Mitt Romney says a lot of questionable things on the campaign trail, like taking credit for the auto bailout he criticized or pretending that he never touted his Massachusetts health care law as a model for national reform. But one of the most dubious claims he’s making isn’t a disprovable statement of fact. It’s a theory about the economy—one that I suspect the majority of economists, including many conservatives, would reject. The New Republic
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To remain economically competitive, the United States must have a 21st-century transportation system. Goods must move efficiently to market, and people must reliably get from their homes to their jobs or schools. Our transportation network, however, has not kept pace with our exponential growth. For example, from 1980 to 2006, the total number of miles traveled by automobiles increased 97 percent and the miles traveled by trucks increased 106 percent. Yet over the same period, the total number of highway lane miles grew only 4 percent. Politico
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The Muslim Brotherhood, a group that was once thought virtually extinct in Syria, has surprised everyone by staging a comeback. The Islamist group is, according to Reuters, a “dominant force” in the Syrian opposition. Similarly, in Egypt, the MB has become perhaps the most powerful group in the wake of the Revolution. Salon
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If you had thought, as I did, that the U.S. economic expansion was getting healthier, you would have lost a bet on first quarter GDP growth. The preliminary estimate, which we got in late April, showed the economy grew at only a 2.2 percent annual rate, which was a slowdown from the previous quarter and well below the consensus estimate among economists. The GDP news raised the question of whether the expansion is running out of steam. Brookings Insitution
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Alabamians should see on Wednesday, the last day of the legislative session, just how badly the Republicans who control the Statehouse want to continue down the path of anti-immigrant extremism. The lawmakers’ challenge was to fix last year’s terrible immigration law, House Bill 56, which turned state and local police officers into papers-checking immigration agents and imposed a grab bag of criminal punishments and deterrents on undocumented immigrants and on businesses and charitable organizations that help or hire them. The only real solution is the full repeal of the law, but bills to do that have died. Republican leaders have said they want to make the law more “efficient,” but have vowed not to weaken it. So the question as time runs out is whether the Legislature will approve any “tweaks” through a new measure, House Bill 658, that has already passed the House, or some other bill originating in the Senate. The New York Times
Submitted 2 days ago

In an editorial published today, The New York Times says that the “only real solution” to Alabama’s immigration issue is the full repeal of the 2011 law, though bills to do that have died. The editorial, titled “Alabama’s Disgrace,” argues that the bill offered to revise last year’s law, House Bill 658, preserves the “malign intent” of the original measure and makes some of the provisions even worse. For instance, it expands the citizenship requirement to include passengers in a stopped car and doubles the time that someone can be jailed while awaiting a status check. The Times also says that House Bill 658 does “nothing meaningful” to protect humanitarian or religious groups that try to help immigrants, and adds: “It may be that only the courts can rescue Alabama from itself.” Mobile Press-Register
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Consider $2 billion lost on a bad bet, plus billions more as investors dumped the stock, a providential warning. When Jamie Dimon, the imperious head of JPMorgan Chase, revealed that the bank had lost so much on a derivatives trade gone bad, it was clear warning that, four years after blowing up the economy, the big banks are still playing with bombs. The Nation
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How critical is Hartsfield-Jackson to Atlanta’s economy? “Without it, we’d be Birmingham. We’d be Charlotte. We’d be Nashville,” Metro Atlanta Chamber President Sam Williams said. Atlanta Journal Constitution
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Ron Paul’s campaign may have undertaken the most passive-aggressive political maneuver in modern political history. While he isn’t dropping out of the GOP primary—or “suspending his campaign” in the current parlance—he announced Monday he “will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted.” He will still try to win delegates through “the state convention process.” Daily Beast
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So Ron Paul says he is going to stop actively campaigning, but his supporters will continue to rack up delegates by storming state conventions. What will he do with these delegates? That is still unclear. (Barter them for gold?) What is the point of this strategy, exactly? Also unclear, but the Daily Beast’s Ben Jacobs today says it’s part of a “sneaky maneuver” to help his son Rand out. Ron will continue to consolidate power but will not appear to be actively sabotaging the party’s nominee. Dave Weigel says the maneuver is less sneaky and barely a maneuver: He doesn’t want it to be a huge embarrassment when he loses Kentucky, the state his son represents in the Senate. Salon
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