Under the radar in this country there’s been a rising tide of fear on the right that the government is going to force people to be implanted with microchips. It was actually a B-list conspiracy theory tied to the Health Care Reform bill. But at least some conservatives seem to be warming to these oft-maligned little nuggets of silicon.

One of them is Dr. Pat Bertroche, who’s running to challenge Democrat Leonard Boswell in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional district. He believes we should microchip illegal immigrants to make sure we can keep track of them. Read More

Which party would Charlie Crist caucus with if he wins the Florida senate seat as an independent? “You’re way ahead of me,” he tells the Miami Herald. “One day at a time.”

When Jillian Rayfield and Evan McMorris-Santoro took a good look it turned out that the Arizona legislature had passed a lot of other pretty crazy laws of late beside the much-discussed immigration bill. And we got some emails over the course of the day from readers telling us about more pieces of crackpot legislation in their states. But we want to know more.

If you know of a particularly ridiculous, outrageous or just plain silly law your state legislature has passed or which is currently under serious consideration, let us know about it. Send us word at the comments email address at the upper right of the site.

Stephen Colbert: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is just an average Joe who makes $5,000 an hour — $6,000 if there’s kissing. Watch.

“[Immigration] is an issue on which Republicans salivate over short-term gains without much thought to the longer-term damage it will do the party,” Mark McKinnon tells the New York Times. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) takes to the Senate floor to laud the Republican filibuster of financial reform but implies that it’s nearing an end:

[T]his has been a very useful exercise. By giving people time to actually look at this bill and study the details for themselves, we’ve enabled them to assess not only the potential impact of the actual text of the bill itself, but also some of the unintended consequences it could have.

More here.

Phony marijuana petition drive in California actually registers you as a Republican voter.

If you’re not an Apple-obsessive, you might not have been following closely the legal and journalistic controversy surrounding Gizmodo’s acquisition of and reporting about the secret new iPhone prototype. It’s an interesting story, and Justin Elliott gets you up to speed.

The Senate GOP blocked financial reform for the third time this week in a floor vote a few minutes ago. The final was vote was 56-42 (no significant defections from the previous votes).

Reports out of Florida that Gov. Charlie Crist is telling his key financial backers that he will announce an independent run for U.S. Senate at his press conference scheduled for tomorrow.