The Daily Show

This clip from the Daily Show will make you laugh and piss you off at the same time.

It covers Bill Frist's reckless diagnosis of Terry Shiavo and then his denial that he had ever done so, then moves on to show once more what a twit George W is, and ends with a story I had wanted to post about, but wanted to wait until video was available on the C-Span site. I witnessed this abomination myself and was infuriated.

James Sensenbrenner, R-Combover, chaired a hearing into reauthorization of the Patriot act and conducted it like a tin-pot dictator. He snarled, he cut people off, he dismissed every witness and pretended not to hear Democrats. Then, as John Stewart notes, he literally picked up his gavel and walked off, leaving the Dems and witnesses to try to continue on their own. Then, after a few minutes of them attempting to hear testimony without the thuggish chair and Republican members, the committee staff, get this, cut off their mics!

(In another example of dictatorial behavior, today, Rep. Conyers held a hearing into the lies told in driving us into an illegal war which featured several mothers and fathers of slain servicemen and women pleading for inquiries into the Downing Street memo. They were forced to hold it in a closet sized room and at the same time as several crucial votes, forcing Democratic members to miss the votes or miss the hearing. It was truly moving, and I'll post a link to this video later.)

To watch the Daily Show clip, go here and then scroll down and click "Watch" under the "Act Two" video.

And if you really want to get outraged, if you want a stark glimpse into how the Republican majority treats the Democratic minority like a dog treats a fire hydrant, go watch the streaming video of this sham hearing at C-Span. It's amazing.

The video is about 2 hours, but if you want to skip to the good parts, you can hear Sensenbrenner getting things off on a nasty note at 7:38
Rep. Combover had sneered at the Dems who did not show up for the hearing despite having called for it, then Jerry Nadler tries to inform him that he was there... this is where the tone is set. That's at 15:50
Sensenbrenner is in full glory at 17:40 and again at 19:20. Watch how he responds to Dems seeking to make a point of order. Bizarre and incredibly childish. Also keep in mind that Sensenbrenner had scolded the Dems for coarsening the discourse in his grumpy opening statement!
One of the most disgusting incidents occurs at 1:22:25 where he treats Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee like crap.
Another stellar moment is at 1:46:35.

But if you want to cut to the chase and see how Sensenbrenner has a hissy and simply ends the hearing despite several Dems attempting to speak, and just gets up and walks off with his gavel, start watching at 1:50:00. Your congress at work.

NOTE: To go to a certain time in a realplayer stream, simply put your cursor (pointer) over the sliding bar at the bottom that shows the clip's progress. That highlights the area, then right click your mouse and click on "Seek to" in the drop-down menu. A little box appears where you can type in the time you want to go to.