Adam Serwer had a good point months back, during the Libya intervention: More to the point, though, is that President Obama faces what you might call a “hack deficit.” There simply aren’t many legal scholars on the left who are willing to give Obama a pass. Unlike right-wing legal writers, left-leaning ones are treating Obama […]
Ryan Cooper
Follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanlcooper. Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The Nation.
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Lunch Links
Time for a break! In case you’re leaving soon on vacation for the Memorial Day weekend, have a lovely holiday. Mr. Kilgore should be back in the saddle come Monday. For now, here are some links from around the web, chosen by carefully crafted algorithms (as in, if I don’t close some tabs on Chrome, […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Apostate Conservatives
Another point about the decay of the conservative intelligentsia is just how far people go when they finally quit the movement. They don’t just fade into retirement or neutrality, they get angry. Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan adviser, says things like ““I think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
How to Streamline the FDA
Rand Paul got a genuinely interesting idea passed yesterday: Today the U.S. Senate voted to pass the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187), which included language inserted by Sen. Rand Paul. This language would force the FDA to accept data from clinical investigations conducted outside the United States, including the European Union, […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Books for the 99 Percent
These are just a few titles that I’ve been reading recently that I’ve found to be relevant to our life and times. 1. The Great Divergence, by Monthly alum Tim Noah. This isn’t a work of art so much as a kind of handy guidebook to how the elites are siphoning off an ever-increasing share […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Conservative Ideological Infrastructure Decaying?
John Quiggin pulled together a very interesting list of happenings the other day. Simply put, many pillars of the conservative universe look to be in trouble: * Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke and subsequent abandonment by sponsors * The failed attempt by rightwing operatives at the Komen Foundation to blacklist Planned Parenthood * The […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Good Morning!
Hello devoted Political Animals! I’ll be your guest blogger for today, filling in for Mr. Kilgore who is taking unexpected leave due to a medical issue in his family. Send your thoughts and/or prayers his way. Let me tell you a bit about myself before I get started. I’m from the Southwest originally, Utah and […]
Posted inGovernment, Magazine, March/April 2012
Good News First, Bad News Never
How the Peace Corps believes its own PR, looks past its mistakes, and shafts volunteers in the process.
Posted inPolitics
Sarah Palin Confronts the Space Nazi Menace–No, Really
Via Wonkette, I’m not sure what to make of this: We’ve got Space Nazis, always a winning presence, and Sarah Palin can only improve things. It looks to be aiming for the “so bad it’s good” zone and flirting dangerously with the “so bad it’s worse” one. I confess, though, it is a little intriguing. […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Vice President Biden Strolls through the Nevada Higher Ed Apocalypse
Joe Biden was in Reno the other day, doing one of those stock vice president speeches where he made a bold call for high school kids to go to college, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal: Vice President Joe Biden spent time Thursday imploring Galena High School students to make some kind of post-secondary education a […]
