The Hunt For Bin Laden: What Did Obama Do?
GOP Lawmaker Comes Out As Gay To Oppose Bill
AZ Lawmaker Befriended Neo-Nazi Gunman
TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors
Letters from the Hideout
Among new documents from the bin Laden compound released today, OBL lamented decline of al Qaida rep, musing on possible rebranding, only wanted to target Obama and Petraeus for assassination.
From this we can draw the conclusion that the culture of branding and marketing is truly global.
Bagram Or Bust
Behind the scenes photos from President Obama’s unannounced trip to Afghanistan.
— Advertisement —
Don’t Say Gay
Missouri’s “don’t say gay in public schools” bill prompts Republican legislator to come out of the closet to oppose the bill. (That makes him the only openly gay Republican state legislator in the country, according to one advocacy group, which, wow, really?)
For Our Google+ Followers
Mood Music
Paul Krugman on Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI): “All he does is make scary noises about the deficit, with mood music, with organ music in the background about how ominous it is, and then propose a plan that would in fact increase the deficit.”
— Advertisement —
The Ongoing Ron Paul Insurrection
The McCain camp was forced to fight off an insurrection on the 2008 convention floor from delegates supporting Ron Paul in what was at the time a very underreported story. It looks like the Paulites are burrowing themselves in deeply this time around, too, controlling more delegates than he “deserves” by taking advantage of the byzantine delegate-nominating process.
It’s shaping up as a big headache for Mitt Romney in Tampa. “Broadly speaking, I don’t think anyone has a firm handle on how deep this goes,” one expert on the process told us. Benjy Sarlin and Pema Levyreport.
Lived By The Sword
TPM’s Nick Martin has been writing off and on for years about J.T. Ready, the white supremacist border vigilante who allegedly took his own life Wednesday after a shooting rampage in a suburban home outside of Phoenix that left four others dead. Here’s Nick’s report.
What Really Happened
To the victor goes the spoils, but what exactly did Obama do to get bin Laden? The answer, it will not surprise you to know, is more complex than the current political debate will allow, but it also involves more than giving the greenlight to the final raid. Our report.
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.
— Advertisement —
Today In 100 Seconds
The day teetered on the edge of crazy until finally falling over the edge. Watch.
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.
Read More →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!”
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.
Scott Walker: Pray For Me—And Help Out The Campaign
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke to political and spiritual true believers Wednesday night alongside Ralph Reed.
Paul Vs. Paul: Krugman Unloads On Rep. Ryan
Paul Krugman fired back at Rep. Paul Ryan after the influential Republican laughed off the NY Times columnist’s criticisms.
Most Recent Latest news stories from TPM reporters
What Would Happen If You Stuck Your Hand In The Big Bang Machine?
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, firing proton beams at nearly the speed of light around an underground ring 17 miles around, at a maximum energy level of 7 tera-electronvolts. The accelerator’s experiments are designed to smash the proton beams together to simulate the conditions of the early universe, just after the “Big Bang,” the seminal expansion event that scientists believe birthed all matter. So what would happen if…
Arizona Immigration Law Sponsor Russell Pearce Defends Past Friendship With Massacre Gunman
As Russell Pearce’s power in Arizona politics grew over the years, so too did questions about his past friendship with a man who went on to become the most vocal neo Nazi in the state.
So when that neo Nazi reportedly massacred four people in a suburban Phoenix home before turning the gun on himself on Wednesday, reporters naturally turned to the former state Senate president and primary sponsor of Arizona’s tough immigration law to comment on the killings.
Fast And Furious: Issa Makes Case For Holder Contempt Resolution
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Thursday released a draft memo laying out the case for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for producing a “small fraction” of the documents they requested as part of their investigation into Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department, the memo asserted, “has issued false denials, given answers intended to misdirect investigators, sought to intimidate witnesses, unlawfully withheld…
Bin Laden Documents Offer A Small Peek At Al-Qaeda World
The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point today released 17 declassified documents, totaling 197 pages in English translations, which were among the reportedly thousands of items seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound after U.S. Special Forces killed the terrorist leader last year. The oldest of the released documents dates from September 2006, and the most recent was written by bin Laden and dated April 26, 2011, just days before the U.S. raid. Some of the correspondence…
Senator Asks UK Panel Whether News International Broke U.S. Laws
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) sent a letter on Wednesday to the UK’s Leveson Inquiry asking whether there is any evidence News International broke U.S. laws in the course of its phone hacking.
“I would like to know whether any of the evidence you are reviewing suggests that these unethical and sometimes illegal business practices occurred in the United States or involved U.S. citizens,” Rockefeller wrote.
Jon Stewart Rips Bryan Fischer After Gay Romney Aide Resignation
Jon Stewart on Wednesday railed against consecrative shock jock Bryan Fischer, who reacted crudely to Mitt Romney’s hiring of openly gay spokesman Richard Grenell. A week after joining the campaign, Grenell resigned, citing conservatives who were outraged over his spot in the campaign. “I’m sure he’s just leaving to spend more time with the family that those people aren’t sure he should be allowed to have,” Stewart said. And in case you’re wondering why Fischer always looks so…
Obama: Bin Laden Raid Was ‘Longest 40 Minutes Of My Life’
Reflecting on the iconic Situation Room photo during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, President Obama said it was the “longest 40 minutes of my life.” NBC News’ Brian Williams sat down with Obama and other senior administration members for an interview that aired on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, in the photo, has her hand over her mouth, joked that she usually looks that way when her husband drags her to an action movie. “It was …
Pebble’s Smartphone Connecting Watch Gets First App, Developer Platform
Pebble is a soon-to-be-released digital watch that aims to wirelessly connect to and display information from a user’s smartphone. But it has quickly become the stuff of tech startup legend for raising over $8 million in online donations on Kickstarter, after being previously rejected by venture capitalists. Now, Pebble is going a step further: On Wednesday its creators announced the first of what they expect to be numerous apps designed specifically to run on the watch, using the …
Today On The Trail: May 3, 2012
Here are ten things you need to know today. Romney, Obama virtually tied in key swing states: Mitt Romney, who was polling behind President Obama in Florida and Ohio, is now tied with the president, a new poll from Quinnipiac University finds. In Florida, Obama’s a seven-point lead from their latest poll on March 28 was completely erased, with Romney now leading Obama 44 percent to 43 percent. In Ohio, Obama takes 44 percent and Romney 42 percent. In March, Obama led Romney in the The …
Walker To Christian Right Supporters: Pray For Me – And Help Out The Campaign
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke to a crowd of political and spiritual true believers Wednesday night – seeking to mobilize support from a national tele-town hall hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition. For a reporter listening in, the call provided a good example of the messages, both positive and negative, that Walker has put to his deep base supporters. He spoke of his religious background as a pastor’s son, how both of his own children have accepted Christ as their…
Ron Paul’s Delegate Antics Could Spell Trouble For GOP Convention
With Newt Gingrich finally out of the race, there’s only one other candidate standing between Mitt Romney and the official nomination. And while Ron Paul doesn’t have a chance to stop Romney, he seems poised to make some trouble for him in at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Across the country, fired-up Paul supporters are crashing the delegate-nominating process long after the rest of the party has moved onto the general election. Exploiting a byzantine nominating…
Krugman Unloads On Paul Ryan
Paul Krugman fired back at Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) after the influential Republican laughed off the New York Times columnist’s criticisms by saying, “I’ve always figured I’ve got three certainties in my life: Death, taxes and attacks from Paul Krugman.” In an exclusive interview following the release of his new book End This Depression Now!, Krugman told TPM, “That’s not a substantive remark. I’ve never attacked him just for nothing in particular. I’ve gone after his arithmetic and…
Missouri’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Loses Steam, But Opponents Keep Their Guard Up
A bill proposed by Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly that would prohibit the teaching of sexual orientation in public schools appears to be losing traction fast, but opponents aren’t content to allow the legislation to fade quietly from the public consciousness. Legislators from both parties and gay rights advocates held a press conference at the state capitol in Jefferson City Wednesday to call for the bill, known officially as HB 2051, to be immediately withdrawn from…
The Hunt For Bin Laden: What Exactly Did Obama Do?
Consider the following scenario: U.S. intelligence gets a tip about the whereabouts of a senior Al Qaeda figure inside Pakistan. Plans are drawn up to fly into the airspace of an uneasy ally. Elite U.S. forces are readied. The administration is asked for the go-ahead. In 2005, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly called off such a mission, despite the fact that intelligence officials had “unusually high confidence” about the whereabouts of Ayman al-Zawahiri, AlNew…
Border Vigilante Identified As Gunman In Arizona Massacre
Updated: May 2, 2012, 10:26 PM Longtime white supremacist and border vigilante JT Ready saw himself as part of a war that few others would fight. He amassed weapons. He donned a uniform. He formed his own brigade of volunteers to walk alongside him as he hunted what he described as “narco terrorists” flowing across the Arizona-Mexico border. On Wednesday, reports out of Arizona said Ready died, not at the hands of drug runners, but with his own gun during a mad rampage inside a…
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.