Liberal Talk Radio

The West Blogosphere and Democrats are in an unbelievable tizzy about Obama’s race speech, trying to figure out what it all means and whether it’s good or bad for Obama, and good or bad for Democrats, and what was he thinking talking to voters like adults (thank you Jon Stewart, for calling it what it [...]

In conversations with friends, the subject of whether or not cell phones distort poll results comes up surprisingly often. I’ve been landline free for years, and so are many of my peers.
(I laughed out loud when I saw a line in Ron Paul’s wikipedia page excusing the candidate’s poor performance for being related to [...]

It’s become almost an article of faith among Republicans, but is it true?
No and Double No.
Even Arthur Laffer, the guy who invented the “curve” that launched a thousand specious Wall Street Journal op-eds, is ambivalent on the subject.
Now, do really high marginal tax rates have deleterious effects on incentives? Yes, probably. Consider the [...]

Sentencing Commission to consider making the cocaine sold in black neighborhoods only slightly more illegal than the cocaine sold in white neighborhoods:
The commission is taking up one of the most racially sensitive issues of the two-decades-old war on drugs. Jurists and civil rights organizations have long complained that the commission’s guidelines mandate more stringent federal [...]

I love the fact that the son of South Asian immigrants is now governor of what many (myself included) perceive to be one of America’s most racist states.
What’s even greater about Bobby Jindal is that I’d probably detest the guy if I ever met him in person — he’s just the sort of hyper-motivated super [...]

Every few months or so, a debate flares up about whether either political party (usually the Democrats) has or needs “new ideas.” The latest round has me pretty convinced that this is mostly an issue of semantics: everyone defines “idea” differently.
For example, Steve Benen argues that the Democrats have plenty of “ideas,” from Iraq [...]

Or maybe it’s the equivalent of quickly filling in “Cs” in the remaining blank bubbles of your SAT answer sheet. Israel/Palestine — done:
President Bush announced an initiative on Monday to shore up the Palestinian president and to begin building a Palestinian state, signaling that his administration will use its remaining months to make a major [...]

Saturday Night Live knows how Hillary Clinton must feel:
On a recent episode of 30 Rock, an NBC sitcom about the making of a Saturday Night Live–like comedy show, a dilemma arises when the cast’s only black actor goes missing.
“Can I play Barack Obama?” asked an opportunistic white cast member.
The answer, of course, was no.
It just [...]

Two years after approving civil unions, some Connecticut lawmakers are proposing that the state legalize full-fledged same-sex marriage:
The two Democratic leaders of the General Assembly’s judiciary committee say they intend to introduce a bill legalizing gay marriage, even though Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she would veto such a measure.
“This is obviously not the [...]

Governor Gregoire’s 2007 budget includes a pilot program on public financing of judicial elections. This is an idea that I brought up back in September. Conservative groups that have tried to influence past elections are, predictably, opposed.
Just to be clear: I still think judicial elections are fundamentally different from legislative or executive elections, [...]