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Open Thread:  Hey Lurkers!  (Holiday Post)

Open Threads

You are here: Home / Archives for Open Threads

Read The Bill

by John Cole|  January 18, 20063:36 pm| 46 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Politics

I support this:

ReadtheBill.org is a new national organization dedicated to forcing Congress to post all proposed legislation online for 72 hours before it goes to the floor of Congress. We call this the “72 Hours of Sunshine Rule”. It is needed because Congress has degenerated into chaos. The House of Representatives still has a rule on the books requiring proposed legislation be available to members for three days. But the House waives this rule routinely and rubber stamps huge bills in the middle night, clueless of their content or cost. Senate rules are fuzzier but the result is the same. This chaos in Congress costs every American. Provisions and giveaways slipped through Congress are one reason that the U.S. has a national debt of $8 trillion. These sneaky provisions also invite plain-old corruption.

Posting all proposed bills online for 72 hours is the single most powerful reform to change the way Congress operates. It’s also simple. The short-order cook who reads the breakfast orders, the accounts payable clerk who scrutinizes invoices and most other working Americans understand that they must read certain papers to do their jobs. Amazingly, in the U.S. Congress, lawmakers do not believe they need to read proposed laws before they are considered on the floor of Congress.

I would increase it to two weeks if I had my way (I like a slow-moving government most of the time- even if it would be a colossal pain in the arse for Congress), but 72 hours is a nice start.

Read The BillPost + Comments (46)

Wow

by John Cole|  January 18, 200612:35 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Popular Culture

This is pretty damned amazing:

Just 12 hours after giving birth, a Houston firefighter popped a painkiller and took a promotion exam.

Beda Kent felt she had no choice because Texas state law requires everyone to take it at the same time. She would have had to wait two years for the next one.

Despite just giving birth and getting only two hours sleep, Kent got 104 out of 110 on the test and expects to return from maternity leave in March as a captain.

That is great and everything, but why are the promotion exams set up that way?

(via Fark)

WowPost + Comments (23)

Open Thread

by Tim F|  January 17, 200611:20 am| 59 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Some links to tide you over while John works out technical issues with his work computer and I at least pretend to get something done in the lab:

* Wal-Mart has a wine label coming out soon, but they haven’t announced a label name yet. Which came up most often in customer surveys? Gay Orbit has the scoop.
* Highlights from the great Franklin-Bush debate.
* Rooftop ads have become popular since the advent of Google Earth, but this one strikes me as a bad idea.
* A new explanation for those embarrassing early morning passes at the mailman.

Have at it.

Open ThreadPost + Comments (59)

Quick Links- Arts and Leisure Edition

by John Cole|  January 14, 20066:08 pm| 2 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

Not in the mood to post much today, so if you want to check something new out, go check out this art gallery grand opening that frequent commenter sinquanon has passsed along:

Robert Dowling announced the Grand Opening of Dowling Studios & Gallery today, during which a singular and extraordinary group of artists show their works, including Dowling himself. The Grand Opening Exhibition at Dowling Studios & Gallery will feature Robert Dowling’s remarkable surrealistic paintings as well as studio artist’s work from Chris Knox and Aaron Horvath. Visiting artist Aja-Ann DeLand Apa-Soura is also featured with her impressionistic paintings of the transitional female. The exhibition and opening will occur at Dowling Studios and Gallery, 407 Main Street, Bangor on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 3 p.m. – 10 p.m for the public.

Additionally, a private, by invitation only preview for the press will take place from noon – 2 p.m that day. The show can be viewed live via web-cam today by accessing Dowling’s website. Dowling’s groundbreaking paintings have caused a stir in the art and collector communities with their poignancy, playfulness, emotion, darkness, brilliance and boundless, unconstrained uniqueness and creativity. For more information and to contact the artists, see this link: Dowling Studios & Gallery Grand Opening & Exhibition.

If that doesn’t tickle you, then please go help Jay Caruso name his blog. If you name the blog, you win a DVD. Works for me.

Quick Links- Arts and Leisure EditionPost + Comments (2)

Israel to Robertson- It Is God’s Will That You Find Another Business Partner

by John Cole|  January 11, 20069:24 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

It is stories like this that make me terrified that Schadenfreude may be lethal:

Israel won’t do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday, putting into doubt plans to develop a large Christian tourism center in northern Israel.

Avi Hartuv, spokesman for Israel’s tourism minister, said officials are furious with Robertson’s suggestion that the stroke was retribution for Sharon’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. “We can’t accept this kind of statement,” Hartuv said.

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise $50 million to build the Christian Heritage Center in Israel’s northern Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

Under a tentative agreement, Robertson’s group was to put up the funding, while Israel would provide land and infrastructure. Israeli officials believe the project will generate tens of millions of tourism dollars.

All I really have to say is the following:

BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry. If you want some more reasoned commentary, go check out the Carpetbagger. I am pouring myself a drink and lighting a cigar.

Israel to Robertson- It Is God’s Will That You Find Another Business PartnerPost + Comments (45)

The Case Against Alito

by John Cole|  January 11, 20065:11 pm| 101 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

Lauren brings us a solid case aginst confirming Alito. Make sure you read the entire caption.

The Case Against AlitoPost + Comments (101)

Open Thread

by Tim F|  January 10, 20061:36 pm| 67 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

* National Review editorial on Abramoff: (via)

But this is, in its essence, a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray it otherwise is a misdirection.

* Excellent commentary on global warming by Stirling Newberry.
* BoingBoing readers claim that the troll-killing ‘privacy law‘ may not be such a big deal.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Open ThreadPost + Comments (67)

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