Why God Invented C-SPAN

By Karen Tumulty | June 12, 2009 | +

This morning’s House debate on tobacco legislation brought us this argument:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/cspanPlayer.swf" fvars=" pid=286988-1 ; clipStart=2921.32 ; clipStop=2935.00 ; autoplay=0 " width="365" height="340" /]

Which was followed by this one:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/cspanPlayer.swf" fvars=" pid=286988-1 ; clipStart=3050.32 ; clipStop=3116.08 ; autoplay=0 " width="365" height="340" /]

Public Service Announcement: “The Swampland Surgeon General has determined that smoking lettuce could be harmful to your health.”

(H/T to our friends at the C-SPAN Video Library)

Related Topics: Uncategorized

@TIMEPolitics

Latest on Swampland

2012 Election May 25, 2012

The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.
From our Partners
Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing NationsHuffPost Politics

The Cowardice of Colin PowellSlate
Ryan Crocker Says Cases Of Afghans Killing NATO Military Counterparts Can Be 'Personal'HuffPost Politics
Barack Obama May 25, 2012

Audacity of Dope: Tales of a Toking Teenage Obama

We knew Barack Obama smoked weed in high school because he wrote about it in his books. What we didn’t know until Buzzfeed posted these choice nuggets (I’m so sorry) from David Maraniss’s new book on the President’s younger years, is the giggle-worthy details of his “Choom Gang” lifestyle, which are right out of a buddy stoner flick. Obama and his friends drove around the lush Hawaii countryside, hot-boxing their VW bus and re-upping with a long-haired pizza-tossing dealer named Ray, who Obama thanked in his yearbook “for all the good times.”

gysgt213

Sorry for the interrupt.
.
Well Shep Smith is in the right’s sights now. Too bad because I like Shep.
.
Angered By His Holocaust Museum Shooting Coverage, The Far Right Goes After Shepard Smith
.
Allahpundit of Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air wrote that if Smith truly believes his viewers are “would-be presidential assassins,” then “why doesn’t he quit?” Further out on the fringe, conservative blogger Pamela Geller, who writes at Atlas Shrugs, titled a post, “Please Shepard Smith Out the Door!” She followed it up with a post saying, “Shepard Smith has got to go.” Geller’s call for Smith to be fired is beginning to get traction with some conservatives online.
.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/12/far-right-shep-smith/
queencersei

So much for fair and balanced. Fox needs a new tag line badly. Maybe KT should make that the topic of her next 1000 Words post.
vastwastelander

Gunny,
Just watched Shep’s rant on Fox, and I must say . . . seeing such rationality and sanity on Fox was somewhat disconcerting.
.
Textee and Spob, take note: Shepard Smith is afraid of your brand of crazy. Go fill your prescriptions so Shep doesn’t have to lose sleep . . .
afguy

KT,
.
I didn’t know “heads of lettuce” (or cabbage) could talk.
.
And to think that someone actually elected these two to the US Congress . . .
FlownOver

This is why certain vegetable substances should be taken into the system via brownies.
Art Pepper

Re Malkin et al: Classy. Is there any line these people could cross that would get them shunned from polite Beltway society? No?
afguy

This is why certain vegetable substances should be taken into the system via brownies.
.
FlownOver,
.
Might you be referring to the legendary Alice B. Toklas from Alice’s Restaurant?
FlownOver

afguy:

On the advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer.
afguy

On the advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer.
.
‘sawright, FlownOver. I won’t ask you to pass over the chips, either. But your appetite seems to have increased.
pirate wench (demwoman)

Gunny,
.
As I were sayin’ yesterday…curious tha’ Shep seemed to be completely unaware o’ FOX’s contributin’ t’ th’ exact sort o’ craziness ‘e now seems t’ be fearin. ‘e mentioned all th’ bloggers, bu’ were fergettin’ th’ network most responsible fer floggin’ ‘em into a frenzy in th’ first place.
.
I’ll be admittin’ there be times o’ late when Shep be seemin’ t’ show signs o’ havin’ more’n th’ brain o’ a dead anemone, bu’ ‘is level o’ self-awareness regardin’ th’ source o’ much o’ what he be lamentin’ be downright nonexistent.
.
Arrgh.
yutsano

I’ll be admittin’ there be times o’ late when Shep be seemin’ t’ show signs o’ havin’ more’n th’ brain o’ a dead anemone, bu’ ‘is level o’ self-awareness regardin’ th’ source o’ much o’ what he be lamentin’ be downright nonexistent
-
Paycheck and access. No more, no less. Plus Shep could be morphing into their “token liberal” just so they can scream “fair and balanced” even louder and keep up their echo chamber.
gysgt213

pirate wench-I think you have to give shep a handicap for where he works. Sure he could get out but, hell I don’t truly like my job but I’m not getting out because I got bills and kids and no sure shot at getting another gig.
.
So I’m just saying for him to bash his own networks and their views is a hugh risk to him.
Karen Tumulty

By the way, I hope our commenters appreciate how your technology-challenged blogger has learned to edit the videos, so you didn’t have to 10 minutes of house debate to get to the good stuff.
rubypanther

# Karen Tumulty Says:
By the way, I hope our commenters appreciate how your technology-challenged blogger has learned to edit the videos, so you didn’t have to 10 minutes of house debate to get to the good stuff.

.
Yes, and it’s like… the promise the internet has held for a couple decades being realized!
.
Finally things are getting away from proprietary money grabs and are just Working. And a side effect of that is that things get easier and easier to use.