You know we’ve been following the bizarre, sad and sometimes hilarious story of Hardin, MT and its crumbling deal with American Police Force to run its unused jail and it seems also become the town’s police force. But just how did tiny Hardin get saddled with this prisonerless prison and so desperate to pay for it that they were prey for a con-man like Michael Hilton and his potemkin private security firm?
That’s the story TPMMuckraker’s Justin Elliott looks at today.
It’s a town and prison version of the subprime mortgage collapse. And it’s not just Hardin, Montana. A consortium of private companies around the country has been searching the country for impoverished and desperate small towns and who set up complex economic development authorities to build prisons few of which will ever bring in the funds and jobs the prison building song-n-dance men promised.
Here’s our report.
Fox News responding to White House criticism: “It’s astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming.”
Eric Kleefeld reviews the second issue of the already legendary Michele Bachmann comic. But he finds that Issue 2 does not live up to the promise of Issue 1, mainly because the authors rely largely on paraphrases of Bachmann’s wingloonian rants rather than the direct quotes which made up most of the copy in Issue 1.
Still good art, though. As you can see. And a must-buy for Bachmann completists.
Eric Kleefeld reports on tonight’s McDonnell/Deeds debate in Richmond.
Israeli President Peres says the peace process and the Iran issue are linked.
In a short post last night, George Stephanopoulos wrote that by going to war against the Baucus Bill, the health insurance lobby had actually increased the chances of some form of public option appearing in the final bill. I’m not sure if I agree with the exact mechanics George sees playing out. But I think he’s got the overall impact right.
Contrary to my expectations, the timing and content of the report were so transparent that they had little effect (at least little that I’ve seen so far) on the conventional wisdom about the bill’s effects but did tend to focus and even unite the supporters of reform.
The Senate Finance Committee convenes at 10 a.m. ET to vote on the Baucus health care reform bill. We’ll be following all the developments on the Hill this morning at TPMDC.
As for Olympia Snowe’s vote today, the White House has no idea which way she’s leaning — and isn’t especially focused on her.