Republican Stupidity

This just sends me through the damned roof:

Two top U.S. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said they want to apply broadcast decency standards to cable television and satellite television and radio to protect children from explicit content.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said he would push legislation this year to accomplish that goal and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton said he would back it if it does not violate free speech rights.

“Cable is a much greater violator in the indecency area,” Stevens, from Alaska, told the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents hundreds of local television and radio affiliates. “I think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air” broadcasters.

“There has to be some standard of decency,” he said, but noted that “no one wants censorship.”

No one but you, you pompous windbag. You don’t like what is on cable television? Don’t fucking pay for the service. And if you absolutely must buy it, even though yuo hate it, there is another layer of protection for you. It looks like this:

It is called a remote control, you loudmouth luddite busybodiy, and it will help you turn the channel form those awful shows that offend you to Lawrence Welk re-runs. You can buy one here.

A quick warning though, Sen. Stevens- a remote control can be hard to use when you have your thumb up your ass.

*** Update ***

Jeff Jarvis has a similar censorship device. HEY-I THOUGHT OF IT FIRST!!!! Heh.

*** Update ***

What a MAROON!

The New CensorshipPost + Comments (19)

Not enough is being made of this story:

Thousands of couples joined Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and first lady Janet Huckabee in renewing their wedding vows at a Valentine’s Day ceremony supporting the state’s voluntary covenant-marriage law that makes divorce harder to obtain.

“There is a crisis in America,” the Republican governor told a crowd of 6,400 at an arena Monday night. “That crisis is divorce. It is easier to get out of a marriage than (to get out of a) contract to buy a used car.”

Before the Huckabees renewed their wedding vows, they signed legal papers converting their 30-year marriage to a covenant marriage. Organizers of the event did not ask other couples to convert their marriages.

Under the 2001 Arkansas law, couples getting a covenant marriage agree to seek counseling before they wed and before they seek a divorce. A covenant marriage also requires a two-year wait before a divorce becomes final, except in cases of adultery, abuse or imprisonment for a felony.

From the Instapundit I see that Ann Althouse and John Scalzi have some choice comments on the issue. Ann states:

I must say I find it utterly repugnant for a political figure to make a big public show of upgrading his marriage to a “covenant marriage.” I don’t particularly approve of the trend of private celebrations that involve some married couple renewing their wedding vows. (What are you saying about vows if you have to renew a vow?) But for a state governor to participate in a spectacle like this, thrusting his private life into a gigantic rally, is just appalling.

I agree, but before I discuss this absurd covenant marriage bit, let’s review another related issue:

Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts have issued a statement calling for Howard Dean to apologize over remarks he made while addressing the Democratic Black Caucus last Friday.

First, the offending statement:

Out of the ClosetPost + Comments (66)

I am so hopping mad at the GOP right now I can barely tolerate it:

The Bush administration offered a new estimate of the cost of the Medicare drug benefit on Tuesday, saying it would cost $720 billion in the next 10 years.

That is much more than the $400 billion Congress assumed when it passed legislation creating the benefit in late 2003.

But administration officials said the numbers were not comparable. The original estimate was for the years 2004 to 2013. The new estimate covers the period from 2006, when the drug benefit becomes available, to 2015.

The higher figure, which provides the first glimpse of the true cost of the drug benefit, could touch off a political uproar in Congress, where conservative Republicans were already expressing alarm about the costs of Medicare, including the drug benefit.

Fiscal conservatives would be holding impeachment hearings right now if there were any.

Fiscal Conservatives, My AssPost + Comments (23)

A much as it pains me to say this, I think that Kos and company are not being treated fairly regarding this Dean payment nonsense, and that the Instapundit (*** Upodate *** I misinterpreted Glennn- his point was that Kos is being treated more favorably than kos et. al would treat conservative bloggers if they were in his position, something I tend to agree with) and others are not getting it right.

Let me first state that I would be the first to bash Kos if I thought he had done something unseemly, but in this case, he is simply getting a bad rap. Let’s review:

– Armstrong Williams is secretly paid $240,000 to be an advocate for administration policies, informing no one of the payment.

– The DasvhlevThune blog is secretly paid by the Thune campaign, all the while representing itself as mere partisan supporters.

– Kos and his associate are paid to do political work for the Dean campaign, disclose their relationship repeatedly, and make sure that people know that they are working for Dean and support Dean.

How anyone can confuse this issue and think it is the same thing is simply beyond me. While the Armstrong Williams and DaschlevThune cases are clear conflicts of interest, with no disclosure, there is no such ethical issue or appearance of impropriety from the MArkos and the folks at the Daily Kos.

And, btw, I have a great deal of personal experience with Kos from the time period in question, and I remember his repeated disclosures that he was working for the Dean campaign. All through 2002, I was a regular visitor to the Daily Kos, and for the entire year, Tacitus and I were the only right wing commenters in most threads. When Kos started the Political State Report in late 2002, early 2003, I was the WV contributer. Up until about midway through 2003, when Kos’s strident anti-war rhetoric and militant leftist beliefs became apparent and unpalatable for me, Kos and I had numerous interactions, email exchanges, and healthy discussions in his comments section.

It is also during this period that Kos was laying the groundwork for the netroots revolution that he foresaw as a way to propel a Democratic candidate into the White House in 2004. Kos was an early supporter for Dean, disclosed early and often that he was traveling to coordinate with Dean and other Democrat forces, and he was completely open about his relationship. In fact, the only thing Kos did not disclose was the amount that he was paid for his services, and, quite frankly, IMHO, that is none of our damned business anyway.

Kos has done nothing wrong here, has nothing to apologize for, and shouldn’t have to put up with these false accusations, as he was open, honest, and operating under no false pretenses. You may, as I do, find his political positions abhorrent, as well as some of his anti-war anti-administration rhetoric, but to question his integrity on this account is nothing more than theatre of the absurd. Kos may be a lot of things, but he is not a paid shill who would sell himself to the highest bidder. You can question his sanity, as I often do, but I would never question his passion for his ideas.

That Zephyr Treachout and some cynical operators within the Dean campaign may believe they ‘bought’ Kos says a lot about them and their utter lack of integrity, but as far as I am concerned Kos was acting in good faith, providing services for a cause he believed in and being paid fairly for those services. If you have a problem with that, then your problem is not with ethics or conflicts of interest, but with people earning a living. Kos has done nothing wrong, and anyone who says otherwise simply doesn’t understand what he/she is talking about.

More here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

*** Update ***

Moree sheer idiocy on the subject, this time from Slate’s Chris Suellentrop:

Moulitsas is a different case. He’s never pretended to be a journalist

Unfair TreatmentPost + Comments (58)

I have to say I am with Matt on this whole ‘death of Christmas’ nonsense. Why all these ‘free market’ conservatives can not understand that a department store may have employees say “Happy Holidays” instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ is beyond me. They do so to be inclusive of all religions, thereby not offfending anyone, and thus maximizing the bottom line.

You see, it is not that they hate the baby jesus, you poor oppressed Christians. They just love the bottom line more.

And if the meaning of Christmas is cheapened for you because everyone you greet during a select 6 week period does not return a heart ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS,’ I might sugest you are missing the point of the holy day.

BTW- If this sort of thing does offend your delicate Christian sensibilities, let me issue a firm warning. Do not look into the pagan rituals you are eagerly engaging in, like cutting down a tree and decorating it, hanging a shrub in your hallway to kiss underneath, hanging other shrubs over your fireplace and above doors, placing wreaths on your door, the star worship, etc. And for the love of everything holy, you better not google Saturnis.

In short, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and the others are all about faith- yours, and I, for one, was unaware that you needed unanimous consensus in order to have faith. Now stfu and have a Happy Holidays.

The Death of ChristmasPost + Comments (27)

Via BuzzMachine:

According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003

FascistsPost + Comments (5)

Tom Friedman is angry this Thanksgiving, and if you ask me, he has every damned right to be. You should be pissed, too, especially if you are a Republican:

In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge – something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.

But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.

If I can’t be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that “the Hammer,” as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted committee position or maybe a parking place.

Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.

Simply inexcusable. I understand that Ronnie Earle is a partisan hack who has a history of political prosecution, but after all of DeLay’s shenanigans with redistricting and who knows what else, it was kinda hard not to see this coming. Now, for no reason whatsoever other than arrogance, DeLay and is minions (morons??) have given the Democrats the ability to tar all Republicans as hypocrites. And you know what? They may be on to something, even though the Democrats have no such rule themselves.

It Hurts Because He Is RightPost + Comments (20)