Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Burn, baby, Burn!



The Senate once again came through for the American Constitution - however barely - by defeating an proposed Amendment to the constitution that would have given Congress the power to prohibit desecration of the American Flag

Do you know how many times flags were burned in the last year? Maybe about a dozen.

How can that be so terrible that we have to amend the Constitution, and whittle away at the First Amendment? I think the Chi Trib article spells it out:

In both chambers, Republicans are loading up the congressional schedule with measures that often have little chance of passage but may serve to garner conservative support, from bans on same-sex marriage to cutting the estate tax. House Republicans intend to hold votes this summer and fall touching on abortion, guns, religion and other priority issues for social conservatives, part of an attempt to improve GOP prospects in the midterm elections.

Which is utterly stupid, because it's not like the anti-gay, anti-flag burning people are going to be so disgusted by a do-nothing Congress that they'll vote Democrat out of spite.

There is the danger they won't vote at all, of course, but I think that's minimal. Congress would do better to tackle real problems than pander to FAUX News viewers.

I won't even get into the stupidity of Voinovich's comment, except to apologize, on behalf of the Great State of Ohio, for having elected this doofus Governor and then sent him on to Washington.

Monday, June 26, 2006

(return) Double Smackdown!

First off, sorry for being asleep at the switch for so long. I was in a weird place. Hopefully things get better from here. Your patience has been appreciated.

Now... it was smackdown week on various news channels, video footage courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

First off, we have seminal gentleman (and master of debate) Clarence Page working his magic on Bill O'Reilly.

I don't know what O'Reilly was thinking, here. The way he led into the segment suggested he thought Mr. Page was just going to roll over, or wrap himself around Bill's finger. Need we remind Captain Loofah that Clarence is an alumnus of the McLaughlin group? Either way, Bill lost his cool, almost added the proper suffix onto "Bull" and had to override his own handlers, who almost played the music to cut Clarence off at a typical moment.

We also have these two folks going at it on MSNBC.

Bernie Ward's performance was priceless, as was Baker's meltdown. He either couldn't or wouldn't answer the question when pressed, time and again, and Ward wouldn't let up until he got it. Brilliant.

So what can we learn from these two bravura performances?

1) Keep calm and resolute in the face of explosion
and
2) Keep asking the questions until you're answered.

I'd also add "come prepared," which Mr. Page most certainly did.