Our tiny non-profit team was plainly excited when we heard that the Knight Foundation NewsChallenge had an #opengov theme, viz.: How might we improve the way citizens and governments interact? Good Q! Read more
The President having GOP Senators for dinner didn't stop them from having him for lunch. He may win over their taste-buds and tummies, but it's a far reach to their hearts and minds.
Paul Ryan's past budget proposals have turned the Republicans into lemmings, yet despite a decisive national defeat,Ryan's new budget is a lot like the old.
More Americans speak against the sequester but stopping cuts requires Washington action,and in DC these days, the hardest task is getting Congress to do anything at all.
We need a group of proud aging men with differing goals & fractured alliances to can get together to make a decision.
They just did it in the Vatican -- why is Capitol Hill having so much trouble?
Whether discussing the white smoke in Rome or just the hot air and dark tempers in DC, share your thoughts, a drink & a night with your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY
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I consider it a great shame to this nation the United States, being the most prosperous country on the earth, that for decades, our health care system has been so
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Paul Ryan Should Get This: ObamaCare is here to Stay appeared first on
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I will give Senator Rand Paul (KY) credit for being steadfast with his filibuster, which says he actually believes what he is saying, or else he has serious designs on
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Rand Paul’s Filibuster and Rant Shows Fear and Ignorance appeared first on
Fidlerten Place.
Marcus Licinius Crassus was the richest man in Roman history. Indeed, he is considered one of the richest men who ever lived. He made his fortune as a supporter of the dictator Sulla by confiscating the properties of Sulla’s political enemies.
He was also a shrewd acquirer of real estate, especially when it was on fire. Rome had no fire department; fires were left to burn themselves out. Crassus organized some 500 men and, when there was a fire, he would show up and offer to buy the property for a song. After the beleaguered owner sold out the burning buildings, Crassus would call on his fire department to put out the flames and then restore the buildings.
In any case, Crassus was described by Plutarch as the ultimate man of avarice. Crassus never had enough and always wanted more.
It was Crassus who, wishing to add glory to his wealth lead the legions which defeated Spartacus in the slave revolt. Several Roman armies were off fighting elsewhere and Crassus offered to personally equip several legions and lead the fight against the slaves. Initially he had trouble. Read more
Happy Friday everyone. Two of the PPF team will be at SxSW Interactive this week.
I’ll be there to sneak-preview the recently re-designed OpenGovernment.org, for engagement with state & city government. I’m attending with James McKinney, the E.D. of the Canadian non-profit Open North, who is working as OpenGovernment’s technical lead. Here’s my draft pubilc schedule, feel free to suggest events. Ping me anytime to meet up to see the new OG user interface & give your feedback, we’re easy to reach & happy to chat. AIM / Skype: davidmooreppf, #opengovernment in Freenode on IRC, david at ppolitics.org over email. Read more
Remember the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report" released in 2002? Sure it seemed liked science fiction at the time.
Washington D. C. is virtually crime free in the year 2054 due to the effectiveness of the "Pre-Crime Unit". This unit arrests and jails individuals before they even commit the crime thus sparing society from the scourge of lawlessness.
How is it determined who will commit a crime in the future? A crime that hasn’t happened yet?
Why the "pre-cogs"- pre-cognitives provide the names of future criminals. The pre-cogs are three gifted humans who can see the future, give the information to the Pre-Crime Unit so that hero Tom can go out and sweep these pre-criminals off the street..
Being a pre-criminal can make jury trials and those pesky constitutional issues a major annoyance. After all, no crime has a yet been committed so the system can’t exactly charge the perp with any wrong-doing. There may be some circumstantial evidence of a pre-crime but maybe not. Read more
I think most of my gay brothers and sisters are still pinching themselves, expecting to wake up any moment to realize that it was all just a dream and we Continue Reading →
The post Gay Marriage: Why the Sea Change in Public Opinion? appeared first on Fidlerten Place.
Because Congress created a Doomsday device that it was unable or unwilling to confront, we're now stuck with the sequester & it's senseless, severe service cuts.
Because conservatives remain in the grip of the dystopian paranoia at the NRA, commonsense gun laws finally introduced
already face a steep uphill climb.
Because Democrats were too timid to stand up to their own Prez over illegal drone strikes, it took the bane of liberals, Rand Paul, to raise the issue through a filibuster.
When a man droning about drones is the most functional, uplifting act in the Capitol, we might as well cheer a filibuster -- because otherwise we're feeling busted.
Lift your spirits, your voices & libations and fill-a-pitcher instead of filibuster at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
I was reading in USA Today an article about former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a book he has published concerning immigration. The article also discussed a possible campaign by
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We do not need another Bush in the White House appeared first on
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Admittedly, I’ve slowed down on my consumption of news since I was hired to direct a nonprofit in January. At first, I tried to keep up with current affairs, pretending I had as much energy for it as I did when I was underemployed. But my patience and energy are waning. I feel a growing disgust with the new sequester drama, and it wearies me to watch it. If I don’t do my job, I get sanctioned or dismissed. When Congress doesn’t do its job, it gets a nice paycheck and ample vacation time. That is bullshit! I stopped watching.
A diversion! I needed a diversion from the real House of Representatives, and so I feverishly picked off the episodes of the fictitious one on Netflix’s superb series “House of Cards.” Give me Francis Underwood’s felonious antics over Rep. Boehner’s embarrassing fumbles any day. The writers of this series prove that sometimes real life doesn’t hold a candle to fantasy. Read more
Lest we forget, here are the highlights:
Susan Fluke … so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills.
What does that make her? It makes her a slut right? It makes her a prostitute! She wants to be paid to have sex
Ms. Fluke...Who bought your condoms in the 6th grade?
She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk.
Random hook-ups that these babes are encountering here … having sex nearly 3 times a day.
Ms Fluke and the rest of you FemiNazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex...then we want something in return, Ms. Fluke, and that would be the videos of this sex posted online so we can see.
There's more--a lot more. Although you can't find the transcript on Rush Limbaugh's website, which otherwise contains a meticulous archival treasure trove of hate speech. He erased it when he realized what he had done. Read more
The old saying goes: It's important to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Keeping this in mind, a few weeks ago I joined a Tea Party community undercover. I rarely post there, I'm too afraid too, what I've found is that they're a suspicious bunch and if I don't agree with their beliefs, I'd be labeled a "troll" and possibly get myself banned. Well, I am a troll, but just a "lurking troll"... like I said, I rarely post and when I do, I make sure that it's something I've come across on the site and share it... Staying undercover by blending in.
Can I say that the Tea Party scare the crap out of me?! I've learned several things about them. Most, not all, but most of them are religious fanatics. Quite a few of them home school their kids and college?... forget that, they feel that school and college introduce liberal ideas to their children. The irony in all of this is their poor use of grammar and spelling mistakes. Be prepared to be become dumb if they ever gain control. Read more
The United States Supreme Court recently listened to a challenge to the Voting Rights Act in which the question before the court is “about whether the federal government should still
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia Needs to Explain “Racial Entitlement” appeared first on
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Instead of stalling senseless sequester slashing, the GOP prefers to prove a point by sinking a ship instead of saving it -- but it's their Party's that's submerging slowly.
The 75 Republicans who speak for repealing DOMA are former players, out of step and out of power, dreaming of a moderate GOP future, but stuck in a moderate GOP past.
A former Senator nearly gets blocked from becoming Secretary of Defense because he had the good sense to get out, while he left the senseless back on the Hill.
They say rats flee a sinking ship, but this time everyone else has fled the Party and the rats in the GOP are doing the sinking.
After the haggle and Hagel, you need a huggle, so embrace an evening of engaging imbibing at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
