We’re excited to announce that we’ve hired Kay Steiger as our new Associate Editor in our DC office. She’ll be joining us later this month.
Tennessee judge rules parents can’t name child ‘Messiah’. “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” ruled Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.
After finding out that his old pal is cooperating with federal investigators, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell throws a punch of his own.
I think we can say Anthony Weiner is officially done. Three quarters of New York City voters now have an unfavorable impression of him. I’m pretty much used to no scandal information ever tanking candidates quite as much as commentators imagining. But this seems like the exception. I think there was a real chance he would have been elected Mayor pre-rescandal. But take two killed him. Politically.
TPM Reader JL asks whether it’s really possible that we’re about to make another run at defaulting on the national debt or whether there really are limits to the crazy.
I was interested to see TW’s comments on fiscal matters. As an investment advisor, I have a keen interest in the topic. Politico joined the conversation this AM and I read that piece with interest as well.
I agree with TW and the Politico piece that the rank and file GOP seems more nihilistic than ever. Not only are they not afraid of something truly untoward–they seem to crave it. So I get that. And certainly GOP leadership has less control over the rank and file than it ever has. I get that too. But the radicalism, nihilism and disarray of the GOP has its limits. If that wasn’t the case, then the effort to use the threat of a government shutdown to defund Obamacare would be on track and I think everyone acknowledges that that crazy idea is going nowhere.
People who follow these things tell me that the specific changes Attorney General Eric Holder is introducing this morning tied to non-violent drug offenders are more symbolic than substantive. Not that many people are in the federal system on those kinds of charges. But the larger push to ramp back a generation of mass incarceration, driven in large measure by mandatory minimum sentencing laws, is just an incredibly important development. Especially when it comes from the very top of the criminal justice system in the United States.
But to put the news in perspective – not just today’s news but the news of the last half century which has gotten us to this point – you need to look at this chart. Read More
It sounds like things are going quite badly for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner at the moment.
In addition to the 14 women who’ve come forward to allege various sorts of inappropriate or harassing or headlock behavior, “three members of the Sheriff’s Department have been assigned to handle phone calls from a hotline set up for Filner accusers to report possible criminal misconduct and conduct follow up interviews and investigations.” Read More
The ‘Obama’ rodeo clown has now become the Pete Rose of Missouri State Fair rodeo clowns, drawing a lifetime ban from rodeo clowning at the Missouri State Fair.
Video of the festivities after the jump … Read More
McConnell says Obamacare must be delayed because of threat of “hackers and cyber criminals.”
TPM Reader JL says we need to look beyond murder rates to race to really understand the roots of mass incarceration in the USA …
You make a fair point that when murder rates go up, people’s concerns about their safety will go up, and those concerns will probably find their way into public policy. But I think you go too far when you say that “it’s wildly unrealistic to think you wouldn’t have a generation plus of draconian laws tied to people’s fears of violence and personal safety.” Going as far overboard as we did required a lot more than a rising murder rate.