Lamar Smith, even dumber than you thought possible

It is really difficult to plumb the depths of stupidity in the US Congress. It is seemingly bottomless.

In the news this week, you will see that Americans' approval of Congress has hit a new low. Nearly 90% of Americans think Congress is doing a bad job of addressing the nation's problems. That's damn-near unanimity, something exceedingly rare in a democracy. So, Republicans and Democrats do agree on something: Congress sucks.

And we all know why: They're bought and sold. The main difference between Democrats and Republicans seems to be that the Republicans do a better job of attracting money from the super-rich.

There is no better example of that than than the role played by Republican Representative Lamar Smith from Redneck Wonderland Texas with respect to SOPA. Demonstrating an utter lack of knowledge or concern (at least one of those, but probably both) for bedrock constitutional principles like due process and free expression, Smith did as he was told by his overlords in the corporate media and introduced a bill that would have allowed anyone who alleged a copyright violation to shut down a website (yes, the whole thing just disappears) with nothing more than a "letter of good faith" that sets forth the letter-writer's assertion that the site had violated US copyright law. No chance to respond. Your site's just gone until you comply with the request or the case makes its way through Federal court, which could easily happen in 2-3 years.

Utterly ridiculous. And almost certainly unconstitutional, even in this Supreme Court. Of course as soon as folks (like Wikipedia) started to protest, the rats started to jump ship. Thankfully, SOPA is doomed.

Although Smith's sponsorship of SOPA qualifies as pretty deep stupidity, he has sunk even deeper! His own campaign website contains copyright violations that, under his bill, would have allowed the photographer whose rights were infringed to shut down the website. Oh, the irony.

But of course Smith is not alone. We learned today that self-professed "defender of traditional marriage" former House Speaker Newter Gingrich asked his (second) wife for an open marriage, so he could keep having extra-marital sex with his soon-to-be third wife, while he was trying to impeach Bill Clinton for his "immoral behavior."

This is getting ridiculous. Will someone with half a brain please run for Congress?