I’ll preface this by saying, yet again, that these are my thoughts and not an official position of my employer.

With the Senate version of telecom reform moving out of the Commerce Committee, now the fun begins. If you know anything about the Senate, it’s probably the fact that they move slower than a dead rat caught in an ice floe. They call it being measured, but the rest of the world calls it being hopelessly deadlocked on damn near everything.

In addition, the Senate has become the focal point of much partisanship, so everything they do is done along party lines. On the rare occasion that they actually pass something, it has become so watered down that it’s inoffensive to just about everyone, and just about as effective.

Stevens has said he needs 60 votes to get this to the floor. He doesn’t have them. That means he has to start the retail politicking of trying to get people behind this.

The Democrats won’t buy in because the bill lacks sufficient consumer protections that will prevent the telephone companies from discriminating against the poor neighborhoods. They’ll also want to tack on a Net Neutrality amendment. That removes the only pool of supporters that can jump ship and push this through.

Even if, by some quirk of the universe, the bill passes, it faces a brutal conference because the Senate version and the House version are radically different. The House version was originally going to be comprehensive, but was streamlined for speed. The Senate version is more of an actual rewrite than tweaks. It was built to actually make a difference.

If you think of the House and Senate bills as a race car and a dump truck respectively, the conference gets to take these two vastly different machines, mash them up, and try to make a functional automobile out of them. That’s no small task.

The likelihood of seeing a telecom reform bill this year is slim to none, and slim may have just left town.

By now everyone probably has heard of the terrorist financing surveillance that was disrupted by the New York Times. Despite strenuous objections by members of both parties, the NY Times ran an article that detailed how the US monitors banking transactions overseas to identify and track terrorists.

That was stupid and dangerous. Given that they exist at the epicenter of the 9-11 attacks, the NY Times, of all papers, should be sensitive to the perils we face when terrorists operate below the radar. The Times has made our country less safe.

However, the GOP controlled Congress seems to have forgotten a little thing we call the Constitution and a tiny subsection that reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Passing a non-binding resolution, while not a law, still sets a dangerous example for future generations to follow. The power of Congress to make laws is not something that should be taken lightly – especially by those who got elected claiming to resent the abuse of power by the federal government. Making laws that come dangerously close to treading on the Constitution is a horrible precedent to set

Conservatives should be alarmed that Republicans in Congress have grown so used to their power that they will wield it so carelessly.

The New York Times should be punished for their subversion, but that should not take the form of legislation. It should take the form of every Republican, at every level of government, refusing to grant them quotes, access, or even a seat at a press conference. Let them try to report the news if they are frozen out of the process.

The GOP has announced their agenda for the fall. It amounts to one item – not losing their ass. The specific items included in the “Let’s Not Get Kicked in the Twig and Giggleberries” campaign (subscription required) offer a whole lot for the social conservatives, but still fall desperately short of anything approaching an agenda for fiscal conservatives.

The GOP already has begun cycling through the American Values Agenda, as the House passed the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act on Tuesday.

The agenda also includes the Pledge Protection Act; the Public Expression of Religion Act; the federal marriage amendment; the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act; the Human Cloning Prohibition Act; a measure reforming the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; an Internet gambling ban; and a measure preventing the government from confiscating citizens’ guns during emergencies.

WTF, guys? I understand that we really like to put our eggs in one basket, but you’re taking a big gamble by placating the social conservatives while ignoring the fiscal conservatives and continuing to pump up the size and scope of the federal government.

I’m so sick of watching the GOP cave on principles of small government (on which the party was founded) in favor of constitutional amendments for the most personal of issues – especially at a time when there are far more pressing concerns: a super-ball stock market that’s bouncing wildly; the war in Iraq; unprecedented grabs at power by the executive branch; and a seemingly inept Congress serving nobody but themselves.

Is this the best we can do as a party? Has our leadership really become that ideologically bankrupt?

In a bizarre twist on the “old-guy-meets-young-girls-on-MySpace” story, two teen girls used MySpace to arrange a meeting with a guy, then robbed him at gun point when he arrived.

Do you think that Congress will consider legislation to protect the old, wealthy, male demographic from these online predators? Yeah, I doubt it…

Any time some moron gets himself arrested at a protest, they always make some stupid comment about what they perceive as the greater point to their action. Today is no different. Two MENSA candidates got arrested for trying to row ashore near a fundraiser featuring the Vice President in Minnesota. Their comment?

Protester Meredith Aby said, “We sent a message to Dick Cheney that he is not welcome in Minnesota.”

No you didn’t. You sent a message that says, “Look, I’m an idiot. I have more time than common sense, and I really, really hope the Secret Service doesn’t impound my fishing boat.”

Way to go, Einsteins.