15 June 2007

Democracy sure can be a pain in the ass, eh Senator?

Like President Bush, Senator Lott must be getting his information from the CIA. According to him,


[S]enators on both sides of the aisle are being pounded by these talk-radio people who don't even know what's in the bill.


Talk radio people with whom I’m familiar, like Hugh Hewitt (who has done a fairly detailed analysis on his blog), read directly from the bill, citing title, section, sub-section and paragraph. And the best that the President and senators like Lott can do is tell us that critics just haven’t read the bill. It’s very simple: the bill contains the objectionable provisions or it does not. Obviously, it is too much to ask of our betters that they cite and read back the true contents of the titles, sections, subsections and paragraphs that critics find offensive.

I don't know. When I hear the President and senators like Lott say that opponents of the bill don't know what's in it, it makes me wonder if they have read the bill themselves.

Senator Lott also doesn’t like free speech very much:


Comments by Republican senators on Thursday suggested that they were feeling the heat from conservative critics of the bill, who object to provisions offering legal status. The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the bill, said: "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem."


Talk radio – this problem we have to deal with – is an exercise of First Amendment rights. (Drat, that Constitution!) Talk radio, which wouldn’t exist apart from participation in by the people (i.e., people for whom Senator Lott works, by the way), is a very democratic facet of our society. It is a true peoples forum.

Laura Ingraham said it best this morning: “If talk radio ran this country that border would have been shut down eight to ten years ago.”

Quite frankly, given the choice, I’d rather have any 100 talk show hosts than 100 Trent Lotts in the Senate. Talk show hosts depend upon the people for their livelihood – unlike Senators (apparently).

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James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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