Tom

One problem with voting is that voters haven’t quite comprehended that they’re now voting in a parliamentary, rather than individualistic, system. As Chafee says, popular senators within unpopular parties need to be taken down, because once in the Senate, they are utterly beholden to their leadership.

David Neiwert, who actually studies contemporary fascism, reviews Jonah Goldberg’s new book: Liberal Fascism is like a number of other recent attempts at historical revisionism by popular right-wing pundits — including, notably, Michelle Malkin’s attempt to justify the Japanese-American internment in her book In Defense of Internment, and Ann Coulter’s attempt to rehabilitate McCarthy’s reputation […]

The New York Times, which now has more random blogs than there are grains of sand on the beach, has a worthwhile post on their Jetlagged site explaining what a farce the public spectacle of airport security has become: To understand what makes these measures so absurd, we first need to revisit the morning of […]

Paul interview: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22342301/ coherent view persuasion voting

Sigh. All my friends are having interesting political dreams. And I’m not. Last night, if I remember correctly, I was dating a Natalie Portman lookalike. That’s a much better dream, but it’s definitely weaker as blog fodder. That said, any Natalie Portman lookalikes in the audience should give me a call, and should not perceive […]

As corporations increasingly go global, so too are unions seeking to construct international ties and coalitions. And, increasingly, it’s working, as strong union movements in European countries use their leverage to negotiate representation for their employed brethren in other nations. In the course of extolling these changes, however, Harold Meyerson offers this depressing thought: Two […]

Obama and Ikenberry post largely the same objective constraints between presidents. possibility to create a new way of thinking about foreign policy and american power. perfect inverse of his domestic policy rhetoric.

by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math Jamie Kirchick managed to stir the pot again, publishing an email from “a well-renowned journalist” on the subject of grit. I’m trying hard to find the right style in which to articulate the stark-raving lunacy of imagining that the present condition is at all analogous to the situation during […]

There’s been a lot of talk of Petraeus’s September testimony as a turning point in the war. If he admits defeat, defeat it will be. If he says we’ve won, and it’s time to let the Iraqis stand, then withdrawal will be passed that evening. But if his interview with Ralph Peters is any evidence, […]

Badler did an interview Brian Schweitzer, who dropped this uplifting tidbit: one of things that I’ve done is appoint a climate change commission here in Montana. Not because we think we can change the world, because Montana’s carbon footprint, compared to the carbon footprint of the entire world, is squat, but because we have to […]