christopher_hallam

The premise of this study, concluding that the arrest of future terror suspects on minor charges represent missed opportunities to “detect and deter an attack,” seems flawed to me: One of the variables looked at by officials at the center, which is run by the New York State Police and brings together federal, other state […]

Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall is trying to reinstate a statewide DADT policy for the Virginia National Guard. To his credit, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell opposes it. Amanda Hess comments: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has done little to reduce the stunning numbers of sexual assault in the military. In fact, some servicewomen who have fended off […]

Matthew Yglesias summarizes Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour‘s view of white citizens councils: I think both what Barbour said and the context were pretty clear. In Mississippi in the 1950s and 60s most white people were white supremacists. And within the large and powerful white supremacist community, there was a split between more moderate and more […]

The pivot from conservative media voices from vigorously opposing the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to attempting to rewrite discrimination against gay and lesbian servicemembers as part of the Democratic agenda is instructive of how history works. President Bill Clinton instituted DADT as a “compromise,” since it would allow gays to serve as long […]

The story of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour‘s experience with the integration of Ole Miss offered a glimpse into how completely divorced from the reality of black people’s lived experience white people could be, even if they weren’t personally hostile to integration. Barbour fondly recalled his “friendship” with a black student, Verna Bailey who let him […]

Matt Taibbi on Barack Obama: I can live with the president fighting for something and failing; what I can’t stand is a politician who changes his mind for the sake of expediency and then pretends that was what he believed all along. You just can’t imagine someone like Sanders doing something like that; his MO […]

Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday that Obama would stop defending DADT in court if repeal was defeated: Yes, he will drop his defense of it because the argument has been, ‘well you’re the president and you have this obligation,’ and I think that’s generally right. We don’t the president picking and choosing what laws they […]

In case you haven’t been reading Batman comics lately, Bruce Wayne has left his old Robin to take up the mantle of the Bat in Gotham City while he runs around the world setting up franchises. In France, he chooses an Algerian Muslim from the Paris slums. Cue right-wing panic: I knew it was only […]

John McWhorter says you can’t blame obesity just on poverty: The no-supermarket paradigm discourages us from considering that human beings acquire — through childhood experience, cultural preferences and economics — a palate. Note that the economy is part of the equation: The cheapness of sugary drinks is notorious, thanks to the popularity and influence of […]

I just want to take a moment to admire Michelle Malkin‘s talent with language, specificially her ability to put together in just a few words a description of a piece of legislation that meticulously plucks every possible right wing nerve. It doesn’t matter what the given legislation actually does, it somehow turns into a bailout […]