Today we’re kicking off our celebration of TPM’s 10th anniversary. You can read the first TPM post here. (If you look closely you’ll see it’s dated November 13th 2000. So yes, don’t tell anyone, but tomorrow is actually the day. But we’re kicking off the celebration today. Because, well, who wants to make the celebration on a Saturday?)
The post was about Ted Olson making his debut as the chief Bush lawyer in the emerging Florida Recount battle. And, well, times change. Olson is now most prominently advancing a lawsuit meant to overturn laws banning gay marriage. His wife, Barbara Olson, who was also a key subject of the post, died tragically a little less than one year later in the plane that was driven into the Pentagon on 9/11. So ten years is a long time, in many ways. Some times it’s hard for me to believe we’ve been at this for that long. Other times, I have a hard time remembering life before it.
I’m going to be doing a few posts today remembering some key moments in the site’s history and more importantly letting you know what we’ve got planned for the future. For our readers, please join us. Drop us a line, let us know the moments you remember from the last ten years. Either about TPM or just the big news stories of the last decade. There’s certainly no shortage to pick from.
I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished. But for me today, let me thank you. Everything we’ve been able to accomplish over the last decade has been made possible by an incredibly loyal, generous and knowledgeable readership. I’m not above patting myself on the back a bit too. But each weekday morning we have upwards of 200,000 people come to the site and check in. And if you didn’t, well, we’d be nowhere. So thank you. Now let’s celebrate.
M.J. Rosenberg: When he accuses Holocaust survivor George Soros of collaborating with the Nazis at age 14, Glenn Beck “moves into the world of deluded anti-Semitism.”
There’s snark overload about The Daily Beast-Newsweek merger, so here’s Tina Brown in her own words.
A day after David Axelrod’s remarks appeared to cede ground, President Obama reaffirms his support for “permanent” extension of the Bush tax cuts for middle class.
What the Bowles-Simpson trial balloon would do to the new health care reform law and Medicare (hint: It ain’t pretty).
Primo muckraker Justin Elliott with a great catch: The neocon muckety-muck, lobbyist and Sarah Palin adviser Randy Scheunemann lobbies for one of George Soros’ outfits. What will Glenn Beck say?
Rush Limbaugh: The “white, racist leadership of the Democrat Party” should give Rep. Jim Clyburn a new position: “Driving Ms. Nancy.”
Imprisoned former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) now claims all those bribes which landed him in the slammer — and which he pleaded guilty to — weren’t really bribes after all. Just gifts among old friends.
If nothing else I think it’s a sign of how far we’ve come as a nation that a middle-aged Jewish woman and an African-American man can participate in paramilitary-leaning right-wing ravanchist politics on a equal footing with white people.