Brendan Nyhan

Month: April 2005

  • The other Rick James

    Via Defamer, an amusing report from the intersection of politics and pop culture: City council candidate Rick James says having the same name as the late funk legend is no laughing matter — his campaign signs have been stolen or defaced because of a popular sketch on Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show.” “It’s gotten so bad,

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  • Center for American Progress vs. Byron York: CAP dissembles again

    Via Atrios, I came across a Center for American Progress blog post reprinting a letter they wrote to The Hill claiming Byron York misrepresented their work in his new book: York’s ‘headlines’ weren’t headlines From Judd Legum and Christy Harvey, editors, The Progress Report: We write in response to the excerpt from Byron York’s book

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  • Group blogs suck

    Josh Marshall’s announcement that he’s starting a group blog with a bunch of high-profile contributors made me realize something: I hate most group blogs. So I have to say I’m not hopeful that this one will be any good. The problem is that most group blogs are either chaotic and choppy due to too many

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  • The hysteria of the anti-judicial backlash

    Ruth Marcus nails a point I neglected in my post yesterday: What’s perhaps most astonishing is that this anger is being directed at a federal judiciary in general, and a Supreme Court in particular, that is far more conservative than the liberal bench that once provoked similar complaints. Consider the distance traveled: What started as

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  • A good puzzle: Movie theater pricing

    Here’s a question Mike Munger offered in class recently: why do movie tickets cost the same for every movie when some are vastly more popular than others? The prices of plane tickets, hotels and other services are adjusted based on demand, so why not movies? We came up with a couple of possible answers. First,

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  • The clawback part 2: Bush’s stealth tax increase

    It doesn’t seem like anyone in the blogosphere noticed

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  • Ari Fleischer’s book bombs

    Like its author, Ari Fleischer’s Taking Heat has been condemned for being simultaneously dishonest and stupefyingly boring. So I’m heartened to see that it’s getting the rejection it so richly deserves. Let us rejoice this once in the good taste of the American people: GETTING ICE-COLD? Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer received a

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  • Dangerous attacks on the separation of powers

    Attacks on the judiciary are turning ugly. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a number of prominent conservatives advocate lawless disregard for judicial rulings, attack the rule of law as “judicial tyranny,” and call for the mass impeachment of judges Senator John Cornyn of Texas went so far as to excuse violent attacks against

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  • Bill Frist in 2008: huh?

    From the Nyhan mailbag: a fundraising letter for Bill Frist’s leadership PAC. I guess he’s running for president. I don’t know who thinks this guy can overcome the strikes against him: 1) He killed stray cats 2) He looks like a guy who would kill stray cats (or a mortician) 3) He’s a terribly stiff

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  • Bill Sammon is a hack

    From his story in the Washington Times on President Bush supposedly soliciting advice from Bill Clinton: The president also praised one of Mr. Clinton’s domestic policies — trying to reform Social Security. Both men have proposed personal savings accounts as part of the solution, an idea that is vociferously opposed by congressional Democrats. As Ron

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