Over at TPM Cafe’s Book Club today, Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids In The World, questions Obama’s claim from last night’s State of the Union speech that America is “better positioned” than any other country: “It was the kind of rhetoric you’d hear 20 years ago and not think twice. (In fact, President Bill Clinton used the exact same line in a 1995 speech, right after he praised this wonderful thing call the Internet.) But at this particular moment in time, that bold claim did make me think twice. Is Obama right?”
Don’t forget to join us for an author chat with Ripley this Friday at noon. (sub. req.)
Damn, new video emerges of Grimm’s confrontation with that reporter. This is definitely the most disturbing.
TPM Reader PA says we need to put more focus on diction in understanding the Rep. Grimm story …
You really should start using the correct term for Grimm’s threat against the reporter: defenestration.
What am I missing?
When a sitting member of Congress tells a reporter he’s going to “throw you off this fucking balcony”, with a menacing affect, in a place where the balconies are high enough that you could totally do a Sopranos style execution, isn’t that the kind of thing that body has to take some cognizance of? Like a reprimand or a censure? I mean, Congress is at a low pass. But this isn’t the Sopranos.
I guess fear of prison make a guy crazy.
NY1 reporter Michael Scotto describes being threatened by Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) following the State of the Union.
Rep. Michael Grimm, the Staten Island Republican, has released a statement about tonight’s incident in the Capitol in which he reportedly told a NY1 reporter, among other things: “I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.” Here’s the statement, according to NY1:
Just out from the Bergen Record …
Governor Christie’s brother, Todd Christie, and two business partners have bought and sold a handful of properties within walking distance of the PATH station in Harrison, slated for a $256 million renovation funded by the Port Authority and championed by the governor, records show.
NY1 is reporting that Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) physically threatened one of its reporters during a post-State of the Union interview in the Capitol.
I mentioned during the speech that the President seemed to have a bit more jump in his step than I expected, perhaps more than the dented poll numbers and sense of malaise hanging over the White House would suggest. The mere words of the speech are here. But the words of a State of the Union speech are like a libretto which is seldom the real essence of an opera or symphony. That’s the score.
What was the music the President was playing?
9:54 PM: Okay, that’s what I call quality White House speechwriting research.
9:56 PM: The Kentucky example is really a great thing. A sign of what political leaders really interested in helping ordinary citizens can accomplish.
10:00 PM: Okay, I’m going to be hearing that line from twitter trolls for six months about how Obama’s signaling mass gun confiscation by executive order.
10:05 PM: “America must move off a permanent war footing.” … “That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs – because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated.”
10:17 PM: Man, some things just kinda bust through your cynicism.