Brave New Films and TYT will be live blogging the SC Primary and will have guests from the blogosphere to discuss, including our very own John Amato.

Here's the line up (all times in Eastern)

6:10 Nico Pitney, The Huffington Post
6:30 Steve Rosenfeld, Alternet
6:50 Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake
7:00 Melody Barnes, CAP Action Fund
7:10 Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle
7:20 Anthony Palmer, The 7-10
7:40 Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Multiplicative Identity
8:00 Kristina Wilfore, Ballot Initiative Strategy Ctr
8:20 Oliver Willis, OliverWillis.com
8:40 Zack Exley, Revolution in Jesusland
9:00 Andrew Rasiej, Personal Democracy Forum
9:10 John Amato, Crooks & Liars
9:30 Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend

Below is your very own South Carolina Primary open thread....

If you haven't read Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens' (R-Alaska) explanation for his opposition to net neutrality, you're missing out on a deeply disconcerting perspective. He asked, for example, "what happens to your own personal internet" when someone else tried to download 10 movies at the same time.

"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. [...]

"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes."

Now, Ted Stevens is 85 years old, so it stands to reason that he won't fully understand the Internet. But as Christy Hardin Smith noted, Stevens, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, "is in charge of the bills that, among other things, control the internet."

Stevens is not only commenting on key issues like net neutrality without understanding the issue, he's shaping the government's policy.

The audio is here. It ain't pretty.

-- Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report

Christy Hardin Smith (aka) Reddhedd from FireDogLake, was on the Washington Journal today with Paul Mirengoff from Powerline-discussing a variety of topics including Scooter Libby.
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Give her some props...

On June 9, 2006, Jane will be hosting a Plame panel in Vegas.

Christy Hardin Smith, former prosecutor and blogger at Firedoglake
. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame and author of The Politics of Truth.
. Marcy Wheeler, who blogs as "emptywheel" at The Next Hurrah
. Larry Johnson, former CIA official and blogger at No Quarter
. Dan Froomkin, whose column "White House Briefing" appears at the washingtonpost.com

McConnell filed for cloture to cut off debate on FISA in an effort to block offering amendments to the base bill yesterday and today he was saying that they should only vote on the original bill. Oh, really? He is stonewalling the process so Bush can include the issue into his SOTU address and scare the American people. Offering amendments to bills are a pretty common practice in the Senate and they have even pissed off Jay Rockefeller.

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Sen. Dodd backs up Sen. Reid and calls out this antagonistic approach by Mitch and tells us how ridiculous it is for a member on the committee which is responsible for the FISA bill NOT to be allowed to offer up an amendment...He also said that he can't wait for the day when Republicans offer up amendments to future bills...

Marcy Wheeler has some of Reid talking today:

There are amendments that will make this legislation better. Now that's in the eye of the beholder. We all understand that. But shouldn't the Senate have the ability to vote on those amendments?

I say to my friends that it doesn't matter what we try to do, we can't do it. It appears that the majority [sic?], the president, and the republicans want failure. They don't want a bill.

Christy Hardin Smith:

The GOP's conduct was insulting -- to the Democrats, to the American public, and to the Congress as a whole. So much so that Sen. Jay Rockefeller is saying that he will not vote for cloture on Monday.

Every Senator needs a phone call, especially the Democratic ones -- because cloture on Monday would be contrary to balancing fundamental questions of liberty against national security interests. This is important business. The contemptable way that the Republicans have treated this, brushing aside debate with a high-handed, "my way or no way" dismissiveness, echoes the Bush White House and ought to be publicly rebuked...read on

Contact numbers are below: Make some calls people!

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