Good Sahil Kapur piece about why Capitol Hill Republicans, especially in the House, are not going to allow any rehabilitation of the Voting Rights Act. The political gains of allowing the formerly covered states to back to the same old ways of limiting minority and poor voting are simply too great. The head of the relevant House Committee, Chairman Trent Franks told reporters “I am just of the opinion today that we should do as the court said and that is to not focus on punishing the past but on building a better future.” Read More

An new study released by the Associated Press: “Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.”

When I first read the headline of the piece, I thought the 4/5th part had been a typo.

Young Republican activist: “We don’t have to lose our principles. But we have to have a conversation on all these issues so we don’t leave Democrats to say we’re just old white men and racist, bigoted homophobes.”

Pope Francis: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis asked.

TPM is announcing a new Associate Editor position working from our DC office. Full job listing after the jump. Read More

Check out this mindblowing video of the Space Shuttle during launch, taken with cameras and mics mounted on the solid rocket booster that propelled the shuttles into space. It’s amazing. You won’t want to miss this. Read More

So there you have it. Mayor Bob Filner will go for two weeks of intensive rehab. He won’t resign.

Speaking candidly, you can get counseling or ‘rehab’ for almost anything. And I don’t doubt counseling could help someone with this kind of history if they genuinely wanted to change their behavior. But I’m curious, how do you go about finding a facility that will agree to a quickie two-week fix up for this sort of thing?

That university police officer who became an iconic figure when he pepper-sprayed those student Occupy protestors wants compensation for ‘psychiatric injury’ caused by the incident.

Hearing that Bob Filner will make a statement today at 12 pacific time.

The local ABC affiliate is reporting that Filner is “considering taking time off for therapy.”

This comes after four more women came forward yesterday evening (for a total of 7) accusing him of a range of behavior from unwanted advances to borderline assault.

I was reading through David Corn’s great piece on ‘Groundswell’ which is, depending on your point of view, a working group of conservative activists and journalists working together to coordinate storylines and plan the war against RINOs and progressives or a hapless group of doofuses planning regular meetings to vent about being crapped on by more prominent Republicans. My sense is that it’s sort of a hybrid of the two. Read More