A TPM Reader put together this site which, as he describes it, “represents an attempt to record every incident of gun violence reported by online news outlets in January of 2015. The incidents covered represent 50% of estimated homicides by firearm and 7% of non-fatal shootings this month.” Check it out. I won’t say it’s ‘cool’ for obvious reasons. But it’s very well put together.
The Supreme Court has just denied Alabama’s last ditch effort to avoid issuing same-sex marriage licenses. And the nature of the rejection seems to provide the best evidence yet of what’s coming on the big national question about the constitutionality of any bans on same sex marriage. The only dissenters were reportedly Scalia and Thomas. And Thomas wrote – correctly, it would seem – that this is a good indication of how the whole court will eventually rule.
As I noted over the weekend, the chorus of people denouncing Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech stunt has continued to grow, now stretching into the most establishment figures of American Jewry and even from many who have in the past been friendly and reflexively supportive of Netanyahu. Abe Foxman, head of the ADL is the most prominent, most recent example. But the counter-attack is coming, despite limited support for the speech within the American Jewish community or anywhere else except among extreme Republican partisans. (Now even Tucker Carlson has joined the anti-Dermer chorus.)
Giulia Pines says Europe’s Jews are not helped by America’s panic.
Building off last week’s ‘crusades’ nonsense, some Republicans are taking the distortion and hate vilification to yet another level. Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) says of President Obama, “Not only did he vilify Christianity, but he actually made a case to defend radical Islam.” “What he’s really saying is ‘Well look, these are freedom fighters, just like the patriots of the Revolutionary War. And they’re no different, their service is just as honorable,’”
I’ve been writing about the Clintons for almost two decades. No one was a bigger fan of Bill’s than I was or a bigger defender. I still mainly feel the same way. But if there’s one thing I do not remotely miss – and which I am not remotely looking forward to – it is the drama. The endless DRAMA.
There’s not no entertainment value in watching Clarence Thomas erupt into a ocean of spittle in a furious dissent – especially with the ludicrous claim that this court has an “increasingly cavalier attitude toward the States.” It’s been going on a century since there’s been a Court so solicitous of the pretended “rights” of the states. But it’s hard not to conclude he’s right that this Court tipped its hand today on how it plans to rule on same sex marriage.
We’ve seen the first murmurs today that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu might decide to scrap his speech to Congress – the demand or request of an increasingly broad chorus of elite opinion in the US and Israel. Early today, Reuters reported that Netanyahu’s advisors were “considering amending the format” of the speech – a vague phrasing which the article suggests may range anywhere from turning the speech into a closed door, untelevised talk to just talking to AIPAC and pretending that was sort of the same thing.
Tori Sisson, left, and Shanté Wolfe, right, kiss after saying their marriage vows, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. Sisson and Wolfe were the first couple to file their marriage license. Alabama is the 37th state to allow gays and lesbians to wed. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Click this post’s title to see the full sized photo.
Mitch McConnell finds himself in a box and the Majority Leader thing harder than it looks.