California school board agrees that Holocaust denialism assignment was “horribly inappropriate.”
CNN’s S.E. Cupp tells Bill Nye that science guys are the new bullies.
An amusing account of frustrated House Republicans fishing for some bad Obamacare news from insurance executives who wouldn’t bite.
Pew Research is out tonight with a detailed public opinion survey of Ukraine. The results are fascinating and show the limits of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy of shaking Ukraine until it breaks, with the hopes of grabbing up the shards in the east. The main takeaways from the poll are that Ukrainians have little faith in the provisional government (solid but not overwhelming support in the west, very little support in the east) and are deeply divided over the question of the status of languages (Ukrainian and Russian). But they appear overwhelmingly opposed to any division of the country. And even in the east there is a general hostility to Russia’s interference in the country’s affairs.
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I just got an email from TPM Reader AM on the story of the Holocaust denial school assignment in Rialto, California. As he says, not only is the Holocaust one of the best documented atrocities in the entirety of human history. It is one of the best documented atrocities by the perpetrators themselves. Here’s TPM Reader AM followed by some personal reflections of my own …
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Still trying to piece together the full implications of this important federal judge’s ruling in Wisconsin that commands prosecutors to stop their investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign finances from the 2012 recall election.
The judge has adopted the maximal position that political contributions are free speech and used that as the basis to shut down an ongoing criminal probe. He even goes so far as to praise the targets of the probe for their cleverness in finding campaign finance loopholes:
“The plaintiffs have found a way to circumvent campaign finance laws, and that circumvention should not and cannot be condemned or restricted,” Randa wrote. “Instead, it should be recognized as promoting political speech, an activity that is ‘ingrained in our culture.'”
More on the big legal win for Walker and conservative outside groups here.
In a stinging opinion that can only termed wild, a federal judge has completely shut down the on-going investigation into the recall election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Notably, the opinion appeared to lean heavily on recent Supreme Court opinions that have removed most constraints on political spending.
For reasons that escape me, this has gotten pretty little attention: The assignment sheet for that now-notorious “Holocaust yes or no” assignment at that school in Rialto, California included at length verbatim text lifted directly from a Holocaust denial site. It has all the stuff you’d imagine, the supposed lack of documentation for the Holocaust, claims gas chambers never could have worked, etc. You’ve got to see this.