Saturday, October 21, 2006

Bilbray Favors Censorship

I was going to start this by calling Brian Bilbray (CA-50) by his official title, "Representative," but as far as I know Bilbray has nothing to do with representing the 50th congressional district. Bilbray continues to hide from his constituents.

He had made no actual campaign appearances in the district. Instead he makes pronouncements and shuttles from his secret hideout outside the district to safe events inside the borders of the 50th. Thursday it was a meeting of chamber of commerce groups, a safe Republican audience. Before that, he met with a group of children in a private home to hear them plea for a Department of Peace. He listened, took time for a photo opportunity and then read them a chapter of "My Pet Goat."

Yesterday Bilbray ventured out of the bunker in his Imperial Beach (inside CA-51) green zone compound to downtown San Diego (inside CA-53) where Bilbray called for censorship of CNN for showing a video of Iraqi insurgents attacking American troops. Bilbray wants CNN punished for having the temerity to show the consequences of the actions of the Bush Administration and the Republican rubber stamp congress, of which Bilbray is a member in good standing.

“This is nothing short of a terrorist snuff film,” said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad. “I think CNN should recognize it made a terrible mistake and pull it.”

Bilbray, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to yank any CNN reporters embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq.

Exercising our Constitutional rights is something that these Republicans just can't abide. They know that when the American people see the truth about the Republican's war on terror, they will respond by tossing out the posturing fools and self-serving career politicians that have been using the lives of American soldiers own purposes. Brian Bilbray is just one more of those rubber stamp Republicans, more interested in preserving his place at the feeding trough than in serving the needs of his constituents.

It is no surprise that Bilbray didn't have the courage or courtesy to actually come to the 50th district to make his case for censorship. He hasn't made a case for any of his congressional decisions, from voting to allow oil drilling off the district's coast to giving himself a pay raise, to his constituents.