In a blog post titled “In Voting Rights Arguments, Chief Justice Misconstrued Census Data” on NPR’s website, veteran NPR Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg deconstructs a sophism offered by John Roberts at the oral argument on Wednesday on the continued constitutionality of a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Congress has […]

So, what people like me have been calling for is a temporarily relaxed attitude toward deficits as long as the economy remains depressed and monetary policy is up against the zero lower bound. What does that have to do with the 1970s?Well, here’s a chart on the ratio of debt to gross domestic product. So, […]

“The revenue issue is now closed,” Mr. Boehner said Thursday, before the House left town for the weekend without acting on the cuts and a Senate attempt to avert them died. Mr. Boehner said the dispute with Democrats amounted to a question of “how much more money do we want to steal from the American […]

Bob Woodward, the legendary Watergate reporter turned reliable chronicler of insider accounts of political events, has made a series of bizarre assertions over the past week. — Matthew Yglesias, Bob Woodward Trolls the World, Slate, today Yglesias then summarizes last weekend’s exciting Woodward-related events, and then updates us: Things moved into the absurd Wednesday night […]

Guest post by Joseph White, Case Western Reserve University and Department Chair andDirector of the Center for Policy Studies and reposted from Scholar Strategy Network: HOW DID WE GET HERE? THE ROOTS OF DEFICIT BRINKSMANSHIP March 2013 brings yet another in an endless series of budget showdowns in Washington DC. This time, draconian “sequestration” spending cuts […]

[O]ne thing Americans simply will not accept is another tax increase to replace spending reductions we already agreed to. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, yesterday He’s right, of course, since, by “Americans,” he means the roughly 278 Americans who comprise the House and Senate Republican caucuses.   As Greg Sargent points out this morning, […]

Translated Jiminy Crickets. Really translated. Man, covering this Grillo dude is a full time job.  I figured I should check what he said today.  He has a new idea — Prime Minister Grillo so since the election (monday) he’s said 1) “Niente inciuci.”  Translated: “No deals.”  Really translated “The old discredited parties have to form […]

Via Crooks and Liars comes notice of this proposal for corporate/business voting right and elected official in municipal elections,  except for school elections (hat tip Dan B.): Rep. Steve Lavin has introduced HB485, A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: “AN ACT REVISING ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS AND TO FILE FOR CANDIDACY FOR MUNICIPAL ELECTED […]