Category: Deep political thought

The empty chamber

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments

http://www.youtube.com/v/CVE72Ae82Tw&hl=en_US&fs=1

Here’s a fun story from The New Yorker about how the U.S. Senate works, or mostly doesn’t. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who was appointed to his seat last year and is already running in defense of it, contributes a few comments that make me wonder why in hell he wants to stay there.

“Sit and watch us for seven days — just watch the floor,” the freshman Democrat told George Packer. “You know what you’ll see happening? Nothing.”

I appreciate that it should be difficult to create and pass legislation to fix things and help people. But it should not be impossible. And lately, it is. This is not encouraging if you’re among the growing fraction of jobless Americans that Paul Krugman fears are in danger of becoming a permanent underclass as Congress defines prosperity down.

Big Brother wants your Google history

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 13 Comments
Aha! This guy's OK, he's just downloading porn and blogging about First Amendment issues, the sap. Next. ...
This guy's OK, he's just downloading porn and blogging about First Amendment issues, the sap. Next. ...

As a judge strikes down parts of an Arizona police-state practice excoriated by the feds, the feds seek to do what? Expand a police-state practice of their own.

The administration wants to add just four words – “electronic communication transactional records” – to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.

“Our biggest concern is that an expanded NSL power might be used to obtain Internet search queries and Web histories detailing every Web site visited and every file downloaded,” said Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has sued AT&T for assisting the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

Lovely. As Kevin Drum said, “You know if I’d wanted Dick Cheney as president I’d have just voted for him.”

For real. This ain’t the change I was hoping for. C’mon, you guys — knock this shit off. Don’t make me stop this blog and come back there.

No joke(r)

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 8 Comments
Tom Tancredo announces that he will enter the Colorado gubernatorial race because the present crop of candidates fails to represent the insane.
Tom Tancredo announces that he will enter the Colorado gubernatorial race because the present crop of candidates fails to represent the insane.

Tom Tancredo, hands down the craziest Coloradan outside the walls of the state rubber room in Pueblo, will announce today that he will run for governor as the candidate of the American Constitution Party, according to The Denver Post.

Tancredo and GOP poobah Dick Wadhams apparently traded pleasantries on the topic during Peter Boyles’ talk show this morning, with Wadhams asking: “What’s your agenda? What are you going to talk about? Impeach Obama and bomb Mecca?”

To be sure, Dick old scout. And that’s just the beginning. If crazy were asphalt we could squeeze Tancredo like a toothpaste tube and patch every pothole in this cash-strapped state, with enough left over to make I-25 eight lanes in both directions from New Mexico to Wyoming.

Bibleburg being Bibleburg, I fully expect to see Tancredo signs replacing McIsn’t placards citywide within nanoseconds of the official announcement. Half the dingbats in this benighted mini-metropolis go to bed at night jerking off to pictures of Doug Bruce.

• Late update: The Bibleburg Gaslight views with alarm, and even quotes Ozzy Osbourne. The End Times are truly upon us.

Honky the Clown

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 9 Comments
Tom Tancredo throws his wig into the ring.
Tom Tancredo throws his wig into the ring.

Tom Tancredo, Colorado’s perennial entrant in the national Our Crazy Guy Is Crazier Than Your Crazy Guy competition, has told Scott McIsn’t and Dan “Who the Hell Am I, Anyway? Maes to drop out of the GOP gubernatorial race or he’ll jump in as a third-party candidate.

“Mexicans! Communists! Terrorists! Abortionists!” said Tancredo. Well, not yet. But it’s coming.

Tancredo says he’ll run under the banner of the Constitution Party, which could (and probably should) hold its convention in a short bus, with free rubber helmets for all attendees.

The party already has a candidate — Benjamin Goss, another household name — but he doesn’t sound all that committed. On Wednesday, he told The Denver Post that he remained in the race “at this point.” Uh huh. And Bert Grabsch remains in the Tour, too. He’s just not gonna win it.

The stage GOP is shitting itself, naturally. Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado GOP, told The Post that if Tancredo carries through on his threat, he “will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor” and jeopardize other state races.

Well, then. As another great leader once said, “Bring it on.”