The scandal of the day was the story of a USDA employee named Shirley Sherrod who appeared to indicate that she gave less than full help to a White farmer in an incident over 20 years ago, on account of his race. She told the story at an NAACP dinner, hence the contemporary hook — conservatives (or at least segments of it) are still on their kick that the NAACP is the true racist organization in America. As it turns out, the employee was actually telling the tale as a redemption scenario —...

Peter Beinart has an extremely important, extremely provocative, and extremely necessary piece out in the New York Review of Books, entitled The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment. It argues, more or less, that most American Jewish organizations have been unsuccessful either in cultivating any sense of connection between young, (relatively) secular American Jews and Israel. Moreover, their approach to “pro-Israel” politics does not do justice to the liberal Zionist tradition,...

Last year, a young, unarmed Black man was shot in his own driveway by a White police officer who thought he was stealing his own car. The shooting occurred in the mostly White suburb of Bellaire; the officer claimed self-defense, believing that the youth was going to pull a gun on him. This past week, the officer was found not guilty of all charges, apparently finding that the shooting was justified. The Field Negro links this up to the O.J. Simpson verdict, arguing that Simpson’s acquittal...

Miguel Estrada — the talented conservative Latino judge who Democrats famously blocked from being appointed to the DC Circuit (and thus, the Supreme Court) — has come out and endorsed Elena Kagan’s nomination. This “may have the bizarre result of fueling suspicion from some on the left who worry that Kagan is a right-winger in Dem’s clothing.” I don’t think this is bizarre at all, and part of me thinks it might be calculated. There are plenty of liberals...

Cross-posted to The Debate Link Tim Wise asks us to imagine what would happen if the Tea Party was a Black movement: Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t...

This is an adaptation of the latter half of a post I just wrote at The Debate Link. The post there involved a specific debate over American views on tax policy, but the second half discussed some new research regarding how citizens understand facts in political deliberations, and that issue I thought would be more interesting to TMV readers. A friend of mine, exasperated with partisanship, Washington gridlock, and the seeming dominance of know-nothing blowhard pundits setting the public agenda, recently...

I don’t want to clutter up the main page, so I’ll be live-blogging the State of the Union over at my place.

Judge A. Leon Higginbotham is one of the more prominent figures in American history, known primarily as one of the earliest Black federal judges and a sterling advocate for civil rights. Once, in a case called Pennsylvania v. Local Union 542, Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs, these qualities resulted in defendants in an employment discrimination action to request he recuse himself. The opinion he wrote in response (which you can read here) is a magisterial examination of the double-standards...

It’s a surprisingly vexing question.

Pat Robertson explains why Haiti just lost thousands of people to a natural disaster: “Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said on Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club.” “They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the...

Jennifer Rubin asks why Jews hate Palin, but reading her piece I could only wonder why Rubin hates American Jews? It is rare, exceedingly rare, to find a piece so openly contemptuous, so nakedly trafficking in anti-Jewish stereotyping, in a mainstream American magazine. Who would have thought Commentary would have broken the dike?

The “good Jew” is a common trope in Jewish history. A statement attributed to a variety of Nazi officials was that every German “knows one good Jew” — the exceptions that belie the general rule of Jewish mendacity, parochialism, ruthlessness, avarice, and evil. We should not be distracted. Meanwhile, within the Jewish community, there are those who assume they can escape anti-Semitism by becoming “the good Jew” — by assimilating into the gentile majority,...

You can download the full text of the draft at my SSRN page. Below is the abstract: Legal literature is replete with references to the infamous “slippery slope”, basically, where a shift in policy lubricates the path towards further (perhaps more controversial) reforms or measures. Less discussed is the idea of a “sticky slope”. Sticky slopes manifest when a social movement victory acts to block, instead of enable, further policy goals. Instead of greasing the slope down, they effectively...

Cross-posted to The Debate Link As tensions rise over Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s announced settlement freeze, settler leaders have launched a wave of massive protests trying to block the move. Now, they’ve progressed to threatening violence against the state as well as their Palestinian neighbors: Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, one of the heads of the “Od Yosef Hai” yeshiva in Yitzhar, published an article recommending other means of action. “If there is no quiet for the...

Last winter, Bongani Masuku, International Relations Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), part of the “tripartite alliance” that currently governs South Africa and a leading proponent of a boycott campaign against Israel, decided he had something to say to his country’s Jews: We want to convey a message to the Jews in SA that our 1.9-million workers who are affiliated to COSATU are fully behind the people of Palestine… Any business owned by Israel...

Ray Hanania is a Palestinian-American journalist (and sometime comedian), married to a Jewish woman, who has announced his candidacy for the presidency of Palestine in the event an election is held. He doesn’t expect to win. But he observes that sometimes, long-shot candidates win anyway. And in the mean time, he says, he’d like to use his candidacy as a launch pad for restarting the stalled peace process. Mr. Hanania is seeking to create what he calls the Yalla Salaam/Yalla Peace movement....

It was a busy blogging day today for me: Anti-Israel partisans were soundly defeated in their effort to convince the Norwegian NTNU to boycott Israel, as the university’s executive board unanimously rejected the measure. Rhode Island’s governor vetoed a bill which would have allowed domestic partners the right to dispose of their partner’s remains. It’s a slippery slope to human dignity, after all. In happier news, the LDS in Utah has surprisingly come out in favor of several...

This is an excellent interview by Jeffrey Goldberg of the American Task Force for Palestine’s Hussein Ibish. I’ve spoken positively about the ATFP before, and interviews like this help demonstrate why. Mr. Ibish is a clear and steadfast supporter of a peaceful, two-state solution, and it really comes through in this interview that he gets the conflict and he, from the position of a Palestinian advocate, gets the contours of the American Jewish community’s stance regarding Israel....

Cross-posted to The Debate Link In a PJ Media questionnaire that exemplifies the worst in fusing baseless speculation with raging demagoguery, Lenny Ben-David wanted to ask, among others, the following questions about J Street to its leader, Jeremy Ben-Ami: You were recently asked in an interview about funds J Street received from Palestinians, Arab-Americans, and Iranian-Americans, to which you answered: “J Street does have some Arab and Muslim donors — about five. These are individuals, not...

The UNHRC has officially adopted the Goldstone report criticizing Israel and Hamas for their conduct during the Gaza war. Well, sort of — though Goldstone’s report contained criticisms of both Israel and Hamas, the UNHRC’s resolution, “inexplicably”, says nary a word about Hamas. Stunning, I know. Judge Goldstone apparently is displeased with this, but you can’t tell me he’s actually surprised, as the only principle the UNHRC holds deeper than “screw...

Gaza City’s zoo lost its only two zebras to hunger during the Gaza war. The animals were extremely popular with area children, but were too expensive to replace. So the zookeepers got novel: they hired a painter to paint black and white stripes on two donkeys, making them approximate the real thing. The article reports that many Gaza children, having never seen a real zebra, enjoy their local “variant”. Nonetheless, this strikes me as a worthy fundraising endeavor. Whatever thoughts...

Governor Rick Perry has been advising citizens concerned about the prospect of government-sponsored universal health care to “read the book” — the book being Frederick Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom”. The problem? Hayek is surprisingly positive towards government social insurance directed towards things like accidents and sickness — in that very book no less. Maybe Governor Perry should try reading the book first, and then he can get back to us.

An Israeli MK is giving a speech today where he will talk about the discrimination and racism faced by Israeli Arab citizens, forthrightly declare that they are integral and indispensable parts of Israeli society, and recognize the real and true trauma faced by Palestinians coinciding with the creation of Israel. On its own, this isn’t all that noteworthy — Israel has a vibrant political culture with members of the Knesset occupying literally every imaginable political niche. What makes...

There was speculation that Alaska Governor (and right-wing darling) Sarah Palin would not run for re-election in 2010, both to give time to run for President in 2012, and to avoid a potentially embarrassing upset defeat which could derail her political career altogether (see Allen, George). But in a stunning announcement, Gov. Palin is in fact planning to resign the governorship, effective at the end of the month. Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell (R) will take over. I have to say, I consider this...

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and prominent leader of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against Israel, is an apologist for anti-Semitism at the UN. Indeed, she goes out and directly blames the victims, accusing them of “sabotage” for having the temerity to call out bigotry at the Durban II conference this past year.