Reid Schedules Another Vote on Financial Reform

By GottaLaff

The definition of insanity...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled a cloture vote on financial regulatory reform for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, but there is no indication that the outcome will be any different than what occurred on Monday.

Oh, but I kid the Majority Leader. The Party of No will re-expose their obstructionist ways as financial reform, for the time being, continues on a treadmill to nowhere.

Perhaps visual aids would help. Reid should present a big photo poster of the GOP holding hands with bankers in a heart-shaped frame.

Kyl Says Republicans Ready to Cooperate on Financial Reform

By GottaLaff

Wait, what? Why, I had my eyes opened today! It turns out the GOP actually does know the word "cooperate". Who tutored them while we weren't looking? All that surreptitious home schooling may have actually paid off:

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Sunday said Republicans are eager to cooperate with Democrats on financial regulatory reform legislation, the next major item on the Senate agenda.

Apparently, they also learned the words "poll numbers", "consequences", "elections", and "fail".

They have yet, however, to fully comprehend the meaning of the words "hypocrite" and "disingenuous".

House Republicans Huddle With Lobbyists to Kill Financial Reform Bill

By GottaLaff

Roll Call is subscription only, so we only get this much:

In a call to arms, House Republican leaders met with more than a 100 lobbyists at the Capitol Visitors Center on Tuesday afternoon to try to fight back against financial regulatory overhaul legislation.

Oh good, that's constructive... because minimizing regulation has done so much to strengthen this country over the last 8 years.

And how politically astute of the Rushpublics to associate themselves unabashedly with lobbyists. Those brassy little scamps.

VIDEO-- Inhofe: Block EPA Regulation Of Greenhouse Gases: ‘We Can Stall That Until We Get A New President’

By GottaLaff



Hey Inhofe. Know what happens when global warming gets completely out of hand (if it's not already)? We all die. Yeah, even you, I. Di. Ot:

In a speech for the Heartland Institute yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that the Senate could just “stall” any EPA regulation:

INHOFE: Don’t be distressed when you see the House passes some kind of cap-and-trade bill. And you know it could be worse and she could still pass it, so it’ll pass there. The EPA has threatened to regulate this through the Clean Air Act. That isn’t going to work in my opinion because we can stall that until we get a new president – that shouldn’t be a problem.

[I]nhofe is an avowed opponent of EPA regulation. On the day that the EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced the endangerment finding, Inhofe released a statement arguing that “Congress should pass a simple, narrowly-targeted bill that stops EPA in its tracks.”

I hope he uses sunscreen.

No I don't.

House Approves Bill To Regulate Tobacco Products

By GottaLaff

Speaking of smokers, how about legalizing marijuana:

The House has approved legislation that for the first time would give the government powers to regulate tobacco products.

The measure, passed by a 298-112 vote, was a significant victory for anti-smoking groups that have long sought to subject cigarettes to the same government scrutiny that food items on the nation's grocery shelves face.

Under the bill, the Food and Drug Administration would be able to regulate, but not ban, cigarettes and other tobacco products. The FDA could make ingredients public, ban flavoring and prohibit marketing campaigns.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill, and Prez O is expected to sign it.

H/t: BuzzFlash

Eradicating an ugly Bush stain: Obama EPA will investigate coal ash sites

By GottaLaff

I've posted twice about these sludgy messes. Finally, we'll have a president that actually addresses them directly and quickly:

The Obama administration will immediately begin to assess the hundreds of coal ash disposal sites at power plants across the country in the wake of two spills in Alabama and Tennessee.

Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency will also reconsider federal regulation. [...]

In 2000, the EPA recommended setting a national standard for the hundreds of coal ash disposal sites nationwide. But the EPA never acted on that recommendation during the Bush administration.

BushCo needs a swift kick in the ash.