Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) uses a cell phone camera to record the Senate Judiciary Committee mark-up hearings to discuss the nomination of John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill, September 22, 2005. From (L-R) are: Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Our senators have turned into the woman that annoys me at my local bagel place by checking her email on her phone while she's supposed to be working the cash register. She once just took calls, but now she uses a little keyboard on her phone.

More from the Washington Post here.

[via Wonkette]

... remind yourself that Cindy Sheehan managed to visit 21 states and over 50 cities and towns before being threatened with arrest. She had to come to NYC for that.

Tom Moody has more. Allegedly it was over the use of amplification, but the city wouldn't give them permits after they were requested, and Union Square can be a noisy place.

They should have added some religious content. People like the "Black Israelites" in Times Square are allowed to yell anti-white and anti-gay crap and Holocaust denials, using bullhorns, under the courts' view of the First Amendment. It's interesting that the denial of permits by the NYPD for things like a Cindy Sheehan visit don't seem to cause the same concern.

Cindy Sheehan speaking out in Union Square with Al Zappala, who also lost a son in Iraq photo: Sarah Ferguson

[Image from a Village Voice article]

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Updated: Via a comment, Kim Arnold just provided a link to some of her video and images from the Union Square rally.

If you're going to the peace rally in DC on the 24th, Florent has organized some buses.