Adam Serwer

Despite Congress refusing to put funding for the purchase of the Thomson correctional facility in Illinois in the war-funding bill, the Obama administration appears to be preparing to purchase the prison, where it intends to move detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, with funds from the Justice Department: Writing to members of the Illinois […]

An excerpt from the Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal: Now, flipping through printout cards of his speech in Paris, McChrystal wonders aloud what Biden question he might get today, and how he should respond. “I never know what’s going to pop out untilI’m up there, that’s the problem,” he says. Then, unable to […]

You know that old saying about how to a hammer, every problem looks like a nail? It’s kind of like that with Shelby Steele, only he simply believes that every problem the United States has faced since the 1960s can be explained by white guilt: One reason for this is that the entire Western world […]

Writing for a 6-to-3 majority in which Justice John Paul Stevens defected from the liberal wing of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a ruling upholding the material support for terrorism law which some human-rights organizations had criticized as too broad because it criminalized their efforts to support the nonviolent political and humanitarian efforts […]

POLITICO reports that Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is accusing the White House of “holding the border hostage.” Kyl summed his story by asserting that the only reason Washington has not secured the nearly 2,000 mile long border with Mexico is that Democrats don’t see the political benefit of providing more security without other reforms. “That’s […]

Remember three months ago, when it was “weeks away?” So does Josh Gerstein, who says not to expect a decision anytime soon: Now advocates on both sides of the issue say they expect the Obama administration to punt the decision until after the November midterm elections — when the controversial plan could do less damage […]

I’m not sure Reihan Salam really thought about this before he wrote it (via Roy Edroso): Shakedowns of this kind have a long and undistinguished history. And let’s acknowledge that they aren’t partisan, or even American, in nature. Republican presidents have engaged in similar tactics, like the so-called “voluntary restraint agreement” the Reagan administration reached […]

Because of news reports like this: Judith Gans, who studies immigration at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona, said that what social psychologists call self-serving perception bias seemed to be at play. Both sides in the immigration debate accept information that confirms their biases, she said, and discard, […]

Jonathan Bernstein looks at Andy McCarthy‘s bizarre conspiracy theory that the president is only attacking al-Qaeda to serve the larger cause of Islamic world domination, and senses brilliance: This isn’t stupid; it’s genius. McCarthy’s plan is foolproof; it covers not only a lucky shot that hits bin Laden, but a complete victory over al-Qaeda. All […]

The death of Dawn Johnsen‘s nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel was more than the defeat of a single nominee. It was a blow to a liberal legal community that is already struggling to counter the conservative legal message. Johnsen’s downfall wasn’t being unqualified–she had run OLC in the past–her problem was that […]