The videos are sold nationwide to people who enjoy this type of so-called 'foot fetish,' and sellers of the video are making millions of dollars," Gallegly said in his speech.

On Tuesday his bill came to the House floor for a vote.

It punishes physical and "electronic images" -- think JPEGs -- of women stepping on "small animals with their feet" and other anti-beastie activities.

As you might expect, the idea's pretty insane. It would, as UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh points out, make it a crime to distribute documentaries showing Spanish bullfights or publish National Geographic with photos of poachers of endangered animals in Africa.

The House approved Gallegly's bill by a 372-42 vote.

WHOOPS.GOV: Last week we told you about a new Republican Web site called -- what else? -- gop.gov.

Well, it turns out that the House Republican Conference site could be called a lot of other things instead. And, according to the rules controlling government Web sites, it probably should be.

The Federal Networking Council-drafted document says, "The .GOV domain is for registration of US governmental entities on the federal level only ... Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or other entities are not eligible for separate registration."

Translation: Register gop.house.gov instead.

Besides, some veteran Internet types wonder, if the GOP can grab GOP.gov, what about the socialists, libertarians, and greens?

"As a Libertarian I am a firm believer in self-government," says John Gilmore, board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Can the Libertarian Party, one of the GOP's peers and rivals, register SELF.GOV?"

LEAN TO THE LEFT: You know life's weird when diehard conservatives are getting accused of regulatory over-zealousness. But that's what happened this week.

Groups like Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum and Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation have joined Ralph Nader and US PIRG to make sure a banking overhaul bill regulates what customer information banks may be permitted to share with affiliates, such as mortgage companies.

"If the legislation passes in its present form, HR10 will overhaul the financial services industry placing financial privacy in a vulnerable position by allowing affiliate sharing and the sale of personal financial data to third parties," a recent alert from the Free Congress Foundation said.

Not so fast, say free-market types, who argue that consumers should be encouraged to educate themselves and make their own choices about privacy policies.

An aide to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee, complained in an email to conservative groups that they were just plain, well, wrong.

"I suspect that there is a great and increasing market demand for financial institutions that do respect the privacy expectations of their customers. In fact, we see many institutions reacting to meet that demand (perhaps you and I should start a 'First National Privacy Bank,' I think we'd clean up!)," the aide wrote.