Sometimes they don't have a clue what are saying. At least I hope not.

The Ed Show on MSNBC is as perfect a reverse mirror reflection as you'll find of the sort of crap you see on Fox News every night, totally political and partisan. Indeed, when the host periodically trots out shameless GOP strategist Ron Christie to be the right side of a left-right he said/he said segment and all the participants giggle back and forth as they reveal they are all the same, knowing what each side is going to say, it becomes vomit-inducing.

Tonight, after just such a five minutes of dreck, Ed Schultz welcomed Rhode Island Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse to discuss the issue of why, now that Nancy Pelosi is calling back the House to finish the jobs bill, the Democrat leadership in the Senate doesn't do the same and at least ratify the House's work so the bill can pass into law this month.

This was Whitehouse's answer, not verbatim, but substantially correct:

"Well, you know, Ed, with all the amendments and obstruction that would take a full week and there are a lot of members who have elections and it's an American tradition that you go home and take care of things and take care of your campaign..."

Um, senator...

Bullshit!

We do not elect our senators so that they can insure be re-elected. We do not elect them to make sure they have a job next year.

We elect you people to do the job this year.

This. Damned. Year.

I might be terribly disappointed if my senator gets beaten in his next election. I will take every action of which I am capable to make sure that does not happen if I believe he is representing my and the nation's best interests (not necessarily in that order).

But you tell me that a major piece of legislation which can benefit millions of Americans by creating news jobs in the midst of the worst economic conditions since the Depression is not more important than US senators trying to preserve their own jobs, then you, sir, are a disgrace.

And you should be ashamed, if that is still possible.

If the wingnuts really want to accuse the Obama Adminstration of racism...

...it's pretty easy.

As soon as any black person connected to the Administration in any shape or form, past or current, is accused of anything, that person is fired, dismissed, blacklisted, gone.

Meanwhile, the criminals from the Bush Administration, mostly if not entirely white, roam free about the land collecting big bucks from TV News Propaganda Networks, Right Wing charitable groups Non-Profits and other Wingnut Financial Support Systems.

The fetal position into which most of the Democratic Establishment curls up whenever someone on the Right pokes at them is really sad to see.

"If you can control the conversation..."

We should also be very worried about efforts to undermine the free flow of information on the Internet.

Right now, a blog loads just as quickly as a corporate webpage. An email from your mother comes through just as smoothly as a bill notification from your bank. An independent bookstore can process your order as quickly as Barnes and Noble.

But top telecommunications companies have declared their interest in offering prioritized Internet service for companies who can pay for it. This could lead to the creation of a high--speed lane for wealthy corporations and transform the Internet from an open playing field into yet another place where powerful economic elites have a bigger megaphone than the rest of us.

Some of the same people who were instrumental in the Federalist Society's effort to change our legal system are now working to help corporations increase their control over the flow of information.

If you control the flow of information, you can control the conversation around important issues.

If you can control the conversation, you can change this country.

For those of us who live here on the internets, that's a key passage from a very important keynote speech that Sen. Al Franken gave to the Annual Convention of the American Constitutional Society on Thursday night.

Franken, that "awful comedian" that the righties fought so long and hard to defeat in favor of lightweight Norm Coleman, is one of the brightest lights in this very dim Congress of ours, strikingly more intelligent and thoughtful than most of his better known colleagues.

As I said, this was an important speech and you need to hear or read it all.

Priceless.

History.

I may not be here to see it (or may not be able to understand it if I am here), but history is being made this weekend and in the days to follow.

Make no mistake about it, this will be one of those times which, as the nuns used to threaten (and as nuns perhaps helped make possible now), will go onto the permanent record. Because of what is happening in Washington now and in the hours ahead, America will be a better place and this moment will be seen as laying the groundwork for many changes to follow.

This is a turning point and those who are on the wrong side of history will pay the price.

Perhaps sooner than they might think, say this November?