Cynthia Tucker

On the angry end of the political spectrum, secession is in the air and a narrow reading of the US Constitution — with severely limited powers for the federal government — is all the rage. But the Constitution is interpreted by federal courts (according to the Constitution), and an Arizona federal judge has delivered a blow to tenthers who believe that the federal government should be allowed to do very little.
In rejecting key parts of the Arizona immigration law, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton agreed with the Obama administration’s views on “pre-emption,” a belief that states cannot usurp important federal powers.

From the WSJ:

A judge’s ruling blocking major portions of Arizona’s immigration law strengthened the Obama administration’s hand in a battle over states rights that appears destined for the Supreme Court.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix sided with the Justice Department on the most important federal arguments accusing the state of …

Continue reading A lesson for tenthers in the Arizona ruling »

Among the many reasons that I find it so difficult to take Republicans’ claims about being serious deficit hawks, ah, well, seriously is that they were such profligate spenders during the Bush years. The Iraq war wasn’t just a war of choice against people who didn’t attack us, but it was also a gigantically wasteful enterprise, wherein the Pentagon poured money out endlessly without any care for where it went. There were reports of huge bundles of cash disappearing in the night, with no idea who got it. It might have gone to our enemies.

Consider this story from the AP:

A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation.

The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of the $53 billion that Congress has allocated for rebuilding. It’s cash that …

Continue reading Where’s tea party’s outrage over billions that disappeared in Iraq? »

WASHINGTON — Following a furious thunderstorm on Sunday, the temperature here dropped more than ten degrees, allowing residents of the capital city to venture outdoors again. After several brutal days with the thermostat hovering near triple digits, temps in the mid-to-high eighties felt downright balmy.

From what I’ve been reading about climate change, though, we’d better get used to miserable, scorching summers. We can stop using the term “heat wave” to describe what will become a routine pattern of high temperatures, overtaxed electricity grids and epidemics of heat strokes.

According to NASA, all but one of the ten hottest years on record were since 1999. The agency expects this year to be the planet’s hottest.

Still, the fierce heat wasn’t enough to coax a vote on pricing carbon emissions through the Senate. While rightwing know-nothings like Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) used the blizzards that blanketed the city last winter to claim global warming is a hoax, Republicans …

Continue reading Global warming makes heat waves the new normal »

For practical and political reasons, the Obama administration has decided to allow Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class to stay in place. Politically, the president campaigned on a promise of not increasing taxes for the middle class. Practically, middle-class and working-class Americans will spend more of that money rather than saving it, which will help a weak economy.
However, to address the deficit, Obama wants to allow the tax cuts on the richest Americans to expire. Last week, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner confirmed the Obama administration’s intention to allow steep tax cuts for the rich to expire on Jan. 1, 2011, as the law requires. “We believe it is appropriate to let those tax cuts that go to the most fortunate expire,” Geithner told a gathering of journalists last week.

Oddly, Republicans, joined by a small group of Democrats, are arguing against allowing the tax cuts to lapse. Even though the GOP has made the size of the deficit one of their premier issues …

Continue reading GOP goes to bat for richest two percent »

While many conservatives rightly and promptly demanded that Andrew Breitbart apologize for his smear of Shirley Sherrod, some on the right have — inexplicably — kept up their crusade to prove that Mrs. Sherrod is, if not a racist, then a contemptible liar. It’s very odd and has had the effect of making conservative media outlets like The American Spectator appear unhinged.
In a piece on its Web site, the Specator comes to the conclusion that Sherrod told an outrageous lie in her NAACP speech when she said a relative had been lynched.

This is the Spectator’s proof, from Supreme Court documents:

The arrest was made late at night at Hall’s home on a warrant charging Hall with theft of a tire. Hall, a young negro about thirty years of age, was handcuffed and taken by car to the courthouse. As Hall alighted from the car at the courthouse square, the three petitioners began beating him with their fists and with a solid-bar blackjack about eight inches long and weighing two …

Continue reading Breitbart’s defenders need a dictionary. Sherrod’s relative was lynched »

Because we’ve reached the peculiar point in our political discourse when mainstream Republicans can’t point out the lunacy of birthers, Ken Buck, Colorado candidate for the GOP Senate nomination, has committed the quintessential political gaffe: He told the truth.

Buck has rightly been criticized for a sexist remark about his female GOP opponent, saying primary voters should support him because he “doesn’t wear high heels.” His commit about birthers, however, is dead on.

From TPM:

Buck is the Tea Party candidate running against establishment pick Jane Norton in Colorado’s Republican Senate primary. His latest gaffe is being caught on tape by a Democratic operative saying, “Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera?” according to The Denver Post. Without walking it completely back, Buck has already told the Post the language was inappropriate.

(In Georgia, Nathan Deal, seeking the GOP nomination for …

Continue reading In Colorado, Ken Buck tells the truth about birthers »

It looks like BP CEO Tony Hayward is on his way out, to be replaced by a Mississippi-born American, Robert Dudley. He’s already a familiar face because BP put him out front to handle the spill weeks ago.

But replacing Hayward won’t solve the company’s problems. Its sullied reputation stems from a clear record of choosing profits over safety, as an investigation taking place out of the spotlight has made clear.

From The Washington Post:

For example, on the day of the blowout, BP managers decided to skip a typically routine, and time-consuming, “cement bond log” test that could have detected fissures in the cementing of the well. They did not use the recommended 21 “centralizers” to position the well prior to the cement job, deploying just six instead. They used the cheaper of two well designs, one with fewer barriers to rising gas but costing $7 to $10 million less.

They were also conscious of the value of mud. On the day of the explosion, the expensive drilling fluid was taken …

Continue reading Tony Hayward isn’t BP’s biggest problem; greed is »

It’s pretty difficult to have a rational discussion about race, for the reasons my colleague Jay Bookman has outlined today. Quite frankly, his list of reasons is incomplete: Today’s political and civic climate includes a host of loud mouths who are not interested in a rational conversation about race. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart come to mind.
Nevertheless, I sally forth in the hope that a few reasonable people might come across new information that gives them pause, makes them think, changes their minds. Today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) has a fascinating column in the Wall Street Journal that ought to provide fodder for reasonable conversation. UPDATE: A reader pointed to a link to the column, so here it is. )
The column, which has a rather provocative title, “Diversity and The Myth of White Privilege,” argues for the end of government-sanctioned affirmative action programs. But it’s not a simple-minded argument which pretends that discrimination, especially …

Continue reading Sen. Webb says ‘white privilege’ is a myth »

Charlie Rangel is a popular member of Congress, liked not just by Democrats but also by many of his Republican colleagues. Back home in New York, he’s considered political royalty.
Nevertheless, it’s time for Rangel, 80, to retire. The ethical baggage he is carrying is so heavy that his continued service in Congress does more harm than good to both his constituents and his party.

From the NYT:

A House investigative panel has found “substantial reason to believe” that Representative Charles B. Rangel violated a range of ethics rules, dealing a serious blow to Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, in the twilight of his political career.
The finding means that he must face a public trial before the House ethics committee, the first member of Congress to be forced to do so since 2002, when Representative James A. Traficant Jr. was expelled from Congress after a corruption conviction.

The investigative panel did not disclose any details about the nature of the violations.

But two …

Continue reading It’s time for Charlie Rangel to retire »

How hot does it have to get for the climate change deniers to admit global warming is caused by human activity?

From David Leonhardt’s excellent column in the New York Times on Tuesday:

All the while, the risks and costs of climate change grow. Sea levels are rising faster than scientists predicted just a few years ago. Himalayan glaciers are melting. In the American West, pine beetles (which struggle to survive the cold) are multiplying and killing trees.

According to NASA, 2010 is on course to be the planet’s hottest year since records started in 1880. The current top 10, in descending order, are: 2005, 2007, 2009, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2004, 2001 and 2008.

Hot is the new normal.

Still, John Kerry is throwing in the towel on his comprehensive climate change/energy bill, which is no great surprise. Despite the horrendous oil spill in the Gulf, despite signs of a warming planet all around, the GOP is full of climate change deniers and the Democratic Party is full of …

Continue reading The earth warms up, but Congress won’t act on climate change »