Paranormal Legislative Activity?

[Gabriela Schneider]

Some really weird stuff went down when Sunlight gave a bill and a camera to a local couple.  Please watch this and share. Totally unexplainable.

http://bit.ly/legactivity


--
Gabriela Schneider
Communications Director
Sunlight Foundation
1818 N Street, NW Suite 410
WDC 20036
p: 202/742-1520 x 236
c: 202/746-0439
gschn...@sunlightfoundation.com
http://sunlightfoundation.com
http://twitter.com/stereogab

[Mark Tapscott]

It's up on Beltway Confidential.

--
Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
The Washington Examiner
1015 15th Street NW
Suite 500
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mark.t...@gmail.com
mtap...@dcexaminer.com
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Proprietor,
Tapscott's Copy Desk blog
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/TapscottsCopyDesk/
"Tether the state in the morning and by noon it knows the full length of its tether." ---John Cotton (Paraphrased, actually)

[Gabriela Schneider]

Hilarious post. Thanks!

[Jim Harper]

Fun!

http://techliberation.com/2009/10/30/paranormal-legislative-activity/

Jim Harper

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 2:56 PM, Mark Tapscott <mark.t...@gmail.com> wrote:

[tenkyuu]

 

It's a clever video.

 

My problem with any piece put out by the sunlight foundation which addresses a particular piece of legislation or a particular issue, and especially the most divisive issue in America today, rather than concentrating on the general problems of secrecy and corruption which cripple the entire legislative process, and the potential solutions technologies of transparency, does way more harm than good to the cause.  The coalition of those on the left and the right who favor transparency is extremely fragile because both sides (and I, as with most people, have my own positions on all of these issues and my own sense of outrage) regard the main abuses that need to be addressed by transparency as perpetrated by the 'other side'.  One has only to look at the comments to this video (at least on the you tube site) to see how divisive it is and how the response is split right down ideological lines.  Those who oppose health care reform tend to find it to be a hilarious and clever video while those who favor reform find it, not surprisingly, to be a cheap shot which ignores a litany of abuse on the the right.

 

It is almost impossible to maintain a coalition in a country as terminally divided as this one is, and any approach to transparency which picks the most divisive issue facing such a divided country as its poster child of government secrecy and non-transparency, threatens that fragile coalition and is counterproductive, no matter how cleverly produced and well acted it is.  There are infinitely many other forums to debate particular ideological issues.  The sunlight foundation should not be one of those, if it is to succeed.

 

 - Greg Slater

[John Wonderlich]

apropos:

72 Hours is Now

By John Wonderlich on 11/01/09 @ 5:24 pm | 0 Comments

Tags: boehner, healthcare, Pelosi, readthebill

September 24th, Speaker Pelosi said that the healthcare bill would be online for 72 hours.

That 72 hours is now.  The bill is online.

We should recognize this as a milestone.  Has it now become unpalatable for House leadership for either party, from now on, to schedule a vote on major legislation before 72 hours of public availability (and that means online) has elapsed?  That’s unclear.

Even if Speaker Pelosi hadn’t committed to posting the final healthcare bill for 72 hours, though, it’s pretty hard to imagine such a rushed vote in this case.  It invites too significant a political liability.  It would empower process-based criticism.  Not only would it be a bad idea, it would be a bad idea politically.  Minority Leader Boehner would have a field day.

Has something changed?

In January, I made a similar point about the Recovery.gov website.  Congress shifted directly from ignoring the Web to struggling with how to create accountability through public disclosure online.  From ignoring the utility of the Internet to struggling with how to best harness it.

Something similar is happening here.  Public outcry, partisan pressure, and rising expectations are forcing Congress’s hand, and it’s now (apparently) taken as a matter of course that this bill is online for a long weekend before its final consideration.

Pelosi’s initial commitment to a 72 hour period saw far greater coverage than that commitment’s fulfillment.  That’s to be expected — controversy is more compelling than compliance.

What’s important here, though, is what we make of this move.

If having bills exposed for the public, Members of Congress, and their staff really is important, then we need to be sure that the raised bar stays raised.

Will the new standard applied to this version of the healthcare bill apply to more minor legislation?  Will future controversial initiatives all be available for inspection in the same way this bill is?

Only if that’s our expectation.

Ultimately, even H.Res. 554 depends on expectations.  House Rules can be waived, and if no one cares, then there are no consequences.

If public demand is high enough however, H.Res 554 can become moot, and all bills will be available for at least a minimum of scrutiny.

That so many take Speaker Pelosi’s commitment as granted, when it was news a month ago implies that such expectations and results are possible.

[Kathy and Ernie]

It's not lost on me that this issue started gaining ground as a form of right-wing efforts at trouble-making, and that had this come up four years ago the right would have denounced it as a form of socialism and then laughably called socialism fascism etc etc... But i have trouble caring about that.  The way this works at present is outrageous.  And the left •should• suffer for standing against this.  That this benefits a party over another isnt even slightly interesting to me.  Ultimately they both lose and we all win.

The country is divided the way it is mostly because it is the most profitable climate.  This is a purposely created situation.  For illumination on the gleeful way this is practiced, i would direct anyone who wants to really understand to read the internal citi memo cheerfully titled "Welcome to the Plutonomy Machine" in which deplorable tactics are outlined, along with the importance of keeping both parties blaming each other squarely for same- so that blame is never directed at the true culprits.

Sunlight's not dividing the country.  Inequality, money and secrecy are dividing us.

Also- Youtube just isnt a great example to use.  Thats a place people go to really be out of their minds when commenting.  Even I go there - rarely- specifically to be a knucklehead and get it out of my system.  It's Lord of the Flies over there, anything and everything goes.  I know a •priest• who uses that place as a form of public primal scream therapy.  You're dealing with people completely uninformed and full of hate 95% of the time, and trying to  cite Chomsky or Fredrickson is like asking a tornado to just give you some alone time.  It's not a comments site so much as internet grafiti.

On Nov 1, e2009, at 11:28 tAM, "tenkyuu" t<ten...@pacbell.net>ed wr 

It's a clever video.

T 

[Joseph Lorenzo Hall]

So, what are some examples of things happening now in the 72 hours
before a vote? best, Joe

On Sunday, November 1, 2009, John Wonderlich <johnwon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> apropos:
>

> 72 Hours is Now <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/01/72-hours-is-now/>
>
>
> By John Wonderlich <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/people/jwonderlich>
> on 11/01/09 @ 5:24 pm <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/01/72-hours-is-now/>
> | 0 Comments <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/01/72-hours-is-now/#comments>
>
>
>
>
> Tags: boehner <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/boehner/>, healthcare <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/healthcare/>, Pelosi <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/Pelosi/>, readthebill <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/readthebill/>
>
>
>
> September 24th, Speaker Pelosi said <http://www.google.com/search?q=pelosi+72+hour+promise> that the healthcare bill would be online for 72 hours.
> That 72 hours is now.  The bill is <http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3962/show> online <http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3962>.

> We should recognize this as a milestone.  Has it now become
> unpalatable for House leadership for either party, from now on, to
> schedule a vote on major legislation before 72 hours of public
> availability (and that means online) has elapsed?  That’s unclear.
> Even if Speaker Pelosi hadn’t committed to posting the final
> healthcare bill for 72 hours, though, it’s pretty hard to imagine such

> a rushed vote <http://readthebill.org/rushed/> in this

> case.  It invites too significant a political liability.  It would
> empower process-based criticism.  Not only would it be a bad idea, it
> would be a bad idea politically.  Minority Leader Boehner would have a field day.
> Has something changed?

> In January, I made a similar point <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/01/28/recoverygov-an-important-moment/>

> share. <http://bit.ly/legactivity> Totally unexplainable.

>
> http://bit.ly/legactivity
>
> --
> Gabriela
> Schneider
> Communications Director
> Sunlight Foundation
> 1818 N Street,
> NW Suite 410
> WDC 20036
> p: 202/742-1520 x 236
> c: 202/746-0439
> gschn...@sunlightfoundation.com
> http://sunlightfoundation.com
> http://twitter.com/stereogab
>
>
>
>
>

> --~--~

--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
ACCURATE Postdoctoral Research Associate
UC Berkeley School of Information
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy
http://josephhall.org/

[Soren Dayton]

Pelosi is writing the managers amendment ...

[Jim Harper]

The 5,812 subscribers to the WashingtonWatch.com email newsletter will get a pointer to the bill and links to information about it in this blog post . . . .

(Subscribe here!  ;-)

Jim Harper