Month: August 2012

by Matthew Sitman

Reviewing a new book on the use of precedent in Supreme Court rulings, Adrian Vermeule provides an insightful primer on how the Court makes decisions:

It isn’t helpful to say, as some legal scholars do, that “politics” determines what the Court does. There is a sense in which that is true, but the category of “politics” is too crude. It includes too many things that are not alike, ranging from the grandiloquent constitutional discourse of the 1936 court-packing debate to a Chicago mayoral election. Even if, as I have suggested, Chief Justice Roberts’s decision was not plausibly driven by lawyerly parsing of the language in previous Commerce clause decisions, this does not mean that it was the same sort of decision as Mitt Romney’s decision to oppose the Affordable Care Act. Between “politics” in that sense and legal precedent there is this third category of convention. An official who breaches a convention will be thought to have violated the unwritten rules of the game, not merely to have made just another move within the game.

by Patrick Appel

Paul Waldman takes the long view on marijuana legalization efforts:

The public opinion data have parallels in what we know about who has used marijuana. According to the government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, majorities of every age group below 60 (with one anomalous exception) tell surveyors they have smoked pot sometime in their lives. Given that the surveys ask people to admit to illegal behavior, it's almost certain that the actual numbers are higher, though just how much higher we can't tell. While there are surely some people who have smoked pot but believe fervently that it should be illegal, the fact that half the electorate got high and survived suggests an ample constituency for legalization efforts.

by Zoë Pollock

Balaji Prabhakar wants to reduce traffic congestion "by offering 'credits' for people who travel outside of the main commuting time." The credits can "be redeemed for a chance to play an online game for cash prizes":

“People like incentives more than penalties,” explained Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, in an e-mail sent to Ars Technica. … “That’s why restaurants give early-bird discounts rather than, say, increase prices at 6pm,” he added.

by Gwynn Guilford

Today on the Dish, just as Andrew was going dark, Curiosity alighted on Mars. After a neo-Nazi shooter killed six at a Sikh temple on Sunday, many readers praised the aplomb of Sikh-Americans in the face of violence and bigotry, while others picked up on an eerie resemblance. In politics, Romney's undecided voter problem could scuttle his chances, and his lack of appeal with women – something Obama went after in a recent round of TV ads – may derive from his Mormonism. Nyhan likened Romney coverage to the gaffe-patrol Gore got, Barney Frank shared his first impressions of Romney and Josh Green gave the backstory on Romney's Twitter nemesis. DeLong chimed in with Chait's argument on the travesty of the new unemployment norm, Jared Bernstein chipped away more of the Paul Ryan facade and good jobs have gotten harder to find.

Meanwhile, marriage equality campaigners rolled out the senior varsity, campaign promises in this election have become harder to trust and Michael Brendan Dougherty wished for more honesty from the political media. In Olympics news, Usain Bolt and his fellow Jamaicans killed it and while China's sports program outsourced athlete training, wealth and population largely determined medal count. Also, special tape didn't do much and Joseph Stromberg recalled the long-lost art Olympics.

In assorted commentary, a shocking 10 percent of Japanese males owned child pornography, paid internships proved to be the ticket to a real gig and David Axe ridiculed the specter of a North Korean invasion. 3D printing promised to change the face of contraband, Mark Mitchell did battle on the term "culture war," and Michael Moyers broke down the monthly subway pass math. An old HP ad was oddly relevant, VFYW here and MHB here.

(Photo: Megan Rapinoe of the United States clashes with Sophie Schmidt of Canada during the Women's Football Semi Final match between Canada and USA, on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Rapinoe scored twice in the US's 4-3 win over Canada, taking the US to the gold medal match. By Stanley Chou/Getty Images)

by Matthew Sitman

Joseph Stromberg details the forgotten history of Olympic medals awarded for the fine arts:

For the first four decades of competition, the Olympics awarded official medals for painting, sculpture, architecture, literature and music, alongside those for the athletic competitions. From 1912 to 1952, juries awarded a total of 151 medals to original works in the fine arts inspired by athletic endeavors. Now, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the first artistic competition, even Olympics fanatics are unaware that arts, along with athletics, were a part of the modern Games nearly from the start.

On a related note, Wallace Yovetich likens reading to an Olympic sport:

With the myriad of sites that are the reading equivalent to ESPN (including this one), and others that give stats (such as GoodReads), reading is certainly a sport for some of us. How fast, how much, who are you reading? Do certain genres gain you extra points? Does finishing the next sure bestseller a few months shy of being part of the cultural cusp deduct from your score? And, like any great sport, does not practicing for any length of time weaken your game?

(Image by Jens Ullrich via Flavorwire)

by Patrick Appel

Brendan Nyhan compares coverage of Romney to coverage of Gore, who was likewise "portrayed as inauthentic by a hostile press corps." Nyhan thinks both men are victims of the "gaffe patrol":

Beyond the frustration and resentment, an underlying problem is that the demand for gaffe news far exceeds the public’s interest in substantive reporting, especially during a general election in which only 5% of adults are truly undecided. The average news consumer follows presidential politics more like a sports fan than some sort of ideal citizen. 

Continetti urges Romney to go to war with the media:

By now Romney must have noticed that there is no way he can win the communications battle. The deck is stacked against him. But that does not mean he will lose the election. His victory depends on enthusiastic and oversized turnout from the white working class and GOP base. He may recall that Newt Gingrich’s biggest applause lines during the Republican primary debates came whenever the former speaker trained his rhetorical artillery on the press, and criticized self-important television anchors as much as he criticized Obama.

Imagine the delight and excitement that would flood Republican hearts if their nominee—or his running-mate—gave a stem-winder attacking the “tiny, enclosed fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by Government,” whose views “do not—and I repeat, do not—represent the views of America.” The press would lose its mind, but Republican enthusiasm would jump 10 points.

Good luck winning undecided voters with that strategy.

by Chris Bodenner A reader offers a more nuanced interpretation of the controversial FOTD:

I’m no more offended by the photo than the story of yet another hate crime in our hinterlands. We still don’t know the entire story of what happened in Wisconsin and the Sikhs in the photo are aiming their resentment at our government with even less knowledge I’m betting. Both sides are stereotyping each other’s behavior, understanding of the situation, and reactions. Tit for tat. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Also, on a very different note, about a dozen readers noticed a strange similarity in the sword-bearing Sikh’s face. One reader spells it out:

Update from a reader:

I’m sorry, but there is no equivalence between a community angrily protesting the senseless slaughter of their own and the slaughter itself.  To suggest otherwise seems psychotic. Is it wrong to condemn America as a nation for the acts of one gunman?  Yes.  But not all wrongs are created equal.  

In case you haven’t noticed, in 2012 America, it’s fair game for our leaders and entertainers to spew xenophobic rhetoric at minorities.  I’m sorry, it just is culturally acceptable to do this now, and if you think that this fact is unrelated to the massacre in Wisconsin, then your credentials to comment on world affairs are seriously in doubt. And if you think that people outside of America don’t also see this connection, then I don’t even know what to say.

I for one am glad about the choice for the Face of the Day.  If it’s wrong to confront the reality that our xenophobia and predilection for violence can cause other people to hate us, then I don’t want to be right.

It’s very doubtful that the first reader was creating an equivalence between the protest in India and the shooting in Wisconsin. More likely the reader was drawing a connection between the protesters in India (who might mistakenly believe that most Americans approve of such slaughter) and reactionaries here in the US (ones who would, for instance, pick the label “Inspiring” for a Fox Nation article about the shooting). But yes, that first line about “yet another hate crime in our hinterlands” seems dreadfully unclear and a little unsettling. By the way, more details just surfaced about the sick motivations behind the shooting:

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, [Wade Michael Page] was a member of two racist bands named End Apathy and Definite Hate, “a band whose album ‘Violent Victory’ featured a gruesome drawing of a disembodied white arm punching a black man in the face.”

Update from a reader:

You wrote, “More likely the reader was drawing a connection between the protesters in India (who might mistakenly believe that most Americans approve of such slaughter…” Actually, it is not that complicated. The protesters are from a party called Akali Dal, which is quite powerful in the state of Punjab. This is a politcal statement for regional audiences within India. Political parties in India tend to use the same set of persons from their cadres for high profile events. Thus, the Andrew Sullivan look-alike whose face you posted has appeared in many other protests, as shown here, here and here.

by Patrick Appel

David Axe dubs the Red Dawn reboot the "dumbest movie ever":

Where the 1984 original successfully played upon widespread public fears over a supposedly rising and belligerent Soviet Union, the remake expects viewers to take North Korea seriously as an existential threat. We’re guessing the flick is going to get a lot of unintended laughs.

You see, the actual North Korea is a country of 24 million people with a GDP roughly equal to North Dakota’s. It’s an impoverished, even starving, prison state that lacks modern weaponry and any ability to deploy forces globally. If preview clips posted this weekend are any indication, the movie magically gifts North Korea with a huge fleet of long-range transport planes … because it has to. Of course, how these planes get past the U.S. military’s 3,000 jet fighters is anyone’s guess.

By Chas Danner

Over the weekend the Romney campaign released this ad hitting "Obama's economy" and pushing an alternative, undetailed Romney plan (ad buy scale and scope unknown):

The Romney campaign also released another state-themed "didn't build that" video, as well as this Israel-themed attack ad in an attempt to turn Jewish voters off of Obama (ad buy scale and scope unknown):

Meanwhile the Obama campaign again went after Romney on women's issues in this seven state TV ad focusing on Romney's intention to target Planned Parenthood:

In fundraising news, both campaigns released their July numbers today with Romney again outraising Obama, this time $101.3 million to $75 million. That news should be digested in light of a report last week [NYT] that Obama is spending money faster than any other incumbent in American history. In outside spending news, Americans United for Change and AFSCME have put $280K behind a national cable ad attacking Republicans for caring more about Donald Trump than average citizens. In the area of issues, a new TV ad is airing in Washington as part of a $1 million ad campaign to support ballot measure I-502, which would end cannabis prohibition in the state. The ad tries a casually pragmatic approach:

And today's most outlandish ad comes from David Carlson, who is challenging GOP-endorsed Senate candidate Kurt Bills in a Minnesota primary. Behold the guilt by association (to Ron Paul, and a lot more):

Ad War archive here.