Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996)
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Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996)
i like that
This is how I spent the last couple days....making calls and sending emails...At times you think it is a waste of time then you get an email like this one...the bill you want to pass passes and it feels nice ;)
January 19, 2007
Dear BlueCat, <--name changed :D
We won! Thanks to your emails and phone calls, we swamped the Senate and they passed a strong lobbying and ethics reform bill, S. 1, in a 96-2 landslide.
Other good news: Justice was served today when ex-Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) was sentenced to 30 months in jail. I guess that free golf trip to Scotland wasn't so free.
Again, thank you! Daniel De Bonis Online Organizer Public Citizen's Congress Watch
P.S. If you are still fired up, write a quick email to your senators thanking them for passing S. 1. Click here: http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6528&t=CleanUpWashington 2col.dwt
It was looking grim yesterday, as a partisan fight had broken out the day before which threatened to kill the whole bill.
The stand-off was over a dispute between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on whether the Senate would take a vote on a "line-item" veto proposal desired by President Bush.
Our activists and other concerned citizens then flooded the Capitol with calls demanding an immediate vote on real lobbying and ethics reform.
Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, the Senate leaders negotiated an agreement that eventually brought the bill back to life.
Here are bill highlights this is going to help on so many levels :) I am a happy camper...
The bill: 1. Bans gifts from lobbyists and organizations the hire lobbyists (no more gifts to lawmakers, folks).
2. Prohibits organizations that employ lobbyists from arranging or paying for congressional travel, with the following exceptions:
* One day trips
* Travel paid for by 501(c)(3), subject to pre-approval by the ethics committee
* Travel paid for by universities.
3. Requires Members to pay full charter rates for flying on private corporate jets, for officially connected and campaign trips.
4. Discloses all fundraising activity, including bundling, by lobbyists.
5. Prohibits lobbyists from hosting events that "honor" members of Congress, even at party conventions.
6. Extends revolving door prohibition from one year to two â?? and include "lobbying activity" in that two-year cooling off period.
7. Prohibits spouses of Members of Congress from lobbying, unless they were registered lobbyists prior to the Member's election or they were a lobbyist prior to one year of marrying the Member.
8. Members cannot request earmarks that benefit the Member's immediate family.
9. Extensive earmark disclosure, for federal agencies as well as earmarks to private parties.
10. Earmarks must be posted on the Members' Web page.
11. Disclosure of stealth coalition lobbying.
12. And, of course, quarterly, electronic reporting of lobbying activity.
Global warming? Maybe global freezing. We've had record cold temps here in the San Francisco area for more than a week now. My 3yo daughter walked outside and slipped and fell on the ice. We're not suppposed to have ice here.
Then again, it did get up to 113 degrees at our house this past summer. That was a record too.
Warmer or colder, the weather definitely seems to be fucked up lately
You're kidding I hope...
sorry about your baby falling :( Is she ok?
My daughter and grandson have been without electricity for days and they are having a big ice storm again!! They are in Missouri..
And Tommy had hurricane force winds in Germany!
Things are changing..wouldn't it be amusing if that huge iceberg that broke off up here made it all the way to SF!!
shut up.Quote:
Originally Posted by benagain
its warm now because of el nino, and GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL. trash it a bit? we butt fucked the shit out of this planet, seriously, its taking a lot of abuse and maybe, hopefully, we can save it without permanent damage, but that takes some work. its not going to be some apocalyptic 'the day after tomorrow' hollywood shit, but it could eventually stop life on the planet if not addressed properly.
Nope, not kidding. We have had really bizzare weather here this year. extremes on both end of the tempearature scale.Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueCat
My little girl just fell on her butt and laughed it off. It was just an amazing thing that there would be ice to fall on in the first place. Every now and then I'll see some first thing in the morning, maybe a very thin sheet on top of a puddle off in some shady spot off the road. But this was in the afternoon and on pavement(which would normally be warmer). That's pretty much unheard of. It's the entire West Coast too. I work with some people up in the Portland area and they were completely shut down on Monday.
And what's with NY? I kept hearing on Letterman that it was like 70 degrees there last week. Is that true or was he just fucking around?
Letterman had to be joking they are covered in ice too...
But at one point last week Houston had 79 degrees and just a few miles away it was 20 degrees :eek: man I bet those were some big thunderstorms!
Ummmm wasn't benagain's post sarcasm? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by klup
Fengzi,
A simplistic word,
Global warming is very slow, So far we've only warmed the earth ~0.63 degrees Celsius.
This isn't an amount that we would notice. But, 1) the world dosn't warm evenly the poles will feel the biggest effect at first. 2) The importance of this warming isn't that it will be a lil hotter. It's that this small change is significant for all kinds of earth systems. Systems that get destabilized by the change.
By destabilizing these systems (systems like the gulf stream, Jet stream and others) Causes climate change. Climate Change is what we are being subject too and is what were worried about.
If you have any doubt, check out how fast records are getting broken around the globe.
All kinds of records: Hottest hots, coldest colds, wettest, driest, stormiest and so on.
It’s quite concerning.