Jay Rockefeller, New Lion in the Senate

At least on the issue of health insurance reform, he's being a mensch. Just today, in the Senate Finance Committee markup of the awful Baucus bill, about an amendment offered by Sen. Jon Cornyn of Texas, Rockefeller said:

"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment. If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."

That's stating the plainly obvious, of course, but these days too many Democratic members of the U.S. Congress can't face the plainly obvious, let alone call it by its name.

We were sufficiently unimpressed with Sen. Rockefeller during the late, unlamented presidency of George W. Bush, especially his weak service on the Senate Intelligence Committee. And his uncritical support of everything the coal industry in West Virginia wants to accomplish, including the decapitation of scores of formerly green mountains, has given us heartburn for years.

So it's something of a blessed relief to be able to applaud his strong advocacy for real health-care reform and, incidentally, for his unblinking frankness in calling a weasel by its proper name.

Golly, What a Good Movie!

"Nothing But the Truth," 2008, written and directed by Rod Lurie, suggested by (though not based on the details of) the Valerie Plame Affair and the subsequent jailing of NYTimes reporter Judith Miller for refusing to divulge her source to a special prosecutor.

The journalist heroine of this movie (played by Kate Beckinsale, who should have been nominated for multiple awards for this role, and should have won them all) is not based on Judith Miller, which is a relief, though the wringer she is put through in this story makes me reevaluate my attitudes toward Miller during the Plame investigation. I did not look on Judith Miller at the time as a heroine of journalism. Maybe I should have.

Some 49 states of our Union now have laws on the books explicitly protecting journalists from the power of the State to compell them to divulge confidential sources of information. Only the federal government (and poor freakin' Wyoming!) has no such shield laws, and it's precisely the power of the federal government that needs constant exposure (I don't care who's president). The power of our federal government to chill the flow of information, to stifle free speech with intimidation, with the prosecution of good people (journalists, truth-seekers, whistle-blowers) under the guise of "national security" ... that's the great theme of "Nothing But the Truth." (Incidentally, the title of this otherwise near-perfect movie totally bothers me. "Nothing But the Truth" sounds like either a standard gee-aren't-lawyers-sexy courtroom drama or a dumb romantic comedy about Jim Carrey's inability to lie. Oh well, you can't have everything ... like a smashingly good title that's both memorable and captures the gist.)

Great actors in this film, along with Beckinsale (who is seriously just ... too much), including...

Vera Famiga, of the killer blue eyes, who was so radiant as the therapist in "The Departed," as the outed CIA spy

Matt Dillon (of all people!), playing triumphantly against type as the super-smart, sharklike special prosecutor

David Schwimmer (yes, of "Friends" fame), proving he's a subtle and serious actor in a terrifically difficult part as the journalist's not-up-to-the-challenge husband

Alan Alda as the complex defense attorney and First Amendment crusader

Angela Bassett as the editor in chief of the prestigious Washington newspaper whose star reporter gets the biggest story of her career and goes to jail for it

I understand that "Nothing But the Truth" got no theatrical release (or very little) and went straight to DVD, usually a sign that the movie's no good, or deeply flawed. Apparently, distributors thought there would be no appetite among the American movie audience for a serious, taut drama on such topics as freedom of the press and a willingness to go to the wall over principle. Maybe those distributors were right.

Or maybe it was the title.

Foxx Votes Against NC Jobless Workers

The House voted yesterday to extend jobless benefits to laid-off workers in 27 states where unemployment is 8.5% or higher. North Carolina is one of those states. The unemployment benefits bill passed on a vote of 331-83, a whopping majority including every single member of the North Carolina delegation, both Democrats and Republicans ... save one (and, yes, Virginia, you're a shining example of a horse's ass) ... Virginia "Loose Cannon" Foxx.

The few Republicans, including Foxx, who voted against helping workers took the line of blaming Obama for these economic times rather than their own lately unlamented former administration.

Those Republicans, including Madam Foxx, are into increasing the economic pain on ordinary citizens in order to make our current president look bad in the long run.

Classy move.

Thank You, Brad Miller

Congressman Miller, from the NC-13, disciplined Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-5) on the floor of the House last week (Mark Binker's account here) after Foxx proposed an amendment which would have zeroed out additional funding for Community Colleges under President Obama's American Graduation Initiative, "an effort to generate 5 million more community college degrees and certificates by 2020."

The Foxx amendment was defeated, soundly, by a vote of 301 - 126, which means that several dozen members of The Party of No voted against Foxx.

Dunno why. Isn't she an expert on community colleges, having been fired by one?

And a Dumb Blonde Shall Lead Them

Meet Carrie Prejean, Values Voter Summit headliner and political guru. When the values of American beauty pageant contestants become the values of the iPootValues Voter, we feel like lying in a hammock and taking the next several years off from political activism. These folks seem sufficiently bent on self-destruction that they don't need any nudging from me.

You can't really satirize what is already satirizing itself so thoroughly. The former Moral Majority is packing some serious intellectual heft these days, no? A Barbie doll channeling George W. Bush tells the super righteous at the Values Voters summit:

"As I saw my goals and aspirations flash by me, I knew God had a plan for me .... God chose me for that moment."

All the Christian conventioneers applauded as though an archangel had come down from heaven to hand over The Restored Stone Tablets (or the Satin Sash of Righteousness and Breast Augmentation). Who knew God took such an interest in Vaselined teeth and runway strutting?

Said our good ole boy on the scene, "It wudn't nuttin but wut she said about The Gay that mattered."

The last time the Right Wing used a beauty pageant contestant as their life raft, we believe Anita Bryant took 'em all down with the ship.

The world we live in offers too much brilliant silliness. Dan Brown, the Absolute Worst Writer in the Universe, coins more money with a new thriller. Meanwhile, a serious new film biography about Charles Darwin will likely not be released in the god-blessed United States of America because it might "prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution."

Maybe we're all too dumb to survive as a sub-species. When the end comes, I'll be out back in the hammock.

Our Moonlighting Supreme Court Judge

Associate Justice of the NC Supreme Court Edward Thomas Brady, the man who wrote the recent opinion allowing a convicted felon the right to own firearms, is himself a firearms dealer.

Whaaa?

No really. Scharrison on BlueNC has done the digging.

On the face of it Brady violated Canon 3.C. of the NC Code of Judicial Conduct by failing to disqualify himself from the case because he "has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy."

There's an indication (here, scroll to bottom) that Brady is not planning to run for reelection in 2010 when his current term expires, but 2010 hardly seems soon enough to get His Honor off the bench.

The Allure of Corporate-Think

Ezra Klein, on just one section of the Baucus health insurance bill unveiled yesterday (a.k.a., "The Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act of 2009"), language dealing with "employer mandates," a provision known as the "free rider":

It is not only the worst policy idea in the bill, but one of the worst policy ideas I've ever seen.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kay Hagan finds a lot to love in the Baucus dreck.

Not Good

The disciplinary board for North Carolina appraisers has suspended the licenses of three real estate appraisers involved in the county's purchase of property for the new high school.

I believe this might go in the folder labeled "Wheelin' & Dealin'" and does not on the face of it smell all that delectable.

Madam Foxx Proves Once Again She's Not Ready for Prime Time

Safely away from those pesky constituents of hers in the 5th District, those people who scare the be-Jeebus out of her, Virginia "Loose Cannon" Foxx managed to get all racial yesterday on the House floor. Steve Benen at Political Animal has the fullest account.

Says Benen, "It's worth noting that Foxx is positioning herself as one of Congress' nuttiest members."

I know, I know ... Obermann featured the Madam last night as the Worst Person in the World.

An anonymous poster on Glenn Thrush's blog:

It is amazing how people fail to see how race is a factor with conservative strategy and unconscious actions. That is the same as saying, "You're right, honey. I do like the color of the dress. You know Betty from the office? Well, she is fat and is looking forward to the office party." I have a friend in congress, who is old and gray, and he is working hard for the American people. It doesn't matter that Betty is overweight, that a congressman is old and gray, and that President Obama is black. I assume that Rep Foxx attained the office due to some intelligence. I wish she and other representatives would use it for constructive arguments.