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September 15, 2015
Top Stories
Anti-Abortion Hardliners Not Budging In Shutdown Fight With GOP Leaders
The Gist: GOP leaders are trying to avoid a shutdown by fast-tracking standalone anti-abortion bills, but abortion hardliners are refusing any compromise.
Suspect in Mississippi Professor’s Killing Dies Of Apparent Suicide
The Gist: Delta State University professor Shannon Lamb shot himself as police closed in after an intense manhunt. He’s suspected of killing another professor and the woman with whom he lived.
The Strange History Behind The Pledge Of Allegiance
The Gist: The Pledge reflects more about America’s fears at certain moments in history than a stable, verbal vow of duty to one’s country and schoolroom.
From The Reporter’s Notebook
As Republican leaders signal eagerness to avoid a government shutdown over efforts to Planned Parenthood funding, Red State’s Erick Erickson suggested that this “cynicism” held by those in Washington shows why “they’re getting their butts kicked by a guy like Donald Trump.” According to TPM’s Caitlin MacNeal, Erickson said that GOP lawmakers should understand that the effort to defund Planned Parenthood “is not a fight about politics” but about “life and death.”
Agree or Disagree?
“ Obama should grant U.S. recognition of Palestine as an independent state, albeit a militarily occupied one. Such an elementary step is long overdue and may be the sole act that saves the two-state solution.” – Sam Bahour
Say What?!
“It is I, Megareverend and C.E.O. of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption Church, Pastor John Oliver. We thank you for all your kind donations, but I’m sorry to report that we have closed down the church. And let me take a moment to explain why – it’s certainly not because we have to.”
– The megachurch John Oliver established after realizing how much money televangelists swindle out of their followers is shutting down after one month.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “I’ve had the “pleasure” of arguing extensively with some reasonably smart climate deniers. So it’s not so much that they think there is a conspiracy by climate scientists or that science is “wrong,” it’s more that they think it’s a kind of “PC” process – any would-be climate scientist that denies man-made climate change won’t get a good job and won’t get published. So in their view climate scientists have been herded into conformity.”
Related: This ad takes a humorous look at all the ways GOPers deny climate change.
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
What do you say to people who think your grieving friend is a “crisis actor” invented by the U.S. government? ( The Daily Beast)
Seattle’s black community reels from killings of young men. (The Seattle Times)
The case against Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper. (The Atlantic)
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