It is a sad irony that in the TSA’s efforts to protect individuals from potential harm caused by terrorists, we are potentially going to give people cancer.

From President Obama’s interview with 60 Minutes after the midterms. “OBAMA: What I’m gonna do is I’m gonna reach out to Republicans and I’m gonna say, “What can we work on together?” There are gonna be some things that we can’t agree on. You know? Philosophically. And so, we will have those battles. And we’ll save those decisions till after the next election. But in the meantime, there must be some things we can agree on.” And how’s that all going?

Ron Paul introduces legislation that aims to “protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by Federal Transportation Security Administration employees.” From the floor of the House, he blasted the TSA and Michael Chertoff for lining people’s pockets at the public’s expense.

As a resident of the ridiculously gerrymandered Sixth Congressional District of Florida, I am subjected to being represented in Congress by wingnut Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns even though the Gainesville area is heavily Democratic. I spent some time during the 2008 campaign cycle writing posts for the blog The Case Against Cliff, and two major themes developed from the research for my writing. First, Stearns appears to be a fan of torture, as seen in the photo on the left of this composite, which was taken from his website in May of 2008, when he visited Guantanamo. He clearly was excited by the visit, even dressing up for it and posing in an Abu Ghraib pose. Second, it was clear from my research that Stearns’ primary source of funding is the telecommunications industry. That was true of the 2008 cycle and is also true of the 2010 cycle. It is little wonder then, that this morning NPR went to Cliff Stearns for quotes about killing net neutrality, as he is the ranking member of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee.

This IPO is no great reflection, one way or another, on the success of the bailout.

Indeed, it may be something far worse. . . .

The lame duck session, which in its first week has lived up to its name, just got a bit more interesting.

If every time the fearmongers rolled out their dog and pony show, the Obama Administration would go on the attack and focus on how stupid and inhumane Bush Administration policy was, then maybe it would open up enough space to actually move beyond those stupid policies.

TSA chief John Pistole went for the big lie yesterday in his testimony before the Transportation and Commerce Committee. . . .

Republicans will cut the deficit through tax cuts and increased defense spending.

DADT back in Defense Authorization…but there’s no reason to get our hopes up yet.