Revving back up

Welcome to the new Lie Factory.

My first goal is to get these old posts back online. I said some good stuff, and some angry stuff, and sometimes they were the same post. Writing about politics makes me angry. Or, maybe I should say that I get angry enough about politics sometimes to write about them. That's not entirely productive, since political change is effected by working with others, generally speaking. So while I get angry, I'm going to be looking for ways to connect to others and try to be a force for good, instead of anger.

Which leads to my second goal - continued posting about politics, local and national.

Stay tuned.

I return, briefly

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

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!