"Has fearmongering run its course?" asks the latest ACLU missive, and I damn sure hope so. It can't be good when factcheck.org takes Tha Bush Mobb's warrantless wiretapping case apart so easily, or when Mr. Bush himself incomprehensibly claims that if big telecoms don't get their immunity, al Qaida will react-and-adjust. Still, the "liberal" media is too happy to carry Mr. Bush's water -- which can't be because they're big telecoms themselves, can it? Their views are moot. This is either a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, or not, and I have faith in the former. The ACLU has the relevant petition.
So the FCC held its public hearing investigating Comcast's blocking of certain internet traffic -- and Comcast packed the hearing with its own people. Very democratic of them. Memo to folks going to FCC hearings in the future: next time, arrive three hours early, and bring a book or an iPod, so you don't fall asleep like a few of those folks Comcast paid to block other good folks from coming in. Anyway, savetheinternet.com still provides an FCC comment page, as well as a contact tool in support of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008.
Jewish Voice for Peace provides a contact tool with which you may communicate your will, if it be your will, that Congress suspend military aid to Israel until their occupation of Palestine ends. Because that occupation has bought so much security for Israel, hasn't it? Scott Ritter, the former U.N. inspector and my homey, said it best: if you're going to be a friend to Israel, you don't give Israel aid to do things you don't think are good ideas. Right-wingers, the proverbial emptiest wagon of American discourse, tend to conflate friendship and support and lock-step agreement, so they don't see it Scott Ritter's (and my) way. But most Americans are smarter than that.
The House passed a Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act with some teeth, and now the bill shuffles off to the Senate. Let those damn Senate Republicans explain why they're filibustering our government's ability to protect the people it serves from lead in their toys and poison in their food. Mere philosophical differences about the role of government will seem, how shall I put this, quaint. Consumers Union provides the contact tool.
Finally, I note, with some interest, that today is former Montreal Canadiens center-iceman Henri Richard's 18th birthday. Which is, like, amazing, since he played, like, 20 seasons in the NHL and played on 11 Stanley Cup-winning teams and scored over 1,000 points. How did he accomplish these amazing feats? Not even Wayne Gretzky could bend time and space to his will like Henri Richard.