Rand Paul: 'Obamacare' is still unconstitutional

Via Politico:

Sen. Rand Paul doesn’t think the Supreme Court gets the last word on what’s constitutional.

The Kentucky Republican belittled the high court’s health care decision as the flawed opinion of just a “couple people.”

“Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so. The whole thing remains unconstitutional,” the freshman lawmaker said in a statement.

Sen. McConnell's disgraceful drive for secrecy

An excellent editorial from today's Courier-Journal:

(In Sen. McConnell's view,) money is speech and people who have it are entitled to speak freely under the First Amendment. The rich just happen to have more “speech” to spend on political causes. A lot more.

Sen. McConnell is working to ensure the rich spend that extra “speech” in secret, cloaking his campaign in a disingenuous First Amendment argument. In doing so, he is emerging as the chief defender of Super Pac donors, protecting those who might otherwise suffer “bullying and intimidation.”

...Sen. McConnell’s single-minded drive for secrecy is the true threat in this debate. Congress and the public should not be fooled by his supposed passion for the First Amendment and take steps to shine light on the dark money.

McConnell flip-flops on campaign finance disclosure

A good editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

Time after time in the 20 years after this commentary appeared in the Herald-Leader, McConnell reiterated his support for public disclosure of campaign contributions.

...However, speaking to the conservative American Enterprise Institute Friday, just two days before the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, Senate Minority Leader McConnell denounced "government-compelled disclosure of contributions to all grass-roots groups" as "nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation, either by government authorities or through third-party allies," according to The Washington Post's coverage of the speech.

What changed? The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision. Now that corporations (and other organizations) are people, too, and can spend unlimited amounts of money on political causes, McConnell wants to shield the super PACs his boardroom buddies are creating from disclosure rules proposed by congressional Democrats.

Conway Leads For-Profit College Investigation

Via California Watch:

Attorneys general in 15 states are investigating QuinStreet, a Foster City-based Internet marketing company that connects its for-profit college clients with service members and veterans looking to spend their military education benefits.

In their inquiry, the investigators expressed concerns that QuinStreet's marketing websites, such as www.GIBill.com and www.ArmyStudyGuide.com, mislead consumers into believing that the sites are affiliated with the government or that the for-profit colleges recommended by the sites are the only ones that accept subsidies such as the GI Bill or Tuition Assistance, which is for service members on active duty.

According to QuinStreet's most recent quarterly report filed May 8, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway is leading the multi-state inquiry into the company, with attorneys general in Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee joining the investigation.