the browntable
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Obama's Russian Drive-By on the Public Health Plan
As anyone following the health care debate knows, the next several decades of interaction between patients, doctors, insurers, and the government are being hashed out furiously behind the scenes in Washington. In this volatile environment, the slightest hint of a weakness or a concession among congresspeople, or a new study on savings, is treated as…
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Washington's $1.4M Revolving Door
The lede to this WASHINGTON POST story on health care says all we need to know about the purported debate over creating a public plan to compete with private health insurance companies: The nation’s largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in…
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Using Jackson as a Mass Distraction
Few folks on appear hot or bothered over the Supreme Court’s recent assault on once untouchable relics of the civil rights movement. When pointing out the SCOTUS decision on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act or the infamous reverse remix known as Ricci v. DeStefano, most folks look at you in a spat of…
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Sarah Palin's Resignation: World's Greatest Head Fake
Former GOP Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she would be resigning her office effective July 25, 2009. The speculation is that Palin has resigned in order to prep for a run for the Presidency in 2012. I have a slightly different take on Palin’s abrupt move. First, Gov. Palin has…
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Michelle Obama's Sistah-Girlfriend Press Corps
Howard Kurtz’s recent claim that black female reporters are having difficulty covering the first lady because she is also a black female is a worthwhile topic of discussion, but his focus on “objectivity” misses the point. THE BUZZ has a pretty good summary of Kurtz’s analysis, and at TAPPED, Adam Serwer makes a characteristically smart…
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The Only Ones: The Underside of Integration?
What does the First Family’s vacation destination reveal about the limits of integration and class within the black community? A whole lot, at least according to Touré, whose NEW YORK magazine article, “Black and White on Martha’s Vineyard” is still sparking fireworks. For generations, high-achieving African Americans who exist in elite, all-white environments during the…
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The Sarah Palin Saga: Desperate Housewives meets Northern Exposure?
Todd Purdum has written a blistering report in next month’s VANITY FAIR about Sarah Palin that draws on sniping from former John McCain aides, shrugging statements of disownment from acquaintances in Wasilla, and sorrowful head-shaking from the Republican intelligentsia. The wide-ranging “profile” of the woman who almost stood second in line to the presidency pre-empts…
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New Haven Was Wrong, the Court was Right, and Affirmative Action is…Still Important?
The Supreme Court has spoken today, in a 5-4 ruling in favor of the firefighters in the controversial New Haven case (Ricci v. DeStefano), and they have once again opened up a serious Pandora’s box. This case has always troubled me on the merits because it smacks of “well intended “affirmative action policy that does…
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He's Going Back to Indiana
When I was five, my folks took me to see the Jackson 5 in concert. I hardly remember the show—and I don’t remember life before Michael Jackson. Generation X doesn’t really know life without him. Michael was a musical bridge across decades. He took Smokey Robinson’s “Who’s Lovin’ You” and passed it on to Terence Trent…
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In Strip Search Case, Clarence Thomas Shows He's "Off the Grid"
If ever we needed a concrete of example of what’s at stake when it comes to Supreme Court appointments, this week’s decision in Safford United School District #1 v. Redding fits the bill. This is the case from Arizona involving a 13 year-old middle school student who was strip-searched at school on suspicion of having…