Amid the ordinary comings and goings of Washington and New York, today was mostly a day of goings-and their dissection. In an extraordinary interview with Dean Baquet, who succeeded the summarily ousted Jill Abramson as the New York Times’ executive editor, NPR’s David Folkenflik asked Baquet if it was true that maps on the walls […]
Blog: Vox Pop
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Resignation: What Kind of V.A. Secretary Was Eric Shinseki?
Since nobody paid attention to it until there was a scandal, reporters didn’t have the knowledge to tell us whether Eric Shinseki was doing a good or bad job.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Who’s Hacking Your Phone?
What scares you more: the idea that the NSA could take control of your phone, or the idea that a foreign intelligence service could?
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Fans of War Shoot at Straw Men
Yesterday, President Obama gave a speech at West Point outlining his vision for the use of American power in the future. So how did people react? The consensus on the right was that Obama’s speech was a litany of arguments against straw men. “In rebutting his many critics, Obama would be more persuasive if [he] […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Where Terrorists and Assassins Don’t Hide
The Supreme Court decides a case on the Secret Service pushing anti-Bush protesters away from the president.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Joe the Plumber on ‘Dead Kids’ and His Gun
Remember Joe the Plumber? During the 2008 presidential race, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, vaulted himself into campaign history after telling then-candidate Barack Obama that his proposed tax plan would prevent him from buying a small business. During the presidential campaign debate that followed, John McCain latched on to Wurzelbacher’s comments and […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Seductive Allure of “Ideas”
Some Republicans want a new “Contract With America.” It won’t make a difference one way or the other.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Have My People Call Your People
Today brings news and reminiscing of unlikely meet-ups, past, present, and future. In a Nixon-in-China moment, India’s newly minted prime minister, Narendra Modi (a Hindu nationalist), welcomed Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif (a Muslim nationalist), to New Delhi for the former’s swearing-in ceremony. The two nations have been arch-rivals since Pakistan was carved out of […]
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Supreme Court Decides: What is ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment’?
In the 2002 case Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally impaired violated the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments.” Atkins, however, did not define what constituted mental impairment, which gave states a potentiallyeasyway”>potentially easy way of evading the opinion. If left alone to determine their own standards, states […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Conservatives Will React to Obama’s New Climate Regulations
You’ll hear Republicans call these regulations “lawless” over and over. Here’s why that’s bunk.
