the browntable

One line in that rather somber, passion-lacking dose of realism from the President at West Point carries with it a funky dose of irony: “That is why our troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended – because the nation that I am most interested in building is our own.” The funkiness comes with the chalkboard…

It’s official: Barack Obama has lost control of his party. In recent weeks, both his congressional allies and the once-fawning political press have begun openly bucking the White House’s cautious approach to the change it says it believes in. That discontent rose this week to a fevered pitch. And now, even the Congressional Black Caucus…

To the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): Whew! We’re so relieved that we no longer have to worry about getting breast cancer screenings. Really glad we don’t have to bother with those monthly self-exams. And who doesn’t hate getting pap smears?Pardon the sarcasm, but as…

D.C. councilmember Mary Cheh had it about right last week when she told the Washington Post that the Catholic Church had been “somewhat childish” in threatening the city over its pending same-sex marriage bill. The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is throwing a tantrum—and who gives a crap? Not likely the D.C. City Council. Here’s the…

It’s great news that President Obama has signed the hate crimes bill that includes gender and sexual orientation as covered groups. “No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love,” Obama said in East Room reception, surrounded by joyous supporters. “No one in…

Posting news of the eight US troops reported killed in Afghanistan today in the deadliest month of fighting since this war began, I had what one might call a slip of the eye. Reading the Associated Press report, I read the following Eight American troops were killed in multiple bomb attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan,…

NOW president Terry O’Neill finds it troubling that President Obama only hoops with the fellas. There are those that fear an all-boys culture is being cultivated in the White House and that’s not a good thing. If a woman’s good enough to run ball, then she should be able to do that. I’m fairly confident…

The banking industry’s lobby group, the American Bankers Association, is holding its annual convention in Chicago right now and they’ve been greeted by thousands of protestors who are sick of the industry holding Washington and our economy hostage. According to organizers’ reports, they’ve disrupted the meeting, surrounded the building and demanded accountability from the people…

The Senate has finally passed its anti-gay hate crime bill and President Obama will certainly sign it, no doubt to much fanfare. In the words of Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solmonese, it’ll be “our nation’s first major piece of civil rights legislation” for LGBT Americans. And at this seemingly historic moment, the burning question for…

I’ve taken on the concept of “white flight” on the internet, but the question of how and why individuals segregate themselves in real life is far more interesting to me. When it comes to conurbation, the racial and class-based variables are literally endless. Aaron Renn, aka Urbanophile, writes provocatively at New Geography about the phenomenon…