August 2009
16 posts
Olby's New Specs... →
Keith Olbermann debuted some new eye glasses tonight. This is of particular interest to me because I’m looking to replace my current set of old man frames (which I happen to share with, among others, my father and Sen. Harry Reid). Olby last Friday vs. tonight:
I like Olby’s new look, but I’m afraid if I go for something similar, I’ll be investing, once more, in the...
Update on Paul Farmer and USAID from Kristof →
So I hear it’s final: Dr. Paul Farmer will not run USAID, after all. … I’m not exactly sure what went wrong, but I think the vetters had reservations about things he had said, and he developed reservations about whether he could do more good inside government or outside. I still think the proper response is to throw the vetters overboard — if a saint like Farmer can’t get through, who can? —...
Why Conservatives Love Jon Stewart →
Conservatives like Stewart because he’s providing them a platform to reach an audience that usually tunes them out. And they often find that Stewart takes them more seriously than right-wing political hosts, who are often just using them to validate their broad positions, do. Stewart will poke fun, but he offers a good-faith debate on powder kegs — torture, abortion, nuclear weapons,...
Whackos →
Brendan Nyhan argues that there’s evidence of whackos on both sides of the political spectrum. I’m not sure that this is a perfect comparison, but take it for what it is worth:
When asked how likely this was, 16% of Americans said it was very likely and 20% said it was somewhat likely that people in the Bush administration “assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to...
CFR's Laurie Garrett on Obama's failure as yet to... →
Also laments the “merry-go-round” nature of Paul Farmer’s recently-rumored “appointment”:
Nearly nine months into the Obama Administration we have absolutely no solid indication either that the White House intends to name a director for USAID, or that the agency will be given the sort of budget and political clout that health and development advocates insist are...
Marc Lynch called out by The Game →
Ackerman highlights a recent interview The Game did with a New Zealand publication:
In a recent Foreign Policy article, George Washington University Professor Marc Lynch, likened the feud to the battle of global hegemony — with Jay Z in the role of the United States, and The Game as the “erratic wildcard”: Iran and North Korea.
The Game asks for an explanation of why...
Obama has yet to name administrator for USAID →
Natalie Ondiak makes the case of USAID reform:
As it now stands, USAID cannot be an equal leg on the stool. It is not a cabinet-level agency and it has well documented personnel and capacity deficiencies. It is unclear what the relationship between USAID and the State Department will be. But if the State Department retains budget authority and the USAID administrator reports to the Secretary...
Gelman reminds us... →
He writes, “[A]s we all know, it’s easier to be counterintuitive and wrong than counterintuitive and right.
The threat to the Post comes from within.. →
Remember that time Ian Shapira got angry at Gawker for linking to and promoting an article that he wrote in the Post? Shapira complained, “How long did it take Gawker to rewrite and republish it, cherry-pick the funniest quotes, sell ads against it and ultimately reap 9,500 (and counting) page views?” As it happens, Gawker often doesn’t have to cherry-pick the quotes...
Public Policy Polling: 41 percent of Virginia... →
From their latest polling in VA:
*Among Virginia Republicans 41% think Barack Obama was not born in the United States, 32% think he was, and 27% are not sure.
*Among supporters of [Republican candidate for Governor] Bob McDonnell 36% think Obama was not born in the US, 33% think he was, and 31% are not sure.
*Obama’s approval rating with people who think he was not born in the...
Benen on Malkin's appearance yesterday on ABC News →
Apparently not satisfied with Michelle Malkin being wrong on Fox News, ABC News decided they wanted her to be wrong on their network too. As Benen notes, they were not disappointed:
Larry Katz, the Harvard labor economist and Clinton administration economist Malkin pointed to with such enthusiasm, apparently disagrees with Malkin. If fact, shortly before Malkin was on ABC, the New York Times...
AP: Franken loves his 'policy role' →
One significant fact that was apparently missed by both the media and some members of the Senate during Sen. Al Franken’s longer-than-anticipated run for the Senate is that the man is obsessed with policy. As Yglesias recently wrote, “Most comedians probably aren’t very well-informed about policy issues, but comedians do have both the time and the means to inform themselves if they’re...
Alter makes the case for blocking health care... →
The champions of the status quo have much to defend:
I had cancer a few years ago. I like the fact that if I lose my job, I won’t be able to get any insurance because of my illness. It reminds me of my homeowners’ insurance, which gets canceled after a break-in. I like the choice I’d face if, God forbid, the cancer recurs—sell my house to pay for the hundreds of thousands of...
The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition) →
I just want to point out that Shapira’s main complaint appears to be that when a website links to or quotes coverage from the Post, it may not help add to the Post’s revenue stream. But I wonder if Shapira thinks about how to help add to the revenue stream of the institutions, people, and businesses that he writes about when he publishes stories about them in the Post. Shapira covers...
About Ryan Powers
Ryan Powers is a Visiting Research Associate at the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary. He writes about domestic and foreign policy, international relations, and political science. Previously, he served as a Research Assistant at the Center for American Progress where he blogged for ThinkProgress.org. You can email him at ...
RSS feeds for International Relations Journals →
A great list of RSS feeds for 15 of the top IR journals from Christopher Albon (via The Monkey Cage).