Last month, I noted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie‘s opposition to a federal rail project that would have doubled rail capacity under the Hudson River as well as provided tens of thousands of needed jobs to New Jerseyans. The project, which would have been the largest infrastructure investment in the country, was yet another victim […]
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect.
Follow @jbouie
Posted inArticle
Whitewater: Part Deux.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the incoming chair of the Government Oversight Committee, is clearly giddy at the thought of turning the 112th Congress into a ’90s-esque circus of bogus investigations: California Rep. Darrell Issa is already eyeing a massive expansion of oversight for next year, including hundreds of hearings; creating new subcommittees; and launching fresh investigations […]
Posted inArticle
What Goes Around …
Laura Clawson has a fantastic post up at Daily Kos about the Democrats who lost in last week’s elections but who still have a bright future in Democratic politics. Joe Sestak, in particular, strikes me as someone who still has legs: Whether he wants his old seat back, wants to be Governor, or wants to […]
Posted inArticle
Shock and Awe.
Maybe I’m wrong to laugh at naked prejudice, but I found this Washington Times op-ed to be completely hilarious: The Hawkeye State’s judicial elections rarely generate much controversy or interest, with most judges generally enjoying approval levels of around 75 percent. That changed with the high court’s unanimous 2009 decision discovering a right to homosexual […]
Posted inArticle
Old Wars for Young Kids.
This is something I’ve thought about more than once: Lance Cpl. Jacob Adams was in 5th grade math class when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. His parents took him out of school early that day. Adams, 20, is now serving in a Marine battalion battling Taliban gunmen, many of […]
Posted inArticle
The Limits of Presidential Rhetoric.
(Flickr/The U.S. Army) At Grist, Joe Romm rips into President Obama Obama hasn’t merely failed to get a climate bill. Given the self-described (and self-inflicted) “shellacking” the president received Tuesday, he has made it all but impossible for a return to such an alignment of the stars this decade. Indeed, he has, arguably, poisoned the […]
Posted inArticle
The Black Unemployment Picture.
To offer a few points on top of Tim’s post, it’s worth noting the extent to which this recession is still nearly a depression for people of color. Among African Americans, the unemployment rate for October was 15.7 percent, a small change from September’s rate of 16.1 percent, but still 6 points higher than the […]
Posted inFeatures
The Vacancy Crisis
Obama has made fewer judicial nominations than any president in recent history — with disastrous consequences.
Posted inArticle
“Half a Mil” Is the New Middle Class.
Mike Allen gives details on the contours of the upcoming fight over how to extend the Bush tax cuts: Hill sources tell us an income of up to $250,000 a year “is dead as the dividing line” for distinguishing the middle class in extending the Bush tax cuts, based on input from wounded returning Dems. […]
Posted inArticle
Traveling Without Moving.
Net neutrality didn’t fare very well in Tuesday’s elections: Before Tuesday’s midterm elections, there were 95 House and Senate candidates who pledged support for Net neutrality, a bill that would force Internet providers to not charge users more for certain kinds of Web content.All of them lost — and that could mean the contentious proposal […]