Author: Elias Isquith
On Zimmerman and Stand Your Ground [Updated]
If your Facebook wall looks anything like mine, yesterday was a big day for The Nation’s Aura Bogado, whose response to the George Zimmerman trial — headlined “White Supremacy Acquits George Zimmerman” — went...
Nick Gillespie’s Weird Criticism of Spitzer/Weiner
Nick Gillespie of Reason has written for The Daily Beast what is an essentially boring and rehashed “liberalism-multiplies-its-own-failures” libertarian critique. What caught my eye, though, was the way he decided to begin his argument...
Rand Paul: Not Aristotle
There’s something about being a willfully marginal player in the political sphere that induces whininess. Or at least that’s the conclusion I can’t help but come to after reading the libertarian-ish Conor Friedersdorf’s epic...
The Apocalyptic Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal is the governor of Louisiana. He talks like Kenneth from 30 Rock. He may or may not have participated in an exorcism. And, just a few months after urging his fellow Republicans...
Is “Reform Conservatism” Compassionate Conservatism Redux?
That’s what I ask in my latest piece for Salon.
Small Arms in Syria
The latest development in the ongoing civil war in Syria didn’t occur in Syria, actually, but in Washington, DC. The Obama Administration announced they have what is in their eyes definitive proof that the...
Daniel Larison’s Libya Fixation
Via Andrew Sullivan I’ve come across this Daniel Larison post on the ascension of Susan Rice and Samantha Power. It is not his best work, although its flaws are rather predictable for anyone whose read Larison on the...
Since Today Appears to Be Erick Erickson Day…
Erick Erickson said something offensive and stupid, which is usually not the kind of thing I’m inclined to write about, because no one much will be surprised to hear I find the sentiments of...
There Is No Conservative Reform Movement
I think it’s fair to say that, excepting those conservatives with a passion for solitude, these are not halcyon days for members of the center-right. On the political end you’ve got guys like Ted...
Go Ahead, Vote Your Identity
Give Jessica Valenti credit; she’s not afraid to be ahead of the curve. At least that’s one explanation for her piece at The Nation, “Why I’m Voting for Her.” We’re all to assume, as...
Medicaid in Oregon: Does it Really Matter?
God help me, I just don’t understand conservatives sometimes. I disagree with them most of the time, but I usually understand where they’re coming from. But sometimes my best acts of imagination pale in...
Obamacare’s Bad Politics
With the implementation of Obamacare soon to really begin in-earnest, some conservatives have begun preemptively crowing over what they’re convinced will be a disastrous transition period. Considering they’ve spent the past three years gumming...
There Is No Politics of Austerity
I don’t mean to turn this blog into Shit My Krugman Says, but this, on the underlying politics of austerity, is just too on-the-mark to ignore: [T]he anti-Keynesian position is, in essence, political. It’s driven by...
Class War at the New York Times!
So Paul Krugman got a little pink in his latest column: The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1...
Why Matt Yglesias Is Wrong About Bangladesh
If Matt Yglesias sneezes you can bet there’s going to be a chorus of left-of-center tweeters ready to unleash a tidal wave of vitriol and scorn. So go ahead and guess how ugly things...
Why Senator Heitkamp Voted Against Manchin-Toomey
Loath as I am to link to POLITICO, this is an interesting report on North Dakota freshman Senator Heidi Heitkamp and why she voted against Manchin-Toomey. If we take Heitkamp at her word (and I know...
Gun Savvy
Alec MacGillis takes a subtle shot at a Jonathan Chait post I recently praised, and upon reflection, I think he’s right. While praising former Chief of Staff Bill Daley’s recent jeremiad against the four red state Democrats...
The Ghost of Self-Deportation
Check out the video above, if you can, to see Senator Durbin have a relatively congenial back-and-forth with Kansas Secretary of State (and intellectual star of the anti-immigration reform lobby) Kris Kobach over DREAMers...
