HEH:

Hi. My name is Al Franken. I am a Senator from Minnesota. A proposed bill in the Senate, PIPA, threatens to treat the concept of free speech in much the same way that totalitarian regimes in China, Iran and North Korea do. This bill is why so many internet sites have ‘gone black’ in protest. It was written for lobbyists to place corporate greed over the fundamental freedoms our nation was founded on, and I support it.
What Are SOPA and PIPA ?

SOPA and PIPA are two poorly conceived bills in the US House and Senate, respectively, that were written to address issues regarding content theft and piracy.

Does my support of this bill mean Lobbyist Money is more important to me than Free Speech?

Would it surprise you to know that, during the 2010 Election Cycle, I accepted at least $88,900 in contributions from members of the Entertainment industry, who are leading the push to have these bills hastily approved?

Did I say “Heh?” Why yes, yes I did.

OUR LAME PRESS: “Brian Williams asks Gingrich a ridiculous question: whether he’ll shift in his views on foreign policy in order to get Ron Paul’s endorsement. Williams seems like he isn’t even trying to do a good job of moderating the debate.”

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste writes:

Why is it that the debate moderators are all such turkeys?

Why don’t they get someone like Hugh Hewitt?

Because they want turkeys.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates writes:

What keeps the candidates from having every exchange go like this:

Democratic Moderator: Please tell us what restrictions on gay rights you want to impose, and whether you would follow up with legalized segregation.

Republican Candidate: In the time it took you to ask that stupid question, the federal government under Barack Obama incurred an additional $200,000 of debt that will have to be paid by Americans. Here’s my plan to cut spending….

What are they afraid of, getting a failing grade from Brian Williams and not being allowed to advance to the next debate? It would be best to have no moderators present, but a very close second would be to make it clear that they are asking frivolous questions – by providing answers to substantive ones.

And Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “Somewhere in NBC, I imagine an executive saying, ‘I swear to God, I thought turkeys could fly.'”

MORE: Reader John Williams writes: “Because a serious moderator asking intelligent questions would make the candidates seem serious and intelligent. Add to that, it would connote that the presidential election is important and who we choose is a serious, if not vital, decision that must be carefully considered. As long as they can make the Republican debates look like a circus and the candidate chosen seem irrelevant, the better chance their candidate has of squeaking out a second term.”

STEPHEN GREEN IS DRUNKBLOGGING THE DEBATE. That guy earns his booze.

DOUBLE-DIPPING: New NLRB appointee will keep getting paid by union.

ALEXIS MADRIGAL: What Apollo 11 Astronauts Did Right Before Neil Armstrong Set Foot on the Moon.

AT AMAZON, loads of coupons.

K.C. JOHNSON ON the ruinous reign of race-and-gender historians.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D . . . Oh, hell, you know the rest: Former CIA officer charged in alleged leaks.

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists.

The case against John Kiriakou, who served as a senior Senate aide after ending his CIA career, extends the Obama administration’s unprecedented crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets to journalists.

If Bush had done this, we’d have heard cries of police states and dictatorship.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I’m a fan and I read with interest the blog post angle you took in the indictment of former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer John Kiriakou, “They told me if I voted for John McCain…”

I actually think that the stronger angle for you here is different. It should be, “If the Washington Post does a major story on the indictment of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer for revealing the names of CIA operatives and other classified information, without once revealing major political party for which he worked, does that mean that he worked for the Democrats…”

Good point. Politico mentioned it. “Kiriakou worked for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator from March 2009 to April 2011, according to Senate records.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes: “You don’t suppose there’s any linkage between the fact that a John Kerry staffer has been arrested for high treason and then the Washington Post reporting that John Kerry showed up at the White House with two black eyes and a broken nose having apparently gotten his ass kicked at a hockey game?” I wish.

ONLY IF IT’S THE WRONG OPINION, SILLY: Having An Opinion Is Now “Bullying.”

PUSHBACK: Lawmaker proposes measure to exempt Va. from incandescent light bulb phase-out. “Marshall is not alone in resisting the federal mandate to convert to CFLs and halogen lights, which also are more energy efficient than standard bulbs. Seven other states have legislation pending to deal with the issue, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and a Texas law took effect this month stating that incandescent bulbs manufactured in the state are not subject to federal law or regulations.”

Plus, more criticism for PolitiFact Tennessee. Also here: “Calling Blackburn’s statement ‘mostly false’ is mostly false.”

Here’s a story on the phaseout. “$25 for a lightbulb? Yep. It may be hard to swallow, but the investment will pay off down the road.”

And although the phaseout is underway, it’s still not too late to stock up. Quite.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: 11 Stunning Revelations From Larry Summers’ Secret Economics Memo To Barack Obama. Here are the first two:

1. The stimulus was about implementing the Obama agenda.

The short-run economic imperative was to identify as many campaign promises or high priority items that would spend out quickly and be inherently temporary. … The stimulus package is a key tool for advancing clean energy goals and fulfilling a number of campaign commitments.

2. Team Obama knows these deficits are dangerous (although it has offered no long-term plan to deal with them).

Closing the gap between what the campaign proposed and the estimates of the campaign offsets would require scaling back proposals by about $100 billion annually or adding new offsets totaling the same. Even this, however, would leave an average deficit over the next decade that would be worse than any post-World War II decade. This would be entirely unsustainable and could cause serious economic problems in the both the short run and the long run.

A stunning portrait of duplicity and irresponsibility, even for those who have been paying attention.

WILLIE HORTON, REDUX? Immigration authorities released man who went on to kill 3 in North Miami. “The episode is a black eye for U.S. authorities, who by law could not detain Dufrene indefinitely after the Obama administration ordered a temporary halt of deportations to the island nation.” Some will try to make that equivalence, I suspect.

ANTISEMITISM AND “Israel-Firster” Accusations — A Straight Line To Lindbergh.

THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENT for having more kids.

TO A SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY: We Knew The Woman With Two Vaginas Would Get A Porn Offer.

UPDATE: From the comments, a suggested title: The Vagina Dialogues.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH: Does Newt Own A Beet Farm? Newt is noticeably better looking, though.

HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY: U.S. Sovereign Debt Crisis: Tipping Point Scenarios And Crash Dynamics.

HEH: Wearing a Gunwalker T-Shirt Outside The Tampa ATF Field Office.

The shirt reads: Am I the only person on the planet that didn’t get guns from the ATF?

ED DRISCOLL: Steal This Book!

DIET: Slowly Digested Carbohydrates Lower Inflammation Markers. “Become familiar with higher glycemic index foods and avoid them.”

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE IS UP!

WILL SPAIN KEEP SCOTLAND IN THE UK? “For the Spanish government, the calculation is simple. Spain is full of restive regions that want to go their own way: Catalonia and the Basque country in particular have strong independence movements.”

WELL, THAT SEEMS RIGHT: When “the Government trespassorily inserted the information-gathering device” on a car, it was a search within the meaning of the 4th Amendment. Here’s the opinion. It’s by Scalia.

WELL, HE IS A THREAT TO THE REGIME: Rand Paul Detained By TSA.

UPDATE: TSA Responds. Well, Senators should be treated like everyone else. But the problem is how everyone else is treated.