Editors’ Blog - 2010
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07.22.10 | 12:29 pm
Bad News For Charlie Rangel

The investigation of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) by the House Ethics Committee has entered a new stage. The subcommittee doing the investigating has now referred charges against Rangel to a separate adjudicatory subcommittee which will rule on whether violations occurred. More soon …

07.22.10 | 12:56 pm
A Birther Too Far

Kansas newspaper withdraws its endorsement of Republican candidate for Congress after learning he’s a birther.

07.22.10 | 1:29 pm
Awkward

South Carolina Democrats deserve some serious mocking for winding up with Alvin Greene as their Senate nominee, but mocking Greene himself has made me uncomfortable. From the moment he stepped on the national stage, you got the sense that things just weren’t right with him. Now the AP has obtained some of Greene’s service records from the Air Force, including a performance review which found that Greene was “unable to express thoughts clearly” and “not able to adapt to any changes to daily routine.” Greene was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 2005 but later joined the Army.

07.23.10 | 4:43 am
‘Big Mexican Women’

Yesterday I issued a new editorial edict at TPM: every story must somehow squeeze in the phrase “Big Mexican Women” — referred to around the office using the acronym BMW. If that is as offensive to you as it probably is, get a load of this Fox News account of those Afghan trainees who are allegedly AWOL from an air force base in Texas. We’ve been calling around down there to see what we could confirm — or not. You truly can’t make this stuff up — or can you?

07.23.10 | 4:56 am
Preaching To The Choir

Christina Bellantoni reports on MSNBC’s Ed Schultz’s Obama-ripping speech during last night’s Netroots Nation kickoff.

07.23.10 | 5:17 am
Not In My Christian Back Yard

After our story earlier in the week on anti-mosque protests in several parts of the country, we got a bunch of reader emails about yet more instances of anti-mosque fervor in their communities. The more we’ve looked into, the more cases we’ve found of Muslim-bashing xenophobia manifesting itself in local zoning and land use disputes. So we’ve taken a second bite at the apple and run down all the similar cases out there.

07.23.10 | 5:34 am
Pigford

On Countdown last night, Christina Bellantoni did a bang-up job of summarizing our piece that puts the Shirley Sherrod mess in the broader context of the right-wing’s deep antipathy to USDA’s settlement of its well-documented history of discrimination against black farmers. Watch.

07.23.10 | 5:48 am
Breitbart: I Was Targeting NAACP!

Andrew Breitbart emails to say that he didn’t release the Sherrod video because of the Pigford settlement, but was targeting the NAACP for accusing the Tea Party of harboring racist elements:

No. Seriously. On everything I hold dear. This was never about Sherrod. It was CLEARLY telegraphed at NAACP — on Thursday when I, gulp, told Ben Jealous to “go to hell” for spending week attacking racism with Tea Party. That the media and White House have turned this into me versus Sherrod is silly. My consistent angle is defending Tea Party from this predictable line of attack.

I mean, where to even start?

07.23.10 | 6:16 am
Guardian of The Velvet Rope

As Exhibit A to Josh’s post yesterday on the cravenness of the legitimate press we have Politico‘s loving treatment of Andrew Breitbart posted today. Breitbart makes their list of “Top 50 Politicos To Watch,” in the subcategory of “Scenemakers”: Read More

07.23.10 | 7:38 am
The Best

This may be the best piece I’ve read yet about the politics of 2010. Krugman’s column in today’s Times.