Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2675

A Maximalist Decision?

Dale Carpenter is carefully reading the Prop 8 ruling:

My concerns about this decision outweigh what I see as its merits. Inreading so far, I think a notable feature of Judge Walker's decision isits judicial maximalism — a willingness to reach out and decidefundamental constitutional questions not strictly necessary to reachthe result. It is also, in maximalist style, filled with broadpronouncements about the essential characteristics of marriage andconfident conclusions about social science...

Iran: Are Sanctions Working?

The president thinks so:

The sanctions were designed to exploit Iran's over-reliance on its paramilitary force, the IRGC, for ways to evade the sanctions, and to prevent its oil industry from obtaining the foreign investment necessary for development. A U.S. official said that Iran was recently forced to abandon an effort to develop an oil field because the IRGC didn't have the expertise and the country could find no subcontractors who were willing to risk the penalties imposed by the...

Basil Marceaux For Governor, Ctd

Allahpundit grins at Marceaux's official campaign ad:

And so, after a months-long trek up the slope of a mountain of zany campaign ads, we finally reach the summit. Nothing will top it, my friends; even Dale Peterson's Winchester can't compete with the next governor of Tennesseemumbling his policy platform while misspelled graphics ("vegitation"?)fill the screen. My only question: Is this just Marceaux being Marceauxor is he actually winking at his own goofiness here? I want to believeit's...

Geriatric Release?

Serwer prisoner demographics. The inmate population is getting older:

Obviously you don't want any Lockerbie Bomber type situationswhere dangerous inmates or those who have committed heinous crimes aregetting a pass just because they're old, but by the time you're 55you're pretty much past crime-committing age. Accordingto the U.S. Sentencing Commission, offenders over 50 have a recidivismrate of only 9.5 percent. Compare that to offenders under 21, who havea recidivism rate of 35.5...

Chart Of The Day

Austin Frakt flags this graphic from economist Joe Newhouse's new article:

If health spending increases at just 2 percentage points above GDP(which is low by historical standards), government spending onnon-health goods and services must plummet (yellow line). If such areduction in government non-health spending seems unlikely too, then byprocess of elimination the health care cost curve must bend. Afterrejecting increased debt, taxation, or reductions in non-healthspending it's the only...

Avoiding Disaster

The state of the economy is considered the main determinant of presidential approval; Bernstein takes a stab at why politicians bother governing at all:

No, Barack Obama will not win any votes if he manages to "win" inAfghanistan, whatever that actually means.  But he'll lose plenty ofvotes if Americans continue to die there in ever-increasing numbers. He'll also lose votes if Americans leave, the Taliban takes over andshelters bin Laden, and that allows more devastating terror...

A Court Of One

Dahlia Lithwick thinks Judge Vaughn Walker was writing with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in mind:

Any way you look at it, [yesterday's:] decision was written for a court of
one—Kennedy—the man who has written most eloquently about dignity and
freedom and the right to determine one's own humanity.

Supreme Court of the United States - Anthony Kennedy - Dahlia Lithwick - United States - Law

What Broke The Senate? Ctd

Frum counters Packer:

1) A lot of the Obama agenda has passed, actually.

2) To the extent that the agenda has not passed, the causes are bigger than the slow motion of the Senate. Look again at George Packer's list of stalled initiatives. On how many is the American public clamoring for immediate action? On how many is the Obama agenda on the wrong side of public opinion altogether?

United States - United States Senate - Senate - Barack Obama - President

When Doctors Became Torturers, Ctd

Scott Horton explains how doctors colluded with lawyers to excuse torture:

The duplicity in this affair is amazingly circular. The JusticeDepartment's torture lawyers relied on the CIA's torture doctors forthe conclusion that specific techniques did not produce "severe pain"that ran afoul of the criminal law prohibition on torture; the CIAdoctors relied on the Justice Department lawyers for the sameconclusion. It looks like a compact, and an alert prosecutor would nodoubt call it a joint...

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Prop 8 was struck down. Judge Walker's eloquent opinion here; Arendt's timeless truth here. Andrew glimpsed hope. Ambinder laid down the facts, and Schwarzenegger followed Cameron's lead. The full reax here, and readers responses here and here and here.

Conservatism floundered in the face of the Mosque; some even missed Bush. Bloomberg took the high road; the National Review took the low road, and Chait and Andrew Sprung showed Dan Senor where to shove it.

Fiscal fraudulence ...