So the NSA has a Speakers Bureau for the K-12 set.

I hope this doesn’t just state the obvious. But it is simply amazing to watch how Southern states, ruled by Republicans, have moved so quickly, after the Supreme Court’s VRA decision to push through a series of new laws the only aim of which is to limit black voting: voter ID laws, ends to same day registration, early voting, weekend voting. Here’s yet another example from North Carolina. But we noted numerous other examples within a day of the decision coming down.

Okay, sure, what did I expect? I’ve been writing about this for years. Everything I’ve written and so many other better than I could has predicted this. But still, to see it, it’s another thing again. This is supposed to be the 21st century. And yet, in a broad swath of the society we’re in an ersatz version of the late 19th century.

Romney voted against running in 2012 in family polll, but lost. And had to run.

Two spokesmen quit President Morsi’s office, coming after the resignation of the Foreign Minister over night.

Muslim Brotherhood leader calls for “martyrdom” to end Egypt protests.

Be sure to get your questions in for this one. Jon Alter is going to join us for a Live Chat at 5:30 PM eastern this afternoon at TPMPrime to discuss his book “The Center Holds: Obama and his Enemies” and share what he learned from covering the winning 2012 Obama campaign close up and getting a sense of just how and why they pulled it off. I had a long talk with Jon a couple months ago and one thing I realized was that my understanding of who the tech gods were within the Obama camp was totally skewed and frankly the actual systems they used to pull it off. Definitely join us at 5:30 PM and get your questions in now. You’ll learn stuff you didn’t know.

Draft Egyptian military ‘roadmap’ would involve suspending the constitution and dissolving the Islamist led parliament.

We’re two days before the Fourth of July, folks are on vacation, Congress is out of session. It’s slow news day. And yet, something of vast historic scope and proportions is happening in Egypt and I’m going to try to have us narrate the story for you today as it unfolds. On the one hand, it’s a non-violent popular revolt against President Morsi. But it goes way beyond that, not only for Egypt but for the rest of Arab world and less directly the non-Arab Muslim world. It goes to the basic question of whether Islamist parties – here based on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – or ideological kindred movements in other countries can not only come to power through democratic means (which Morsi did, though just barely) but govern with sufficient respect for pluralism that makes sustained democratic government stable and sustainable. Read More

What I noted in my last post was that ironic position of the Obama White House and the Morsi presidency, two groups who have zero love for each other, but both meet on opposition to a military coup. Now the White House has seemed to tip its hand, pressing Morsi to hold early elections and in essence create a caretaker government of national unity. Read More

Egyptian tv: "Presidency statement within hours in coordination with military. "

— Bassem Sabry باسم (@Bassem_Sabry) July 2, 2013