As some readers may have noticed, our website was plagued by intermittent technical difficulties yesterday. It would be a shame if this kept anyone from reading three great pieces we featured:
The first is Alan Ehrenhalt's argument about the "demographic inversion" of American cities, with middle-class and affluent whites--motivated by deindustrialization and a new pro-city ethos amongst the young and educated-- rushing back to urban centers in huge numbers. In turn, working class whites, minorities and immigrants are being displaced and trickling out into the suburbs--re-shaping the American metropolis in vastly significant ways.
Second, Josh Patashnik debunks National Journal's "Most Liberal" rankings, the pseudo-scientific canard that is responsible for all that "more liberal than Ted Kennedy" rhetoric about Obama. Josh points out that not only do the rankings attribute improper ideological definitions to certain votes, but they also insufficiently account for absentee senators. This certainly won't stop Republicans from demagoguing the issue, but at least you'll know just how wrong they are.
Finally, the Editors reflect on unsatisfying capture of Bosnian war criminal Radovan Karadzic. The only way to grant obtain a semblance of justice, they argue, is to make sure the crimes of Bosnia cannot be repeated in Darfur. "The use of military force by the United States and NATO in the Balkans--belatedly in Bosnia but promptly in Kosovo--remains the only model for an effective response to the extermination of peoples....You cannot be against the genocide in Darfur and against the use of force to end it."
--Eric Zimmermann