While our Brian Beutler is working on a longer piece, here’s a quick run down of what is and isn’t in the financial reform compromise bill.
Earlier this week, we heard this conspiracy theory — and I say that in the sense of knowing that conspiracy theories are not infrequently true — about Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) somehow being tied to the state-registered ‘Florida Tea Party’ in an attempt to siphon off votes from whatever Republican he ends up facing. I really wanted to figure out what was going on. And there was enough smoke to make me wonder. So I asked Christina Bellantoni to get to the bottom of what was going on. One thing I’m pretty sure of is that Christina’s head is still spinning from what a bizarre scene it is down there. But here’s her take on what she found out.
Tennessee House candidate (TN-6) declares opposition to Muslim community center in Murfreesboro, cites Martin Luther King for her opposition.
Explaining her opposition, Lou Ann Zelenik writes: “Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilization and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them.”
You’ve heard all the blaring headlines. But what happened on the big four reform issues in financial services reform? Brian Beutler has your answers.
Have you heard of the anchor baby/global terrorist nexus?
Texas Louie Gohmert (R-TX) went on the floor of the House last night to reveal a new terrorist plot to send Islamic women to the US to birth their babies, then take them back to the House of Islam for 20 or 30 years of terrorist preparation so they can reenter the country as US citizens in the late 2030s. Watch it.
Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) presses DHS Secretary Napolitano for more surveillance of Hezbollah operations along the US Mexico border.
My favorite quote so far: “Former intelligence officials have pointed to the terrain that makes up our border, especially in the San Diego border sector, as a reason why drug cartels have been partnering with Hezbollah. This terrain is very much like the areas around Israel’s borders. As we well know, Hezbollah is extremely skilled in the construction of tunnels.”
Full Myrick press release after the jump … Read More
Find out about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision that will probably let a lot of political crooks out of jail and make it harder to put new ones in.
Cheney hospitalized after experiencing discomfort, expected to remain in hospital over the weekend.
As you can see our feature story is about Thursday’s Supreme Court decision that could have a big effect on future public corruption cases and will quite likely end up letting a good number of convicted public officials out of prison. That’s definitely true. But it’s not the whole story. We cover public corruption cases pretty closely. And over the years I’ve been persuaded that the “honest services” statute or more specifically the interpretation of it being used by the Justice Department really is too broad.
You can see my layman’s description of the law here. I’ll be wise and not try to explain the technical details or the different equities in play. (I think we’ll try to convene a group of experts who can help us dig into the subject further.). For now though suffice it to say there are legitimate arguments that what the Court did here was the right thing.