This 2008 documentary, "A Ripple of Hope", tells a moving story about the night of Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968. Robert F. Kennedy, then campaigning for the presidency, was scheduled to appear in a black area of Indianapolis. With rioting in cities throughout the country he was strongly advised to cancel his campaign appearance. He declined to do so and made the sort of speech that we desperately could use about now. Here is part of that not long speech:
When Thomas Herndon, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's doctoral program in economics, spotted possible errors made by two eminent Harvard economists in an influential research paper, he called his girlfriend over for a second look.
As expected this afternoon, the Manchin-Toomey amendment on background checks was defeated by filibuster: A solid majority of the Senate supported the amendment, but with 60 votes needed the amendment fell five votes short. The actual vote was 54-46, with Harry Reid switching to “no” for procedural reasons in
Caleb Gordley wanted to go to a party Saturday night. But the 16-year-old was grounded because he hadn’t cleaned his room. So he decided he’d sneak out of his Loudoun County house to be with his friends.
When he left the party about 2 a.m., Caleb needed to sneak home. His friends dropped him off and helped hoist him through a back window. But Caleb had been drinking and had gone to the wrong house. The brick homes on his street are similar, and Caleb was two doors down from his own.
And yet, House Republicans do deserve some credit. Given the constraints put on Boehner and his deputy, Eric Cantor, by the most conservative members of the G.O.P. conference, they have navigated the last few months of fiscal politics more responsibly than many would have believed.
The old formula held that when government was divided between the parties, the contending sides should try to “meet in the middle.” But the current Republican leadership doesn’t know the meaning of the word “middle,” so intimidated by the tea party has it become.
Blunt-speaking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, thought to be eyeing a 2016 run for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted an NRA ad that mentions President Barack Obama's daughters as "reprehensible" and warned it "demeans" the powerful gun-rights group.
Zachary Goldfarb and Chris Cillizza, Wash Post online, earlier this afternoon. No reference in this brief article to Lew's views on financial sector regulation and oversight.
President Obama is set to nominate White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his next Treasury secretary, choosing a longtime expert on the nation’s budget challenges, as the country faces an imminent battle over the debt limit, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, launched a campaign Tuesday that they said would push for stricter gun laws and counter the political influence of the National Rifle Association.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) chuckled good-naturedly at the ambitions of the high-spirited G.O.P. freshmen, telling reporters, “I remember what it was like to be young and full of big ideas about crippling our historic institutions for no discernible reason whatsoever. There’s nothing like your first time.”
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(yes, satire, from Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker online, today)
