The New Republic

Arguing (cheekily, one hopes) that "Palin had a point," Mickey links to this guy, a Cornell Law Professor named William Jacobson, who offers an embarassingly lame defense of Sarah Palin's use of the phrase "death panel," in quotation marks, in her Facebook attack on Obama's health care plan. Quoth the legal scholar: READ MORE >>

My favorite bit in the exceptionally disingenuous Peggy Noonan column Ed Kilgore cited earlier is this: READ MORE >>

Matt Yglesias responds to my observation that his visceral hatred of parks might lessen if/when he has kids: READ MORE >>

Eli Lake has an important and troubling scoop this morning:  A report to be published this month by the U.S. government's prestigious National Defense University warns that the Iraqi army and police are becoming pawns of sectarian political parties -- a trend that it calls "a recipe for civil war."... READ MORE >>

I finally have a friend in high places. Last week, President Barack Obama announced that he is appointing Ruth Goldway, who has served on the Postal Regulatory Commission since 1998, to be its chair. And I have to say that it’s a good appointment. Ruth, known years ago as the mayor of the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, has been a voice for reform on the commission. READ MORE >>

Enemy Of The State: My Bizarre Role In The Iranian Show Trial, by Abbas Milani Crack Pipes, Civil Rights, And The Many Lives Of Former DC Mayor Marion Barry, by Jason Zengerle READ MORE >>

Ed Kilgore is managing editor of The Democratic Strategist, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, and a frequent contributor to a variety of political journals.   READ MORE >>

In an excellent appraisal of the writer-director John Hughes--who died this week at the age of 59--A.O. Scott tells the following story: READ MORE >>

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One Year Later: What We Now Know--And More Importantly, Still Don't Know--About The Russia-Georgia War, by Joshua A. Tucker The Enthusiasm Gap: Why Liberals Should Get Behind Congress's Lackluster Health Care Reform Plan, by Jonathan Cohn READ MORE >>