christopher_hallam

This is a puzzling comment from Matt Lewis on Newt Gingrich asserting that Barack Obama is a “Kenyan anti-colonialist.” But putting aside the fact that this idea is not unique to Gingrich, I can’t help but ask: Why do people think being “anti-colonial” equals being anti-American? I mean, didn’t we rebel against Great Britain? This […]

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour remembers the integration of Ole Miss in the 1960s as “a very pleasant experience.” Verna Bailey, a black woman who was among the students integrating the institution, and whom Barbour remembers fondly, does not. In fact, she doesn’t remember Barbour at all. Here’s Barbour’s recollection: He said she was “a very […]

Following a a number of criticisms from prominent commentators like James Fallows and Nick Kristof, TNR Publisher Marty Peretz has apologized for saying Muslims weren’t “worthy” of First Amendment rights. I suspect that the rules of journalistic “toilet training” will mandate that Peretz’ apology be accepted fairly uncritically, along with his contention that sentence “misrepresents” […]

One of the more interesting elements of the DC Mayor’s race is how the typical circumstances of racial polarization are reversed. So you have challenger Vincent Gray blowing obvious racial dogwhistles like this one about the administration of incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty:

Think about the national security related “controversies” of the past two years. We’ve been debating whether or not the United States should torture people suspected of terrorism, whether to abandon civilian courts entirely for a military commissions system that had convicted a grand total of three people, whether or not Muslims suspected of terrorism should […]

Human Rights First was decidedly happier about General David Petraeus speaking out against “Burn a Quran Day” than I was. The GOP meanwhile, seems to have settled on the argument that a pastor who thinks Islam is satanic celebrating the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by burning Qurans is equivalent to Muslims worshipping near Ground […]

Jack Goldsmith traces the origin of his new group blog’s name, Lawfare: General [Charles] Dunlap first used the term in a 2001 paper that came on the heels of the 1999 Kosovo campaign, in which both lawyers and public debates about the legality of the war figured prominently. “Is lawfare turning warfare into unfair?,” he […]

I’m of the opinion that the argument over American Taliban has been a valuable one, and its inspired some thoughtful rebuttals like this one from Hunter at DailyKos. It’s also inspired some pretty dumb ones. In his review, Jamelle Bouie wrote: In another chapter, Moulitsas quotes a sermon by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: […]

Yesterday E.D. Kain responded to my critique of Reihan Salam‘s comparison of Glenn Beck to Malcolm X by writing: Unless the point is to drape as much of the Civil Rights movement over Beck’s shoulders as possible; first with the appropriation of Martin Luther King Day, and now this ludicrous notion that Beck is some […]

John Podhoretz explains that Sarah Palin is more Jewy than all you fake Jews out there: Maybe it’s not just Palin’s right-wing politics that gets secular Jews so riled up. Maybe it’s also that Palin, that idiot, may actually know more about Judaism and feel no discomfort about emulating Jewish traditions and Jewish particularism in […]