Blog: TAPPED

This gathering in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is part of a nationwide call to action by unions and other progressive groups today called “We Are One.” (Flickr/BenSeese’s photostream)

As we witnessed scenes of killing and rioting in the Arabic and Islamic world this weekend over the burning of a Quran in Florida, it’s easy to paint entire nations as extremist. Twenty-two people are dead, including seven United Nations workers and Afghan children. The sad part is that it appears that world events can […]

One of the trademarks of the Roberts Court has been to find ways around precedents without explicitly overruling them. One area where this has been particularly evident is with respect to the ability of taxpayers to bring suits alleging violations of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. In the American system of constitutional law, […]

If you were paying attention to Republicans over the last couple of days, you’d have heard a lot of repetitions of a particular idea, when the subject of House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan‘s new budget proposal came up. “Chuck Schumer and others are going to attack them for the proposals they’ve made, rather than […]

David Dayen says that while it may be tough to counter Republicans’ uncompromising strategy on the budget, Democrats sowed their own defeat long ago. Paul Starr writes that the nuclear disaster in Japan might show the safety risks of nuclear energy, but the costs don’t stop there. Courtney E. Martin tells us that patriotism isn’t […]

Like fellow TAPPED blogger Jamelle Bouie, I give serious kudos to the Obama administration for highlighting sexual assault. I’d note, too, that built in to the coverage of Biden’s forthcoming announcement is an example of why this issue is so often dismissed. A lot of the articles mention a recently opened investigation into sexual harassment […]

Many props to Joe Biden for taking the lead with this: Vice President Biden plans to announce the initiative Monday at the University of New Hampshire, making public a 19-page letter of regulatory guidance to schools from the Education Department. It specifies for the first time that rape, sexual assault and sexual battery should be […]

Matthew Yglesias, by way of the Center for Tax Justice, reminds us that Paul Ryan‘s original budget “road map” includes a substantial tax hike on 90 percent of Americans. Here is the relevant chart: Since The Wall Street Journal reports that it will include a “fundamental overhaul of the tax system,” odds are good that […]

Jonathan Chait addresses a pet peeve of mine: conservative writers who insist on minimizing the out-sized effect of luck on life outcomes: [O]f course, Gates (as he has acknowledged) benefited enormously not just from his family situation but from the timing of his birth, which put him in the work force at a moment when […]