NC Pol’s Wife: Bill Written
No, Barack Obama
Isn’t A Fabulist
Reports: Shooter In Mass AZ Killings Is J.T. Ready
Zimmerman’s MySpace Page Unearthed
TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors
J.T. Ready
Multiple reports say the gunman in a mass killing and suicide in Arizona today was neo-Nazi border vigilante J.T. Ready.
For background on Ready see our previous reporting here and here.
Today In 100 Seconds
The day teetered on the edge of crazy until finally falling over the edge. Watch.
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Facebook Comments
Starting later this week, TPM will shift over to using Facebook comments as our core commenting system. This is a major change. And almost anything tied to Facebook courts controversy. So I wanted to take a moment to explain what we’re doing and why.
Read More →Being Gay Apparently Just A White Thing
If someone understands you to say that you’re opposed to gay marriage “because the Caucasian race is diminishing and we need to uh, reproduce,” this is not how to correct the record.
Junior Seau, 1969-2012
It’s not been officially confirmed yet, but local media is reporting that former NFL great Junior Seau, whose gridiron glory came mostly as a San Diego Charger, committed suicide in his Oceanside, Calif., home.
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Chart of the Day
To understand the last 40 years of American history, look at this chart.
Ooops Part.2
Drudge/Politico accusation against Obama blows up in their faces because they didn’t read the preface to his book.
Politico followed by Drudge claimed that Obama never shared with readers that some of the characters in his book Dreams of My Father were composite characters. Only he says so very clearly in the preface to the book, which they failed to read.
Dispatch From The Battleground
Evan McMorris-Santoro reports from today’s Romney event in suburban Northern Virginia where women were front and center.
Facebook Organ Harvest Update
This is pretty remarkable: “As of 7:55am May 2, Donate Life California has had a 5105% increase in online sign ups since April 29!”
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Heads Up, TPM Readers
We’ll be hosting our inaugural Google+ Hangout Thursday, May 3 at 3 p.m ET.
Join TPM2012 reporters Evan McMorris-Santoro, Benjy Sarlin, and Pema Levy as they give you the inside scoop on Obama v. Romney and share their insights on the campaign ahead.
What questions should we ask? What do you want to know? Shoot us an email with “Hangout” in the subject line, or tweet @TPM.
Oops
The Miami Herald dug up George Zimmerman’s old Myspace page that has him railing at “mexicans.”
It Is Upon Us
The silliest part of the silly season is the breathless speculation about the veepstakes. We promise not be breathless.
One Last Chance To Kick Newt Around
Video lowlights of the strange phenomenon that was the Newt 2012 campaign.
Not Your Usual Status Update
Facebook has a new feature that lets you indicate in your profile if you’re a registered organ donor and will connect you to your local registry.
But here’s the cool part.
The California chapter of the registry that Facebook teamed up with reported an 800 percent increase in donor registrations yesterday.
The Great Decoupling
This chart shows in striking fashion when the productivity gains of the U.S. economy split off from the growth in pay. Brian Beutler talked to various economists about why it happened. There’s no simple answer – and there’s no prospect of the systematic causes of the great decoupling being corrected in this political climate any time soon. But beneath all the noise and nonsense of this campaign season, that split between productivity and wages is a fault line between the two parties. Mitt Romney and Republicans in general don’t consider that decoupling to be a problem. Barack Obama and Democrats will acknowledge it’s a problem, although there’s considerable disagreement over whether the fixes are politically possible.
‘Windsailing To Pussy Island’
The Daily Show imagines the George W. Bush “I killed bin Laden” TV ad.
Ain’t Gonna Be Easy
Paul Krugman talks to TPM on Obama’s re-election prospects: “We could have morning in America still. But probably not in 2012. So I don’t think there’s going to be a strong enough recovery to make it easy …”
‘Snitches Get … Dumped In Ditches’
How closely affiliated were those alleged bridge bombers in Ohio with the Occupy Cleveland movement?
Lugar On The Ropes
There’s a lot of big money coming into Indiana’s senate race from outside the state – most of it aimed at ending Dick Lugar’s career.
Stagecraft Only Goes So Far
Explosions heard in Kabul.
Chart: 40 Years Of Shocking Income Inequality
All your hard work probably hasn’t translated into a higher living standard. Here’s why.
Women Front And Center At Mitt Campaign Stop
The fight for the female vote is back in a big way. Mitt Romney put women business-owners front and center Wednesday.
Most Recent Latest news stories from TPM reporters
Day In 100 Seconds: No More Newt
Today officially marked the end of Newt Gingrich’s presidential run as the candidate announced he was suspending his campaign.
It was a chance to say one final goodbye to the “angry little attack muffin” and get a final look at some of his big ideas.
Watch:
Gingrich Comes Close To Endorsing Romney During Campaign Exit
ARLINGTON, Va. – Surrounded by friends and family, Newt Gingrich ended his bid for the presidency on Wednesday at a Hilton hotel just outside Washington D.C. “Today I am suspending the campaign,” he said. “But suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship.” Gingrich thanked his supporters, singling out billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who “single-handedly came close to matching Romney’s super PAC,” with tens of millions of dollars in independent support for the…
Free Harvard And MIT Online Classes For All Starting Fall 2012
Getting an education from two of the most pre-eminent universities in the world will soon be as easy going online. At least, that’s the unified goal of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which on Wednesday announced they were teaming-up to offer a new online education program, dubbed “edX.” The inaugural class begins in the fall of this year, and the initial courses are expected to be announced in the summer. Not only that, but there are absolutely no…
‘Dreams From My Father’ Publisher: Drudge, Politico Obama Hits Bunk
A former executive of the original paperback publisher of President Obama’s 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father weighed in on Wednesday’s manufactured controversy over whether Obama represented fiction as fact by using composite characters in his autobiography. “It is unfathomable to me how Dylan Byers of Politico could have overlooked the very plain disclaimer that the book carried from the very start,” Philip Turner said to TPM via email. Turner was an editorial executive withDreams…
Court: Bush Torture Memo Author John Yoo Protected From Lawsuits
An appeals court said Wednesday that John Yoo, the former Bush-era Justice Department official who authored the so-called “torture memos,” can’t be sued by a convicted terrorist.
Jose Padilla sued Yoo over memos he authored for DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel which were used as legal justification for U.S. officials to use harsh interrogation techniques that his legal team said amounted to torture, the Associated Press reports.
Poll: Tight Race Between Walker And Barrett In Wisconsin Recall
The new Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin shows that Gov. Scott Walker continues to be in a close race in the state’s high-stakes recall election. The survey of registered voters shows Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett edging Walker by 47 to 46 percent, within the ±3.8 percent margin of error. But among the narrower poll of likely voters, Walker has an edge of 48 to 47 percent, with a ±4.2 percent margin of error. At a press conference streamed online, professor Charles Franklin…
White House’s ‘Green Button’ Program Gets More Support From Industry
Updated: 2:48 pm ET, Wednesday, April 2 The White House’s recent effort to get homeowners more detailed and easier-to-read views of their energy consumption from local utilities has gained more support from the private sector. On Wednesday, a Boston-based company called Retroficiency, which offers “virtual energy assessments” of commercial buildings to identify potential usage and cost savings, announced it had adopted the White House’s Green Button energy information publication…
Wife Of NC Amendment One Supporter: Husband Wrote Bill To Preserve ‘Caucasian Race’
The wife of a sponsor of North Carolina’s Amendment One, a proposed change to the state’s constitution that would ensure legal recognition only for marriage between a man and a woman, reportedly offered an eyebrow-raising explanation for her husband’s support of the measure. Jodie Brunstetter, the wife of state Sen. Peter Brunstetter (R), has found herself embroiled in controversy after suggesting that her husband’s role in writing the bill – which passed the Republican-controlled…
No, Obama Isn’t A Fabulist: How Drudge And Politico Blew It
Let’s put this one to bed: Despite what you may have heard, President Obama is not James Frey. On Wednesday, Vanity Fair released excerpts of a new Obama biography by David Maraniss that focuses on his romances as a student in the early 1980s. At one point in the story, Obama – who never gave the girls’ names in his original book, “Dreams From My Father” – tells Maraniss that one story about a date was not referring to the same girlfriend who made up his most serious relationship…
Romney Puts Women Front And Center At Virginia Campaign Stop
CHANTILLY, Va. – The fight for the female vote is back in a big way, if it ever really left. At a campaign rally here outside D.C. Wednesday, Mitt Romney stood in a small business owned by women – there were signs to remind you as much, in case you forgot – and in front of a riser full of other women businesses-owners. This was no coincidence. “Americans are hurting. And what you’re seeing behind me with these women entrepreneurs and innovators … are people who normally the…
Unearthed: George Zimmerman’s MySpace Page
This is George Zimmerman’s MySpace page. Years before he stood at the center of an international storm over the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, the Florida man used his page to complain about “mexicans” and celebrate a victory in a criminal case against him. Today, it remains a small window into the life of a man who has gone into hiding while he awaits trial on a second-degree murder charge. Showing him with a history of relationships with people of multiple races, it…
Colbert Mocks Paul Ryan’s Budget Cuts To The Poor
Stephen Colbert on Tuesday turned from politics to policy, focusing on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has criticized Ryan’s budget for cutting deeply into programs that help the needy. And President Obama called the budget “thinly veiled social Darwinism.” “How dare you, sir, these are Republicans, it is thinly veiled social creationism,” Colbert said on Tuesday. Ryan took his message to Georgetown University in…
The Daily Show Imagines Bush’s “I Killed Bin Laden” Ad
Jon Stewart has a message for Republicans railing against President Obama’s campaign ad touting the killing of Osama bin Laden: “Wah.”
Yeah, the ad is kind of “shitty,” Stewart said on Tuesday. “A bit of a cheap shot. The only reason you’re pissed is you didn’t get to run it. Let’s face it: if Bin Laden had been killed on Bush’s watch, this would have been the ad you’re running with.”
PA Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting
If there’s a contest for most sympathetic plaintiff in a lawsuit opposing a state voter ID law, Pennsylvania’s Viviette Applewhite wins. The 93-year-old has voted in almost every election since 1960. Her daughter was a public servant. She has five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren. She’s a widow. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Macon, Georgia during the civil rights movement and traveled to Atlanta to hear him preach. Under…
Microsoft Tries To Use Google Drive Furor To Promote Its Own SkyDrive Product
Updated Wednesday, May 2, 2:35 pm ET In the wake of the launch and subsequent user privacy furor over Google’s new cloud file storage service, Google Drive, competitor Microsoft has embarked on a new promotional blitz extolling the features of its own cloud-based storage system, SkyDrive, over Google’s solution. “People want a cloud that seamlessly connects their files to the apps and devices they use every day,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to TPM, “Over a billion…
Today On The Trail: May 2, 2012
Here are ten things you need to know today. Portman uses celebrity attack on Obama, defends himself: Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), a top contender for Romney’s VP pick, defended himself against critics that say he’s boring. “Well I like to think I am a serious legislator and trying to get things done. That’s my goal in life, to get things done. It’s not about sizzle for me,” Portman said on Fox News Tuesday. He then pivoted into the well-worn “celebrity” attack on President Obama: “I…
Lugar Fights For His Political Life In Indiana
The Indiana primary is quickly approaching on Tuesday of next week, with longtime Sen. Dick Lugar fighting for his political life against state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. And it’s not just the first serious political fight that Lugar has had in decades – it’s also a serious fight for the credibility of outside groups and endorsements. A poll released last week by the conservative group Citizens United, which is backing Mourdock, gave him a lead of 44%-39% over the incumbent. And…
Occupy Cleveland Distances Itself From May Day Bridge Bomb Plot
The five alleged anarchists arrested by the FBI Monday night after allegedly plotting to blow up a bridge in the suburbs of Cleveland to send a message to the corporations, the government and the one-percenters were confused. Accompanied by a source cooperating with the FBI they allegedly drove to Cuyahoga National Park and placed two IEDs at the base of one of the columns of the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge. They’d known the informant who’d help bring them there since…
Krugman: Obama May Lose Re-Election
There may not be much President Obama can do to improve the economy between now and the election, but telling a clear story about why it remains weak could mean the difference between victory and defeat this November. Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman fears the Obama team is getting that critical narrative wrong. “They’ve tied themselves up in knots because they’ve bought into this notion that it would sound wrong to admit that they haven’t been …
40 Years Of Workers Left Behind (CHART)
Economic fairness is one of the persistent themes of the 2012 election, and in that spirit the liberal Economic Policy Institute is revisiting the plight of the U.S. worker over the last several decades. Many of the institute’s findings, which will be presented in greater detail in the forthcoming edition of “The State of Working America,” will be familiar to economists who study income inequality. But they provide a stark illustration of the fact that the vast majority of workers…