Not that this would stop him

Stephen Colbert asks Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) a simple question: "What are the Ten Commandments?" Why is this such a hard question to answer? After all, Rep. Westmoreland has sponsored a bill requiring the House and Senate to display the Ten Commandments.



Hint for Rep. Westmoreland: number 3 and number 9 seem to be particularly difficult for you to remember...

Net Neutrality

I made a call to Sen. Gordon Smith's Portland office (503-326-3386) today. I introduced myself and told the lady where I was calling from (Portland), and said I was calling about Net Neutrality.

Senator Smith hasn't taken a public position on the topic yet. He has taken lots and lots of money from companies on both sides of the issue; earlier this week I read that his top two contributors were AT&T (anti-network neutrality) and Microsoft (pro-network neutrality).

She sounded cheerful and said "Yes?"

"I was wondering if Sen. Smith had decided who his constituents were today?" I asked.

There was a brief silence and then she said, rather annoyed, "I will be sure to pass along your comments to the senator."

I said, "Is that all you can do?"

She said "That is all I can do."

I started to ask, "You can't even answer my question?"

...but she hung up on me. Can you believe it? I don't know, it seems like a simple question to me.

Maybe I'll get an answer at the Washington office. I'll post what I find out.

Any Oregon readers of my humble blog are encouraged to call Senator Smith to ask him the same question...

Humor

Overheard on BS News on Air America this afternoon (paraphrased from memory):

"President Bush today secretly flew into Iraq for a 5 hour visit; however, like most Americans in Baghdad, his stay will be at least three times longer than planned.

After the visit, President Bush will qualify for veteran's benefits - which he will then deny to himself."

Markos Moulitsa Zúniga

Markos totally rocked the house on Meet The Press today!

He countered so many myths about Left Blogsylvania:

• He explained that bloggers are activists, and represent a cross-section of America, left, moderate and right.
  
• He stated clearly that Republicans have learned the lessons of communication, and that Democratic leadership needs to learn them before they can win elections.
  
• He thoroughly stepped on Joe Lieberman's angry response to a primary challenge.
  
• He countered the myth that the reason Ned Lamont is running against Joe Lieberman is due solely to the Iraq War, and offered instead a view of forcing Lieberman to make his case to the people of Connecticut.
  
• He spoke out against Democrats who undermine the party.
  
• He stated that most Democrats in America view Hillary Clinton as "the establishment" and generally a good Democrat, as opposed to having some crazed Republican fear of her.
  
• ...so much more.

Check it out on Crooks and Liars.

Do you think Timmeh was impressed?

Three cheers for Earl B!

I know I've been absent from this space for a while.

Lots of news could legitimately go in this space to mark my return. Sadly, the bulk of the news is sad, or at least demoralizing, to a progressive like myself.

But I'd prefer to mark it with a thank-you and a more positive note. My Congressional Representative in the House, Earl Blumenauer, has a front-page post on MyDD, lambasting Tom DeLay for his phony "resignation speech" to Congress.

Keep on speaking out, Earl!

Unrecognizable, Part Two of Many

All indications are that today, President Bush is going to continue the push to restrict the rights of Americans.

Not only that, but he's going to push to have that restriction written into the Constitution.

What ever happened to "All men are created equal"? What ever happened to the "pursuit of life, liberty and happiness"?

And even the straight, supposedly mainstream media treats this unprecedented assault on rights as simply a cynical political maneuver to boost President Bush's approval ratings, and improve the chances of the current bums in charge of Congress to win re-election.

I mean, it is that. By all indications, the Federal Marriage Amendment has zero chances of passing the requirements necessary to be written into the Constitution.

Unless, of course, the Republicans have the voting rigged...

Welcome to the New America.