A new senator makes his
official oratory debut:
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) used his first speech from the Senate floor to press for legislation that would create a panel to review federal rules, calling for an end to "regulation without representation."
"Our great nation has been bogged down in recent years with what I believe is one of the greatest hindrances to job growth and economic productivity, and that is the overregulation of our citizens," he said Tuesday.
Rounds was praised for his speech by Mitch McConnell, who agreed that this sort of "overregulation" was "the single biggest problem confronting our country."
Meanwhile, the House contemplates whether or not they will block a new D.C. effort to expand residents' access to contraceptives:
A D.C. bill to expand access to birth control could become the next big battle between city leaders and conservatives in Congress.
The bill would allow women to get a full year of birth control at once and is likely to draw fire from Republicans who have already tried to block a D.C. statute offering legal protections to women who have had abortions or use contraception. [...]
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who spearheaded the House’s effort to block D.C.’s abortion-rights bill, did not immediately return a request for comment about the latest D.C. policy.
And thus ends our short story about
regulation without representation. Drawing a connection between the two stories, if there is any, is left as an exercise to the reader.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—'What the hell did we do to deserve this?'
If they spoke English, "What the hell...?" might well be what the 'gators in the Louisiana wetlands would be asking the herons these days as the oil creeps in from the Gulf gusher. But, of course, those are actually the boneheaded words of BP CEO Tony Hayward , whose string of pronouncements over the past five weeks appears increasingly reptilian. The 'gators and herons have nothing to answer for. BP has had nearly 800 recorded safety violations since 2007.
Given BP's arrogant recklessness 800 fathoms beneath the sea and the whacks Hayward's shoot-from-the-lip style have gotten from the media, one would expect that the giant company's PR department would have by now stapled Mr. Hayward's tongue to the roof of his mouth for the duration. But apparently it is as helpless to stanch the flow of toxicity passing through his lips as engineers are to stop the oil gushing from the sea floor.
A politician's staff calls what Hayward is doing "misspeaking" when their boss is caught out. As when he said just a few days ago: "We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused to their lives. There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back." If the 11 dead oil workers could speak, they might have something to say about that. But, of course, Hayward had forgotten all about them in his bellyaching over what he has to put up with to collect his $4.5 million annual compensation package.
Previously, there was his "Almost nothing has escaped."
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, we returned to the FBI's use of surveillance aircraft, tried to get a handle on the FIFA corruption probe, and read a bit about how poaching can fund terrorism. Guess what? Wherever there's a pile of money, you'll find everything from simple individual corruption to globe-spanning organized crime and terrorism. Maybe it really
is the root of all evil.
Joan McCarter got us up to speed on the wrangling over the ludicrously acronymed "USA FREEDOM Act." A reminder that we're on King v. Burwell watch, and who stands to lose how much if things go poorly. And once again, an amazing and fun fact you'd never know about Idaho if it weren't for Joan!
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