If you’re a Prime member and haven’t checked out the new Prime 2.0 beta discussion area, definitely drop by. We’ve got some great discussions up and running. We just opened up a thread to discuss my post from earlier today about the morality of Bill Clinton signing DOMA in 1996.

If you haven’t signed into the beta yet, read this first.

When Washington Republicans’ decided to moderate their substantive position on immigration reform but no other issues after the 2012 election, I don’t think they gamed out all the ways it would reinforce the bad habits they established over the last two years.

That choice has actually made it harder for the GOP to dial back the procedural aggressiveness — the constant creation of legislative crises — that destroyed their standing with the public shortly after they captured the House. They managed to put off another debt ceiling crisis, but only by locking themselves into an untenable position on sequestration, and by making a politically perilous pledge to pass a budget that comes into balance within 10 years.

Now the same basic dynamic is complicating GOP efforts not to escalate a debate over funding the government into a full-scale shutdown fight. Read More

Ahmadinejad kisses the casket of Hugo Chavez and some other stellar shots from today’s state funeral, including this and this.

New York high school suspends armed guards program after guard accidentally fires his gun in the hallway during class.

TPM Reader MN makes a point that I’d forgotten and which the vote totals hadn’t reminded me of — if Clinton had vetoed DOMA, Congress easily had the votes to override the veto.