christopher_hallam

Yesterday, criticizing the Freedom of Choice Act, which would “repeal federal restrictions” on access to abortion, Rep. Bryan Stevenson of Missouri compared it to “The War of Northern Aggression,” which is commonly known among people who wouldn’t have wanted the Confederacy to win as “The Civil War.” Stevenson reportedly apologized, which is great for him, […]

The right wing lobbyist group Move America Forward is kicking off its “keep Gitmo open” campaign tomorrow at the press club: A Press Conference is scheduled in Washington DC to reveal the ad for the press. We will hear from 9/11 families, Gold star families and others who are united by President Obama‘s order to […]

Climate change denier James Inhofe isn’t so worried about the economy. He’s worried about Obama transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay prison to facilities in the United States. So he’s attempting to add an amendment to the stimulus bill that would prevent Obama from using any of the money allotted “on the transfer of the detainees […]

Just to add to Tim‘s post about the Bacon Explosion, pork in Israel isn’t that hard to find, at least not in Tel Aviv. Like Jews on Christmas Eve in the United States, folks looking for pork need only find a Chinese food restaurant, where you can dine on swine to your heart’s content. — […]

I’m not sure what weird affirmative action program got self-identified non-liberals like Fred Hiatt, Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens and Maureen Dowd (with her feminine “cat-wit”! mraaaaaaaooow) Forbes‘ list of most influential liberals in the media, but maybe next time Forbes could let some non-white pundits in on that action. Because Oprah isn’t an “influential liberal” […]

Rush Limbaugh describes arguments that everyone should hope for Obama‘s success as a president in somewhat crude terms: We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black. Huh. You know, back in the day, the homoerotic undertones of […]

Heather MacDonald explains that a policy conservatives have supported for years of doesn’t actually exist: The late 1990s also saw the rise of the bogus “racial profiling” concept, in which police departments were deemed racist if their stop and arrest rates didn’t match population benchmarks. That primitive analytical framework, initially promoted by the ACLU, ignores […]

Heather MacDonald explains that a concept conservatives have supported for years of doesn’t actually exist: The late 1990s also saw the rise of the bogus “racial profiling” concept, in which police departments were deemed racist if their stop and arrest rates didn’t match population benchmarks. That primitive analytical framework, initially promoted by the ACLU, ignores […]

This passage in Elizabeth Kolbert‘s profile of Van Jones intrigued me: While he was living in New Haven, Jones saw a lot of things that disturbed him. One was the video of the Rodney King beating, which took place during his second semester. Another was crime. “I was seeing kids at Yale do drugs and […]

During his interview with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday, Barack Obama emphasized the need to be “forward-looking” as he evaluates how to respond to the Bush administration’s embrace of torture. The underlying implication was that somehow, holding those in power accountable for authorizing torture was a form of partisan sour grapes. This has been the village […]