PostPartisan

Are Americans really 'food insecure'?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:26:22 -0500

Many families are struggling in today’s economy, and this has hurt their food budgets. This week an Agriculture Department study showed that 16.4 million U.S. households containing 49.1 million people experienced “food insecurity” in 2008, up from 12.2 million households containing 36.2 million people in 2007. Fortunately, Congress has already addressed some of the problem with a significant food-stamp boost in the stimulus package adopted in February. But is “hunger” widespread in America these days? That is the misleading impression created by press coverage of the USDA study. Headlines in the New York Times print edition (“49 Million Americans report a lack of food”), USA Today (“1 in 6 went hungry in America in 2008”), and The Washington Post (“America’s economic pain brings hunger pangs”) made it sound as if famine stalks the land. The stories were salted with terms such as "alarming" and "dramatic." When you crack into

Ruth Marcus going rogue

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:28:39 -0500

My normally mild-mannered colleague Ruth Marcus has gone rogue about my recent column on Eric Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other Sept. 11 conspirators in Manhattan. She makes a number of sincere but flimsy arguments that deserve a response. But let me start by expressing concerns about Marcus’s disturbingly inconsistent commitment to equality before the law. In her post, Marcus refers to Mohammed as the “Sept. 11 mastermind.” Shouldn’t that be “alleged Sept. 11 mastermind?” It is Holder’s intention, after all, to give him the full range of constitutional protections -- just like any American citizen facing trial. Why is Marcus so insensitive to his rights? She goes on to assure us that Mohammed will not gain a platform for his Islamist views because an “experienced federal judge” can shut him up in court. But why should this defendant be denied the right to speak fully

Who promoted Hasan?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:16:54 -0500

Who promoted Peress? That was the question posed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the indefatigable red-hunter of the 1950s, regarding an obscure army dentist named Irving Peress who was promoted from captain to major despite having refused to answer questions regarding his loyalty. That right-wing rallying cry ought to be revived, only this time to pose a much more serious question: Who the hell promoted Nidal Malik Hasan? The case of the Army psychiatrist charged with the murder of 13 persons at Fort Hood raises many questions -- about terrorism, of course, and whether the massacre could have been prevented. But it also makes me wonder how Hasan went from captain, which he was in April, to major, which is what he was the day he allegedly went on his homicidal rampage. The question is pertinent because while he was a mere captain and stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical

Dining on death row

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:34:16 -0500

By Jo-Ann Armao Larry Bill Elliott died in Virginia’s electric chair Tuesday night and, among other things, his last meal wasn’t revealed. Officials at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt withheld the details at Elliott’s request. The decision -- like that a week earlier not to disclose the last meal of executed Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad -- irked me. Why should these men get privacy? Muhammad was responsible for a reign of terror that is still felt in the Washington area. Elliott, in a twisted bid to win the love of a former stripper, killed a young couple that was involved in a bitter custody dispute with the woman. Who cares what they think? Don’t public tax dollars pay for this food? Mostly, though, I have always been fascinated by what those condemned to die choose to eat as their last meal. And I am not alone. A former

Lindsey Graham's disappointing filibuster vote

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:17:36 -0500

What happened? I haven't always agreed with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, but I've long respected him for taking principled stances even when that meant parting ways with his party's orthodoxy. Graham recently triggered the ire of South Carolina conservatives by joining Democrats in support of cap-and-trade legislation. He has been criticized by the right for working with those across the aisle on immigration reform that could pave the way for millions of illegal immigrants to live legally in the United States. And Graham was a member of the Senate's "Gang of 14" that put an end to the routine use of filibusters to block George W. Bush's judicial nominations. Although the pact meant most Bush nominees would ascend to the bench, Graham and the other GOP gang members were pilloried by some on the right who would have loved to continue the nominations showdown as a

Does football cause domestic violence?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:26:17 -0500

Does professional football cause domestic violence? Not exactly, although Thanksgiving does (see below.) But it turns out that losses in professional football games -- specifically, when the home team suffers an unexpected upset, based on the pre-game point spread -- lead to an 8 percent spike in the number of police reports of spousal abuse within a short time of the game. The more important the game -- against a main rival, or for a playoff spot -- the bigger the spike. And in especially frustrating games, those with a large number of sacks, turnovers and penalties, the effect of an unexpected upset on an increase in domestic violence was 15 percent. Unexpected wins, on the other hand, were not associated with a reduction in domestic violence reports. And, if you had any question, the increased violence was entirely male-on-female, according to the newly released National Bureau of Economics

"Black Man!"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:10:29 -0500

File this one under quirky observation. On Sunday, Post writer Keith Richburg filed an interesting story from Shanghai about racial prejudice in China on the eve of President Obama's arrival there. The story explored the negative view of blacks in the wake of a half-Chinese, half-black singer named Lou Jing winning "Go! Oriental Angel" -- that nation's answer to "American Idol." Folks used the internet to call her a "black Chimpanzee" among other things. "[T]he widely held view here," Richburg reported, "[is] that black people are inferior, that white people are wealthy and successful." Then came the picture on the front page of Wednesday’s Post of Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao at an arrival ceremony Tuesday in Beijing. Looking at the soldier to the left of Hu, the one second to the right of Obama and the one at the end, I couldn't help but wonder what they

On Gerson's takedown of Attorney General Holder

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:17:10 -0500

I’d like to propose Marcus’s General Theory of Punditry: the intellectual force of a column tends to be in inverse relationship to the amount of invective. Today’s example -- and, yes, I’m sure it would be easy to apply this to some of my own -- is my normally mild-mannered colleague, Michael Gerson. Gerson denounces Attorney General Eric Holder as “the most destructive member of Barack Obama’s cabinet.” Holder’s original sin, according to Gerson, was having a special counsel review allegations of criminal misconduct growing out of the Bush administration’s torture policies. But what really set Gerson off was last week’s move to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court. Any ensuing trial, Gerson says, will be conducted in “a circus atmosphere,” with “America subjected to the airing of intelligence sources and methods” and Mohammed awarded “the full O.J. Simpson treatment.” Holder himself is depicted as

The vast Palin conspiracy

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:57:27 -0500

Sarah Palin is the beneficiary of the vast left-wing conspiracy. Palin is selling a book. Nothing sells books like attention. Lefties love to attack Palin. Attacks create more attention for Palin and her book. I suspect she will show as much gratitude to her critics as she has shown to the person who made her, John McCain. This thought occurred to me in the midst of Palin-mania because of something my colleague Ezra Klein said Monday. Ezra and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat kindly visited my Politics and the Media class at Georgetown for their second annual chat with my students about the blogosphere. (Good conservative he is, Ross, a very early blogger, said he waged war against the word “blog” -- and lost.) Ezra made the point -- I’m paraphrasing -- that any political Web site that wanted to goose its traffic needed only to mention Palin.

Progressive America, conservative France?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:36:27 -0500

If you had to guess, where would you say a gay couple has a better chance of legally adopting a child: a) France or b) the United States? The answer, of course, is b. We all learned a lesson about the social progressiveness of Europe, as opposed to the conservative United States, last week when a French court declared, for the first time, that a lesbian could legally adopt a child as an individual. That breakthrough, which came in an appeal of a lower court’s denial of the woman’s petition, put French law on a par with that of Texas. That state, like most others in the narrow-minded United States, already allowed gay individuals to petition for adoption. (To be sure, this right exists on paper but may be subject to ideological variation among local courts.) In addition, several U.S. states allow same-sex couples to marry, which they still

Time for 'Redskins' to go

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:10:16 -0500

Now it's up to Redskins owner Dan Snyder to do the right thing. Try not to guffaw. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case in which Native Americans challenged a trademark on the Redskins name, saying it was offensive and didn't deserve legal protection. I thought the Native Americans had a good basis for prevailing, given that current law prohibits giving legal blessing to a trademark that includes "matter which may disparage...persons, living or dead...or bring them into contempt, or disrepute." I just don't see how the name Redskins passes this test. Imagine the uproar if a team adopted other racially, ethnically or culturally questionable monikers. San Antonio Spics, anyone? How about California Coolies? Unimaginable.

Palin's blame game

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:23:23 -0500

So portions of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s memoir have leaked, and the juiciest parts so far are those in which she attacks CBS news anchor Katie Couric. Palin, apparently, calls Couric “badgering” and biased, and mentions speculations that the anchor has “low self-esteem.” Couric’s spokesman declined to comment to The Post. Katie, allow me. If Couric’s interlocution was badgering, then the late Tim Russert was verbally abusive of his guests. You'll recall that the most damaging portions of the interviews came when Couric asked Palin about her dubious claims that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gave her relevant foreign policy experience. During the back-and-forth, Couric drops a series of unsubtle hints about what might be an appropriate response, almost begging the candidate not to mess up. Instead, we got this:

Lou Dobbs is a special case

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:46:03 -0500

By Edward Schumacher-Matos A coalition of Hispanic and progressive groups crowed today about the success of their Drop Dobbs campaign against CNN and its advertisers. They deserved to beat their chests. Their latest effort showed that the fragmented Latino movement could find allies and maintain a sustained campaign. Immigrant demonizers have an increasingly formidable opponent. But Lou Dobbs is a special case. His resignation from CNN had as much or more to do with an internal struggle there as with the outside Latino pressure. And Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and their ilk needn’t quake over being the next target. Dobbs is special to Latinos because, since glomming onto the immigration issue in 2004, he hammered it almost nightly. He promoted misinformation linking illegal and low-skilled immigrants to crime, jobs, diseases and practically every social malady imaginable. And he did it with a sneer. As Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty

The Morella-mander

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:55:51 -0500

A couple of weeks ago, Bernie Mihm Jr. of Dickerson, Md. wrote a thoughtful letter to The Post replying to a column I had written. I have been meaning to offer a response, but got distracted by the recent elections. Mihm was replying to a column I had written on Oct. 21 about the Republican civil war in New York’s 23rd congressional district. I argued that “middle-of-the-road voters who had populated the moderate Republican heartland, notably in suburban areas of the Northeast and Midwest, shifted steadily Democratic, turned off by the increasing dominance of Southern conservatives in the party of Lincoln.” Such voters, I said, “threw solid Republican moderates out of office -- among them Connie Morella in Maryland, Jim Leach in Iowa and Chris Shays in Connecticut -- not because they disliked these champions of the middle way but because all three came to be seen as enablers

No room for reason in the GOP?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:08:38 -0500

If you haven’t heard, the Republican Party of South Carolina’s Charleston County just censured the state's GOP senior senator, Lindsey Graham. Who Runs Gov’s Beth Marlowe got her hands on the text of the resolution. It condemns Graham for, among other things: Whereas, U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and John Kerry (MA) have called for a bipartisan bill dealing with “climate change” via a “Cap & Trade” energy bill; Whereas, the basis of Cap & Trade – global warming caused by carbon emissions – is still in doubt as evidenced by the past decade of cooling temperatures;… Whereas, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham – in the name of bipartisanship – continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism. You know what will tarnish the Republican brand? Leaving no room in the party’s ranks for those who prefer to act on