000 members and was the subject of major Congressional hearings,...
03/11/08 -
NewsBusters - Remember when more than 400 scientists were revealed as "skeptical" about global warming hype? The New York Times's Andrew Revkin blogged about it, saying the "perennial tug of war" was actually "a distraction from fundamentals that are clearly established." Of course, 44 Southern Baptists who buy into the green agenda received a respectful print story in the March 10 Times, widely quoting the...
03/11/08 -
The Economic Populist - With the Manufacturing sector in crisis as the US enters a new recession, you may find of interest my attached analysis of US/Mexico Manufacturing and other goods trade for the three years before NAFTA compared with the most recent three years....
03/10/08 -
Brad Plumer - The moral questions surrounding prostitution are thorny (is it ever freely chosen? is it always coercive?), so let's set that aside and just note that criminalization creates a host of practical problems—and usually makes the sex trade more dangerous. One recent study by Steven Levitt and Sudhir Venkatesh found that many police officers rape prostitutes on a fairly regular basis, holding the threat...
03/10/08 -
ezra klein - I think I have the only blog on the internets where health policy posts get more comments than Iraq and O'Hanlon bashing. Y'all are weird. But I'm going to indulge you. I went to a presentation this morning by Alan Enthoven, the godfather of managed competition, and came away with some of the slides from his Powerpoint. One section focused on single payer. ...
03/10/08 -
Poligazette - It seems that some of those responsible for the (run-up to the) war in Iraq, and the way this war was handled in its early stages (the occupation, etc.) are trying to distance themselves from it. In this particular instance, it’s Dough Feith who blames Colin Powell (of all people), the CIA “retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up...
03/10/08 -
Strategy Page - The stress of repeated trips to combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan is having an effect on American troops, as mental health professionals expected. Currently, for every soldier killed in combat, at least one is sent back to the United States because of severe PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and several others are treated in the combat zone for less severe cases. During World War II, PTSD...
03/09/08 -
Pharmalot - To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of...
03/09/08 -
firedoglake - Consider the possibilities. Should a superdelegate support the person who carried their district? Maybe the candidate who won the majority of their state's pledged delegation, or whoever got the most popular votes in that state. Those who think in national terms might look to the national leader in pledged delegates, or perhaps the national popular vote leader. Maybe they'll look to the candidate...
03/09/08 -
Obsidian Wings - So: Clinton didn't mention that she advocated military intervention in Rwanda in her memoirs. Neither did Madeleine Albright. Neither, as far as I can tell, did anyone else. Military intervention was not considered as an option, "never even debated", which means that any advocacy she did engage in must have been pretty ineffective....
03/07/08 -
Arab Writers Group Syndicate - When controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan endorsed Barack Obama in a three-hour speech, the outcry demanding that Obama denounce Farrakhan was deafening. And the criticism of the widerspread racism against Muslims, Blacks, Arabs and “others” only became important as a way for mainstream media and leaders to defend themselves against the truth that they are more racist and bigoted...
03/07/08 -
Online Journal - An Army specialist who served two tours of duty in Iraq sued Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his supervising officer Wednesday for allegedly trying to force him to embrace fundamentalist Christianity and then retaliating against him when he refused. Plaintiffs Jeremy Hall, who was stationed at Combat Operations Base Speicher, Iraq, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed the...
03/07/08 -
Prepare Yourselves for a Settlement - Samantha Power earned a degree from Yale. Then, she snagged her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She spent several years as an "on the spot" journalist, reporting from some of the world's most dangerous places about issues relating to genocide, human rights and the conduct of foreign policy....
03/06/08 -
Smart Borders - Native Americans surely define Americans differently. Indigenous people must look at this country as a nation of upstart immigrants. Their immigration over the Atlantic or the Bering Land Bridge happened so long ago that “Native” has become a part of their name. Recent immigration of the past 300-400 years has irrevocably changed their lands, their rituals, their ceremonies, and their daily...
03/06/08 -
The Russell Record - No responsibility has yet been claimed for this morning's IED explosion at the Times Square recruiting station. I rode past the site on my bus this morning, and things seemed quiet, if eerie. As I looked out the window, I could see the police cars surrounding the building, and I thought back to when I was a captain, about eight years ago. I was present at the dedication ceremony for the "new"...
03/06/08 -
Cogitamus - Republican presidential nominee John McCain has a nasty little religion problem about which the traditional media aren't saying an awful lot. Specifically, McCain has embraced the endorsement of Texas über-televangelist and pastor John Hagee. Trouble is, Hagee is a known bigot as well as a frighteningly extreme character who has gone on record and video--and countless times at that--spewing...
03/05/08 -
Ed Angleton Rants - There have been many complaints of late regarding Libertarians “stealing” elections from Republican candidates. That we agree in principle about 80% so we shouldn’t be fielding candidates. It has even been suggested that the Libertarian Party should simply fade away and its members and activists return to the parties from whence they came and work within them to effect change....
03/05/08 -
Health Beat - We all know that guns can be hazardous to our health. The number of children killed by guns in the United States each year is roughly three times greater than the number of servicemen and women killed annually in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five...
03/05/08 -
Democrats.com - Brattleboro, Vt., voted today in support of a measure calling on the town's police force to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney. The vote was 2012-1795. Marlboro, Vt., passed a similar measure at its town meeting today at which the vote to indict Bush and Cheney was 43-25-3. That's 43 in favor and 3 abstaining. Thus Marlboro beat Brattleboro to it by a few hours. In Brattleboro, the indictment...
03/04/08 -
This Ain't Livin' - Yesterday morning, I woke up and noticed several articles on an E.L.F. action undertaken near Seattle. Activists set fire to several “green” homes in a housing division, leaving derisive notes and a wake of substantial damage. You may not agree with E.L.F.’s tactics, but I do think that they chose a brilliant target, and I hope that the event stimulates some discussion. Alas, much of the...
03/04/08 -
The farm Gate - The average price of wheat in the current marketing year will take a nearly 50% jump from the prior all time high of $4.55. USDA’s projected range for all wheat in the marketing year that ends in May will be $6.45 to $6.85 per bushel. Over the past 30 years wheat has only averaged $3.33 per bushel. So what has suddenly overtaken the wheat market, even pushing futures for certain varieties above...
03/04/08 -
Blackline - In between cooking beats in his musical laboratory and sewing fabrics together for his clothing company, hip-hop music mogul Russel Simmons once in a while dips his fingers into the political arena, giving his opinions from the hip-hop community’s point of view. This time, instead of a point of view, he gave an endorsement-for Obama. Rap’s biggest defender and advocate said Sunday that he is...
03/03/08 -
feministe - I do have sympathy of the argument that people shouldn’t be outed for making anonymous comments on the internet. And of course I believe that free speech rights apply anonymously online as strongly as they apply in “real” life. Identifying anonymous internet commenters can have a real chilling effect, and I don’t think that people deserve to be outed simply for saying things that others...
03/03/08 -
Reflective Pundit - The question here is not how a seemingly educated woman can come up with such idiocy in the 21st century. Obviously, there are always some particularly dumb outliers. The real question is, then, why the editors of the Washington Post decided to publish such piece of rubbish and promote it prominently on their web site....
03/03/08 -
Cato at liberty - FISA has been repeatedly amended to further reduce judicial oversight of eavesdropping, most importantly with the Patriot Act in October 2001. The law on the books in early 2006 was even more permissive than the legislation Safire is blasted as an assault on civil liberties. Yet the Bush administration has been so successful at shifting the terms of the debate that even a lot of self-described civil...
03/02/08 -
angry bear - I was looking at some data yesterday and encountered a big surprise. I suppose like almost everyone I was under the impression that health care spending was growing much faster then the economy and absorbing an ever growing share of resources. This theme dominates much discussion of health care issues, particularly projections of the federal budget. So I was very surprised to look at the data and...
03/02/08 -
julian sanchez - I've complained before about the tendency, which I think is at least somewhat more pronounced (or at any rate, more overt) on the left to evaluate legal decisions by asking whether we like the group that benefits from a ruling in a particular case. That said, I'm not sure it's totally irrelevant to ask whether the justices are able to do this kind of perspective-taking. A lot of important decisions...
03/02/08 -
American Scene - It doesn’t seem very likely to me that it matters in the sense of genuinely being a major policy difference. In other words: I’m skeptical of the Clinton campaign talking point that this somehow proves that Obama is not really committed to major health-care reform and effective universal access to health care. Nor do I think Obama would have any difficulty changing his mind if and when he’s...
02/29/08 -
blackvoices - About a year and a few months ago, I visited a somber site in South Jamaica, Queens, right off Sutphin Blvd., about 200 yards from where the E, J, and Z subway lines meet and where you can get the AirTrain to Kennedy International Airport. It was a cold night on that lonely corner of Liverpool and 94th Ave., and I was the last one there, having covered a protest demonstration that wound through...
02/29/08 -
ms lady deborah - Voters in almost all the districts represented by the CBC have chosen Obama, helping him win more delegates than Clinton. But only some delegates vote based on the results of primaries. A fifth of the delegates that will vote at the convention -- and decide the nomination -- are "superdelegates" that can technically vote however they like, regardless of what the voters say. These super-delegates...
02/29/08 -
Jawa Report - This week a trusted contact revealed to me that he was hearing from Pakistan that Gadahn was most likely dead. I asked him if his sources weren't the same as NBC? No, he replied, he had a different source of information. Then why hasn't the U.S. confirmed Gadahn's demise? Too many body parts, he said. Very little left of any one on the ground. Could take some time, or we may never have...
02/28/08 -
Jeff Jarvis - Start here: Why should my son or daughter have to pick a single college and with it only the teachers and courses offered there? Online, they should be able to take most any course anywhere. Indeed, schools from MIT to Stanford are now offering their curricula the internet. Of course, these come without the benefit of the instructors’ attention — and without tuition — but it’s easy to add...
02/28/08 -
Tom Blumer - Though they have their disagreements, Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who faced off in Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday evening, clearly agree on one supposedly “obvious” thing — that manufacturing in the United States is in decline. Mr. Obama’s economic platform calls for a “comprehensive energy independence and climate change plan [that] will invest in...
02/28/08 -
CATO Blog - The principal reason to question democracy is to undercut the facile claim that majoritarian rule is the only or most legitimate form of rule. To the contrary, as I noted in my original post, curbing abuses of power by majority factions was a very serious problem that led to the replacement of the Articles of Confederation by the Constitution. The Founders’ attempted solution was a new form of...
02/28/08 -
neoneocon - Allison Kaplan Summer translates an Obama interview with the Israeli news source Ynet that is due to appear on Friday. Asked how he would deal with the threat of Iran and whether he would support military action if diplomacy fails, this was Obama’s answer: I don’t believe that diplomacy alone will stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. I believe that we will require our national strength...
02/27/08 -
bitch phd - Stay classy, Barack. That's some good shit. He's absolutely right, too. She doesn't have to "prove herself." He thinks he's better, and that's why he's running, but he doesn't think she would be bad. For all of the hooting and hollering about how Obama is full of empty rhetoric, he's really a plain-speaking guy a lot of the time. This honesty is refreshing. "She's good, but I'd be better."...
02/27/08 -
gay patriot - Until recently, among the issues which formed the core of modern American conservatism, as articulated by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and their ideoligical heirs, I found myself most at odds with my philosophical confrères on the issue of guns. Here, it didn’t seem that freedom would work. I used to believe that the proliferation of guns fostered increased violence in our society. But,...
02/27/08 -
world changing - Nowhere is this more true than in the U.S., where a study done last year by the Urban Land Institute, Infrastructure 2007: A Global Perspective, found that we'd have to spend $1.6 trillion dollars to bring our infrastructure up to date. Now you don't have to agree with ULI's ideas about what up to date means (they're long on totally discredited ideas like new freeway construction and automotive...
02/26/08 -
Annie Jacobsen - In the fall of last year, a man in a dark suit walked into a UPS Store in Las Vegas, Nevada, flashed a badge, identified himself to the store manager as a Special Agent H. Charles Maurer of the Department of Homeland Security and demanded to see private files on an individual who keeps a postal box there. Familiar with state law, the store manager, M. E. Burks, told the man that he’d have to...
02/26/08 -
Agoraphilia - Nevertheless, the number of delegates is approximately proportionate to the number of electors, at least once you ignore delegates from territories (which get no electors but which have delegates in the Democratic Convention). My quick calculations for the D’s (I was too lazy to do it for the R’s) showed that the percentage of delegates and the percentage of electors from a state never differed...
02/26/08 -
the monkey cage - The basic idea underlying the study is that how an organization structures the information that it possesses is likely to affect what decision makers learn from this information. Lacking an ability to create experimental organizations that structure information in different ways, the researchers turned to the library catalogue — which, after all, is a hierarchical organizer of knowledge — as a...
02/26/08 -
becker-posner - Senator Grassley of Iowa has expressed concern recently about the conjunction of huge increases in the size of the endowments of many universities (and colleges--for the sake of brevity, I shall use "universities" to denote colleges as well) with continued increases in tuition. Both types of increase have far exceeded the rate of inflation in recent years. The senator urges that investment income...
02/26/08 -
tigerhawk - Asia Times has an interesting opinion piece about Barack Obama, arguing that anti-Americanism runs deeply in his family, from his departed mother to his opinionated wife. I quite honestly do not know what to make of the argument, other than that it is fairly free of actual evidence and long on psychoanalysis. There is this, though: Barack Obama has not really been tested on the question, because...
02/26/08 -
motherjones - That's the kind of thing our hard-nosed superiors used to say to us when we bitched about how duty interfered with our lives (took me twice as long to get a BA, what with all the traveling). Some things cross a line though: military motherhood in a time of war without end might just be one of them. It was one thing, having to put my BA (and MA) on hold. I once had eight days to pack up my entire...
02/24/08 -
rightwing nuthouse - I love Sunday newspapers. There always seem to be columns and stories that sum up the past week’s news on a given subject and try to glean some essential truth that a single day’s coverage failed to do. This Sunday, when it comes to Hillary Clinton and the state of her campaign, there are a lot of these summary pieces but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus. Across the country, pundits...
02/24/08 -
Marginal Revolution - It was reading about the new $2500 car, from India, that got me worried. Let's say the new technology is more carbon-friendly than what we do now, but still generates some carbon. (That sounds reasonable, no?) The new energy technology is really cheap, so lots more people -- most of all in China and India and Africa -- enter carbon-using sectors of the economy. Even if the new technology is...
02/24/08 -
Jeff Jarvis - The only thing more shocking that the New York Times printing salacious innuendo about a presidential candidate is its editor not understanding why this caused controversy. I’m not sure whether he’s isolated or clueless or issuing cynical spin. I was gobsmacked reading the story when it came out. I didn’t blog on it because Jay Rosen did a great job succinctly dissecting its issues and...
02/22/08 -
Obsidian Wings - On the telecom front, the most excellent Ed Markey (future Senator, I hope, when Kennedy retires) recently introduced a new net neutrality bill. (Markey is the Chair of the House Telecom Subcommittee and Dingell generally outsources that stuff to him). At first glance, the bill seems timid – it’s simply codifies a policy statement that the Internet should be open without actually requiring net...
02/22/08 -
enterprisere silience blog - For decades foreign students have flocked to the United States to take advantage of its system of higher education. This was good for the students, the universities they attended, and, often, for the United States as well since many of the best and brightest students stayed in America. Since 9/11, it has been more difficult for foreign students to get student visas and they have begun looking...
02/22/08 -
Dr. Helen Smith - irst, let’s change this question from how the collective, “all men”— to the individual—you—can learn to handle negative stereotypes of men in the culture. It really does sound tiring to think that one has to fight a battle just for being male in our society. Having dealt with a lifetime of putdowns for your male gender from one of the most important persons in your life—your mother—it...
02/21/08 -
psyblog - Criminal justice systems around the world have treated human memory with undeserved reverence for a long time. Dubious eyewitness testimony has frequently secured convictions for the most serious of crimes. Even more incredibly for students of scientific psychology, repressed memories rising to the surface decades after the original event have been accepted by courts as the basis to lock a man away...
02/21/08 -
redstate - Everyone, with the possible exception of Mark Penn, must realize that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is hanging on the precipice. Her opponent Senator Barrack Obama has more money and a better organization; he has won more states and built more momentum – Tuesday's Wisconsin and Haiwii wins were his ninth and tenth in a row. Even her husband has admitted that she needs to win Ohio and...
02/21/08 -
whirledview - In the news media, at least, the caucus system seems to have acquired the warm fuzzy cherished status of folk tradition, which, of course, may enshrine customs and attitudes both worthy and unworthy. Many enthusiasts see caucuses as a welcome expression of pure democracy. Others view caucuses as the apotheosis of neighborliness and community. I’m all for democracy and friendliness. (Apple pie...
02/21/08 -
Jim Manzi - My reactions to Barbara Ehrenreich’s famous book Nickel and Dimed, in which she purposely lives on low-income jobs for a couple of years, weren’t very lofty. First, I’ve had some pretty unpleasant jobs in my life, so I felt simultaneously bad for people who had these jobs, and glad that I didn’t. Second, I was confident that in that situation, I would find a way to get out of it over time....
02/21/08 -
feministe - And this is another “thank feminism” moment. The idea that boys just want sex (and girls don’t) is at its heart conservative and essentialist — and it’s a stereotype that lays the groundwork for requirements of “femininity” that inevitably involve refusing sex until a big fat diamond enters the picture, and bartering virginity for financial and social security. It’s not feminists...
02/21/08 -
Scotus Blog - Dividing 7-2, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states, under their own laws or constitutions, may give state prisoners the retroactive benefit of Supreme Court criminal law decisions, even if the Court itself has ruled they are not retroactive under federal law. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority in Danforth v. Minnesota (06-8273). Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., dissented,...
02/20/08 -
The Oil Drum - At one time I was really worried about Global Warming. And at the risk of starting a Global Warming debate here (one that I don't wish to participate in), my position is that the scientific consensus backs the hypothesis that human activity is contributing to Global Warming. I am not an atmospheric scientist, so in this case I rely on the scientific consensus of the experts. This is the same standard...
02/20/08 -
mesh - I will not take time here to relate or summarize his narrative. I want only to note that, of all the many reviews and discussions about this book and its precursor essay and “working paper,” Rabinovich’s is the only one to have taken the book’s argument to its logical apex, to wit: If, as Mearsheimer and Walt argue, the real variance in U.S. Middle East policy is explained by U.S. domestic...
02/20/08 -
Pandagon - If you want to gauge how much a social problem is determined by society to be a matter of individual morality more than a collective problem that can only be addressed by a collective solution, you could do worse than to ask, “Are individual women considered the gatekeepers/middle class white women the moral exemplars on this issue?” Rising obesity and nutrition-related health issues? If we...
02/19/08 -
The Moderate Voice - Were Americans individually and the nation generally better off in 1968 than in 2008? Thus framed, the answer to that question is a big fat “yes,” and so the answer to my initial question is that the changes of 2008 — at the very least the much anticipated end of the Age of Bush — may indeed be more important....
02/19/08 -
wizbang blog - With yet another mass shooting in a "gun-free zone," I find myself thinking a great deal about that concept. The first idea is one that is bouncing around the blogosphere -- the notion that the powers that be that designate such places ought to be held legally liable for the carnage that erupts in them. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that they are making a promise -- possibly a legally binding...
02/19/08 -
mises blog - Americans have given up celebrating George Washington's birthday in exchange for a 3-day weekend. The price includes overlooking the wisdom he has to offer us. That is particularly unfortunate at a time of intense political partisanship, illustrated by the Presidential campaigns, because he had plenty to say about such factionalism. The danger of factions to American liberty was a major part of his...
02/18/08 -
Pharmalot - Like many attorneys who think they have ‘the big case,’ Steven Cohen took a high-stakes gamble after meeting H. Dean Steinke, a Merck district sales manager in Michigan, who suspected that marketing practices aimed at docs were illegal kickbacks for two of the drugmaker’s most popular meds Vioxx and Zocor. Steinke’s prior complaints to his supervisor had fallen on deaf ears. And so the Merck...
02/18/08 -
poligazette - Short on funds and good press for a time, John McCain is proving experience means something in the 2008 campaign. One of the biggest concerns going into the general election for Republicans has to be the massive discrepancy between the amount of money raised by Democratic candidates in the primaries - especially Barack Obama - and the amounts raised by the GOP....
02/15/08 -
Bob Owens - Fresh off of impressive wins in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, Illinois Senator Barack Obama seems poised to ride his campaign mantra of “change” to the Democratic presidential nomination, with a very real possibility of becoming America’s first black president. His rock star — excuse me, “Barack star” — hype aside, however, he is running a campaign on ideas and...
02/15/08 -
Secrecy Blog - Public access to the Reimer Digital Library, which is the largest online collection of U.S. Army doctrinal publications, has been blocked by the Army, which last week moved the collection behind a password-protected firewall. But today the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of Information Act request (pdf) asking the Army to provide a copy of the entire unclassified Library so that...
02/15/08 -
Pandagon - It pops up in comments here and at RH Reality Check all the time. It’s always a variation of: “Why do you use the term ‘anti-choice’? They want to be called ‘pro-life’! It’s only civil to act like you think they’re just in this because they want to save lives! Whine, whine, concern troll, whine.” It’s a variation on the standard right wing concern troll routine, which is to...
02/15/08 -
The Oil Drum - Government policies often generate unintended consequences. This has turned out to be the case with the aggressive biofuel policies pursued over recent years by the European Union and the United States. While the EU was developing action plans and setting targets to promote biofuels, many states in the U.S. - especially those with high levels of corn (maize) production - were enforcing mandates to...
02/15/08 -
ezra klein - How did John McCain become a maverick? After all, he's not nearly the most heterodox Senator in his caucus. He votes with his party 84 percent of the time and, according to the broadly respected Poole-Rosenthal Index, was the eighth most conservative Senator in the 110th Congress. There are plenty of actual centrists and moderates who hang out in the middle far more often tham McCain does. What...
02/15/08 -
Cobb - We don't often think of Barack Obama as a creation of the Democrat Machine, and it's really stunning to know that we haven't. But he is indeed the petard upon which Democrats have tried to hoist Republicans since his arrival on the scene. But where did he come from, really? The Democrats have given Obama an inch and he has taken a mile. With his recent four state sweep, the Clintons are really...
02/13/08 -
jay reding - Remember that analysis if Obama wins the primary. Obama’s appeal is with the new Democratic base—but the new Democratic base is frequently at odds with the old working-class Democratic base. If Obama wins, and it’s looking like he’s got the momentum now, the result could well be a Democratic Party that’s just as split as if Clinton wins. The new Democratic base of urban liberals and minority...
02/13/08 -
the monkey cage - These issues have, of course, taken on even greater resonance in the post-9-11 U.S., and it seems safe to anticipate further contributions along these lines from Gibson and others. One important question that will warrant attention is whether citizens of other nations, not just the U.S., are perceiving tighter restrictions on political self-expression. ...
02/13/08 -
ezra klein - Lets start from a basic proposition: In the current system, insurance companies add negative value, which is to say, they make health care worse, not better. Conservatives often complain that health insurance is not "insurance" in any real sense, it is not protection against unexpected costs, but insulation from largely predictable costs. We know we will need to purchase health care. We contract...
02/12/08 -
brendan nyhan - There's been some debate among pundits about where Barack Obama has been successful and why. To try to make some sense of what's going on, I decided to actually look at the data. (My pundit card will soon be revoked.) One issue is how to compare across states given the change in the number of candidates running over time. The method I used is to focus on how well Obama did relative to Hillary...
02/12/08 -
Counterterrorism Blog - Six plus years from the 9/11 attacks we now have senior counter-terrorism officials of the US Government finally recognizing, albeit somewhat indirectly, the Visa Waiver Program that was originally devised many years ago as a process to expedite international tourism for the travel industry is a genuine national security concern. Some others have been making this warning for quite a while, to include...
02/12/08 -
rightwing nuthouse - Apparently around 21% of people who don’t purchase health insurance are young, single, healthy workers who can afford individual premiums but refuse to cover themselves. This drives the price of health insurance up even more because it leaves older, less healthy people in the insurance pool who are more likely to need health care. So the thinking is if we get everyone covered under an insurance...
02/11/08 -
jeff frankels - I think the serious point is that conservatives like to think that they are keenly aware of the adverse effect of marginal tax rates on work incentives. Effective marginal tax rates on lower-income Americans trying to lift themselves out of poverty can be higher than on ultra-wealthy Americans. Yet the fixation of the Republican party from 2001 to 2007 was to make sure that the tax cuts went largely...
02/11/08 -
Brad Plumer - To nudge this all in a more serious direction, this follow-up Times story on the issues that arise when police rely too heavily on informants is great: "Petty crime is often tolerated in exchange for information. Detectives can be duped by an informant's agenda. While cases of corruption are rare, it is fairly common to have more 'give' in this delicate give-and-take." Ethan Brown runs down more...
02/11/08 -
Secrecy News - The next President of the United States could single-handedly do what years of advocacy, investigation, legislation and litigation have yet to fully accomplish, namely to uncover the concealed record of the Bush Administration’s two terms in office on everything from warrantless wiretapping to extraordinary rendition. In an essay published in the Nieman Watchdog today, I argue that the next...
02/10/08 -
michael yon - The biggest and most expensive dream of these new GI Bill scholars is to build a special 90-apartment complex to accommodate the physical and educational needs of young military veterans who’ve come home severely wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. SFCC President Dr. Jackson Sasser was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the assisted living facility for wounded veterans, and Dr. James Bernard...
02/10/08 -
Agoraphilia - Two sharply contrasting views dominate the debate over copyright policy. On the one hand—the left one, we might say—copyrights represent mere policy tools, no better in principle than any other legal mechanism and, indeed, more modern, rationally planned, and democratically chosen that anything the common law can offer. On the other hand—the right hand, we might say—copyrights represent...
02/10/08 -
Angry Bear - The second thing we do is to report the average annual GDP growth rates for three periods. Real GDP as of 1980QIV was 281.4% higher than it was as of 1950QIV, which means during the 30 year period that included the Eisenhower, Kennedy-Johnson, Nixon-Ford, and Carter years, average real GDP growth was 3.5%. Real GDP as of 1992QIV was 143.2% higher than it was as of 1980QIV, which means during the 12...
02/08/08 -
pruning shears - Those who continue to support the administration’s radical theory of executive power are properly described as authoritarians. Once upon a time they may have been conservative but I think it’s safe to say that circa February 2008 conservatism has been orphaned by its ostensible champions. As a philosophy for governance it has no meaningful support on the national stage and hasn’t for years....
02/08/08 -
rightwing nuthouse - But of all the adventures and misfortunes to befall Odysseus, the most compelling has to be his journey past the islands where the Sirens sang their songs to bewitch unwary sailors. It was said that mariners went mad upon hearing the achingly beautiful music so of course, Odysseus being Odysseus, he had to tempt fate by finding a way to hear the songs but not come under the Siren’s spell. Circe...
02/08/08 -
the monkey cage - What about the charge “that the superstores are impersonal and full of ignorant salespeople? After several months of sampling both chains and independents, I have come to the conclusion that the average chain salesperson is neither more nor less ignorant than his or her counterpart in the independents.” (Editorial comment: Here I have to enter a dissent. This has not been my experience.) ...
02/07/08 -
Bob Owens - That admonition by the instructor came across as a non sequitur following four hours of classroom discussion covering the intricacies of North Carolina laws concerning the justification for the use of deadly force, the quirks of statutory law and the fact that even if a perfectly justifiable situation that you still had a ten-percent chance of going to jail in a jury trial, plus more than an hour...
02/07/08 -
NeoNeoCon - The Democratic Party—to which, when I last checked, both Hillary and Obama belonged—has been dedicated for quite some time now to pulling out of Iraq, and pronto. Once they have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President who won’t offer the impediment of a veto, do you really think they’ll change tunes and say “never mind?” In Vietnam the entire “second act” of the war—the...
02/07/08 -
Angrybear - I believe the national debt should be near zero most of the time. I think that the country should run a deficit only during recessions (someone has to prime the pump), times of extreme danger (e.g., a war against an opponent that is truly dangerous), or when there is an extraordinary investment opportunity e.g., the Louisiana Purchase). The rest of the time, the government should run a small surplus...
02/06/08 -
Consider the Evidence - Douglas Hibbs’ Bread and Peace model has been extremely effective at predicting the outcomes of U.S. presidential elections. On the vertical axis is the incumbent-party candidate’s share of the two-party vote. On the horizontal axis is the growth rate of per capita real disposable personal income (DPI) over the three and a half years leading up to the election. The growth rate is adjusted so...
02/06/08 -
bouphonia - What we never learn from these earnest people is why it's so important, in practical terms, to discern "any possible ideological nexus between Hitler’s Nazism and Islam," instead of recognizing the various strains of violent Islamic radicalism as distinct, unique movements with their own goals and tactics and ideological substrate. Supposedly, it pays to know one's enemies. But "fanatical simplifiers"...
02/06/08 -
Cato At Liberty - The trouble is, Romney never proposed any bailout for automakers, much less just those in one state (relatively little of U.S. auto production is in Michigan). That key accusation was lifted uncritically from a McCain radio ad. As FactCheck.org noted, “Romney actually proposed a $16 billion increase in federal research into ‘energy research, fuel technology, materials science, and automotive...
02/06/08 -
Obsidian Wings - Any way you slice it, tonight was a draw on the Dem side. I just saw Chuck Todd crunching delegate numbers on MSNBC. The gist was that, even under assumptions most generous to Clinton, they would still be virtually tied. Todd, however, thought Obama would ultimately win tonight by a few dozen delegates. But still, that’s essentially a tie. To me, though, a draw is actually a big victory for...
02/05/08 -
news corpse - Over the past year there has been a broad array of economic and political indicators that have been trending generally downward. In the U.S. jobs having been declining, as have exports. Construction has pulled back and property values have fallen. Wages are not keeping pace with inflation. At the same time, approval ratings for President Bush have cratered and Republican Party registration is down....
02/05/08 -
the monkey cage - The rules mean that if a district has four delegates, a candidate will only win more than half of the delegates if they top 62.5% of the vote. Because 62.5 is the midpoint between 50 and 75, a candidate who tops this and earns less than 87.5% of the vote, would get three of the four delegates. Given the fact that Democrats appear to be closely divided between Clinton and Obama, topping this 62.5...
02/04/08 -
Blogging Stocks - American President George Bush announced his new budget spending plan today, and the package came out to a total of $3.1 trillion. Today's federal budget proposal marks the first time in America's history that a budget plan has been in excess of $3 trillion. Bush claims that his budget is "good" and "solid" and that the passing of this budget will help keep the troubled American economy...
02/03/08 -
Whirledview - Americans also need to understand that democracy – our own included - cannot be put on autopilot and forgotten. This is a garden that requires constant tending or it could soon come to resemble Ancient Rome’s descent into autocracy, a slippery slide that began with a veneer of at least quasi-representative government. Democracy foremost means sharing and placing limits on power. It is about...
02/03/08 -
feministing - I believe doctors and patients should have broad access to information about the drugs they prescribe/take, and the makers of those drugs. Because of the antis, that information about mifepristone has never been accessible. That said, knowing how the antichoice movement works, I fully understand why this information has been kept under wraps until now. And the conspiracy theorist in me thinks...
02/02/08 -
the carpetbagger report - When Alberto Gonzales would periodically stop by the Senate Judiciary Committee for oversight hearings, it was extraordinarily painful. The bulk of the poor schmo’s answers, when he wasn’t feigning a faulty memory, were so breathtakingly dishonest, it was almost comical. ...
02/02/08 -
working life - One interesting aspect--and an important one that has gotten very little coverage in the media (please put links to anything you see in the Comments section)--is what happens now to the labor support that John Edwards had. I suspect that the campaigns of both Sens. Clinton and Obama are working the phones hard to try to grab union support, particularly for Super Tuesday states. ...
02/02/08 -
RBC - One argument against the Obama strategy for November — mobilize the Democratic base, bring out more young and African-American voters, grab some moderates, and de-mobilize, or even capture, some of the right — is that the second half of it is based on misperception. Right now, the argument goes, Republican voters perceive Obama as less "liberal" than Hillary Clinton, which is plain silly. Once...
01/31/08 -
Strategic Security Blog - Very little in the directive is new or surprising*, and the administration has not released enough information on most of the specific reforms in the directive to assess their likely impact. The most notable proposal is for a self-financing mechanism aimed at generating additional resources for Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) – the chronically under-staffed office that reviews and...
01/31/08 -