Bad Luck is hard. It seems like only yesterday that I was telling you about that leader of the whacko Texas border ‘militia’ who got arrested and then had his hotel room raided where the feds found a cache of arms and ammonium nitrate used in making car bombs and other good-time explosives. Actually, it was only yesterday. Well, now it turns out, just a few days earlier ‘militia leader’ Kevin “KC” Massey had his photograph taken with Texas governor candidate Greg Abbott.
As many of you have told us, the speed of the TPM website has been an issue of late. So we spent some time auditing the different components of the site to improve performance. And over the last week we’ve been able to cut download times by just over 30%. We think we can cut it even more. And we’re working on doing that.
Most of the boost will be felt by non-Prime members. But Prime members should see improvement too.
The Alison Lundergan Grimes campaign apparently raced into court in Kentucky late today to try to get a state judge to order the Mitch McConnell campaign to stop distributing these “despicable” mailers.
Is voting a fundamental right? How about privacy? What about the right to fish?
Well, if you live in Mississippi, next Tuesday you can vote to enshrine the fundamental right to fish and hunt in the state constitution.
Sen. Mary Landrieu’s comment that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans” spurs outraged Republican demands for an apology and show of heartfelt contrition.
It is one of the great pillars of American democracy that ignoramuses and douchebags are able to propose and place before the people for a vote new laws which are either stupid, awful or in some cases merely ridiculous. Then the people, perhaps first agreeing to the proposition, see through the nonsense and vote the measure down, thus vindicating the great, silent non-jackass majority and reconfirming the virtuous cycle of democratic self-government.
Of course, the system does not always work perfectly.
It’s easy to dismiss as typical far-right crazy. But it’s worth stepping back and thinking about what Ben Stein means when he says that President Obama is the “most racist president there has ever been in America.” Watch.
We’re finishing up election 2014 with a spirited debate about whether there’s ever been a race issue in the South. Edwin Edwards, former Governor, former prison inmate and current candidate, says he disagrees with Mary Landrieu about the South “not always [being] the friendliest place for African-Americans.”
Joni Ernst says Tom Harkin wouldn’t have been commenting on her looks — he compared her to Taylor Swift — if she were a man.
John Oliver on ALEC and the crazy emerging from state legislatures. Watch.