It is looking harder and harder for Romney to become the “conservative” candidate. That dang past catches up with each and every one of us…..

I oppose anyone who wants to require bloggers to register with the government.

There are rumors of Democrats trying to promote the old Fairness Doctrine not only on TV and radio but elsewhere as well. I suspect a lot of this is overblown. But Democrats do appear to be attempting to come down on those they perceive as their enemies.

Of course good old Reid also attempted to block all the earmark reform going through congress as well, although as with Peloski’s rather dubious attempted appointments of the ethically challenged, the public appears to be pressuring Democrats.

Of course as they do this my predictions of “same old stuff, different faces” is coming true. Reid and Lott share a lot of features.

This blog doesn’t seem to like certain kinds of tags in comments.

Clark, “Peloski” is a great typo, if it was in fact a typo. Pregnant with meaning.

What does it say about me that I think Ivan’s third link is the most important of the three?

No idea what’s up with the triple commenting on the sidebar….

Clark -

Like I said when the midterm elections happened: “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.”

jjohnsen -

I also think my third link is the most important one of the three.

Harry Reid introduces bill to register Bloggers as political activists. Or not.

Or not. The linked site claims that the applicable threshold is 500 readers. In fact, the key threshold is $25,000 of quarterly expenses. The short explanation is that if you are not spending $25,000 per quarter on your blog, this will not affect you. There’s more to it than that, of course, but the proposal is not going to shut down the blogosphere.

If someone’s spending $100,000 a year on a blog, is it a blog or a news/commentary site?

Reid’s bill could potentially impact news sites that have blogs on them. One of my local newspapers–The Arizona Repulsive–operates a site–AZCentral.com–which allows readers to comment on news stories.

I wonder if this site would fit the daffynishion of a political activist blog???

Last Lemming:

Thanks. Like I said, my eyes glaze over whenever I try to read legislative bills (probably part of the point - make them hard to read so the citizens can’t actually be sure if they need to complain about something). But maybe there was something there. I figured someone would know.

I liked the old Romney better.

Me too. The great thing is, if he decided to court the middle, his views will revert to the old Romney

haha good point jjohnsen….

he just has to disavow torture and he might get my support….because, dang it, I too like the old Romney

Regarding the blog bill. Bennett’s bill killed it. However there’s some informed discussion that argued it would only apply if you take someone on as a client. i.e. some of the “bloggers for money” who are paid to blog about certain things. If so (and it’s moot now) it seems far less problematic.

However I’ll confess that I find a lot of these campaign finance reforms and the like serious infringement on speech even if the aims are good. (cough) McCain (cough)

I like the new Romney, but only as long as he is pro-torture. He should promise that there will be a torture in every pot, a torture in every garage. Bigger torture. Better torture. More torture.

I also am fed up with all those federal agencies that are outsourcing torture when we have plenty of people here in the United States who are perfectly capable of performing torture themselves. Yes there are people in Syria and Afghanistan who will do torture for less pay. But American torturers need those jobs. It’s just not right.

Also, I want organic free-range torture.

Do you support late term torture? Is waterboarding only torture in the few first weeks of life?

jjohnsen,

You have it all wrong. Waterbording is only “torture” in the last few weeks of life. Otherwise, it’s “dunking a terrorist in water.”

(I don’t know much about the “old” Romney. I thought he was the guy who fixed the SLC Olympic finance issues? I like his current website, but I’m vaguely uncomfortable with the first two issues on his Issue Watch: “Defeating the Jihadists” and “Competing With Asia,” as neither seems to be a particularly uplifting or “hey, let’s not aggravate people without cause!” expression.)

I’ve heard that snowboarding is torture, too, at least for the first few days.

My daughter, who tried it first at about 20 years old, would agree.

“Damned! Damned! Damned silence. He refuses to bow, he refuses to drink.”
“Majesty!”
“Did you know we assigned one of our best pain technicians - pain technicians, they used to be called torturers, ever since they got organized it’s ‘pain technicians’ - Why are you here? One of our very best torturers, I felt certain he would break him. Two hours he worked, not a sound. I said: ‘Give me a cry, rin-tintsy(?). Give me a shout, a whimper, a scream.’ Silence! So, I got to it myself. You can’t leave these things to others, they never get it right! And well, you can see for yourself. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was a mute. Silence! I’m beginning to understand what you’re going through with this G’Kar. How you put up with this at all, I have no idea.”
“He was a small burden.”

- Cartagia and Londo in Babylon 5:”The Summoning”

UPDATE:

Harry Reid gains back some of my respect. (I still think he’s too partisan, but that’s somewhat the nature of the game. This article, if accurate, goes a long way towards making me like him again).

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Brazil-Chavez-Reid.html?_r=1&oref=slogin