The New Republic

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler embarrassingly confessed recently that while he had alleged last year that upwards of 11,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in the state, an investigation by his office had turned up only 35 instances of a noncitizen casting a ballot. Like many conservatives who inveigh against the phantom menace of voter fraud, Gessler defended his zeal to patrol the voter rolls by invoking a zero tolerance policy. READ MORE >>

Editor’s Note: We’ll be running the article recommendations of our friends at TNR Reader each afternoon on The Plank, just in time to print out or save for your commute home. Enjoy! Thomas Friedman’s columns are not just self-indulgent. They are an assault on humanity. Jacobin Magazine | 7 min (1,717 words) READ MORE >>

Along with Jason Zengerle and Michael Crowley, I was one of the three original contributors to The Plank. None of us considered ourselves natural bloggers. All of us would have probably preferred to be spending our time reporting a 5,000-word feature story. But the world had changed—and, for all our trepidations, it looked like a good time, and it was, especially during the long 2008 election season. Eventually, the rest of the TNR staff joined us on the blog. And then, many of these writers acquired their own blogs. READ MORE >>

Lincoln Chafee has officially--finally--announced his candidacy for the governorship of Rhode Island. Last year, I spoke with him about his decision to leave the Republican Party in 2007 and become an Independent. He explained that he originally wanted to "energize a moribund party or start a new one"--and that he had pondered running for governor as a Green, a Libertarian, or even as a candidate of the Progressive Party: READ MORE >>

The Los Angeles Times ran an important story yesterday about the Obama administration's Nuclear Posture Review, which evaluates U.S. policy towards the use of nuclear weapons. Apparently there's a debate inside the administration--one that is splitting the civilians from the generals--not just about the size of our nuclear stockpile but also how we conceive of possible first-strike and retaliatory policies. READ MORE >>

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Our health care guru, fresh off today’s big scoop, will be on MSNBC at 9 pm. Reschedule your plans or set your DVRs. Updated with video: READ MORE >>

What do you need to know about Yemen? The New Republic has been covering the country for years—from the civil war that made it what it is today to its current incarnation as a hotbed for Al Qaeda. Read below for some of our best pieces: READ MORE >>

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Peter Baker's upcoming New York Times Magazine cover story (mentioned by Mike below) on Obama and terrorism has this slightly unsettling nugget: READ MORE >>