ISPs want it both ways: they want to be receive billions in indirect public subsidies (access to rights of ways that would cost unimaginable sums to clear) and direct public subsidies (grant money) but still be able to run their businesses without regard to what the public actually wants (a neutral internet, supported by 87% of Americans, in which your ISP sends you the bits you request, as quickly and efficiently as it can). Read the rest

US Congressman from Colorado Jared Polis, show here wearing a Boing Boing T-shirt, is a champion of his state's right to use weed both recreationally and medicinally. Recently Rep Polis got into with U.S. Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, who advocates for states' rights unless its for something he disagrees with such as ending marijuana prohibition.

Polis told Fleming:

“I just wish that you would leave my sovereign state of Colorado alone. Let our people and our state government decide what we want to do with regard to marijuana rather than a federal agent going around trying to arrest people for doing activities that are fully legal under state law. That’s all I ask,” Polis said.

“I’m not going to send federal troops into Louisiana to arrest people for whatever you do down there, smoking crayfish. Want me to ban that and send federal troops down there? I bet maybe smoking crayfish ain’t good for you. What if it’s fried? Might clog your arteries, huh?”

US Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado), shown above wearing this Boing Boing T-shirt (which he purchased unbeknownst to us), is the only Happy Mutant on Capitol Hill. He fights for an open and free Internet, a sensible drug policy, LGBT rights, and measures to halt global warming. (Watch this delightful video of Jared giving the business to Drug Enforcement Apparatchik Michele Leonhart).

I found out today that Jared is campaigning against not just one, but three reptilian humanoids from the Babylonian Brotherhood in the upcoming congressional election. You can help him defeat the scaly shapeshifters by kicking in $5 to his re-election campaign. Read the rest

[Video Link] Here's Boing Boing T-shirt owner Rep. Jared Polis giving a great speech at the Democratic National Convention about respecting diversity.

See also: Happy Mutant Congressman has at least two Boing Boing T-shirts in his wardrobe, Top US drug cop can't tell the difference between marijuana and heroin, "The Internet is For Porn" entered into official SOPA debate record Read the rest