There’s a photograph of the inauguration of James Buchanan in 1857.
I’ve gotten a lot of powerful responses to my post on the non-gun tribe — many agreeing, others angry, empathetic, many with thoughtful critiques. They’ve run the gamut. There are many pieces I write not to convince or advocate but simply to capture as clearly as I can a certain perception or belief. They also help me learn more about the topic at hand and often more about myself. Much of what I wrote in this post was not to advocate or convince anyone but simply to capture an experience that seems too little unexpressed but is shared by many, many people. Read More
I’m not going to characterize this or say anything about it. But I had to share it with you. From TPM Reader PH …
I read about your scary childhood experience and I had to leave work due to the sick feeling in my gut. The sick feeling has been building, maybe since Sandy Hook, but your story forced to write about something I had never written about before.
I accidentally killed my best friend when I was 15. Shot my best friend of eight years a week before we started high school. I was sitting in his room holding his rifle across my legs as he talked about how he had looked it up in some collectors guide and it was worth more than when he got it (Christmas or birthday or something). All the sudden there was a gigantic explosion and the rifle flew off my legs and I looked over as my friend fell over holding his gut and the whole world was tinted a hazy red.
Louisiana Rep. John Fleming is the latest House Republican to call for providing President Obama short term debt limit increases — if only so the GOP can keep hounding Democrats about government spending for the next two years. But as much as he’d like to extract a price from Obama, he subtly explained to reporters how Republicans might ultimately let their hostage go. Read More
I’ve been thinking of writing some version of this post since the days immediately after the Newtown shootings. It overlaps with but is distinct from the division between people who are pro-gun or anti-gun or pro-gun control or anti-gun control. Before you even get to these political positions, you start with a more basic difference of identity and experience: gun people and non-gun people.
So let me introduce myself. I’m a non-gun person. And I think I’m speaking for a lot of people. Read More
GOP memo brags: We gerrymandered so well we won the House even though we got fewer votes!!!
House Republicans are huddling right now to strategize and soul search at their annual retreat, in Williamsburg, VA. Presumably over the next two days they’ll settle upon a strategy for confronting President Obama over the debt limit and the need to fund the government at the end of March.
If you’re wondering where John Boehner comes down on these questions, I think this is a decent clue.
That’s Boehner’s deputy chief of staff David Schnittger promoting an article by former Denny Hastert spokesman John Feehery. Supposedly RTs don’t equal endorsements on Twitter, but Feehery’s advice won’t sit well with House conservatives. Read More
To get you ready for the big holiday weekend in DC, photo highlights of the 2009 inauguration.