Ryan Cooper

Over at the Atlantic Cities, Kaid Benfield has an “urbanist” case for the DC height limit, which might really be an elaborate plot to get Ryan Avent and Matt Yglesias prescriptions for blood pressure medication. But let’s assume not. First, let me clear away one small annoyance before getting to the meat of the case: […]

We at the Washington Monthly were extremely proud to see one of our alumni, Katherine Boo, see such great success for her book about the slums of Mumbai, Behind the Beautiful Forevers (including the Colbert Bump!), and we’re equally excited to see that she has won the National Book Award for that work: Boo’s book, […]

[Let me note as a preface that when I say “driven by ideology” I don’t mean that in a negative sense, I mean the extent to which Republicans got into government to accomplish things based on their ideas, as the Democrats did in their passing of Obamacare, for example.] Matt Yglesias wonders whether House Republicans […]

Will Rogers famously said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” But James Fallows, musing on the election, writes: For the first time in my conscious life, the Democratic party is now more organized and coherent, and less fractious and back-biting, than the Republicans. It is almost stupefying to imagine that. But […]

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy I was watching some Up with Chris this morning (update: posted above) and Hayes about came unglued making the point that few in Washington seems to get—that the problem with the fiscal slope (the set of tax increases and spending cuts set to […]

The military and foreign policy isn’t normally my wheelhouse, but this David Petraeus thing is just irresistible. Today the Washington Post reports with some new, truly wretched details: The collapse of the impressive career of CIA Director David H. Petraeus was triggered when a woman with whom he was having an affair sent threatening e-mails […]

For today a track off the Bastion soundtrack, a game I finished last night: It’s a great title if you’re into that sort of thing. Excellent story. @ryanlcooper

Like most liberals, I had some fairly grim thoughts about the shadowy bunch of conservative SuperPACs that were supposedly going to deluge the 2012 race in a sea of money and finally make it clear that this country has evolved into an out-and-out plutocracy, a country for sale to the highest bidder. I thought perhaps […]

Julius Malema, via Wikimedia. The sad product of a racialist polity. The Supreme Court indicated recently it would take up a Voting Rights Act case. Adam Serwer provides some background: A key pillar of American civil rights law is now in danger of being nullified by the Supreme Court. Shelby County, Alabama, is seeking to […]

One point that remains little-understood about climate change is that it isn’t a traditional environmental issue, where we preserve some bit of nature for the sake of its beauty (with possible tourism side benefits). Even from the most soulless possible economist position, the case for action is ironclad. Climate change is the mother of all […]