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Monica Potts

Monica Potts is a senior writer for The American Prospect. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate. She also blogs at PostBourgie.

Recent Articles

Climate Change Now.

Monica PottsJan 25, 2011

Last night, Politico reported that President Obama's energy and environment adviser, Carol Browner, is leaving. While reporters Mike Allen and Darren Samuelsohn call her one of the few White House figures to come out of the BP oil disaster looking competent, an NPR story notes that Browner had recently been criticized for "politicizing" the Gulf spill by saying the oil was nearly gone when it wasn't and editing a document so that it appeared scientists were on board with an oil-drilling moratorium, which they weren't.

Football Players: Just Out There Having Fun, Overcoming Adversity.

Monica PottsJan 24, 2011

Last night, during Sunday night football, one of my friends retweeted a comment from a Twitter user called Lolo813 (she has protected her tweets) that said: "Um, being suspended for sexual assault isn't adversity. It would be great if the announcers would stop calling it that."

Clean-Energy Cuts at the Top of the List.

Monica PottsJan 21, 2011

As Jamelle Bouie said below, the Republicans' proposed budget cuts amount to small savings that would do little to solve our long-term fiscal problems and have the added disadvantage of cutting investment at a time when we still need government spending to promote growth.

But David Roberts at Grist notices another thing about the cuts: Clean energy and energy-efficiency spending programs were at the top of the list. He details them, and his list is below:

Texas Actually Cutting Pointless Services.

Monica PottsJan 20, 2011

When I reported last month that states taken over by Republican legislatures in the South were likely to cut critical anti-poverty programs, I imagined that they would instead divert federal anti-poverty funds to programs conservatives like, i.e., marriage promotion, counseling for pregnant women that encourages them not to choose abortions, and other faith-based programs. I hadn't known before I did the reporting that states had a great deal of autonomy in choosing exactly where to send those federal grants, and critical programs like food stamps and early childhood education I thought, for sure, were done for.

Race Always Matters.

Monica PottsJan 19, 2011

I finally caught up with Monday's episode of House last night (sorry, advertisers, I watch shows for free online) and the story line involved a patient who had jumped onto the subway tracks to save a seizing woman from an oncoming train. That act of heroism didn't have anything to do with his illness, but it allowed Hugh Laurie's character his regular moments of misanthropy.

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