One Million Stories...

...in the naked blogosphere. I do my part to cover a few of them.

• Doomed incumbent Michael Pitzpatrick's anti-MySpace bill gets a rough reception in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Patrick Murphy, his opponent in PA-08, posted a competing plan on MyDD, which is solid (though I wish there was some First Amendment defense in there). Hopefully Murphy will take this message right to the social networking sites themselves, and let them know the stakes in his election. I have no doubt that would work.

• Steven Bradbury, a deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, inadvertently gives up the entire Bush Administration approach to law enforcement: The president is always right. You can watch the video here.

That's basically what the entire last 5 1/2 years have come down to.

• There's an Office of Lessons Learned in the White House. That's either the busiest office in the executive branch, or the busiest office that never actually produces anything, since they never learn their lesson. Rahm Emanuel had a snarky reaction to this:

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

• Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar (a.k.a. "Bandar Bush") is asking $135 million for his house in Aspen, Colorado. Madrassahs and terror organizations around the world should expect a nice check in the mail once that sale goes through!

• This story from The Hill shows that Congressman Steve King of Iowa thinks very highly of our neighbors to the south:

It was prop time on the House floor Tuesday night when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), making the case for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, showed a miniature version of a border wall that he “designed.” [...]

But it got really interesting when King broke out the mock electrical wiring: “I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top.”

He added, “We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.”

I think Border Patrol agents should be able to turn the electricity on and off, and raise the level if they see some Mexican within range. Then it could really be like a bug zapper!

• House Republicans are still trying to gut The Voting Rights Act, one of the foundations of modern civil rights legislation. Democrats are hanging tough on this one and they should. The seedy, ugly underbelly of the Southern Republicans ought to be exposed.

(UPDATE: the renewal passed the House. The Senate is apparently ALSO planning to stall. Call 'em up!

• Democratic House candidate (and former FBI whistleblower) Colleen Rowley offers a very good piece on universal healthcare. I'm glad that at least one Democrat isn't shrinking from this option, which is in place in practically every civilized democracy in the world.

• Another sad, nasty story of rendition and torture. This is the type of torture that the White House is trying to save as an option in Congress. We have a Vice President who's lobbied for torture. "May you live in interesting times," as the proverb says.