John Courage Conference Call: Net Neutrality & $10 Million For Toilet Seats Courtesy Of Lamar Smith

I was priviliged this evening to take part in a Blogger’s Conference Call with John Courage and some of the fine folks he has working for his campaign. Many of his staffers come from backgrounds as diverse as the Paul Hackett campaign, Democracy for America, and the Dean campaign back in ‘04, so he has an excellent team put together.

One of the major points of discussion tonight centered around Net Neutrality and Lamar Smith’s vote to sell out the Internet to corporate interests. Here’s what Courage had to say on that:

My opponent Lamar Smith sold out the Internet and caved into telecom interests like AT&T. Thank God there were some people on the [Judiciary] committee of common sense so that, at least at this point in time, we are saved from Lamar Smith’s vote.

Candidate Courage also pointed out that Smith, as the second highest ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, wants nothing more than to have control of the whole ball of wax and be chair of Judiciary. Were that to happen (which is quite likely if Smith is re-elected), it would be as bad as the disaster that has resulted from Smith chairing the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, which has dealt extensively with Net Neutrality issues.

In addition, there was a little discussion about Lamar Smith’s Homeland Security Hypocrisy. For those of you who are unaware, Smith helped steer $10 million in Homeland Security Funds to “Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Museum,” in his tony home San Antonio ‘burb of Alamo Heights. These funds were designated to help protect real American national monuments and icons. But, instead of helping out the Empire State Building, The UN or the Statue of Liberty, Smith made sure this had ample federal protection.

Excuse me, but the last time I checked, toilet seat museums were not on any terrorist hit lists.

We’ll be having more conference calls in the future, and other Texas Lefty blogs are more than welcome to attend. If you are interested, shoot an email to me and I’ll send you the contract info for the Courage campaign. I’d post it here, but I’m not sure if they want their email addresses “out there” for spambots and what not.

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