Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2763

Welfare Reform Down Under

by David Frum

Australia's Labor government acts to limit spending of welfare benefits on alcohol and drugs. (h/t Tim Montgomerie)

Welfare - Government - Australia - Poverty - Australian Labor Party

Palin Lays The Foundation For '12

by Chris Bodenner

The latest FEC filings for SarahPAC - ostensibly to support conservative candidates - show a politician serious about building a campaign of her own. Kenneth Vogel parses the huge haul:

[P:]erhaps most indicative of a more traditional, robust politicaloperation were the $330,000 in fundraising costs reflected in thereport, including $154,000 to HSP Direct, a direct-mail vendor that puttogether SarahPAC's first direct-mail campaign. Palin had previouslyused primarily online...

What Will The Administration Do About DOMA?

by Patrick Appel

Ambinder reported on Friday that Obama is in no rush. Jim Burroway wants the administration to appeal and for the case to go all the way to the Supreme Court:

There are only three ways to get rid of DOMA nationwide. Barringappeals by Obama's Department of Justice, the first option is to getanother forty-nine sets of similar rulings by federal judges inforty-nine more states. While it's true that these Massachusettsrulings would serve as a precedent for subsequent rulings by...

The View From Your Window

St. Louis, Missouri, 10.43 am

Missouri - United States - Metro Areas - Saint Louis Metro - St. Louis

How Do You Fight the Crazy Right

by David Frum

We
had some excitement on the FrumForum blog this weekend. One of your young
bloggers, Alex Knepper, got into a controversy with the folks over at the NewsRealBlog. You
can read the backstory here.

The
NewsRealBlog folks posted ferocious denunciations on their site, accusing our young blogger of
sexual perversion among other offenses. For good measure, they posted on his
own Facebook page as well.

Howdo you deal with this kind of thing? Here's perspective from a former leftie...

Losing Nate Henn

by Dave Weigel

The Associated Press reported the death of Nate Henn this way.

Explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugbyclub and an Ethiopian restaurant, killing at least 74 people, includinga Delaware man. Police feared an al-Qaida-linked Somali militant groupwas behind the attacks, as Uganda's president declared today, "We shallget them wherever they are." Invisible Children,a San Diego, California-based aid group that helps child soldiers,identified the dead...

Missing Missy

by Chris Bodenner

Before you ask a coworker to create a "missing" poster, make sure he doesn't hate cats. Or you.

Cat - People - Pets - Recreation - Lost or Missing

The Summer The Markets Lost Hope?

by David Frum

Investors and workers have endured a lot of pain over the past two years. But something seems to have snapped in recent days. Bad jobs numbers in the past month, miserable private sector job creation over the whole second quarter, the continuing (accelerating?) unwillingness of consumers to borrow and spend - all that has hit home since May.  From Monday's WSJ:

Many individual investors were tiptoeing back into stocks in the spring. Now, they're running for cover again...

Freakspotting and Alvin Greene

by Dave Weigel

OK, alright. Enough of this. Let Katharine Q. Seelye's profile of Alvin Greene be the last.

When Seelye talked to him, she got him to gaffe -- if such a thing is possible in a campaign like this -- and whine that his treatment by the military was less fair than Nadir Hassan's. Good lord, who cares?

Alvin Greene - United States - South Carolina - Democratic - United States Senate

Can The Democrats Recover?

by Patrick Appel

Not in the short-term:

I doubt that anything that will
happen between now and election day (or anything Democrats can say)
will substantially alter these views; history suggests that by now,
they're too entrenched. And Obama's ratings, though higher than those
of congressional Democrats, are hardly robust. It's difficult to avoid
the conclusion that in this year's contested races, Democrats who can't
win based on local issues or opposition research will probably lose.

...