As I've explained recently, all Republican health care proposals share two salient features: 1)they're some degree of terrible, and 2)no Republican legislator of any influence has any desire to pass one under any circumstances. I see that the GOP has retreated from their latest Potemkin...
Month: February 2014
The always useful Executed Today reminds us of another lovely event in American history: On this date in 1902, two African-American U.S. Army privates were hanged before a crowd of.
The Chronicle discusses a new report: "Labor Intensive or Labor Expensive: Changing Staffing and Compensation Patterns in Higher Education", detailing the rise of professional administrative positions in American higher education..
Ralph Kiner, R.I.P. If you watch the Mets, you knew it was baseball season when Ralph came into the booth for a few innings, and of course long-term Mets fans will remember him as a broadcaster, period. His greatness as a player shouldn't be forgotten,...
Dead horses after Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
More lucky duckies: The Senate failed to move forward on a three-month extension of assistance for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, leaving it unlikely that Congress would approve the measure.
Plumer has a good summary of one of the nation's most underreported energy/environmental problems--coal ash storage. Storing this nasty stuff safely is a real problem. Environmentalists have pushed for new regulations, but the Obama Administration has moved very slowly. What's the risk of coal ash?...
For quite awhile, the AFL-CIO has tried to tread a middle ground on fossil fuel development. Understanding that its constituent unions had differing feelings on the issue and finding itself.
The most academically accomplished political science graduate of the University of Washington has passed away. One of the remarkable things about Dahl is that not only did he remain productive.
One of the most obvious advantages of guaranteed health insurance is that people are no longer bound to their jobs solely because they need the health insurance, but are free to pursue other opportunities, retire early, etc. To Republicans, this is a really bad thing....
Laura Nelson Black History Month isn't just about MLK and the civil rights movement. It's about remembering the horrible things that white people did to black people through American history..
What is Philip Roth doing in retirement? Roth: Currently, I am studying 19th-century American history. The questions that preoccupy me at the moment have to do with Bleeding Kansas, Judge.