MoveOn is launching a petition to Congress to get them to save funding for NPR and PBS, "The House is threatening to eliminate all public funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow" and other commercial-free children's shows. Sign our petition to Congress opposing these massive cuts to public broadcasting."
Here is a simple question:
If the Republicans want to force Big Bird, Clifford, Garrison Keillor, and Jim Lehrer off the air, WHY IN THE WORLD would we stop them?
We should do everything we can to get the bill out of committee and FORCE the Republicans to vote for killing Big Bird.
We can then start our commercials for '06. Scene: Child holding Elmo doll staring at TV with white noise. Voice Over: "Republican Senator/Congressman __ voted to KILL Big Bird. Vote for _ for Senate/Congress and get Big Bird back on the air."
Seriously, on all of these red meat Republican issues like banning all abortions, eliminating all vestiage of civil rights for homosexuals; enshrining Protestantism as the official religion, why should we prevent floor votes on these things.
The Republican Party has spent the past 20 years beating us over the heads with these issues during the campaigns, but they don't do anything about them because they are such good weapons. Forcing Chafee, McCain, Snowe and the rest of the "moderates" to vote on these issues will force a schism in the Republican party. It will also take away their weapons and enable the Dems to campaign on restoring the rights the Republicans have taken away.
In fact, the crazier the bills the better. Let's let America find out - once and for all - who is crazy enough to kill Big Bird, ban abortion, inprison homosexuals, bring back Jim Crow laws, etc. From the point of view of Republican's like Frist and Brownback, even if they lose these votes at least they'll know whom to target during the primary.
And if, by chance, some of the craziness hits Bush's desk - GREAT! If Bush signs or doesn't sign we will have won. 2007/2008 is not that far away.