It’s that most wonderful time….of the year! Sporadic thoughts from Day One of the tourney: - I feel bad for George Mason. I really do. There defense actually played pretty well against Notre Dame. They just couldn’t shoot to save their life. Every roll and every bounce went against them. It was really kind of tragic. - It won’t happen, but wouldn’t it be cool if Duke won the tourney after its fright against 15th-seed Belmont? We could have a tournament champion who was...

This is Barack Obama’s NCAA bracket. Would it be entirely cruel and irrational of us to pick it apart for political motivations. Yes, obviously. Will that stop us? Hell no! Have at it in the comments. UPDATE: I didn’t realize it was cut off — here’s a link.

Native John Cole: Now I don’t want to throw the state under the bus (since that is so fashionable these days) because I love it here so much, but anyone who is surprised by this simply is not paying attention. Racism is alive and well in central PA, SE Ohio, and much of WV. What Carville said about central PA (it resembles Alabama) can be said about the regions I discussed, and it was why I was able to say, when I was a Republican, that most of the racists I have met in my lifetime were Democrats....

An expansion on my previous post — this one explaining strains of Black Conservatism that are not separatist (such as Clarance Thomas’) and how they fit within the overall paradigm, as well as the difference between Black Conservatism and conservatives who are Black.

Like anyone who wants America to still have an economy tomorrow, I support the government’s intervention to head off disaster in the Bear Stearns fiasco. But I admit discomfort, for this seems to be precisely the type of governmental assistance that I hear many people decry when it’s proffered to the less fortunate. We give it to Bear Stearns — even though they were reckless and irresponsible, even though their predicament is primarily of their own making — because they “matter”....

About a year ago, I penned a post entitled “Taking Thomas Seriously”, about the particularly political ideology held by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In it, I noted that both liberals and conservatives misunderstood Thomas’ orientation because the tried to map him onto “standard” (White) political categories. Thomas is a conservative, yes, but specifically he is a Black Conservative, which is a very particular philosophical tradition that does not perfectly...

The theme being people fleeing human rights abuses in Iran being treated like dirt when they try and get asylum in the west. Today’s variation: a 19-year old gay teenager who likely will be deported back to Iran (where his boyfriend was executed for Sodomy) from Great Britain because Iran does not “systematically persecute” homosexuals. But he’s breaking the law, dammit!

Guess where he’s begging to be released from?

Honestly, what’s the world coming to when “Socialized Medicine” doesn’t scare people anymore? Incidentally, the first time I ever heard the term “socialized medicine”, it was in a text book discussion of the Polio Vaccine — specifically, where Eisenhower-era Republicans objected to distributing the vaccine for free on that grounds. So that may be why I don’t find the term as scary as most.

Over furious Republican objections, the House of Representatives passed contempt citations against Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten for their refusal to testify in front of House committees. Republicans threw every procedural tactic in the book to stop the vote, including finally walking out in protest. But tempers really flared when a GOP representative called for a dilatory procedural vote in the middle of a memorial service for Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA). Apparently, House Democrats had called the chamber...

Tennessee State Senator Doug Henry’s lamentation about the state of rape law wins him my “Creeper of the Day” award.

Back in the day, I noted the absurdity of anyone railing on Obama’s “lack of experience” while giving anything but scorn to Rudy Giuliani. Alas, Hizzoner’s brilliant campaign strategy (”1.Lose state after state by resounding margins. 2. ? 3. Victory!”) somehow foundered, so that rule is now moot. However, we have a replacement: neither John McCain nor his supporters get to complain about Obama’s supposed lack of specificity, or his supposed lack of policy...

I don’t think anyone could have foreseen that the Democratic race would remain this close after Super Tuesday. Even with MSNBC calling California for Clinton (with only 15% counted — did we not learn something from Missouri?), it’s difficult to say that anyone truly “won” the day. Clinton, to be sure, won some big-ticket blue states tonight: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and probably California, plus Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. But even though...

A bill has been introduced in the Maryland legislature to legalize gay marriage. Its passage is hardly-ensured, but it isn’t dead in the water either. If it gets through, Maryland will be the first state to legalize gay marriage strictly through the democratic process — a massive symbolic victory and an important step in the fight for equal rights. Here’s hoping my state comes through.

After delivering the State of the Union response, Kansas Governor and Democratic rising star Kathleen Sebelius will endorse Barack Obama for President. It’s part of an overall good swing of endorsements for Obama, including Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), the highest ranking Latino House member. The latter is particularly significant because Obama has shown some weakness among the Latino vote. But Sebelius is not just a particularly talented Democratic governor, or...

Apropos Suharto’s death, I wish to point again to the post I wrote on the occasion of Augusto Pinochet’s very timely demise. Suharto was a practitioner of genocide. A genocide, it is worth noting, that occurred with the tacit sanction and support of the United States. He was a thug, a dictator, and a criminal, and deserves to be remembered as nothing more.

No immediate link to anything currently in the news, though it does remind me of my Dartmouth L.J. paper. I just wanted to save it for later: The question of how Jews would fit in when cultural and linguistic identity became the basis of citizenship, and the Volksgeist was embodied in a Volksstaat, could be answered in only one of two ways. Either the Jews had to surrender their Jewishness and become good Germans or there would be no place for them. At the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning...

This time, it’s from someone with deep, deep party roots.

The easy response to calls for more “diversity” is to attack it conceptually. But even defenders of diversification have often struggled to precisely articulate what, precisely, their commitment means. What counts as diversity? Do we want make sure we adequately represent everyone’s favorite color? Why are certain types of diversity seemingly more important to its advocates than others? I explore these themes and more in Two Models of Diversity. This is an academic interest of mine,...

Note to CNN: Contrary to popular belief, when faced with a choice between a Black man and a White woman, Black women do not behave like a science-fiction robot and self-destruct due to irresolvable paradox. Rather, just as I am capable of making a rational decision about who I am voting for even though I have so many White boys to choose from (even though I ended up not selecting any of them), Black women are likewise capable of making rational decisions as to their political preferences even though...

On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, Barack Obama spoke on King’s old pulpit at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His speech was bold, progressive, and necessary: For most of this country’s history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man’s inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system. And...

What’s on the browser of yours truly.

A timely reminder from Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but Obama should seriously consider the Kansas governor as his VP nominee.

Co-blogger T-Steel already offered his take on this subject today, but I wanted to give my own musings on whether and what Obama needs to see regarding his pastor’s praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. I do want to briefly digress to note that I think T-Steel’s example of his ex-murderer friend is somewhat in-apt. I certainly agree that T should not be forced to throw his friend under a bus if he ran for office. After all, his friend has rehabilitated, paid his debts, and...