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Jamelle Bouie

Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect.

Recent Articles

Musings From a 20-Something.

Jamelle BouieAug 23, 2010

I finally got around to reading The New York Times Magazine piece on the aimless 20-something, and as a somewhat aimless 20-something, it strikes me as a little blinkered. For starters, outside of a few nods to the recession, there isn't much of an effort to understand why financial independence is so hard to find. But the truth is that the recession has wrecked havoc on job and career prospects for 20-somethings. Last year, for college graduates with bachelor degrees, the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent -- lower than the overall rate, but not by much.

Using the Other Side.

Jamelle BouieAug 23, 2010

Unlike one of Andrew Sullivan's readers, I'm not exactly shocked to learn that conservatives are touting Muslim -- or rather, ex-Muslim -- opponents to the Cordoba House project in Lower Manhattan. By and large, it fits with the general strategy of using women and racial minorities to oppose policies that would benefit women and racial minorities. For instance, conservative women like Wendy Wright are always happy to help attack feminism and oppose measures to further reproductive rights. Ward Connerly is always around to rail against affirmative action, and Niger Innis is a reliable go-to guy for whenever the NAACP needs demonizing.

More on Presidential Appointments.

Jamelle BouieAug 23, 2010

Jonathan Bernstein responds to my post on reforming the presidential appointment process with a convincing case for the merits of the status quo:

At it's best, the system will achieve input from national level interests (through the presidency), relevant local and narrow interests (through Congress), and expertise (through the bureaucracy). Moreover, at its best, the incentives within the system will push everyone to compete for control of policy, which should -- by forcing people to defend their positions, and choose which things are worth fighting for -- yield better policy in the long run.

Bob McDonnell's Creative Accounting.

Jamelle BouieAug 20, 2010

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has been touting the state's $403.2 million budget surplus since it was announced earlier this summer. On Fox Business Network yesterday, he took that advocacy a bit further and offered Washington lawmakers some advice on balancing the budget:

There Are Too Many Political Appointees.

Jamelle BouieAug 20, 2010

Yesterday, President Obama made four recess appointments to vacancies in the Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department. There isn't anything "special" about these appointments, but they're worth noting, since they illustrate the ridiculousness of our system for staffing the executive branch.

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