Know what the hell you’re talking about, Senator…

Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens decided to prove to the entire world just how little he knows about the internet while he tried to justify his vote against a net neutrality bill:

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.It’s a series of tubes.

And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Senator, my I suggest that you know what the hell you are talking about before you talk about it on the Senate floor? Pretty much everything that Stevens said was gibberish. It seems to me that Senator Stevens was purchased lock, stock and barrel by someone in the telecom industry, but whoever bought his vote didn’t do a very good job giving him talking points to use. Instead, Stevens simply sounded like an ignorant fool.

Unfortunately, the fate of the internet is in the hands of a moron.

Bob Beauprez – Who wants this guy to be governor?

Anyone who seriously thinks that Bob Beauprez would be a good governor for the state of Colorad really, really needs to read DenverPost.com’s profile of Bob Beauprez. Anyone who isn’t scared away by the following passage needs to re-evaluate their priorities:

A devout Catholic who says he has been visited by his late father’s spirit, Beauprez says he is guided in politics by his faith and his dad’s example. He speaks as though it’s his destiny to succeed Republican Bill Owens as governor and cast his own shadow of decency throughout Colorado.”It’s sort of an unspoken thing. People need better role models in public life. I didn’t think Ozzie and Harriet were so bad,” he says.

But ask what Beauprez plans to do as governor, and his answer is less than specific.

“I don’t blame people for being cynical about what this (governorship) will look like,” he says. “I guess people won’t know … until after the fact.”

So Beauprez feels that he is entitled to be the governor. So much so that he doesn’t even need to tell us just how he’ll go about running the state if he is elected. We’re just supposed to elect him because he listens to ghosts and is a Republican, apparently. What the hell is wrong with this guy?

For all my fellow Coloradoans, please do the right thing and vote Bill Ritter into office in a landslide. Ritter is intelligent, dedicated, forthcoming, open about his plans and his beliefs. He is a very strong candidate for governorship. Beauprez? Well, to be semi-polite about this, lemme just say that it might be best for everyone if Beauprez’s political career is over and Bob finds other things to preoccupy himself with.

Vote for Bill Ritter!

Another one down…

There’s another one down, as 9White House press secretary Scott McClellan is out!

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush’s administration.Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president boarded a helicopter at the start a trip to Alabama, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercefully with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.”

I wonder if Scott will be able to sleep a little easier at night, now that he doesn’t have to get up in the morning and blatantly lie to the country…

History repeating itself

Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Looks like this goes for a nation, as well as for individuals. Yahoo! News details that much of the debate over President Bush’s illegal wiretapping goes back a couple of decades:

“We strongly believe it is unwise for the president to concede any lack of constitutional power to authorize electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes,” Robert Ingersoll, then-deputy secretary of state, wrote in a 1976 memorandum to President Ford about the proposed bill on electronic surveillance.

[…]

George H.W. Bush, then director of the
CIA, wanted to ensure “no unnecessary diminution of collection of important foreign intelligence” occurred under the proposal to require judges to approve terror wiretaps, according to a March 1976 memorandum he wrote to the Justice Department.

And it’s unsurprising that the Bush Sr. was involved in trying to keep this power for the president. Still doesn’t change the fact that the FISA rules and the 4th Amendment make it illegal for the president to order warrantless wiretaps.

Republican to lead the charge against an anti-gay-marriage amendment in Colorado?

Well now this is extremely interesting: Sean Duffy, Republican and former Communications Director under Governor Owens here in Colorado, will apparently lead the opposition to an anti-gay-marriage amendment here in Colorado (via ColoradoPols.com).

I’m kind of cynical, so my first instinct is to say, “yeah, right, sure… I’m supposed to believe that someone like Duffy would actually support gay rights, or at least would work to have rights taken away from gays? Sell me another bridge, why dontcha.” But it turns out that this is exactly what Duffy is going to do:

Duffy said he knows that many conservatives may be surprised by his involvement in the issue, but he believes many Republicans share his belief that gays should be “left alone.”

“I have a number of conservative friends who are on board with what I’m doing in terms of gay rights,” Duffy said. “There are a lot of folks ideologically on the Republican side who believe putting a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution is overstepping government authority.”

Duffy actually sounds like a reasonable guy regarding this issue. Will he actually come through? I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Republican party split in Colorado?

It looks like the Colorado state Republican party is starting to split due to pressure fromthe party’s ultra-conservative members:

…On Dec. 21, Larson abruptly withdrew from the 6th District state Senate race against incumbent Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus. Fallout from Larson’s departure has rippled through Colorado political circles. A Larson victory was widely considered the party’s best chance of reversing the Democrats’ 18-17 margin in the state Senate.

Again Wednesday, Larson accused hard-line right wingers of purging party moderates, even if it means losing races. Another La Plata County Republican, former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Ignacio, echoed Larson’s criticism. On Tuesday, he flatly ruled out a run for governor on the GOP ticket, citing the “absolute obedience” demanded by powerful conservatives.

ColoradoPols.com has more articles following the story and showing the larger picture of the chasm growing in the Republican party. It isn’t going to take much for moderates to be completely disenfranchised from the Republican party. And that can only mean good things for the Democrats.