TSA chief John Pistole went for the big lie yesterday in his testimony before the Transportation and Commerce Committee. . . .

In a recent interview with Mike Stark, Florida Senator George LeMieux came down squarely against the rights of individual states to regulate marijuana, indicating that he was against both legalizing medical use and ending prohibition in general. He also believes that it’s the appropriate role of the criminal justice system to deal with marijuana users.

The only bill on the horizon that might have a positive economic impact is the small business loan bill. Yesterday, the Senate adjourned for a month, but Reid filed for cloture on the bill, and Senators hope to build support over the recess.

We’ll have to see how it develops, but the muck is flying in Florida.

Though the New York Times’ Joe Nocera may be off on point on changes to credit rating agencies, the overall thrust of his article is quite correct. Nocera, like many reformers, is a structuralist, believing that the very structure of Wall Street is at issue, not the way it gets regulated. And therefore, he would naturally look at what passed the Senate and say that it comes up far short.

It’s a testament to the institutional power of the Republican Party that not even the man Charlie Crist appointed to the US Senate, his former chief of staff, would follow him to an independent bid if Crist decided on that option.

Bernanke’s “ideas” are all over the 2008 collapse of our economy—and his uncaring hand on the rudder has helped steer us into this “jobless recovery” (a term I am embarrassed by every time I use it). The American people know it, some senators know it, and the Obama Administration is foolish to pretend that they don’t know it.