The Onion is on point, as usual: Relatedly, Matthew Yglesias points out the dysfunction that comes with having an explicitly “populist” legislature, as is the case in Arizona, where lawmakers are limited by low-pay, small staffs, and term restrictions: [T]his is something to keep in mind in the federal context when you hear about how […]
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The Warmth of Other Suns Wins Book Critics Circle Award
Isabel Wilkerson won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction last Thursday for The Warmth of Other Suns, a history of the Great Migration. This honor could not be more richly deserved. The Warmth is one of the most impressive books I’ve ever read. The Great Migration was a massive exodus of black Southerners […]
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Barbour’s Google Problem
Justin Elliot points out that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has a very serious “Google Problem,” perhaps even more serious than that of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, noting that “a whopping seven of the nine results center on race-related flaps that Barbour has been involved in over the years.” Unlike Santorum, whose anti-gay views are […]
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The Future of White People
Matthew Yglesias predicts that the white voters will become more Republican as nonwhites become a greater share of the population: I used to hold to the view that the growing non-white share of the electorate would, over time, tip elections to Democrats. I now think the system will remain near equilibrium and what we’ll instead […]
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RIP Nate Dogg.
I’m sad to see that Nathaniel D. Hale, AKA Nate Dogg died. He wasn’t really a rapper, but he sung these simple, catchy, narrative hooks that suggested he was actually just forced into hip-hop because he was born into the wrong decade (via PostBourgie). He also had one of the best sleepy-eyed ice grills of […]
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Palin’s Problems
According to the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are a little less than enthused about Alaska’s former half-term governor: For the first time in Post-ABC News polling, fewer than six in 10 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents see Palin in a favorable light, down from a stratospheric 88 percent in the […]
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Libya And Bahrain
Ross Douthat follows up his column on Monday with a really well-argued blog post discussing our obligations in Libya: It isn’t that we have no obligations to Libyans now: As the dominant power in the globe, we have some responsibility for furthering peace and order just about everywhere on earth. But just as you have […]
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Our Post-Racial Future
Matt Yglesias looks at some charts from Lee Drutman and sees our post-racial future: I used to hold to the view that the growing non-white share of the electorate would, over time, tip elections to Democrats. I now think the system will remain near equilibrium and what we’ll instead see is white voters growing more […]
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Naked Corporatism
Unlike Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Michigan’s Rick Snyder isn’t even trying to hide the radical corporatism of his agenda. Think Progress reports: Following suit, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school […]
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The Coming Climate Clawback
In a story about how every Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted against an amendment acknowledging that climate change is real, TPM reminded us about this Politico article highlighting a problem the 2012 GOP contenders are going to have: It may be heresy to conservatives, but a trip down memory lane shows […]