The need to balance food aid with long-term agricultural investment Prices of agricultural staples, such as wheat and rice, escalated sharply in 2007, setting off alarm bells across the world. Several factors, including higher oil costs and ethanol subsidies in the United States as well as climate change and speculation, put severe strain on the … Read more
Judicial experience and Supreme Court nominations In 2005, President George W. Bush selected John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito to serve as the 109th and 110th justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Roberts’ confirmation went relatively smoothly, while Alito’s, in the wake of the aborted nomination of Harriet Miers, White House Counsel and the … Read more
How the D.C. Circuit Court shaped the war on terror We have assumed, as we must, that the allegations made in the Government’s charge against Hamdan are true…But in undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction.” … Read more
Roberts, Kennedy, and Collegiality on the Supreme Court During the summer of 2006, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke publicly about the need for greater unity on the nation’s highest court. In a commencement address at Georgetown Law School, he urged that “unanimity, or near-unanimity” would yield “clarity and guidance” for lawyers and lower courts trying … Read more
Michael Steele yesterday said on the air that Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric was “incendiary” and “ugly”, and reminded the audience that he, not Rush Limbaugh, was the head of the Republican Party. Limbaugh’s response? ” “Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party.” After the loss in … Read more
I’m surpised that Sam hasn’t blogged about this yet, but I’m happy enough to steal it from him: last Wednesday, the Supreme Court released a unanimous opinion in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. For anyone who doesn’t recall, Summum is a small but gutsy religious faith that contributed a monument of its “Seven Aphorisms” to … Read more
A Harvard Business School study has found that Americans tend to consume online pornography at roughly constant levels among the various states. But, surprise surprise, red states tend to be the biggest consumers: “Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election…. While six … Read more
When a Politico article gets an approving link, with no additional comment, from Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review, you know something’s wrong. The only substantive difference between Lopez’s take on the president’s budget and that of Politico reporter and ostensibly objective observer Jeanne Cummings is that the former calls it “class war” while … Read more
Well, I don’t know quite where to start. Maybe it’d be hyperbole to say that it’s the most ambitious move for liberalism* in 40 years. But maybe not. I’m certainly happy with his instincts. One particularly wonky detail was a decisive cut to farm subsidies, which he is moving to cut decisively. This will, of … Read more
He just wanted to show some “slum love” to Bobby Jindal. Because he is the “slumdog millionaire governer”. Because, you know, he’s Indian. And that movie “Slumdog Millionaire” is about Indian people. Yup, the GOP is really revitalizing its image in urban-suburban hip-hop settings. Good to know the Republican Party is all of a sudden … Read more