Just tweeted by David Gregory …
Rand Paul is trying to cancel his appearance on MTP Sun. We are attempting to get him to reconsider.
Gregory’s producer tweeted about Paul bagging first and Christina Bellantoni got the details on just what Paul’s campaign said.
Hard to figure when the first two appearances have gone so well.
Justin Elliott reports on Rand Paul campaigning in Montana back in 2008 against the mythical “NAFTA Superhighway” and the “Amero”, the mythical NAFTA currency.
I admit I wasn’t fully up on the ‘NAFTA Superhighway’ conspiracy theory. But here’s how Rand’s dad described in back in 2006 …
“Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside. … The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union.”
I’ll admit I’m no civil engineer. But maybe some of the folks who specialize in that line of work can chime in here. Because apart from destroying American sovereignty, this strikes me as a little ill-conceived from a critical infrastructure point of view, no? The oil and gas pipelines co-located under the highway? Along with a bunch of train and freight traffic powering through and throw in the broadband for good measure? I’m not sure that’s a good plan.
One of the Republican candidates for governor of California wants to banish all the state’s pedophiles to an island in the Pacific.
Our Brian Beutler has been pinning down senators since last night on whether they will take up Rep. Barney Frank’s challenge to televise the conference committee negotiations of the financial reform bill. Surprisingly, some key senators have said yes.
The idea that the modern day Democratic Party is the political party that really has blood on its hands from opposing integration is being advanced more frequently these days among some conservatives, but mostly at the fringes of the Republican Party. Until now. No longer is it just fringe revisionism. Read More
Anti-establishment means running against Washington while taking K Street’s cash. That and the day’s other news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
By a vote of 59-39, the Senate gave final passage to the financial reform bill this evening. Brian Beutler has the details.
Not voting were Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Arlen Specter. Bucking their parties with yes votes were Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Charles Grassley, and Scott Brown; and with no votes were Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold.
Historians will probably conclude that the package of reforms was surprisingly modest given the depth and severity of the 2008-09 financial crisis. A harsher historical judgment might find that the political and economic power wielded by the financial industry in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was so extensive that it could weather a near total collapse of the system without having to yield its power or privilege.
Back when Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden (R) first got into the chickens and health care barter business, a lot of folks said it wouldn’t damage her politically. I even heard from some people who said the focus on the story itself was a product of elitism and that ordinary people would identify with Lowden (no doubt, the view of people deeply in touch with the lives of middle class and working families who’d mainly prefer to forego health insurance and pay in livestock, which they have in abundance).
But now the verdict is in. And if this is the verdict, Sue Lowden should probably consider an appeal. Read More