P.M. Headlines

(MinnPost): "With Bachmann not running, Jim Graves pulls out of 6th District race"(CBS News): "Naval Academy probing alleged sexual assault by 3 football players"(TPM): "Why GOP scandal mongers can’t have nice things"(New York Times): "GOP sizes up Obama as midterm target"(Houston Chronicle): "Woman's jailing in Mexico highlights tourist ris...

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Vimeo of the Day: "Sarah DiNardo. Tape Artist."

By Michael J.W. Stickings I don't quite know what it is about Sarah DiNardo's strange and wonderful tape art -- yes, art that she makes from obsessively/serenely rolling masking tape of different sizes and placing the rolls in intricate designs in found objects -- but it's pretty amazing. And remarkably beautiful. (I can't really do it justice with a short explanation. See for yourself. I really must acquire some.) This excellent video captures the essence of the artist and her work. Even watching it is hypnotic. Sarah DiNardo. Tape Artist. from...

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Behind the Ad: Terry McAuliffe, king of the platitudes

By Richard K. Barry (Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) Who: Terry McAuliffe gubernatorial campaign. Where: Virginia. What's going on: Democratic candidate for governor in Virgina Terry McAuliffe says a divisive ideological agenda is bad and job creation is good. And he's a uniter, not a divider. Thanks for that, Terry.By the way, Public Policy Polling just released a poll on the race indicating that neither candidate is much liked: Terry McAuliffe is not popular, with 29% of voters holding a favorable opinion of him...

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Michele Bachmann's influence: Credit where credit is due

By Mustang Bobby Rachel Maddow thinks that Michele Bachmann was far more influential in shaping the agenda of the modern Republican party than people give her credit for:Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyShe may have a valid point. Without Ms. Bachmann, would we now have people in the Senate like Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah? (We will always have folks like Louie Gohmert, Virginia Foxx, and Steve King battering against the walls of Congress.) As Ms. Maddow...

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Another Republican, Obama?

By Frank Moraes I have had major problems with the nomination of James Comey to head the FBI. But now I'm not sure. You see, today Glenn Greewald wrote, "James Comey is far from the worst choice to lead the FBI." That's probably about equivalent to most people saying, "James Comey is the best person we could realistically get."Of course, Greenwald wrote that after an article blasting Comey for two very troubling actions while working for George W. Bush. The biggest one is that Comey was the guy who signed off on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping...

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A.M. Headlines

(The Hill): "McCain: 'Regrettable' if photo was taken with Syrian rebel kidnappers"(Washington Post): "Hagel visits Asia to reassure allies"(Politico): "Eric Holder to media: I get it"(Washington Post): "Answers needed in death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev acquaintance"(New York Times): "GOP sizes up Obama as midterm targ...

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P.M. Headlines

(Daily Beast): "Comey: Principled or self-righteous?"(The Hill): "Obama’s poll numbers hold up despite the storm of scandal"(CNN): "Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-records meeting on leaks"(Bloomberg): "Scalia gives Obamacare a big boost"(New York Times): "Unions press to end favoured trade status for Banglade...

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Because gun nuts are such level headed folks...

By CarlHmmm.  Maybe we should start profiling gun owners, too. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the latest high-profile target of poison-tainted letters sent though the mail, police revealed yesterday.The leader of the nation's largest city was threatened anonymously in two letters sent to Bloomberg's offices in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said. An undisclosed number of New York cops who responded to one of the letters now "are being examined for minor symptoms of ricin exposure," but the potentially...

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Behind the Ad: Tax fairness in the Mass. Senate election

By Richard K. BarryWho: The Ed Markey Senate campaignWhere: MassachusettsWhat's going on: As we trundle towards Election Day in Massachusetts in the special Senate election (June 25) to replace John Kerry, the ads keep coming. In this one, Democratic candidate Ed Markey plays the tax fairness card against his Republican opponent Gabriel Gomez. The poll trend by Pollster has Markey ahead by a margin of 45.7 to 34.5 percent. They track 10 polls and the last update was 6 days ago. Markey's to lose, which I doubt he'll do.(Cross-posted at...

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Lincoln Chafee becomes a Democrat

By Frank MoraesHave you heard the news? Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee will become a Democrat tomorrow. You probably don't care, but stick with me because this is interesting. He used to be a Republican. And then he became an independent. I'm still not sure what the hell that is. When a regular person is an independent, it normally means that they don't have a clue or any real interest in politics. You can generally depend upon them to...

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Behind the Ad: Republicans can't help going too far

By Richard K. BarryWho: Mitch McConnell Senate campaignWhere: KentuckyWhat's going on: The GOP is going to make good use of the IRS "scandal" in the next election cycle. We can be sure of that. Democrats can talk about the political activities of Tea Party groups and how appropriate it might have been to target them. But, on the face of it, the IRS issue will play well as a campaign theme for Republicans. It just looks bad.But Republicans always overreach as they did in this ad. MaddowBlog:[I]t's the message in the closing seconds that arguably...

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Waiting in the wings

By Mustang BobbyRepublican strategists are reportedly relieved that Michele Bachmann is leaving Congress so that she will no longer be a lightning rod for all the fringe-cringe talk.Charlie Pierce notes that there are plenty of folks waiting to take her place.With the announced departure of Michele Bachmann from the World’s Greatest Legislative Body today, we inaugurate a new semi-regular weekly feature in which we study the possible successor to la Bachmann as Queen Regent of the Crazy People. (Louie Gohmert is, of course, emperor for life). A...

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A.M. Headlines

(The Washington Times): "Sen. John McCain accused of posing with kidnappers in Syria"(CBS News): "2 letters addressed to Mayor Bloomberg found to contain ricin"(New York Times): "Former Bush official said to be Obama pick to lead F.B.I."(The Week): "Michele Bachmann's 19 greatest fibs, flubs, and head-scratchers"(Jeffrey Toobin): "The abortion issue retur...

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P.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Bachmann won't seek reelection next year"(Politico): "Michele Bachmann retiring under fire"(Washington Post): "Nearly 40 percent of mothers are now family breadwinner, report says"(NPR): "Obama to name former Justice official next FBI chief"(The Week): "Is Obama trying to stack the courts with libera...

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Special election in Alabama's 1st Congressional District

By Richard K. Barry Earlier in May, Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala) announced that he would resign from Congress to take a job at the University of Alabama. A date has not been set for the special election to replace him, but this is a very reliable red state, so Democrats shouldn't get excited. Word now is that Rick Santorum will endorse conservative columnist Quin Hillyer. As a safe Republican seat, this will draw a lot of competition in the primary...

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Obamacare polls a little positive

By Frank Moraes Jonathan Bernstein has words of wisdom for us: Ignore Those Polls! Those being the recent CNN poll that show that over half of the people don't like Obamacare: 43-54. Apparently, Republicans are claiming that the poll proves them right: the people hate Obamacare! But then liberals have pushed back. Of the 54% who don't like Obamacare, 16 percentage points of them don't like it because it is not liberal enough. These are...

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The new gun-control movement, post-Newtown

By Michael J.W. Stickings I wasn't terribly disappointed when the Manchin-Toomey gun bill was defeated in the Senate (even though it got well more than 50 votes, because of a Republican filibuster), because it was a bad bill. But it did include an expanded background checks provision, along with various pro-gun provisions, and so in the end it was probably better than nothing. And yet in defeat that bill did more for the gun-control movement that it would have done had it ever become law, and in that sense a lot of good may come from what at the...

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Alaska Sen. Mark Begich (D) is more than a little vulnerable

By Richard K. BarryWe will be hearing a lot about how Republicans have a very good shot at taking back the Senate in 2014. One of the many reasons is Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska. You may know that Alaska is a very red state. It is a state in which President Obama managed only 43 percent of the vote last year.In 2008, when Begich won the seat, he did it by a mere 47.8 to 46.5 percent margin. And his opponent was the profoundly ethically challenged...

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A.M. Headlines

(USA Today): "Rep. Bachmann won't seek reelection"(Reuters): "Olympia Snowe: Bob Dole is right about GOP"(Politico): "Joe Miller files papers for Senate"(Las Vegas News): "Harry Reid says abuse of filibuster must end"(New York Times): "Anti-West hard-liner gains in Iranian ra...

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P.M. Headlines

(Washington Post): "Obama back in New Jersey with friend Chris Christie to survey Hurricane Sandy recovery"(Daily Beast): "Holder's regrets and repairs"(Salon): "Anthony Weiner can actually win the NYC mayor race"(The Hill): "Senate GOP feels jilted after being wined and dined by Obama on deficit talks"(CBS News): "Russia says it will help Syria deter 'hot head...

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What's wrong with MSNBC? (hint: Joe)

By Mustang Bobby Why are MSNBC's ratings so low? Well, as Alex Parene at Salon suggests, it's not because of Rachel Maddow:"Morning Joe" is the lowest rated of the big three cable news morning shows in both total viewers and the younger demographic. Fox News' Red Eye — a show Fox airs at 3 in the morning — had more total and 25-54-year-old viewers in April 2013 than "Morning Joe" did. "Morning Joe" in April 2013 was down, from its April 2012 numbers, in total and in young viewers by a greater percentage than the rest of the network as a whole.I'm...

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Russia to protect Syria from "hot heads"

By Carl In scanning the news this morning, I found this headline:Russia says it will help Syria deter "hot heads"Now whom could they possibly mean, I wonder... All kidding (on the square) aside, this is a bit troubling, although part of the problem could be in translation (or not). "Hot heads" is a pretty demeaning term, and about the only action apart from McCain's apparently unreported and foolish venture into Syria taken this weekend was taken, or rather not taken, by the European Union when it allowed the arms embargo with Syria to expire,...

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So about those conservative groups supposedly being "targeted" by the IRS...

By Michael J.W. Stickings See, this is how it happens. Republicans create a faux scandal without any grasp, or even any regard for, the facts, the media, both smelling blood to caving in easily to Republican pressure (when they're not in the bag for Republicans already), play right along, enabling the Republicans and providing them credence and a platform, reporting on the faux scandal they themselves are helping create, without any grasp of the...

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Bush 2.0

By Frank Moraes (Ed. note: For my take on Obama's "end of the war on terror" speech, see here. I thought it was, in general, a thoughtful, intelligent speech that addressed, without entirely disregarding, my progressive concerns, and I applaud him for presenting a serious understanding of the complexities of the world and America's place in it, as well as for encouraging a broad discussion of national security, but he's got an awful lot to prove...

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(Not President) McCain goes to Syria (and undermines U.S. policy)

By Michael J.W. Stickings Obviously, the situation in Syria is awful. According to French newspaper Le Monde, a "merciless war" is being waged on the outskirts of Damascus, with the Assad regime using chemical weapons against the rebels. And, in general, I'm with the rebels. I'd love to see the Assad regime fall and for the Syrian people to be freed from the shackles of that brutal tyranny. But the question isn't really which side you're on, because...

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