Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) successfully added an amendment to the Financial Services Appropriations bill last week to prohibit funds from being used by the FCC to "impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters."
We've railed against the move to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine and other "progressive" efforts to squash inconvenient speech before. (Here, here, here, here, and most recently here.) So the passage of this amendment is good news.
Better news: mine own Congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter actually voted for the Pence Amendment. She joined all Republicans, and 112 of her fellow Democrats in doing so.
115 Democrats voted against. People in New Hampshire's other congressional district will want to know that Paul Hodes was one of them, joining such luminaries as Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, and Barney Frank.
This is, as near as I can tell, the only time Ms. Shea-Porter has voted against the prevailing lefty-Democrat orthodoxy in her short House career. And just when I thought I had her pegged as someone who would never do that. So I'm pleasantly surprised, good for her. Any chance we could see more of that kind of independence?
![[The Blogger and His Dog]](/ps/images/me_with_barney.jpg)
