Editors’ Blog
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09.19.14 | 4:08 pm
Unexpected Development
In this Friday, Sept. 12, 2014 photo, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach discusses his office's legal research for an elections case before the state Supreme Court during an interview in his office in Topeka, Kan. Democrat Chad Taylor has petitioned the Supreme Court to remove his name from the ballot for the U.S. Senate after Kobach refused to do it. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

TPM has just confirmed that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has ordered that absentee ballots for overseas military personnel be shipped out immediately without the name of any Democratic candidate on them.

This is a seeming reversal from Kobach’s earlier stated plan to delay the issuance of those ballots until Democrats submitted a new nominee.

If you’re new to the story, the previous Democratic nominee withdrew from the race as part of a pretty obvious but still unconfirmed Dem plan to clear the field for independent Greg Orman to take on incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). Kobach, for his part, has been trying to thwart that plan. His political motives are about as thinly veiled as Dems’ were in getting their nominee out of the race in the first place.

09.19.14 | 12:28 pm
Enjoy Yourselves Responsibly

Colbert reveals the safe word he uses while being spanked by Sean Hannity. Watch.

09.19.14 | 10:29 am
“Homeland” And Other Un-American Words and Ideas

A week ago I saw this piece in The Nation which picked up on a Chris Matthews rant about how defense and security of the “homeland” has become a commonplace phrase in the year’s since 9/11. I was heartened by this because this has been a pet issue of mine going back to the months just after 9/11. As I wrote more than a dozen years ago, the phrase “does have a deep blood and soil tinge to it which is distinctly Germanic, more than a touch un-American, and a little creepy.”

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09.19.14 | 9:02 am
Freak Flag Fly

North Carolina Republican House candidate open to war with Mexico over immigration and drugs, with lasers if necessary.

09.19.14 | 9:00 am
I’ll Take Tony, Omar, And Swearengen

Wow, there’s actually a TV show where the premise is “doctor stranded at cocktail parties in Hamptons forced to Macgyver his way out of medical emergencies”?

09.18.14 | 11:19 pm
Great Lakes Border Wall Proposed

You kind of have to see this video. If nothing else it shows the fine line separating right-wing propaganda and SNL skits. It’s James O’Keefe’s report proposing we create a border wall across the Great Lakes to keep out ISIS terrorists bringing in Ebola, ricin or other biological threats. As I said, you just have to watch it. But the central element is O’Keefe’s friend dressed up in an ISIS uniform as the two grown men role play the incursion onto American soil.

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09.18.14 | 4:41 pm
Exclusive

Dowd tells TPM: I got wasted on 1/4 of a weed bar, not 1/2.

09.18.14 | 3:34 pm
This Is Going Great

“With Jews We Lose” candidate in Kentucky spoke yesterday at University of Kentucky Constitution Day.

09.18.14 | 12:47 pm
If You Hate America, You’ll Love AP American History

Texas took a major step today toward rejecting the new “anti-American” Advanced Placement American History curriculum.

09.18.14 | 12:34 pm
Boom

Remember how one of the biggest GOP attack memes on Obamacare was enrollees not actually paying their premiums? Sure, they might be “signing up,” but were they actually writing that check when it counts?

Well, today the government announced that more than 7 million people have enrolled and paid their premiums. To put that number in perspective, 7 million was the target for signups during the open enrollment period, without regard to whether they had paid yet.

Did people pay in significant numbers? Yes. Is a death spiral looming? For this and myriad other reasons, no.