CNN says Octavia Nasr violated the network’s secret social media policy. They just won’t say what the policy is or even that they fired her for violating it.
Our own Steve Clemons explains his own cameo role in the Russian spy scandal.
The funny thing about this scandal is that since I guess it was their job to circulate, the dozen or so alleged spies are turning into a sort of espionage 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I’ve already been in touch with various acquaintances who had some contact with one of them. Indeed, one of our readers who works near TPM told us a week ago how he and a rather smitten colleague once had drinks with the ubiquitous ‘Anna Chapman’ (the one you’re seeing all the pictures of) who treated them to a mini-diatribe of Russian nationalism and railed against Jews. Read More
Are you a Senate Republican getting on the run from a Tea Party challenger? Then you better be voting against Elena Kagan.
This is really not the stance I would expect the federal official who oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Protected Resources — the office that enforces the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act — to take on the BP blowout’s effect on endangered wildlife:
“Spills of this magnitude are really rare events, like airplane crashes are really rare. But people still keep getting on planes every day,” Jim Lecky told our Rachel Slajda today. If they stopped a project because of any small chance of disaster, Lecky said, “then we really wouldn’t do much.”
Recall that NMFS woefully underestimated the impact of a major spill when it greenlighted the 2007 round of leases in the deep waters of the Gulf, including what became the BP well. It will be revisiting that opinion in light of current events.
Fox News brings back “death panels” for special Summer 2010 engagement.
We need your help.
As part of its review of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ the US military is conducting a survey of members of the Armed Services, apparently trying to collect various information, including just how many members of the military are gay (Question: “Are you gay? Do you want to be?”) and how many really, really don’t like gays.
The survey has reportedly already been sent out to 400,000 service members. And we’ve been trying to find out details on just what’s being asked. But the Pentagon isn’t talking and we’ve not been able to find anyone who’s actually seen it. If you have seen it or can shed any light on what’s in the survey, please drop us a line.
Confidentiality guaranteed.
The DOJ just put out a statement detailing the guilty pleas and swap deal over those Russian spies. Statement after the jump. Read More
The latest on the district court ruling ruling certain parts of the DOMA law unconstitutional.
Let’s face it. The crazy world of politics involves a lot of mock surprise and feigned outrage. But every so often I hear something and can’t help but think: You’re kidding. We’re really talking about this?
I just happened upon this article in the Post about the ‘tanning tax’ in the Health Care Reform law and whether it is unconstitutional because it violates the equal protection rights of white people. In other words, in the era of Obama, who presumably isn’t in great need of an insta-tan, the tax on tanning salons is a grand effort to stick it to whitey.
On the one hand, yeah, I can conjure up some funny scenes of Snooki and The Situation from Jersey Shore marching down the boardwalk singing ‘We Shall Overcome’. But apparently, this is actually being discussed. Rush has been going on about it and a guest host on Glenn Beck’s show said: “I now know the pain of racism.”
It’s part of my professional responsibility to keep up on what’s percolating on the outer fringes of The Crazy and, man, I hadn’t heard about this and did not see it coming.
Now, lest I be misunderstood. The Post doesn’t seem to have much question that the law probably passes constitutional muster.
But still, we’re talking about this?