Category Archives: Congress
Obama Trade Secret
Nancy Pelosi led the president’s own party in defeating a key part of his free trade legislation on Friday. The deal would have provided money and training for workers displaced by the Trans Pacific Partnership – Obama Trade.
Republicans Boehner and Ryan are switch hitting for the president on Obama Trade. They want “fast track” authority which would allow him to negotiate in secret with Asian governments. The House would then vote up or down on the final trade deal with no amendments.
The bill itself is so secret congressmen are only allowed to see it in a basement reading room. One page at a time. With no notes leaving the room. Some notes must have left the room because details of the bill are being made public by Wikileaks.
Financial Struggles of Rubio and Hastert
The NYT is on Marco Rubio’s case. The paper reported he’s had 4 traffic tickets in 17 years! Not only that, he used an $800,000 book advance to pay off $100,000 in student loans and buy an $80,000 fishing boat – or a “luxury speed boat”. All this packed into not one, but two stories. The second story appeared on Wednesday’s front page under the headline Rubio Career Bedeviled by Financial Struggles.
The editors seem unaware that Rubio’s financial struggles are the same struggles bedeviling a lot of normal people. Jon Stewart is on The Times’ case.
Meanwhile a picture directly above the Rubio story, in the print edition, features the financial struggles of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert’s struggles aren’t so much like those of normal people. He’s accused of agreeing to pay $3.5 million in blackmail. Paying blackmail isn’t illegal, but using your own cash to do it is, if you withdraw over $10,000. Hastert tried to avoid that by taking out less than 10 grand more often. Apparently that’s illegal too.
Jon Kass of the Chicago Tribune is not happy with Dennis Hastert.
Government Train Wreck
A reporter blamed the tragic Amtrak train wreck in Philadelphia on not enough government spending on infrastructure. House Speaker John Boehner said the train wrecked because it was going 106 mph in a 50 mph zone. This may be just the sort of thinking President Obama wants Boehner to change.
Gyrocopter Air Mail
Postal worker Doug Hughes delivered a load of letters to Congress by landing a flying lawn mower on the U.S. Capitol lawn. He managed to fly his gyrocopter under Homeland Security’s radar and no one shot him.
Hughes is luckier than Miriam Carey. She was visiting our nation’s capitol more conventionally in her black Infiniti on October 3, 2013.
Somehow she made a u-turn at a secret service checkpoint and got involved in a high speed chase. That ended when Capital Police fired 26 shots killing the 34 year old dental hygienist but missing her 16 month old baby in the back seat.
