The Londoner

The driver, a 38-year-old Moroccan immigrant who moved to the United States some five years ago, told the  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  that the passenger asked him where he was from and then began to talk about the Islamic State. “He started the conversation and began to ask questions like, ‘You seem to be like a Pakistani guy. Are you from Pakistan?’” said the driver, who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity owing to concerns about his safety. Read the full story here.

1.  Why the Republican Candidates Don't Do Substance John Cassidy, The New Yorker 2.  The Media's Potemkin Village Starts to Topple Michael Walsh, PJ Media 3.  Was the Third Debate Bush's Last Stand? Eugene Robinson, Washington Post 4.  The Improbable Speaker Ryan   Stephen Hayes, Weekly Standard 5.  Paul Ryan, the Radical Now Running the House   Jonathan Alter, The Daily Beast 6.  Republicans Are the Real Big-Tent Party Mitchell Blatt, The Federalist 7.  Once, Talk of an Enemies List Was Shocking George Condon, National Journal 8.  The Closing of a Newsroom's Mind Donald Graham, Wall Street Journal 9.  An American Hostage in Iran--Again   Robin Wright, The New Yorker 10.  AIPAC's Devastating Decision Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post 11.  Bipartisanship Still Matters Jon Huntsman Jr. and Joe Lieberman, RealClearPoli...

In response to the first half of the question, and bowing to the contemporary wisdom that anything can be reduced to the length of a tweet, I offer up this definition: American liberalism is belief system that combines egalitarian impulses with a conviction that markets often fail and that the government should seek to address these failures. (Actually, that’s about one and a half tweets, but never mind.) Now to how liberalism is faring . If you’ve been reading some of the articles out of Washington in recent weeks, you may have received the impression that it’s an endangered creed, and that the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act might just about finish it off. I’m not just referring to the coverage in conservative outlets like the  National Review , the Weekly Standard , and the op-ed page of the  Wall Street Journal , which have been publishing obituaries of liberalism for decades. In mainstream and even liberal publications, some of the best columnists in Wa...

Well, the Mayans were sort of right. The world didn’t implode when their calendar stopped on Dec. 21. But the National Rifle Association did call for putting guns in every American school in a press conference that had a sort of civilization-hits-a-dead-end feel to it. And we learned that negotiations on averting a major economic crisis had come to a screeching halt because Speaker John Boehner lost the support of the far-right contingent of his already-pretty-damned-conservative caucus. We have seen the future, and everything involves negotiating with loony people. Wayne LaPierre , the C.E.O. of the N.R.A., has major sway in Congress when it comes to gun issues. So the press conference, in which he read a rambling, unyielding statement in a quavering voice, while refusing to take any questions, could not have inspired confidence that the national trauma over the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school was going to be resolved anytime ...

A united Europe is not in America 's interest As Britain drifts away from the EU , like a man quietly sidling towards the exit during an embarrassingly disastrous play, the US has begun to express concern. The Telegraph reports: The Obama administration has expressed concern at what US officials see as Britain's slide towards the European exit door. Washington firmly believes that the departure of its strongest partner in Europe would also reduce American influence on the continent , as Britain so often shares American views. "It is important to state very clearly that a strong UK in a strong Europe is in America's national interest ," said a senior US administration official. "We recognise national states but see the EU as a force multiplier." Britain's free trade philosophy is regarded as vital in preventing the union from drifting towards protectionism, while since World War Two, successive British governments have be...

It's Official: Taxpayers Will Lose Big on the GM Bailout President Obama inspects a Chevrelot Silverado during a visit to the DC Auto Show, Jan. 31, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Obama touted his bailout of General Motors and Chrysler three years ago. When the Treasury Department sold its last remaining shares in insurance giant AIG recently, it announced that it had earned a profit on the controversial bailout that began in 2008. That will not be the case for General Motors. Treasury has finalized a plan to sell its remaining stake in the nation's biggest automaker over the next 15 months, beginning with GM buying back 200 million shares from the Treasury by the end of this year. That will leave the government holding about 19 percent of GM's shares, which it plans to sell throughout 2013 and perhaps into 2014. The government's final exit from GM will mark the start of a new era for the carmaker, which...

Tim Scott meets with GOP base approval as Jim DeMint's successor The South Carolina Republican congressman's appointment to the Senate is less a win for diversity than for Tea Party orthodoxy Congressman Tim Scott, soon to be US Senator for South Carolina. Photograph: timscott.house.gov When South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley appoints Representative Tim Scott to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy made by the departing Jim DeMint, it will have been 32 years since another black Republican took a seat there. This seems like more of a cause for shame than celebration – and not just for the Republican party, but for Democrats, as well: only five other black men, and one black woman, have ever held office in the nation's upper chamber. At least the Democrats mostly elected theirs – Scott won't just be the third black Republican in the Senate from the American south, he will also be the third to get there withou...

The Benghazi Report: How smoothly Washington washes away its scandals You'll be able to hear and read today about the State Department report on the Benghazi consulate sacking and killings. But no matter how much you listen or read, you'll only be getting part of the story. Here's why: The report from the Accountability Review Board, headed by Thomas Picketing and Admiral Mike Mullen, is only one tiny piece of a vast bureaucratic ballet that has evolved in Washington over decades to handle hot issues, even deadly ones like Benghazi, with minimal damage to the politicians and bureaucrats in power at the time. It's an amazingly sophisticated and bipartisan procedure that looks sound to naive eyes. It's built upon powerful self-interest and savvy strategic communications that manages and manipulates information and the timing of its release to minimize damage to incumbents and to dampen ongoing media interest in pursuing an emba...

Why the next four years might be more of the same Rather than come to some agreement with the administration, House Republicans have switched to a unilateral plan to deal with the fiscal cliff: Bush-era tax rates would remain for all income under $1 million. The White House has now announced that Obama would veto any such measure, and the House GOP’s “plan B” isn’t going anywhere. But it signifies something larger about what to expect in Obama’s second term: That none of the incentives have changed for Republicans, meaning they still have no reason to cooperate with the President. In other words: The next four years may be largely the same as the last four. The GOP’s current behavior is out of sync with the public’s priorities, as expressed in the election, where solid majorities reelected President Obama and sent more Democrats to the Senate. But that likely won’t matter to Republicans, because the odds are good that in the end they won’t incur public discontent for ...

Invincible Ignorance By Thomas Sowell Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates? The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available. If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive. Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, D.C., is a classic example, but just one among many. When it comes to the rate of gun ownership, that is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, bu...

His Birmingham Moment? It took a traumatic turn of events in Alabama to show John F. Kennedy that he had to confront the issue of civil rights. The Newtown massacre may be a precipitating event for Barack Obama. B arack Obama’s pitch-perfect public statements on the Sandy Hook shootings summed up the grief and shock that even the most distant observer—and certainly every parent—must feel about last Friday’s unspeakable events. But I think I detected an even more personal elegiac note: regret that he himself has not done more to grapple with the issue of guns. “Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?” the president asked in Newtown, Connecticut, on Sunday. “I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to ch...

A Fiscal Deal Is Emerging—But Is It Any Good? An agreement on the "fiscal cliff" may be near. On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner endorsed the idea of higher tax rates on upper incomes--a real concession that allowed serious negotiations to go forward. Over the weekend, he and President Obama spoke by telephone. On Monday, they met at the White House. They could reach an agreement within the next few days—not a detailed blueprint for legislation, mind you, but an agreement on the basic principles. Of course, all the usual caveat apply. Talks could break down all over again, congressional delegations could throw a fit, and so on. The terms are still murky and, presumably, under discussion. The details will make a huge difference. But the broad outlines, first reported by  Ezra Klein  in the  Washington Post  on Monday afternoon, are coming into view. [Update: For details on the latest White House counter-offer, leaked to reporte...

Sen. John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State After the GOP embarrassed Susan Rice out of the running, ABC News reported  on Saturday that Obama will nominate Sen. John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , brings with him a long record on foreign policy—and a little dirty laundry. Below is a collection of his statements and stances on recent foreign policy crises. Syria Before Syria’s Bashar al-Assad began killing thousands of civilians, Sen. Kerry counted himself among the foreign policy minds hoping that Assad would prove a reformer . To that end, he and Assad had multiple discussions that left Kerry feeling optimistic . In April 2010, he called Syria “an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region.” In March 2011, he said , “President Assad has been very generous with me in terms of the discussions we have had. … So my judgment is th...