Adam Serwer

As I noted earlier this morning, the Justice Department has challenged Arizona’s draconian immigration law on the grounds that it infringes on the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws, not on the basis of civil rights. I noted that, given the circumstances, this might be a smart political choice. A coalition of civil-rights groups […]

Well this seems like a rather anti-Semitic editorial from the Washington Times: Judaism’s meager contribution to human technological advancement is no accident. In his new book “The Closing of the Jewish Mind,” former Voice of America director Robert Reilly describes the brief flourishing of intellectualism in Jewish Spain 1,000 years ago before it was brutally […]

Mariana Cotlear takes issue with James McWilliams‘ claim that a McDonald’s Big Mac is healthier than a Chipotle burrito: This is real food. This is food that doesn’t make you feel sick after eating it. This is food that actually fills you up and doesn’t produce a sugar spike which will make you crave more […]

After months of trying, conservative complaints about the New Black Panther Party voter-suppression case have finally begun to trickle into the mainstream press. Between the recession and the oil spill, chances are you may be a little behind on the subject, so I’ve put together a primer that includes reporting from me and others who […]

Race continues to play a role in the immigration debate, but with its challenge yesterday, the Justice Department made it clear it’s one they’d rather avoid. Despite public statements from the president himself and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concerns that the law could lead to racial profiling, the federal challenge to Arizona’s draconian immigration […]

I shouldn’t be astonished by the fidelity with which the mainstream press has adhered to the conservative narrative on the New Black Panther Party case, but I genuinely am. [[THIS SENTENCE DOESN’T MAKE SENSE? WHAT DOES DROPPING THE CASE HAVE TO DO WITH THE BATON, AND WHO IS SUGGESTING THE TWO THINGS ARE RELATED, AND […]

Back when he was at the Boston Globe, Charlie Savage did some crack investigative reporting on how the Bush-era political appointees dismantled the safeguards against politicized hiring–something no previous administration had done. The documents show that only 42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003, after the administration changed the rules to give political appointees […]

Bibi liked Obama‘s Cairo speech. Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, thinks the New Black Panther Party case is a waste of time. Like Mike Konczal, I would trade a bankruptcy exception for guns in exchange for cramdown. Then again, who cares about being homeless when you’ve got guns? […]

Spencer Ackerman reports on a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research looking to quantify the impact of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in producing new insurgents: “When ISAF units kill civilians,” the research team finds, referring to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, “this increases the number of willing combatants, leading to an increase […]

So we’re still having a few problems with the RSS feed, but comments should be working fine now. Shoot me an e-mail if you’re still having trouble accessing comments or the full RSS feed. Last week I received a number of very kind notes from readers congratulating me on the new blog, and I regret […]