Axelrod tells TPM: GOP at fault for decision not to hold tax cut vote.
Adding to the political awkwardness of the Obama Administration’s stance on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Justice Department has filed its opposition to a possible court injunction halting enforcement of DADT. The injunction is under consideration by the federal judge in California who last month declared DADT unconstitutional.
The Tea Party candidate/heroes who’ve made a bundle off evil Stimulus and Federal spending.
A reminder that today the Texas Board of Education, which is stacked with far right social conservatives, is voting on a resolution to warn textbook publishers not to include “gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions” in their books.
You know what’s worse than watching House and Senate Democrats botch the tax cut vote? All the emails from folks throwing their hands up in the air and heading for the exits, swearing off voting Democratic or ever again donating money. Read More
Jon Stewart does an epic video comparison of yesterday’s roll out of the Contract With America 2.0 with all the previous versions of the same plan. Must Watch.
Ryan Reilly catches us up on the latest goings on over at the run-amok U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which is hearing surprise testimony today from the former head of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, even though DOJ has told him not to testify.
I’d mentioned this idea a few times in passing. And a friend brought it up again yesterday. If the Dems don’t have the consensus stomach to force a vote on tax cuts for everyone on income up to $250k, why not just vote on both. Have one vote on cuts on income up to $250k and another on income above that number. The key is two votes; two laws. Divided up, I’m not sure how well the latter would fare. But President Obama has made very clear he opposes the second. So he can veto the latter bill, if it passes. The political crux of this whole scrum is simple. Bundle all the cuts together and the politics works for the GOP; separate them, and it works for the Dems. And letting everyone vote on both actually makes sense civics-wise too.
Will it happen? Of course not.
As many of you know, over the last month we’ve completely revamped the sign-in/comment system here at TPM. For details about it and answers to your questions, see this new FAQ. There are a slew of reasons we’ve made the change. But one is that we want to be able to more effectively moderate comments. We’ve always had a policy that comments and discussion areas at TPM should be like a coffee house. Freewheeling, lively, rambunctious. But if you wouldn’t say it to someone in person in a coffee house setting, don’t say it in the comments section here. The problem has been that up till now, because of the persnicketiness of the software platform and our own limited staffing, that policy has been more aspirational than real in terms of policing. But with the new changes in place, we’re trying to change that. And we plan to enforce it. After the jump, our newly restated, refurbished, rebuffed up comments policy. Read More