On Earmarks (bears repeating)

Tom Coburn and Barack Obama put forward legislation ... over four years ago. It was the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006" and it focused on transparency (rather than an outright ban).

I have no doubt there are Tea Party folk and many others who would support an outright ban on earmarks. They may even gain traction among legislators as this issue hits their plate (very early in the next Congress, I hope and expect). But I have come to the conclusion that banning something is almost always the worst idea (like squeezing a water balloon) ... the money's gotta flow somewhere. Chances are it'll just move to someplace less accountable.

So ... Transparency, transparency, transparency -- that's the proper mantra. Anyone who supports putting all proposed legislation on the web for the public to see at least 72 hours prior to the first vote, well ... they have my support and my vote.

And there should be severe penalties for anyone voting on legislation that has not been treated in this fashion.

Why Wait?!

Sure! Why bother waiting for COICA to actually become law (when you know it's gonna).

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/130763-homeland-security-dept-seizes-domain-names

Dresden Codak

But, Wait! There's More ...

That's Right!!

You can get two $2 bills for the
unbelievable price of just $10 !!

(! that's two for the price of one !)

Three 30 second bits

Say What?

(for 30 seconds)

Mhmm.

(for 30 seconds)

O'Rly!?

(for 30 seconds)

The Google policy on a lot of things

-- Eric Schmidt

Current Fav Podcast is: Future Tense

(with John Moe)

Listen to this episode right now!
(it's only 5 minutes)

Jonathan Zittrain -and- Phil Davison
http://futuretense.publicradio.org/episode/index.php?id=1114652400

or subscribe to the podcast via -or-

---

[note: this podcast was, or course, renamed a few days after my post. It's now the Marketplace Tech Report (at marketplacetech.org) ]

Children's Tale

Once upon a time in the future, there will be a Pop Star Princess named Angelina who wants to be Queen.

Her world is Antares and everyone there equates Auto-Tune™ with actual talent.

Music fills the air -and- everyone sings all the time.

Everyone sounds perfect (in an Auto-Tuney™ kinda way), but Angelina wants more.

You see: Antares is not just a world. It's a fountain. A fountain that spews bits and bytes and forges code.

It is the source of all Auto-Tune™ and deep within it brews the current beta evo 33.3.

Angelina can see the Auto-Tune Evo 33.3beta™ -- and she has a plan.

She plunges her fist into the fountain, takes a copy of the evo 33.3beta for herself and rolls a big rock over top the source -- stopping its flow completely.

And the world is none the wiser. The halted fountain goes unnoticed.

They are all very content to sing in their evo 33.2 world.

... as they marvel and swoon for Angelina the undisputed Queen of Pop.

Consume Bottled Water

Happy in Paraguay