A couple weeks ago I asked, Is Netanyahu Finished? At the time it seemed almost possible but still an all but incredible idea. Netanyahu has stood atop the Israeli political scene for more than half a decade and that after his first term as Prime Minister starting almost twenty years ago. No single leader has so dominated Israeli politics since ben Gurion. The upcoming election in March 2015 is one he himself engineered well in advance of what was required under law, thinking that it would strengthen his hand. And yet, two weeks later, Netanyahu’s position seems to deteriorate by the day.
TPM is pleased to announce that we will be awarding our Eighth Annual Golden Dukes on December 31st, in recognition of the year’s best purveyors of public corruption, outlandish behavior and The Crazy.
The awards are named in honor of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who epitomizes the iconic modern scandal. Each year we single out those practitioners of scandal who through their own unmatched bumbling, shameless behavior, criminality or mere derp have set new standards for public corruption, betrayal of the public trust and general ridiculousness.
And now for the esteemed judges and proud nominees …
Woman drives through suburban Chattanooga neighborhood, clad in body armor, with hand out the driver’s side window shooting at cars and people. After being cornered, Julia Shields, 45, pointed her firearm at police but was taken into custody without injury.
Shields is being charged with 3 counts of attempted first degree murder, 7 counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, felony evading arrest, and felony reckless endangerment.
A week ago I got an email from TPM Reader LC (not his actual initials, for reasons which will become clear). LC is a couple-decades-in police officer in the suburban New York area. He wanted to take issue with one of my points, a central point, in my post about Michael Brown from a few weeks ago: that Darren Wilson’s grand jury version of events simply wasn’t credible. I wanted to hear what LC had to say; I’ve wondered about my own contention about that. But one of the many things that made LC’s take especially interesting to me is that he’s a self-identified progressive Democrat, not only that but a longtime TPM Reader and even a Prime subscriber.
Incoming House GOP Whip Steven Scalise (R) says it’s “ludicrous” to think he was involved with white nationalists. And along those lines, I confess, I bet it was a pretty awkward moment when Scalise was giving his speech at that convention and started talking about the civil rights challenges facing the country. In fairness, who would assume that a group called the National Organization for European-American Rights might be a race thing? I continue to think this is the most trenchant piece of analysis on the on-going issue of right-wing Republicans accidentally speaking to white nationalist organizations.
If BDSM, what we used to call S&M, is going quasi-mainstream with pop books like 50 Shades of Grey, why are governments now banning it?
We got a huge response to the piece I posted yesterday morning from TPM Reader LC, a police officer from the suburban New York City area who describes himself as a progressive Democrat. There were a few points I wanted to expand on and explain about the piece, partly in answer to your questions.
First, a number of you asked why LC didn’t address this or that question or issue in his email. In part this is just a matter of no one email being able to address every issue tied either to recent news or the general issue of police-community relations. But more specifically, I wanted to make clear that the email you read was one LC wrote in response to a specific request: to give me his reaction to my post on NYPD union leader Pat Lynch’s recent comments and the war between the NYPD and Mayor de Blasio in general.
Texas may be the latest bright red state to be giving in and adopting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion program.
As I mentioned earlier we are considering doing a subscription/contribution drive for a one-year project where we would hire one or two reporters and one editor to report exclusively on crime and policing. The two issues are umbilically connected to each other, which should go without saying. And through all this roiling public controversy about police community relations, the one critical factor that simply doesn’t get mentioned enough is the historic drop in crimes of all kinds over the last 20 years. It is nothing less than the end of the late 20th century crime wave which began in the early 1960s and lasted between 35 and 40 years, depending on where you’re talking about and just how you want to define it.