christopher_hallam

Something I’m looking forward to is when we stop misusing the term “fiscal conservative.” Theoretically a fiscal conservative is someone who is focused on balancing the budget and paring down the nation’s debt. In practice, the people who we generally refer to as “fiscal conservatives” are people interested in destroying the social safety net while […]

Ben Smith writes that former Clinton staffer and Simpson-Bowles deficit commission director Bruce Reed‘s hiring is a “move toward Clintonism” and “another early signal that the next two years are going to be a determined move to the middle.” I don’t doubt that’s true, but there’s no Democratic majority in the House anymore. It’s not […]

I don’t know why I try to write anything in earnest when the Onion does a much better job with a joke: “While Loughner is clearly a deranged madman who, with this heinous, tragic act, has proved to be a danger to himself and others, he has not explicitly violated any statutes currently on the […]

Wonder Woman is one of DC Comics “trinity;” she, Superman and Batman are the company’s most iconic characters. Yet she’s never received the full-scale cinematic treatment, and a recent attempt to put together a television show produced by former Ally McBeal producer David E. Kelley seems to have fallen apart. Kay Steiger is disappointed: But […]

Glenn Greenwald wrote this about radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on Monday: Speaking of American justice, ondelette, over at FDL, raises an interesting point: for those who believe that leading right-wing figures are inspiring violence (whether of the kind that just occurred in Arizona, things like this, or even calls for Assange’s murder), shouldn’t they be […]

Via Andrew Sullivan, Rep. Trent Franks gives us his opinion of Sarah Palin. If every person in the world was like Sarah Palin, there probably wouldn’t even be need for government because no one would be in danger of any kind. If every person were like Sarah Palin, this world would be a peaceful, beautiful […]

Writing about terrorism and civil liberties issues has made me really skeptical about instant legislative solutions to problems, and following an incident like the shooting in Tucson, there’s a very human impulse to ask what can we do differently. The problem is that perfect security is unattainable, and the effort to obtain it can actually […]

William Galston‘s argument that Tucson proves we need to lower the standards by which people are involuntarily committed to institutions for the mentally ill is frightening: First, those who acquire credible evidence of an individual’s mental disturbance should be required to report it to both law enforcement authorities and the courts, and the legal jeopardy […]

Stewart Baker has one: Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Suppose Sheriff Dupnik had gone to the podium Saturday and said, “You know, hundreds of thousands of people violate the law in this county every year, crossing illegally into the United States. Some of them commit murders along the way. Arizona has become a Mecca for […]

Jared Lee Loughner will be tried in an Article III court, he will retain an attorney who will offer him a zealous defense, and presumably–[BECAUSE?while] he appears not to be cooperating with interrogators–he was told that he has the right to remain silent. The events in Tucson are often referred to as a “rampage” and […]