The administration has released its rationale for why it’s not in violation of the War Powers Act despite being engaged in military operations in Libya without congressional approval, and it’s a doozy: The two senior administration lawyers contended that American forces have not been in “hostilities” at least since April 7, when NATO took over […]
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
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Bloggingheads: GOP Debate Edition
I have a new bloggingheads with Daniel Foster of National Review on the GOP 2012 field, Libya and Syria, and some Game of Thrones nerdery: Given the state of affairs abroad, Thrones was really the most fun to talk about.
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The CIA’s Escalation In Yemen
Kevin Drum asks an odd question in response to the CIA beginning operations in Yemen: I know I’m not the first to ask this, but exactly what theory of military action allows President Obama to do this without congressional approval? In Afghanistan and Nicaragua in the 80s, you could argue that we were merely funding […]
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Drug War Fact Of The Day
From the New York Times: More people are arrested in New York City on charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana than on any other crime on the books. Nearly all are black or Latino males under the age of 25, most with no previous convictions. Many have never been arrested before. Two New York […]
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Everyone’s A Realist When The Other Guy’s In Charge
Michael Cohen has an interesting piece on the newfound Republican realism of the GOP presidential contenders: Libya gave the Republican wannabes a chance to go even further in a realist direction. When asked whether the war there was in the “vital national interest of the United States,” Michele Bachmann said, “No, I don’t believe so.” […]
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Pro-Prop 8 Effort To Disqualify Judge Walker Fails
Dahlia Lithwick writes about Prop 8 supporters effort to disqualify Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled that Prop 8 was unconstitutional, because he is gay and in a committed relationship: And what of the argument that Judge Walker stood to benefit personally from his own ruling in the Prop 8 case? Wouldn’t—by this logic—a straight judge […]
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Do Sports Matter?
Jay Smooth notes, in the context of the NBA Finals, that the masses pay well for their opiates and LeBron James broke a cardinal rule of sports by reminding people that they don’t really matter: I’m not ready to say “sports don’t matter” in a world where terrorists are willing to murder and mutilate World […]
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Secure Communities, SB 1070 And Racial Profiling
Jesse James DeConto has an excellent overview of the Secure Communities Program, the federal anti-illegal immigration effort that turns local police into enforcers of federal immigration laws: Because they lead to incarceration, 287(g) and Secure Communities effectively criminalize immigration violations, which the U.S. had historically handled as civil matters in special administrative courts. Immigration courts, […]
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Sharia Panic And The GOP Debate
Mitt Romney didn’t take the bait, while Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich tried to defend their latter day McCarthyism: There’s a difference between the oath of office, where everyone takes an oath to defend the Constitution, and the sort of oath Cain and Gingrich are proposing, which singles out a single religious group as disloyal. […]
