“Back in 2008, when all my peers were jumping on the Obama bandwagon, I backed Hillary,” Krystal Ball said. “The country was reeling from a disastrous eight years of President George W. Bush.”

It’s clear now that we have two economies. One for a thin slice of educated elites. And one for everyone else. That is this moment. So I ask you. Does Hillary Clinton sound to you like the right person for this moment?


In a time when corporations have hijacked our politics, enabling them to reap all the profit without feeling any compunction to do right by their workers; Is someone who sat on the rabidly anti-union board of Walmart for six years the right person to restore workers’ rights?


In a time when we are still reeling from a global financial disaster brought on by fool hearted bank deregulation; Is someone who took $400,000 to give two speeches at Goldman Sachs the person we need to wrest control of the asylum back from the banking inmates? Someone who at those paid speeches reassured the masters of the universe in attendance that they were unfairly being persecuted? That in her words, “banker-bashing … was unproductive and indeed foolish?” Someone whose husband by the way did much of the deregulating that got us into trouble in the first place?

A newly issued subpoena in the ongoing George Washington Bridge investigation seeks information related to a former Port Authority official's November testimony before the committee investigating the controversy, an attorney for one of the subpoenaed groups confirmed Tuesday.


The subpoena, issued yesterday by the joint legislative committee, seeks any drafts of former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni's November testimony, any edits to it, or correspondence with Baroni prior to the appearance, attorney Mark Sheridan confirmed Tuesday. Sheridan represents Gov. Chris Christie's reelection campaign, which has been subpoenaed by both the committee and the U.S. Attorney.


Baroni appeared before the committee on November 25, telling members during his testimony that the lane diversions ordered by the agency during the second week of September were done in order to study the effect on traffic at the bridge if two of three local lanes were diverted for highway use.


Baroni was not under oath at the time, and email traffic that surfaced after his testimony showed no evidence of a study but instead suggest the diversions were politically motivated. Democrats have said Baroni was not truthful with the committee and are seeking to determine who helped him prepare his testimony.


MSNBC host Rachel Maddow first reported the request for information about Baroni's testimony and citing a source close to the investigation said all 18 subpoenas issued yesterday seek the same information.


The subpoena issued to the campaign also seeks any correspondence between the campaign and Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich going back to April of last year, Sheridan confirmed.


It's not clear why the committee is seeking correspondence with Sokolich, however the mayor has speculated that the lane diversions were punishment for his refusal to endorse Christie in his bid for reelection. Christie has denied that Sokolich was on the campaign's radar and said he was never told the endorsement was being sought.


Sokolich has said he was courted for an endorsement by former Christie campaign staffer Matt Mowers.




http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/new-bridgegate-subpoenas-focus-bill

“The legislature is subpoenaing all these people at the Port Authority, all these lower-level people who work at the governor’s staff, and his governor’s office, and his campaign again, all looking for, who helped draft the cover-up?” Maddow said.

Christian Whiton @ChristianWhiton

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With McConnell unlikely to return to the Senate next year, who will the Republican leader be?

11:23 AM - 11 Feb 2014

https://twitter.com/ChristianWhiton?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Ftalkingpointsmemo.com%2Flivewire%2Fchristian-whiton-mcconnell-reelection&tw_i=433275208632238080&tw_p=tweetembed

Republicans are giving up because they know that winning is impossible when their leaders are determined to lose. These leaders have telegraphed weakness to the Democrats and sabotaged conservative efforts so many times that Republicans now have no leverage. There's only one solution.

John Boehner must be replaced as Speaker of the House.

His “Reefer Madness”-style prognosticating picked up speed from there, zigzagging from the past — “Now, when I was 17 and 18 and 16, I made dumb decisions as is. I didn’t need the help of marijuana or alcohol to further that,” he shared — to the present (“The bottom line is that it is a substance that alters your mind”) and even off into the future — “When you go interview for that job, and that thing pops up in your background check that you got arrested for something dumb, they don’t look at you and say, ‘Ahh, you were just 17.’ There are people who won’t get hired because of that stuff,” he counseled — almost as if the junior Florida senator had gotten used to slipping in and out of the time-space continuum at will.

Rubio elicited a few chuckles whilst raising alarms about how getting pinched for pot might burn bridges further down the road.

“There are bars that will give you a tough — not drinking bars, legal bars, the Florida bar — that won’t let you [in] because of those issues,” Rubio warned aspiring attorneys.

http://hoh.rollcall.com/rubio-looses-epic-smokescreen-regarding-marijuana-use/