In Honor of Senator Tubes, it's The Tubes on YouTube

As you probably know by now, Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was found guilty today on seven counts of corruption. Previously, the 84 year-old Stevens became infamous when, as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecommunications industry, he referred to the Internet as "a series of tubes." This earned Stevens the nickname "Tubes."

Therefore, I think it's fitting to honor Senator Tubes with a YouTube video from 70's camp/glam band The Tubes. Ironically, YouTube has been the undoing of several Republican Senators, including Stevens, George "Macaca" Allen, and now John McCain, as previous public statements that they try to deny or disavow instead get put on YouTube, to be viewed by millions, sometimes within a matter of hours. Any Senator that fails to recognize the power of "the tubes" or "the 'Tube" does so at his peril.

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Who Is Sarah Palin?

In addition to Sarah Palin's scandals, here are some other interesting things about Palin:

1. Palin loves lobbyists and "earmarks" (local pork-barrel projects that lawmakers, often after receiving money and pressure from lobbyists, insert into the federal budget). Palin hired a lobbying firm, and worked directly with Steven Silver of the firm, who had previously been the chief of staff to now-indicted Senator Ted Stevens, to handle the lobbying for earmarks. The lobbying firm also employed Ted Stevens' son Ben. Then Palin submitted a proposal to Senator Ted Stevens for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million, more per person than any other state. This is exactly the opposite of the reputation that Sarah Palin and John McCain's campaign are trying to claim for Palin, including Palin's own statement the other day that "I've championed reforms to end the abuse of earmark spending by Congress." Palin is the "champion" of "earmarks" all right.

2. Speaking of lobbyists, Palin's lobbyist also worked with Jack Abramoff, the ringleader of one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of our federal government. In fact, Silver appears to have worked with Abramoff on Indian tribe gambling, the very issue that got Abramoff and others in so much trouble.

3. Palin's views on the God/industrial complex: Sarah showed up at her home town church, and said some whoppers. It's all here on video, so you can watch it for yourself:

-- She wants Alaskans to "pray about" getting a "natural gas pipeline, about a thirty billion dollar project."

--"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies in getting that gas pipeline built."

--"Our national leaders are sending them [U.S. soldiers] out [to Iraq] on a task from God . . . that plan is God's plan."

In part two of the video, Palin's pastor, standing next to her, says "there are some things that God wants to tap into to be a refuge for the lower 48. And I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states, come on, you guys, in the last days. And hundreds and thousands of people are gonna come to the state to seek refuge, and the church has to be ready to minister to them, amen."

Yikes, talk about having a pastor problem.

4. Palin tried to ban books from Alaska's libraries for religious reasons. According to this Time Magazine article:

"[Former Wasilla, Alaska mayor John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to the mayor."

Hmm, so much for the McCain campaign's plan to use Sarah Palin to attract Democratic women who supported Hillary Clinton.

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