We’re kicking off a membership drive at TPM to sign you up as members of TPMPrime. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. And don’t miss the Prime-only history of the demise of the filibuster ‘Longform‘ we published just this afternoon. If you haven’t, let me take a moment of your time to explain the benefits of joining Prime and why we think it’s so important for our core readers. Already convinced? Great. Click here. If not, join me after the jump.
Remember, Monday is the deadline for getting in your nominations for this year’s Golden Duke Awards. (Instructions here.) If your nomination is selected, you become part of the unfolding legend and grandeur of the Golden Dukes, now in its record-breaking 7th year. And, listen, do you really want to miss out on a year where Rob Ford is in the running for so many categories? I mean, why? Ford is like the Lincoln of the 2013 Oscars. So join the fun. Who do you think should win for “Best Scandal – Sex and Generalized Carnality”? What about “Best Scandal – Local Venue”? And who’s in the running for “Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy”, always a tight contest. Get your nominations in now!
I didn’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. But I think it’s time to reveal this: For the first time in seven years, we have commissioned a real live metal-cast Golden Dukes statuette (it’s not technically ‘alive’ but you know what I mean). Yeah, we’ve always had the representation of the notional statuette you see in the picture above. But now it’s getting real. And I mean really real. The first edition of the statuette is currently taking shape at an artist’s workshop at an undisclosed location in the Shenandoah Valley.
Remember: tomorrow is the last day to submit your nominations for the 2013 Golden Duke Awards. It’s a special year for the Dukes, our annual awards program honoring outstanding achievement in betrayals of public trust, corruption, ridiculousness and scandal of all sorts – named in honor of the ur-corrupt pol of our times, former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Not only is this the 7th year of the Awards program but to celebrate year seven we have commissioned a true, real-life, 3 dimensional, metal-cast Golden Dukes statuette which we’ll award in person to the winner of the General Interest category (subject to their cooperation and/or being in a public area at some point when we can track them down and try to hand it to them). So get your nominations in today! (Nomination instructions and categories here.)
Our (successful) search for the yacht behind the biggest congressional bribery scandal of the 21st century.
Skip the spin and look at the real numbers, state by state, month by month, in this interactive map of Obamacare enrollment.
Pope alarms Traditionalists with crackdown on hyper-traditionalist offshoot of the Franciscan order, in deeper battle over the meaning and import of Vatican II.
Mayor Rob Ford, sort of still Mayor of Toronto, visits a local Afro-Canadian Church and gets on some serious dancing moves. Video after the jump …
Are Republicans really going to refuse to pay for the spending deal they’ve agreed to — by not raising the debt limit next year?
Pope: I’m not a Marxist … not that there’s anything wrong with Marxists.