DOJ lawyer gives a whole new meaning to forum shopping.

If you’re a fan of TPM and you’d like to learn more about what we do in reporting, news aggregation, video production and more, consider applying for one of our TPM internships. We’re now accepting applications for our winter intern round — which starts in December. We also have two new full-time positions open immediately — one working on TPMtv and another working with our news editor on the TPM front page news section.

We all work in one big open space in an office in Chelsea in Lower Manhattan (except for when I need to revert to my natural habitat and find a cafe to work at). It’s a collaborative and fast-paced environment and you’ll learn a lot very quickly. Interns are closely involved in the substance of everything we do.

If you have questions you can send us an email at the comments address.

If you’re interested in one of the new positions, we’re accepting applications on a rolling basis. The deadline for the Winter round is November 7th. If you’re interested in joining us, email talk (at) talkingpointsmemo.com with the subject “TPM internship.” Send us a resume, a couple references, and a letter explaining why you would be good for this job.

Since a high senior member of the Fred Thompson campaign has to quit every few weeks. And since they can’t seem to replace ’em as fast as they lose ’em. Doesn’t that mean that Thompson himself will likely have to leave the campaign before the primaries even start?

A mil contractor exodus from Iraq? Their loss of legal immunity today might lead to just that. Spencer Ackerman has the story.

Blackwater sends an emergency extraction message to supporters …

From: Blackwater Worldwide
Date: October 24, 2007 12:42:04 PM EDT
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: A Request for Your Support
Reply-To: btw@blackwaterusa.com

A Request for Your Support

The Blackwater family is comprised of dedicated and active service providers that work vigorously to support the American nation. In this tumultuous political climate, Blackwater Worldwide has taken center stage, our services and ethics aggressively challenged with misinformation and fabrications. Letters, e-mails and calls to your elected Congressional representatives can and will create a positive impact by influencing the manner in which they gather and present information.

While we can’t ask that each supporter do everything, Blackwater asks that everyone does something. Contact your lawmakers and tell them to stand by the truth. Correspondence should be polite and professional. We don’t support generating negative messages. Tell the Blackwater story and encourage your representatives to seek the truth instead of reading negative propaganda and drawing the wrong conclusions.

Suggested themes:

– Cost efficiency of Blackwater – saving the US taxpayer millions of dollars so that the US Government doesn’t have to take troops from their missions or send more into harms way

-Professional population of service veterans and mature law enforcement personnel

– Sacrifice in lives lost by Blackwater saving US diplomats without one single protectee harmed

If you see a lawmaker speaking good things about Blackwater, contact their offices and let them know that they have your support. Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials by visiting www.congress.org.

Expanding our communications effort starts with you. Pass the word –
pass the truth.

The Human Rights Campaign hits the Obama campaign for its planned use of an anti-gay gospel singer for a campaign event.

It was of course a publicity stunt. But in case you hadn’t heard about it, I wanted to flag this incident. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is the chief immigrant-basher in Congress, perhaps in the country. He’s also running for president. Yesterday, Sen. Durbin held a press conference on the senate side of Capitol Hill to introduce a bill that grant legal status on illegal immigrants who’ve graduated high school, choose to serve in the military and meet certain other requirements. As you can imagine, the immigrants they chose to have on hand all had legal status. But Rep. Tancredo suspected there might be illegals somewhere on hand. So he rung up ICE (the successor to the INS), told them he believed illegals would be on hand and asked them to raid the event.

Apparently the ICE officials sensed that even that this would be too craven and outrageous even for the Bush era and wisely demurred.

Tancredo doesn’t cut much of a figure in the progressive blogosphere. But in the mainstream media circles he’s treated as a respectable if rather outlandish figure. But it’s worth pausing play for a moment and recognizing the guy as we would if read about him in the history books: a hate-peddler and huckster, the dark side of our national selves.

I know many of you may not be crazy about the number of ads we need to run, though we try our best to keep it in bounds. But here is my nominee for most annoying web innovation this century. You’ve probably noticed that on some sites these days if you happen to randomly click on unlinked text a little box pops up with the dictionary definition of the word you clicked and of course an ad. (I’m used to low-rent sites pulling this kind of nonsense but the New York Times is doing it now too.)

Now I don’t mind ads if they’re paired along with something I’m remotely interested in. But do you ever really click on these things to find word definitions? I’m convinced this whole thing is just a scam to serve up accidental pop-ups while allowing the publisher to pretend they’re providing a service.

If you find this useful, please let me know. (And no, don’t worry, we’re never going to do it. It’s just my idle curiosity.)

Late Update: TPM Reader RM, not a fan …

The Times has been doing it for months now. I’m someone who highlights paragraphs as I read them and when I accidentally click on the highlighted section I get the damn pop up.

It’s irritating as hell and it’s gotten to the point where I’m so sick of it I don’t even look at the Times’ site anymore.

But at least they got rid of Times Select, eh?

I do the exact same thing. Drives me nuts.

The Times takes a look at the loons who make up Rudy’s foreign policy team.