I kid you not

Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? [...] You've heard about some of those pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to pet projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.

O discordia.

After months of neglect, I decided I couldn't let this board die.

Check out this revealing exhibit that Dialog:City had at the DNC in Denver.

An artist made 'sight test' charts out of words from Presidential State of the Union addresses by frequency of word usage. There was one from FDR, Lincoln, Dubya, etc. Kinda neat.

Can you guess which President this one was?

You Can Change Congress

Help Larry Lessig and friends Change Congress. Doesn't it make you sad that legislators can legally take campaign contributions from the industries they regulate? Look up some in your home state and see if they would like to take the pledge at Change-Congress.org.

Pardon Me, Congressman, but you dropped your crown...

In a timely pre-game show to the launch of Larry Lessig's Change Congress campaign, Ken Silverstein published a delightful piece in the March issue of Harper's, entitled Beltway Bacchanal: Congress lives high on the contributor's dime . Apparently, the only service our elected officials perform for the public anymore is creating "campaign" jobs for needy college grads, ahem, friends and relatives. Also, I just realized that you can't read the article unless you subscribe to Harper's, which I highly recommend! :)

Despite my post, which is the opposite of timely (March is now nearing an end and Lessig actually launched CC last week), you can still learn a lot about PAC Leadership funds and campaign treasuries from Silverstein's article.

For example, I learned how useful contributor's funds can be when one wants to spend

• $32,036 to golf at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort (Rep. James McCrery, R-LA), or say, slam down
  
• $66,146 on luxury hotels over the 2006 election cycle (Congressman Steny Hoyer, D-MD)

Where are our armbands?

Turn up your volume. It'll make you feel more patriotic.

http://www.unsubscribe-me.org/waitingfortheguards.php?

How is this worth it?

Tens of thousands of US troops killed or wounded. Millions of Iraqis displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or wounded.

And now we conclude it is costing us $12 billion a month.

Can anyone please explain to me why you think this is worth it? How is this benefiting me and you?

Trade

Hey everyone,

So I'm new to posting, although I've tried to keep up with what you all have written since Rachel invited me contribute. Here's an opinion article I just read called "The Pain of Globalisation."

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_pain_of_globalisation

It talks about the negative impact of trade on American worker's wages and why that's happening. Globalization is inevitable, and potentially also beneficial, but there are certain considerations that have to be made. Like demanding that the people who contribute the labor used to produce the goods we ultimately buy here are ensured basic rights. I also think government supported (at least partially) training for people who find their jobs shipped oversees so they can become employed again is a good idea.

Any thoughts?