Unlike one of Andrew Sullivan’s readers, I’m not exactly shocked to learn that conservatives are touting Muslim — or rather, ex-Muslim — opponents to the Cordoba House project in Lower Manhattan. By and large, it fits with the general strategy of using women and racial minorities to oppose policies that would benefit women and racial […]
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect.
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Posted inArticle
More on Presidential Appointments.
Jonathan Bernstein responds to my post on reforming the presidential appointment process with a convincing case for the merits of the status quo: At it’s best, the system will achieve input from national level interests (through the presidency), relevant local and narrow interests (through Congress), and expertise (through the bureaucracy). Moreover, at its best, the […]
Posted inEducation in America
Bob McDonnell’s Creative Accounting.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has been touting the state’s $403.2 million budget surplus since it was announced earlier this summer. On Fox Business Network yesterday, he took that advocacy a bit further and offered Washington lawmakers some advice on balancing the budget: Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com “What we need to do is incentivize […]
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There Are Too Many Political Appointees.
Yesterday, President Obama made four recess appointments to vacancies in the Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department. There isn’t anything “special” about these appointments, but they’re worth noting, since they illustrate the ridiculousness of our system for staffing the executive branch. Put another […]
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Obama Is a Muslim, Says One-Fifth of America.
In today’s surprising news, a growing number of Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim. According to the results of a new national survey by the Pew Research Center, 18 percent of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009: Unsurprisingly, this misperception is far more common among […]
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No President Bush, You’re Not Our Only Hope.
(George W. Bush Presidential Center) Unlike a lot of people, it seems, I’m not so sure that George W. Bush is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Cordoba House controversy. That is, while I can appreciate President Bush’s care in drawing sharp distinctions between al-Qaeda and the greater Muslim community, it’s ultimately the case that under […]
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+10 to Obstructionism, -10 to Accountability.
This is a pretty good illustration of the problems a routine super majority requirement creates for democratic accountability: Ailing 9/11 responders slammed President Obama on Tuesday for sounding off on the Ground Zero mosque while keeping silent on a $7.2 billion health care bill. “Why have you failed us? We thought you would be our […]
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New Report Shows Graduation Chasm for Black Males.
(source) August seems to be the month for racial disparities in education. Last week, the Education Trusts released a report on the abysmal graduation rates among African American college students, and this week, the Schott Foundation for Public Education released its “50 State Report on Black Males & Education,” which highlights the atrociously low high […]
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Chris Christie is Just an Observer.
At least, that’s what he said in a press conference yesterday on the Cordoba House controversy: My principles on this are two-fold. One, that we have to acknowledge, respect and give some measure of deference to the feelings of the family members who lost their loved ones there that day. But it would be wrong […]
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Nativists Are Great! Except When They Aren’t, at All.
(source) As one of the “sensible” conservatives on The New York Times‘ editorial page, Ross Douthat has a habit of using his column to provide a thin veneer of respectability to otherwise ugly ideas. Riffing off of the Cordoba House controversy, Douthat relies on the country’s past experiences with unfamiliar immigrants to endorse nativism and […]
