As is the case with tragedies like it, inspirational anecdotes are emerging out of yesterday’s shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. First, there are reports of the brave sacrifice made by first grade teacher Victoria Soto, 27. According to The Telegraph “Miss Soto…was trying to shield her students and usher them into a closet when she came […]
Samuel Knight
Samuel Knight is a freelance journalist living in DC and a former intern at the Washington Monthly.
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Gun Control Advocates – Take Aim at the Senate Judiciary Committee
Just because advancing gun control in Congress – even post Newtown – seems like an insurmountable task, doesn’t mean that the Senate Judiciary Committee shouldn’t try to do it. Take the committee’s possible role in advancing gay rights, for example. In November of last year, it passed a Defense of Marriage Act repeal, even though […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Newtown: Forcing America to Stare Into the Abyss
In this painful but necessary post-Newtown discussion, gun control advocates should prepare for the worst. That Republicans will ratchet up their extremism, that Democrats will cave as they do – some legitimately fearful that the NRA’s cartoonish villainy will haunt them next election cycle. It is likely, therefore, that even after such an unfathomable tragedy, […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Thoughts on Post-Newtown Journo Policy Chatter
Typical of the aftermath of any major event, the media has inspired more than a few talking points in the wake of yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown. One thread concerns how journalists immediately engaged in policy discussion before all the facts were known. A Canadian friend of mine reached out to me about this via Facebook […]
Posted inPolitics
The British (Style Riots) Are Coming
In the aftermath of the riots in England, analysts have been discussing social problems underpinning mob violence, wondering if Americans could see similar widespread destruction in cities across the US. Pundits at ABC News , The Week, The Telegraph (UK) and Truthdig, among others, have already asked if it’s possible that Americans might soon face […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Texas Reform, the Compromise
According to The American Independent, Francisco Cigarroa, Chancellor of the University of Texas, presented a vision to reform the UT system in a speech given to the University of Texas Board of Regents on Thursday. The nine point plan, formulated to integrate the systems’ bureaucracies, foster accountability, and expand statewide science and medical educational programs, […]
Posted inPolitics
The Evolving Media Portrait of the Wikileaker
On May 24th PBS aired a Frontline documentary about alleged Wikileaker Bradley Manning called “WikiSecrets.” Billed as “The inside story of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history” it focused exclusively on Manning’s struggles in the military as a data analyst and closeted homosexual who’d gained access and subsequently released […]
Posted inPolitics
Michele Bachmann, American Girl
Brace yourself, America: Last weekend Michele Bachmann announced, from her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, the she will officially be running for President. And fittingly for an official Bachmann campaign launch, the event was characterized by a two hilarious missteps. First, there was a delightful gaffe; one that illustrates the glaring ignorance of a woman that […]
Posted inPolitics
The Best and Worst in American Spy Tactics
Glenn L. Carle, a former senior CIA counterterrorism official, revealed to the New York Times last week that in 2005 he was pressured by the Bush White House to dig up dirt on a prominent Iraq war critic, University of Michigan Professor, Juan Cole. This is a case that represents both the absolute worst and […]
Posted inPolitics
Banking on the States
What is it about local politics that seems to bore the Left? Is it that progressives want to do as much as possible for as many as possible? Is it a concern that local regulatory legislation is ineffective? Or is it an aversion to a strategy that more often than not appeals to backwater reactionary […]
