07.22.10 -- 5:29PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (16)

Awkward

South Carolina Democrats deserve some serious mocking for winding up with Alvin Greene as their Senate nominee, but mocking Greene himself has made me uncomfortable. From the moment he stepped on the national stage, you got the sense that things just weren't right with him. Now the AP has obtained some of Greene's service records from the Air Force, including a performance review which found that Greene was "unable to express thoughts clearly" and "not able to adapt to any changes to daily routine." Greene was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 2005 but later joined the Army.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 4:56PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)

A Birther Too Far

Kansas newspaper withdraws its endorsement of Republican candidate for Congress after learning he's a birther.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 4:29PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)

Bad News For Charlie Rangel

The investigation of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) by the House Ethics Committee has entered a new stage. The subcommittee doing the investigating has now referred charges against Rangel to a separate adjudicatory subcommittee which will rule on whether violations occurred. More soon ...

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 4:24PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)

Netroots Nation -- And More!

Christina Bellantoni has landed in Las Vegas where she'll be covering all the goings on associated with Netroots Nation from today through Saturday. Because it's an election year, Markos' event will draw a lot of candidates and campaign types, and Christina will be talking with them, doing video interviews, and tweeting updates through the weekend. Conveniently NN is in Nevada this year, where Harry Reid's reelection bid against Sharron Angle is one of the headline races of 2010. In addition, conservatives are once again staging a counter-NN event. So a lot going on, which is why we have Christina on the ground. You can follow all of her reporting over the next three days on the live updating page we've set up. Christina's tweets and links to her posts, video, and other news will appear there first. So bookmark it and follow everything at Netroots Nation in one spot.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 2:48PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (16)

BREAKING

Sens. Reid and Kerry confirm that climate change legislation -- which assumed room temperature about six months ago and has been stinking up the place all summer -- is in fact dead.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 2:28PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)

SLIDESHOW: Meet Capitol Hill's New Tea Party Caucus

Pics from yesterday's debut of the power tea partying set:

Unfortunately the debut wasn't without its hiccups.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 2:21PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)

BP Admits Photoshopping

In a post on its Facebook page, BP acknowledges that those two images that appeared photoshopped had in fact been cut and pasted: "Although BP is a private company, we've instructed the photographer who created the images to refrain from cutting-and-pasting in the future and to adhere to standard photo journalistic best practices."

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 1:54PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)

School Daze

TPM's Jill Rayfield submits to week three of Glenn Beck University and a class they call "Charity 101."

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 1:34PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (35)

Wallace to Helms to Ailes

I'm just getting a chance to watch Rachel Maddow's segment from last night's show on the Sherrod case, tying it to the last 50 years of politically calculated right-wing race-baiting, fear-mongering, and just plain old racism. Just go watch it.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 1:12PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (109)

President Calls Shirley Sherrod

The White House's description of the call:

Read more »

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 11:53AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)

Within The Cone

I knew a tropical cyclone in the Gulf of Mexico would wreak havoc on the oil cleanup and the effort to seal the wild well. I didn't realize it meant they might have to reopen the cap and let oil resume coursing into the sea: "Worse yet, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said foul weather could require reopening the cap that has contained the oil for nearly a week, allowing oil to gush into the sea again for days while engineers wait out the storm."

Here's the projected path of the storm that is now a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea southeast of Florida:

Read more »

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 10:50AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (18)

Run Away!

Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle tried her hand at doing a press conference -- the kind where you speak for three minutes and don't take any questions from the press.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 10:26AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)

Making Nice

Geithner sings Elizabeth Warren's praises in breakfast appearance this morning, but stops short of touting her for post as top cop on consumer financial protection beat.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 9:48AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)

The Mother Of Bogus Corrections

The correction now appended to Andrew Breitbart's original post at Big Government introducing the edited Shirley Sherrod video:

Correction: While Ms. Sherrod made the remarks captured in the first video featured in this post while she held a federally appointed position, the story she tells refers to actions she took before she held that federal position.

All good otherwise.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 9:45AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (469)

Shame on Obama?

Forty-eight hours ago the story was another bad apple found on Obama's cart. By yesterday morning it was another black eye for Obama and Tom Vilsack for rushing to dump a blameless woman on no good evidence and cravenly or cowardly or pusillanimously running for cover because Breitbart, Roger Ailes and whatever other gods of The Crazy said boo! For progressives mad at their president, at some level, that's understandable. They have no relationship with and expect only the worst from the Breitbarts and Fox Newses of the world. But with Obama they expect more. And it's personal.

Still, you just have to back up from that and realize that as disappointing as Tom Vilsack's first crack at this was, the idea that he or Obama is the bad guy in this story is not only preposterous but verging on obscene. It's like the NYPD as the bad guy in the Son of Sam saga because they didn't catch David Berkowitz fast enough. Or perhaps that the real moral of the story is that the woman with the stalker should have been more focused on personal data security. Not for some time has something so captured the essential corruption of a big chunk of what passes as 'right wing media' (not all, by any means, but a sizable chunk along the Breitbart/Fox/Hannity continuum) and the corruption of the mainstream media itself as this episode.

Read more »

--Josh Marshall

07.22.10 -- 9:43AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (22)

Newt-onian Logic

I don't post every stupid thing Newt Gingrich says (it is after all at least his 16th consecutive year of claiming to be considering a run for President), but every once in a while Newt outdoes even Newt: "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia."

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 9:25AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)

Sherrod: I Really Think I Should Sue

I've lost track of the number of readers who have asked, Why doesn't Shirley Sherrod sue Breitbart for defamation?

As a journalist, I'm naturally wary of defamation claims. As a lawyer part of my job was counseling clients that a lawsuit is a terrible, awful, no-good way to resolve almost any dispute. That is doubly true of libel suits. So to my way of thinking there is no such thing as a slam-dunk defamation claim.

But for those eager to see Sherrod get her pound of flesh, she says she is considering it.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 9:06AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (25)

Must Read

If you want to read only one thing today about Shirley Sherrod and USDA, make it this piece by Rachel Slajda, which puts this entire sordid episode in the context of the right-wing's vehement opposition to USDA's settlement of long-standing discrimination claims from black farmers, including from Sherrod herself. Some very interesting and relevant background here.

--David Kurtz

07.22.10 -- 8:48AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (21)

I Got A Bridge In Brooklyn To Sell

Howard Kurtz swallows Fox's continuing claims that the cable network maintains a news v. opinion distinction internally.

--David Kurtz