Talking Points Memo has put together an excellent resource for keeping up with happenings in Washington.

Whatever else Twitter might be, we've found it a good way to keep tabs on politicos and reporters, what they're doing, saying and so forth. Pols make unguarded or revealing statements, sometimes just helpful heads-ups on events or statements; reporters give early tips on stories. And just atmospherically you can get a feel for what certain groups of people are thinking and talking about.

With that, enjoy Twitter feeds aggregated at TPM for Elected Democrats on Capitol Hill, Elected Republicans on Capitol Hill, Democratic and liberal insiders, Republican and conservative insiders, and reporters and bloggers.
posted by lazaruslong on Jul 24, 2009 - 29 comments

Josh Micah Marshall, longtime favorite blogger of the center-left crowd, has opened up a new spin-off discussion site for his eminently popular Talking Points Memo, which has long been lacking for open yammering from the peanut gallery. The new site will feature weekly guest bloggers, and is hitting things off right with former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards!
posted by kaibutsu on Jun 1, 2005 - 5 comments

Diagnosis via press release. Josh Marshall speculates on Dick Cheney's health based on a press release put out by a shoe store. The store says Cheney's feet have "changed to a size 10EEE". Swelling of the feet is a primary symptom of congestive heart failure.
posted by jpoulos on Dec 2, 2004 - 33 comments

Former Texas Lt. Gov. says he helped Bush dodge 'Nam. "I got...I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas, and I'm not necessarily proud of that. But, But I did it, and I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that's what people should do when you're in office and you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked to the Vietnam Memorial wall the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I've ever been because it's the worst thing I did was help a lot of wealthy supporters, and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm ashamed. And I apologize to you, the voters of Texas."
Video available here.
posted by insomnia_lj on Aug 27, 2004 - 43 comments

This is precisely the sort of inane mumbojumbo that will -- perhaps literally -- get us all killed. ...The importance of words is a conceit of wordsmiths, certainly. But they are important -- especially when they bleed through into thought and action, which happens more often than you'd think.,

TPM is becoming almost too widely-read to be postworthy, but Josh really puts things into perspective with this post. For an example of what all this jingoistic gibberish can result in, see the post below it.
posted by jpoulos on Apr 15, 2004 - 63 comments

POWER RANGERS: Did the Bush Administration create a new American empire—or weaken the old one? The left's favorite blogger, Talking Points Memo's Joshua Michah Marshall has been published in this week's New Yorker.
posted by jpoulos on Jan 26, 2004 - 29 comments

Last week, Josh Marshall of TPM broke a story on his blog, about US detention of Mahdi Obeidi, who has been held under American surveillance since the fall of Baghdad. Marshall claims that Obeidi is being held due to his refusal to tell his captors what they want to hear as regards the alleged Iraqi nuclear program. It took a few days, but the story has now gone beyond the "blogosphere" and was picked up by Newsweek's Michael Hirsh in yesterday's story Is Iraqi Intel Still Being Manipulated?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly on Aug 12, 2003 - 7 comments

"Twenty-two years ago, late in the evening one night in March of 1981, to be specific, my mother was killed in an auto accident on Foothill Boulevard in a town called Claremont." Talking Points Memo author Joshua Marshall, one of the best-known political webloggers, takes an unexpected personal detour.
posted by rcade on Jun 14, 2003 - 4 comments

As you may have heard, long term FBI Agent and Chinese double-agent Katrina Leung was charged yesterday. What you might not have heard, if, say, you only read the CNN story, was that Leung was a prominent Republican, who probably did a good bit to subvert the campaign finance reform effort. However, this isn't being covered by ABC, CNN, Newsweek, the New York Times, or pretty much anyone with any name recognition, as TalkingPointsMemo reports. Funny how potential sabotage isn't worth mentioning in these fast times full of SARS and terror, no?
posted by kaibutsu on May 10, 2003 - 32 comments

Operation: Cover George's butt? As the backpeddling and fingerpointing over "cakewalk" predictions continues, Talking Points Memo notes a recent article in the Charlotte Observer that quotes "senior administration officials" in saying that "dissenting views [about the war plan]' were not fully or energetically communicated to the president.'" Sounds like someones taking out an insurance policy, don't it?
posted by Gilbert on Mar 31, 2003 - 15 comments

On the Internet, no one knows if you're a dog. Slate continues to unravel the fascinating story of the hoax that was Robert Klingler. A man claiming to be the "head of BMW North America" was picked to do one of Slate's weeklong diaries; two days in, Slate discovered that the man was not at all who he said he was, and set out to find the truth. (Also being covered by Joshua Micah Marshall's excellent Talking Points Memo.). Turns out the likely suspect has quite a history of con artistry...
posted by hincandenza on Mar 13, 2002 - 18 comments

How do you put a good face on war crimes? You think ahead and hire a PR agency.
posted by feckless on Mar 5, 2002 - 6 comments