‘Nooney Tunes’

In case you missed this classic Jon Stewart segment on Peggy Noonan from this week (the excerpts from one of her audio books on Reagan are worth it all by themselves):

Just Wow

There’s a massive (70 meters wide), man-made circular structure, between 2,000 and 12,000 years old, at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee . And nautical archeologists are trying to raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to go down and find out what it is.

Photos of Bridge Collapse in Wash State

Photo of Skagit River Bridge Collapse- @dustystarling twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 24, 2013

North end of I-5 bridge over #Skagit River collapsed twitter.com/Gina_SVH/statu…

— Gina Cole (@Gina_SVH) May 24, 2013

More updates here.

BREAKING: Bridge Collapse in Wash State

King5.com: “Washington State Patrol confirms an I-5 bridge over the Skagit River has collapsed and at least two cars with people inside are in the water.”

More …

Here’s the twitter feed of a local reporter covering the story.

10:34 PM: Here’s an image of what is identified by Bridgehunter.com as I-5 Skagit River Bridge. I want to stress. I’ve linked to this image based on what appears to be the correct bridge based on available news reports. Keep that caveat in mind. (On the link above, note the less than desirable inspection ratings for the bridge.)

10:41 PM: Here’s an image of the actual collapse. Appears to be same bridge as above.

This Is Important. Give It a Read

As you know, TPM has aggressively covered the ‘voter fraud’ and vote suppression beat for years. Actually, the first time I dedicated a big part of the site to one such story was in 2002 - as part of Tim Johnson’s senate reelection campaign in South Dakota. (There was a Deputy Campaign Manager or Spokesman on the campaign by the name of Dan Pfeiffer.) So more than ten years. I want to flag something that came out of Ohio today. It’s a big deal though I doubt it will get much notice. And special thanks to longtime TPM Reader EH for flagging it to my attention.

One of the big threads of the 2012 national election was the big efforts by Republican legislatures, governors and secretaries of state to push voter suppression efforts - whether it was voter ID or curtailing early voting or whatever else. Even if you’re on the other side of this argument - though it’s hard to consider it much of an argument - Republicans were in control in a lot of critical swing states and went for the rafters in their fight against ‘vote fraud’. And at the center of that was Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.

Who Could Have Imagined

Who could have imagined that a Senator who came into office on a commercial morphing his opponent into Osama bin Laden would declare Obama speech a victory for terrorists.

He’s No Water Carrier!

TPM reporter tags along on subway ride with Anthony Weiner, helpfully spills water on voter Weiner is trying to court.

The Scandal Bar Speaks

A friends who’s a member in good standing of the DC scandal bar chimes in on his take on the IRS scandal …

Here’s how I see the IRS scandal at present. The biggest problem is that no one really knows the facts. Russell George is a nice and honest guy, but any IG who would let a supervisor sit in all the interviews w/her subordinates isn’t really ready for prime time. He also probably didn’t do a world class job on email review etc.

Obama’s Terrorism/Drone Speech

Click here for the full ‘as prepared for delivery’ text of Obama’s terrorism/drone speech. Watch it live here.

This Is Actually Happening

Maine’s Tea Party Gov. is moving out of the State House over an argument about a flat screen TV.

Not Endorsing, I Guess

NY Gov. Cuomo: “Shame on us,” if New Yorkers elect Anthony Weiner Mayor.

Ummm … Someone Needs a Constitution Refresher Course

RNC Chair Priebus: You don’t plead the fifth if you’re innocent. Watch.