I've been diligently watching the debate for the Stimulus Bill since it started. Everyday, I am amazed by the ability of certain members of a certain party to lie their asses off. They've lied about how we got into this mess. They've lied about their responsibility for enabling a certain former President to spend the surplus he entered office with down not just to zero point zero zero dollars, but negative gazillion billion point zero zero dollars.

This afternoon, things reached the hieght of sheer stupidity with the Senator from Utah claiming the fiscal conservatives have never had control of the federal budget since he's been in Washington. Oh Really?

They've whined about the lack of bipartisanship, while beating the hell out of three colleagues who made a good faith effort to be -- wait for it -- bipartisan.

But the absolute height of ridiculousness came when a Senator from Oklahoma claimed in his long rambling laundry list of wrongs done against him and his party by the "Democrat" party, that including a provision in this bill for light rail transportation -- in particular MagLev, magnetic levitation -- is wrong because MagLev transportation technology doesn't exist. Please allow me and the engineers who have created and installed and monitor magnetic levitation trains that run all around the world to call "Bullshit!"

How about this one that runs in China? (Oh wait... China doesn't count.)

The quiet low-pollution train will be mainly used in urban areas, Xinhua news service reported.

The train consumes less energy than faster maglev trains.

China opened the world's first commercial magnetic levitation train with the highest velocity of more than 267 miles per hour in Shanghai in 2002, based on German technology.

Maglev train lines have been considered as an effective means to deal with the heavy passenger flow in the Yangtze River Delta, one of the economic powerhouses in China, the news service said.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

And the article speaks of German technology. (Damn, Germany doesn't count either.) And heavens to Betsy that appears to be a real train in the picture unless of course it's been Photoshopped.

Using the Google to google the phrase "magnetic levitation train." one would find 47,600 references. But wait there's more. I recall as a much younger version of myself watching "the Wonderful World of Disney," and being mesmerized by the promises of the future as illustrated by the Disney imagineers. When promoting the new (back then) DisneyWorld park, future visitors were invited to ride on the MagLev train that would whisk you from the airport to the amusement park just Outside of Orlando. So once again using the Googler to google "Orlando maglev" there are 45,600 references to the Florida MagLev Demonstration project.

So the Senator's absurd assertion that the "technology doesn't exist" and the US wouldn't benefit from maglev rail systems is simply ludicrous on its face.

It doesn't take a genius to see this is why we continue to lag behind Europe and Asia in the development of alternative forms of transportation and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. When your so-called leaders are willing to step before not just their colleagues, but the C-Span cameras and hence, the voting public, and lie for the record and on the record, you have witnessed failed government.

But if that statement by the Senator was not enough, he proceeded to rail against changes to healthcare, promoting a Fox News story in which the former Lt. Gov. of New York, Betsy McCaughey, claims -- wrongly -- that this bill is the first step to socialized medicine in which you will lose your right to determine what your medical treatment will be. (Olbermann smashed this gem to pieces last night.)

The Republicans need to stop the lying. This is not a question of a lack of bipartisanship. It is partisan politics, pure and simple. But worse, it is subverting the very process those persons were elected to support and defend.

You cannot lead if you lie.