Adam Serwer

Jeremy Jacobs has obtained a video of New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino again showing off his considerable emotional depth and maturity at a campaign stop on March 26 in Tappan, New York: The questioner asks, “If you were the chief executive of New York, what would your response be to the attorney general […]

For all the Republican complaints about Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez posturing by introducing an immigration reform bill that most likely won’t go anywhere, Sen. Orrin Hatch‘s “immigration reform” bill is basically an enforcement-only version of the same. Hatch’s bill would make receiving federal funds for incarceration conditional on jurisdictions participating in the “Secure Communities” program […]

Justin Elliot thinks The New York Times profile of Pam Geller went far too easy on her: It’s obvious to anyone who reads Geller’s blog that she is, by the dictionary definition, a bigot. She has, for example, fantasized about Israel responding to Iranian attack by nuking the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina […]

It’s not the late ’90s anymore, so the novelty of a white dude who can rap is a bit lost on me. But last night Anderson Cooper profiled Eminem for 60 Minutes, and Em said something that drew a shrug from Ta-Nehisi Coates: “I felt like I was being attacked,” he told Cooper. “I was […]

Despite all the hand-wringing from the right over the possibility that the prosecution of alleged Tanzanian Embassy bomber Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani might be jeopardized by torturous interrogations, it looks like the trial is set to go forward anyway. Ghailani, 36, is charged with conspiring with others including Osama bin Laden to blow up two U.S. […]

Jon Stewart takes on New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino: So I used to think Paladino’s animus toward gays and Muslims was ideological, but after reflecting on his revulsion toward the gay-pride parade on Good Morning America, I don’t think it is. This is what he said: “Now, Andrew Cuomo said he took his […]

I neglected to mention that my cover story for the latest edition of The American Prospect is online, about how by not passing comprehensive immigration-reform legislation, Democrats are at risk of losing the Latino vote. If there’s one thing I want you to take away from the piece, though, it’s the part about border security: […]

So I’ll be taking today off, but in lieu of blogging, I offer some interesting links: Off-White: Bill Barbaro‘s piece on the role ethnic identity is playing in the New York gubernatorial race between Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino is a fascinating account of the latter chapters of American integration and a reminder of how […]

Amanda Marcotte on zombie pop music panic. With the rap scolds coming back, it really is starting to feel like the ’90s. Apparently Reihan Salam and I have similar thoughts about marijuana. How Bob Woodward may have contributed to Jim Jones resigning. Shani Hilton on black greeks and hazing. This Superman joke is both predictable […]

A self-identified 90-year-old woman calls into C-SPAN’s Washington Journal discussion on Wall Street and the administration and tests the legendary professionalism of one of the show’s hosts, Robb Harleston, by saying she was just calling in to ask “a colored man,” why black people aren’t more thankful for everything whites have done for them. When […]