Jamelle Bouie

Writing for The New York Times, Carl Hulse opens a story on Colorado’s Senate primaries with this line: Two Senate primaries that were supposed to be tranquil affairs have turned into roaring Rocky Mountain shootouts that could provide the best test yet of how deeply anti-establishment, anti-Washington sentiment is running this year. The rest of […]

Cato’s David Boaz attempts to make a libertarian defense of the filibuster, and Matthew Yglesias offers his response: People who want to move public policy in the United States in a more libertarian direction support the idea of having congress pass legislation. As I was able to get Jonathan Bernstein to agree, the impact of […]

I can’t even begin to fathom how horrible this must be for the families involved: Six teenagers drowned Monday evening in a river in northern Louisiana when they waded over a drop-off into much deeper water. The teenagers, ages 13 to 18, belonged to two families that had come to a sandy bank along the […]

Riffing off of Sen. John McCain‘s hold on director of national intelligence nominee James Clapper, Jonathan Bernstein offers a qualified defense of a somewhat obscure rule that has been the target of progressive ire in these parts and others: Today, Senatus tweeted “McCain spokeswoman says he’s released “hold” on Clapper nomination,” followed shortly by an […]

Writing at Matthew Yglesias‘ place, Ryan McNeely flags this CNN interview with Yoni Gruskin, founder and executive director of “Concerned Youth of America” (CYA). As McNeely writes, CYA bills itself as a “nonpartisan group dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility” that “purports to represent young people concerned with the budget deficit.” Here’s Gruskin in his own […]

At the Center for American Progress, Ian Millhiser has produced a good memo on President Obama‘s abysmal confirmation rate for his judicial nominees. In short, compared to the previous five presidents, Obama has had dramatically fewer nominees confirmed to the federal bench: Similarly, the Alliance for Justice found that in Obama’s first year in office, […]

Today is a Super Tuesday, of sorts. Both Michigan and Kansas are holding gubernatorial primaries, in addition to a slew of open House seat races. Of particular interest are the Republican and Democratic primaries for Michigan governor. With Gov. Jennifer Granholm limited to two terms by the state constitution, and Lt. Gov. John Cherry unwilling […]

I don’t see why Republican leaders are “wincing” over Rep. Paul Ryan‘s “Roadmap for America’s Future.” Yes, it would force them to sign on to massive cuts in Medicare and Social Security, and yes, to actually specify where they want to make cuts in the federal budget. But there are plenty of goodies for the […]

On some level, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel is unfairly maligned. Yes, he’s a fairly corrupt member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), but he’s not the only corrupt member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep. Maxine Waters is also under investigation for violation of House ethics rules (she is alleged to have helped a […]

(Photo credit: Vulture) You can count rural police departments to be among the many casualties of the recession. As NPR’s Gail Banzet reports, small towns across the country are firing police officers, closing local police departments, or outsourcing policing to county and city departments: The International Association of Chiefs of Police says what’s happening in […]