Nick Sementelli flags the testimony of Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College in London, to Representative Sue Myrick’s subcommittee hearing on domestic radicalization in the U.S. Myrick, as Sementelli points out, is a big believer in the stealth jihad conspiracy theory, so imagine […]
Adam Serwer
Adam Serwer is a writing fellow at The American Prospect and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also blogs at Jack and Jill Politics and has written for The Village Voice, The Washington Post, The Root, and the Daily News. Follow @adamserwer
Is Obama An Effective Politician?
Kevin Drum makes the case: What’s more, Obama also won passage during his first two years of a stimulus bill, a landmark healthcare bill that Democrats had been trying to pass for the better part of a century, a financial reform bill, and much needed reform of student loans. And more: a firm end to […]
No Country For Marriage-Equality Federalism
Not to be outdone by Rick Perry, Ben Smith reports that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has signed the National Organization for Marriage’s pledge to “defend marriage” by supporting a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality (via Igor Volsky): The last part of the pledge commits Romney to undoing marriage equality in the nation’s capital, […]
Media Malpractice Of The Day
The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is infamous among liberals for his views on race and gay rights, and for being someone GOP presidential hopefuls go to to shore up their social conservative bonafides. The New York Times, reporting on Fischer, shows the limits of faux objectivity: Perhaps most notably, Mr. Fischer trumpets the disputed […]
“Wigger Day”
Tanya Somanader looks at the “Wigger Day” lawsuit: For homecoming in 2009, the student council at Red Wing High School in Red Wing, Minnesota decided to go with a “tropical theme” for the dance. Instead, 60 students at the “predominantly white school” attended homecoming dressed for “Wigger Wednesday,” wearing costumes that “from their perspective” looked […]
Civil Rights vs. Preemption In Immigration Cases
Nicholas Mendoza looks at why the Obama administration has relied on arguments that the federal government has the authority to set immigration policy instead of challenging immigration laws on racial profiling grounds: Tumlin argues that the substantive differences between the two complaints have a lot to do with who the plaintiff is in each case. […]
White House Counterradicalization Strategy: Don’t Demonize Muslims
The White House released its strategy for countering violent extremism today, and while the use of that particular phrase may provoke howls of “political correctness” from conservatives, the strategy identifies “al-Qa’ida and its affiliates and adherents represent the preeminent terrorist threat to our country.” The strategy also emphasizes the importance of local actors in resisting […]
Glenn Beck: New Spider-Man “Looks Just Like President Obama”
Glenn Beck loses his cookies over the idea of a blatino Spider-Man, whom he says “looks just like President Obama.” Beck explains this geek redistributionism by playing a clip of a Michelle Obama quote from 2008(!) saying “Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change […]
Feminism, Steve King, And Birthrate Panic
Marie Diamond flags Iowa Representative Steve King’s panic over the possibility that increased access to contraception could lead to the end of America: They’ve called it preventative medicine. Preventative medicine. Well if you applied that preventative medicine universally what you end up with is you’ve prevented a generation. Preventing babies from being born is not […]
Principles Of Unsurpassed Ugliness
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is taking legal advice from Robert Bork, the failed conservative nominee to the Supreme Court who says things like this about the 1964 Civil Rights Act: The principle of such legislation is that if I find your behavior ugly by my standards, moral or aesthetic, and if you prove stubborn […]

