Paul Strauss dumps some cold water on the idea that the Supreme Court is ready to hail a new era of marriage equality: “That view, however, puts too much faith in the idea that our courts – particularly the Supreme Court – are governed by logic and precedent.”
New York State’s chief of homeland security apparently freaked the crap out of a foreign delegation during a presentation when he used his handgun’s laser sight as a presentation laser pointer. Three normally laconic Swedes “were rattled when the gun’s laser tracked across one of their heads before Hauer found the map of New York, at which he wanted to point.”
This is a really important chart and article. It’s based on some number crunching by Theda Skocpol. Basically, what’s the toll of intentional efforts to sabotage health care reform at the state level, whether that’s simply not allowing Medicaid expansion, refusing to set up exchanges, or more insidiously preventing non-profit organizations from helping people enroll. Check out the chart. It’s eye-popping.
Ed Kilgore: “[W]hen you consult the professionals on how gubernatorial races look, there doesn’t appear to be any Democratic counter-landslide in the offing for 2014.”
Mitch McConnell offers to extend unemployment benefits for a year in return for delaying Obamacare’s individual mandate.
In case you missed it yesterday evening (it pubbed late), you need to check out this piece we published on the toll taken by GOP efforts to sabotage Obamacare at the state level. We’ve known this has been happening – rejecting Medicaid expansion, refusing to set up an exchange and most insidiously preventing nonprofits and state officials from helping people enroll for care. The toll is striking when you look at this chart. The price of sabotage has been very high.
Gingrich notes that “life was fine” during the “age of the dinosaurs” when the Earth was in fact dramatically warmer than today.
We might also note in Gingrich’s defense that if we went back to dinosaur era temperatures, sports would likely be dramatically more awesome since the atmosphere had like 50% more oxygen. 2 minute mile. No prob.
Mississippi tea partier State Sen. Chris McDaniel: It’s probably the hip-hop that’s responsible for gun violence.
This is why there was no gun violence before hip-hop was invented. Oh, wait.
Newly obtained documents from New Jersey suggest Chris Christie’s office directly involved in Fort Lee bridge closure scandal.
As I’ve written several times, this Christie Bridge Scandal is far more potentially damaging for Christie that it might seem on its face because its fits so perfectly with the negative view (as opposed to the positive view) of Chris Christie. That is, that he and his crew are thugs and bullies. We have basically demonstrable evidence that one of Christie’s top aides instructed Christie’s crony at the Port Authority, David Wildstein, to create the series of massive traffic jams in the city whose Mayor wouldn’t endorse the Governor.
Put into a mix that a good part of the country has the Sopranos as their primary prism for viewing New Jersey. (And, hey, I’m a former New Jersey resident!) And these emails sound very Sopranos-esque. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly told David Wildstein, according to emails obtained by TPM. “Got it,” Wildstein replied.