Well, the house has voted to defund National Public Radio. The GOP, in the best tradition of ignoring pressing matters and shamelessly grandstanding for its base, is going after NPR with the same righteous vigor it once did flag burners and people who exercise their constitutional right to worship where they please.
The action follows Andrew Breitbart's exposure of an NPR fundraiser expressing his personal opinion, in what he thought was a private conversation, that Tea Partiers are racists. Now, if he can just catch a government-funded researcher dishing on Sarah Palin, maybe we can get busy with shutting down the National Science Foundation!
It's too bad, really, as NPR affiliates around the country engage in a type of local news coverage and public advocacy you won't get from any other source. They'll continue to do it, but it will be harder now.
Here's how the local votes went down: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan and Smith voted yes. Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden and Schwartz voted no.
The pittance saved is nothing compared to what could be achieved by a host of other initiatives ignored by the Republican-controlled congress, such as mandating Amazon and other Internet retailers collect sales tax on behalf of their customers. As noted last week by The Huffington Post's Nathan Newman, the loss in state revenues from this brand of unequal taxation translates to a greater burden on lower-income families.
If you missed it, be sure to watch this hilarious video of New York's Anthony Weiner, mocking the calling of a special session to vote on defunding NPR:
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