Ginned Up Outrage Forces Another Official Out
Explaining The Crazy: What The Chaos Means
How ‘Obamacare’ Is Saving Seniors Billions
TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors
Very Tight
A good quick read on where the campaign stands. The TPM PollTracker Average shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by a mere 1.1 percentage points. The President has a net approval rating of .1 percentage points.
Of Course They Don’t Like It
David has already hit on this point. But of course the Bush administration foreign policy team doesn’t like President Obama focusing on the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden. It was Bush administration policy for seven years to de-prioritize the search for Osama bin Laden. That happened at Tora Bora to refocus the fight to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. And it continued that way through early 2009. The Bush foreign policy team never saw non-state actors like bin Laden as the core threat. It was states like Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea where they identified the true threat.
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‘Everyone Was Kind Of Astonished’
Initial reactions from both sides of the pond to Parliament’s scathing report on Rupert Murdoch.
Rockefeller Reacts To Murdoch Report
A spokesperson for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who has called for the FBI investigation into whether News Corp. engaged in similar tactics in the U.S., tells TPM: “Senator Rockefeller is just as concerned today as he was last year as to whether Americans were targets of this type of hacking and whether any US laws were broken.”
Just What Mitt Doesn’t Need
I’m watching John Bolton on Fox saying how President Obama is being “unpresidential” by promoting his taking down of Osama bin Laden. At the same time, Donald Rumsfeld is piping up to criticize Obama on the same point.
And therein lies a big problem for Mitt Romney. It stands to reason that Bolton, Rumsfeld et al. are going to be the first to leap to Mitt’s defense here. It’s in their abundant self-interest to do so.
But the last thing Romney needs are the dead-enders from the last administration forming a very public phalanx around him. That’s politically deadly. Then again, who on the Republican side has the national security cred anymore to be an asset for Mitt? It’s a big problem.
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Outlawing Foreplay
Tennessee Legislature passes bill that requires sex-ed classes to “exclusively and emphatically” promote abstinence and bans the promotion of what they call ”gateway sexual activity.”
This Guy Again?
Donald Rumsfeld criticizes White House for spiking the football on bin Laden anniversary.
Real Money
Health care reform provisions have already saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion on prescription drugs.
How It’s All Connected
Making sense of dogs, sluts, and the early days of the general election campaign.
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Cool Stuff
French super computer models entire observable universe for the first time.
Who’s Who In Phone Hacking Scandal
The rogues gallery of players in the News Corp. saga.
Let Us Get Back To You On That
The initial reaction: “News Corporation is carefully reviewing the Select Committee’s report and will respond shortly”
Boom
The kicker on the new Obama campaign TV ad going up today in Ohio, Virginia, and Iowa: “It’s just what you expect from a guy who had a Swiss bank account.”
BREAKING
British Parliament’s report concludes that “Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”
You can read the full report here.
Another One Bites The Dust
Al Armendariz was by all accounts a well-liked and effective official in a key region of the country for the Environmental Protection Agency.
But when America’s climate-change-denier-in-chief Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) decided to make a big deal about a two year old video of Armendariz that had, up to that point, been considered totally innocuous, the right-wing outrage machine spun into action. Armendariz resigned in a matter of days.
Here’s how it happened.
Those Polls Up There
As you’ve probably noticed, at the end of last week the skybox links at the top of every TPM page were replaced by a curated selection of poll averages from PollTracker, TPM’s proprietary poll aggregating and trending application.
We did this for two reasons.
Read More →More on the Mitt Laden Smackdown
This paragraph from Jon Meacham’s piece on the fight over the bin Laden ad captures quite a lot …
Read More →The British Are Coming
For the last twenty years or so, Republican presidential campaigns have used the British tabloid press to pitch their hit pieces that couldn’t get placed in the more professional US press. (Yes, it’s a pretty sad commentary on journalism in the UK but that’s where foreign intelligence services usually plant or pay in their disinformation campaigns too.) You can see here the first efforts of the folks around the Romney campaign to push what amounts to a ‘Navy Seals for Truth’ pitch to defend the former Massachusetts Governor. (The piece is being pushed on Drudge, which has worked closely with the Romney camp all through the primaries.
Read More →Life Of Biden
Some great pics of Joe Biden in the age of mile-wide lapels and double-knit polyester.
Rinse And Repeat
Senate Democrats zero in on Republicans’ vulnerability among women voters by pushing Paycheck Fairness Act.
As White House Choreographs Raid Anniversary, Bin Laden Death Photos Remain Secret
It’s the one-year anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The pictures are still secret.
Walker Raises Big Money To Fight Wisconsin Recall
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has raised big money for the fight to keep his job in upcoming recall elections.
Most Recent Latest news stories from TPM reporters
‘May Day’ Bridge Bombing Suspect Worried Group Would Be Sent To Gitmo
The group of five alleged anarchists who authorities say plotted to blow up a bridge outside of Cleveland in commemoration of the Occupy “May Day” protests switched their plans several times and were suspicious that the undercover agent who sold them fake explosives was, in fact, a cop. The FBI arrested 26-year-old Douglas L. Wright, 20-year-old Brandon L. Baxter, 35-year-old Anthony Hayne, 20-year-old Connor C. Stevens and 23-year-old Joshua S. Stafford this week for allegedly…
Opponents To NC Marriage Amendment Dealt Setback With New Poll
Emboldened by a buildup of encouraging recent developments, opponents to North Carolina’s Amendment One felt confident that the tide was beginning to turn in their favor. They may have just been dealt a reality check, as a new poll released today suggests that the tide isn’t turning quickly enough. The latest release from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that public opinion of the amendment has remained static since last week. In PPP’s latest statewide…
Murdoch Faces New Pressure Following Parliamentary Report
The latest twist in the News Corporation phone hacking scandal came today in the form of a scathing UK parliamentary report that, among other things, states that its patron Rupert Murdoch “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” The report, by Parliament’s select committee on culture, media and sport, “examines whether or not there is good evidence to suggest that the Committee and its predecessor Committees have been misled by any witnesses…
Entire Observable Universe Modeled Using French Supercomputer
The entire history of the observable universe, all 13.7 billion years of it, has been for the first time successfully modeled by six scientists using a French supercomputer. Called the Dark Energy Universe Simulation (DEUS): full universe run, the historic supercomputer simulation created and tracked 550 billion particles, each the mass of our own Milky Way galaxy or greater, that were thought to be created in the Big Bang – the seminal expansive event that scientists believe…
Today On The Trail: May 1, 2012
Here are ten things you need to know today. Obama campaign launches new round of ads: Ahead of Obama’s official campaign launch Saturday, his campaign today is going up with a fresh batch of television ad buys in Ohio, Iowa, and Virginia. The Obama campaign “bought $458,883 in airtime so far in Ohio, $88,455 in Iowa and $72,845 in Virginia for ads running May 1 to May 7,” according to Politico. Obama launches Swiss bank account attack: Obama’s new ad campaign is called called “Swiss…
How ‘Obamacare’ Is Saving Seniors Billions On Meds
In the first two years after “Obamacare” was signed, Medicare reforms in the law saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion in prescription drug costs by bridging a coverage gap, according to official figures.
Over 220,000 beneficiaries have saved an average of $837 in the first three months of 2012, the Medicare agency said Monday. That’s on top of $3.2 billion in savings enjoyed by some 5.1 million seniors in 2010 and 2011 thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to the advisory on the new figures.
Explaining The Crazy: What All The Chaotic Politics News Really Means
In the last weeks of winter and early weeks of spring the national political discourse has been whipsawed by a series of disjointed news stories, seemingly bereft of real meaning, let alone any connection to the country’s immediate needs. There was the contraception fight and its foil, the battle for religious liberty. There were slut wars and mommy wars. A skirmish between political flacks even turned into a semi-serious debate about whether Mitt Romney – who once strapped a dog…
As White House Choreographs Raid Anniversary, Bin Laden Death Photos Remain Secret
As you may have heard, it’s the one-year anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Also coming up: the one-year anniversary of the first Freedom of Information Act requests for the photographs taken of bin Laden’s body. Obama and his re-election campaign have embraced bin Laden’s death as one of the president’s signature achievements, and are currently using it to bludgeon Mitt Romney, but photographs of that achievement are still considered a national security risk. On…
Another Obama Official Resigns After Ginned Up Conservative Outrage: A Timeline
From the moment President Obama took office, conservatives have made a small sport of attacking obscure functionaries within his administration – surfacing old, often out-of-context statements and actions that make his political appointees appear extreme. Over the past three years, they’ve taken aim at a handful officials, and almost without exception, they’ve felled their targets. The goal isn’t really to root bad actors out of the executive branch, but rather to amass a pile of…
The Day In 100 Seconds: MSNBC Monday
After a fair and balanced look at Fox News, comes 100 seconds of MSNBC Monday, including pressing coverage of Saturday’s “Nerd Prom” (aka, the White House Correspondents Dinner), the Brew Factor and the White House Soup of the Day. More substantially, the network was all over Republicans’ outrage that the Obama campaign would dare mention the successful raid to kill Osama bin Laden.
To top it all off, MSNBC’s hosts analyzed the Obama campaign’s new slogan, one that felt oddly familiar to them.
MIT Builds Carbon Nanotube Sensor To Detect Rotten Fruit
Thinking with their heads and their stomachs, MIT scientists have been hard at work developing a means to cut down on rotten produce. They have developed a cheap electronic sensor built out of carbon nanotubes that can detect in real-time the ripeness of fruits and vegetables. The tiny sensor was constructed using tens of thousands of nanotubes, sheets of carbon atoms rolled into cylinders, with added copper atoms, for a cost of about 25 cents, MIT News reported on Monday. With an…
Tennessee Passes Bill To Tamp Down ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’
You’ve heard of gateway drugs – smoking marijuana supposedly leads to harder, more addictive substances. But what about “gateway sexual activity”: the hand-holding, lip-locking and light-grazes that can lead to … other things? The Tennessee Legislature on Friday sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk that, according to the Tennessean, would require sex-ed classes to “exclusively and emphatically” promote abstinence and ban teachers and outside groups from promoting “gateway sexual, …
Obama Needles Romney On Old Bin Laden Quotes
President Obama is doubling down on his campaign’s effort to sow doubts about whether Mitt Romney would have made the call to take out Osama bin Laden, indicating Monday that Romney’s own quotes on the issue from the previous election make it fair game. “I just recommend that everybody take a look at people’s previous statements in terms of what they thought was appropriate to go into Pakistan and take out bin Laden,” Obama said at a press conference in the White House. “I assume…
EPA Official Resigns Over 2010 ‘Crucify’ Comment
Al Armendariz, a mid-level official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 2009, resigned this week after conservatives expressed outrage at a metaphor he invoked at a town hall meeting nearly two years ago.
Armendariz, who took leave from Southern Methodist University to join the administration, commented at a meeting back in 2010 that the EPA’s enforcement policy was to find “people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them.”
Kickstarter Celebrates 3 Years As Top Projects Shift Toward Tech Products
NEW YORK – The New York-based crowdfunding website Kickstarter on Monday celebrated its third birthday with a look back at old website design prototypes and a feature story in the New York Times detailing how it has become yet another portal for startup companies to raise money. An official blog post by Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler noted that so far, the website – which allows anyone with an idea for a creative project to solicit donations from the public over the Web. …
Dems Plot To Corner GOP With New Equal Pay Bill
Next up in the Democrats’ effort to put Republicans on the wrong side of women’s issues: A new bill to combat gender-based pay disparities. With the general election in full swing, Republicans are working overtime to repair their image with female voters. But Democrats aren’t about to let that happen. Now that the Violence Against Women Act is poised to be re-authorized in some form, Dems are planning a push to enhance protections for women who sue for pay discrimination, the kind of …
While Apple Fights E-Book Lawsuit, Microsoft Partners With Barnes & Noble
Looks like Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have been doing some reading of ancient proverbs, perhaps specifically: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That neatly explains a new deal reached by the two companies to collaborate on a new e-book company, which will be a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble’s successful Nook business. Announced Monday, the new partnership is called “Newco,” for the time being (Barnes & Noble says they haven’t settled on the name). It sees Microsoft investing…
It Turns Out Woodward And Bernstein’s ‘Mystic’ Was A Watergate Grand Juror
The secret source that legendary journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein referred to as a “mystic” in their investigation that brought down President Nixon turns out to have been a grand juror who spoke to them in a likely violation of the law.
The revelation came out on Sunday when one of Woodward’s former research assistants published an article for New York Magazine, poking holes in a tale that seemed to have been a cemented part of journalistic lore.
Today On The Trail: April 30, 2012
Here are 10 things you need to know today. Clinton calls Romney Bush “on steriods”: At a fundraiser Sunday evening, Bill Clinton appeared with President Obama and made the case that, without mentioning him by name, Mitt Romney is pushing George W. Bush’s agenda, only worse. Romney “basically wants to do what they did before, on steroids,” Clinton said, “which will get you the same consequences you got before, on steroids.” Obama echoed a line Robert Gibbs spoke earlier Sunday when he…
CEO-In-Chief? Testing Mitt Romney’s Main Argument
Republicans and pundits say Mitt Romney may only need to make one argument this cycle – that’s he is the most competent candidate for president to shepherd the nation’s economy. The crux of the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign is that he can do for government what he did in business: Run it. He’s fond of saying on the trail that he’s a “conservative businessman” who’s made millions turning around firms and starting new ones, and his administration could leverage business…