Antiwar.com Blog

In my years of politics, I have heard from many Capitol Hill staffers that Congressmembers hate constituent mail.

Is it possible that someone has found a solution? I tend not to be much of a conspiracy theorist, but I had been wondering about possible motives behind the ricin letters.

Whatever the motive, it appears that writing letters to your congressional representative may soon become a thing of the past. Of course, there is still email, although most of Congress has been ignoring email for years.

But he has drained the rosy hues from the Bushies’ cheeks. They’re so scared of Dubya’s war record that they’ve preemptively appropriated Kerry’s defense of Clinton’s draft-dodging. The foreign policy irrelevance of a Bush/Kerry contest aside, this could be a delightful campaign!

Looking over at the main page just now, I see that 589 people have contributed $22,414 to the Antiwar.com pledge drive. That breaks down to about $38 each. At that rate, we need 332 more contributors to break $35,000. Hey, blog readers, have you pledged yet?

Two cheers for satirical media: Julian Sanchez gives props to Daily Show correspondent Mo Rocca, and Brian Dunaway pronounces Jon Stewart brighter than Richard Perle. In other comedy news, Bill Maher’s demotion to pay cable has made him much easier for those of us in the paycheck-to-paycheck crowd to ignore. (By the way, Justin’s ode to Politically Incorrect is funnier than anything you’ll ever hear Maher say.)

Unfortunately, the universe’s drive toward equilibrium has brought Dennis Miller back from the dead, if CNBC counts for resurrection, anyway. His “decidedly intellectual brand of comedy” consists almost entirely of references to sports, ’70s television, B movies, and books you should have read in high school, but don’t worry: he won’t pull his allegedly razor-sharp wit on Dubya.

In case you’re wondering in what cultural context Miller passes for genius, take a look at Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Quinn, a brain-damaged tough guy who can’t read cue cards, leads a panel of stand-up “comedians” in nightly discussions of world events. Imagine Politically Incorrect with four cokeheads instead of the standard three. Or National Review‘s The Corner minus the prep school finish.

That’s your television roundup. Now quit thinking and turn on that tube! Don’t let the terrorists win!

H.R. 3439, making its way through Congress, would authorize the federal government to "embed" CIA agents within local police departments to blur the distinction between local cops and feds.

The Campaign to Demilitarize the Police is organizing to stop the bill, and has been targeting the bill’s author, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), with protest actions.

Radley Balko donates a new orifice to liberventionism. By the way, if you don’t know what “liberventionism” means and why I use the term with contempt, just check out the piece Balko refers to and the comments beneath.