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July - August 2009 Legislative, Communication, and Media Training from TheCapitol.Net

July - August 2009 Legislative, Communication, and Media Training from TheCapitol.Net

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June 30, 2009 11:37 AM   Link    Training    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/28/09

Three Worthwhile Health Care Videos

• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• How California Became Ungovernable - "The fiscal effect of Proposition 13 itself is only part of the damage the initiative did to California. Even worse have been the methods Capitol politicians devised to try to lessen the measure’s financial impact." What's missing is any mention of the growth of special interests, including public employee unions.
• The Albany-Trenton-Sacramento Disease - "President Obama has bet the economy on his program to grow the government and finance it with a more progressive tax system. It's hard to miss the irony that he's pitching this change in Washington even as the same governance model is imploding in three of the largest American states where it has been dominant for years -- California, New Jersey and New York.
  
  A decade ago all three states were among America's most prosperous. California was the unrivaled technology center of the globe. New York was its financial capital. New Jersey is the third wealthiest state in the nation after Connecticut and Massachusetts. All three are now suffering from devastating budget deficits as the bills for years of tax-and-spend governance come due."
• Degrees of employment - "A majority of college graduates 25 and under are working in jobs that don’t require a college degree--if they’re working at all--concludes a survey by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. ... Going to community college to learn vocational skills is a good bet for young people who lack academic interests. The 20-year-old with the medical technology certificate is going to trump the 22-year-old with the degree in journalism or political science--and a pile of loans to pay off."
• Barack Obama vs. International Law - "By characterizing its demand that Israel prohibit Jews from building homes in Israel's capital city and its heartland as a legal requirement, the Obama administration portrays Israel as an international outlaw. After all, if building homes for Jews is a crime, and Israel is not prohibiting Jews from building homes, then Israel is at best guilty of enabling a crime to take place, and at worst, it is a criminal state.
  ...
  The problem with the Obama administration's characterization of a ban on Jewish building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as an Israeli legal obligation is that Israel has never taken upon itself a legal obligation to prohibit such building activities. Israel has never signed an agreement that has characterized any Jewish communities as 'illegal.'
  ...
  Multiple news reports in recent days have indicated that the Obama administration is working to facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian government that will include Hamas. US efforts to legitimize the incorporation of a terrorist group in a Palestinian government are a severe violation of US and international law. This is the case since it would clearly involve aiding a designated terrorist organization and helping to provide it with a safe haven.
  ...
  Obama, the former law professor, never tires of invoking international law. And yet, when one considers his policies toward Israel on the one hand, and his policies toward illegal terrorist organizations on the other, it is clear that Obama's respect for international law is mere rhetoric."
• Michael Jackson - "One isolated case doesn’t prove anything, of course. But obviously his vegetarian diet didn’t make him immune to cardiac arrest, if that’s what killed him. And if he was abusing alcohol, a diet consisting of vegetarian foods that metabolize easily into blood sugar may have made him crave the stuff, as I talked about during my interview with Nora Gedgaudas.
  ...
  Meanwhile, cancer is virtually non-existent among hunter-gatherers. There’s a reason cancer, heart disease and Type II diabetes are called 'The Diseases of Civilization.' They barely show up in populations that still live on a primal diet.
  ...
  So the moral of the story is: don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, and don’t eat junk food. But a steak isn’t junk food. Biscuits are junk food."
• Grumpy Old Man: How did I become such a curmudgeon? - "What happens to middle-aged men to make them so irritable? It is almost as if there’s a hormone, a bit like testosterone, that is released into the bloodstream once we reach a certain age.
  . . .
  It must be something to do with becoming a stakeholder in society: Once men become fathers, we have a vested interest in preserving public order. Overnight, we go from being apathetic Bohemians to the Elite Republican Guard of the bourgeoisie. I used to be a party animal, but in the last five years I have become a trustee of a blindness charity, the patron of a residential community for adults with learning disabilities and the head of fund-raising on the PTA of my daughter’s primary school. It’s official: I’m a pillar of the community.
  . . .
  But the flipside is that I’m also about a hundred times more grumpy. Now that I’ve been press-ganged into joining the officer class, I won’t tolerate any bad behaviour in the lower ranks. I have all the Messianic zeal of a born-again non-smoker -- and don’t even talk to me about smoking in front of my children. I’m Mr Angry. If I was allowed to issue tickets to people parking illegally on my street, I would.
  . . .
  Quick, give me some beta-blockers. I feel a heart-attack coming on." ht 2Blowhards
• Natural History Magazine's Picks From the Past
• The End of Transparency (Before It Ever Began) - "If legislation of this sort, which establishes the first-ever regulatory controls on the most ubiquitous byproduct of modern industrial society, imposes new efficiency requirements on all-manner of appliances and consumer products, could trigger the imposition of tariffs on foreign products (likely in violation of U.S. trade commitments), furthers the federal government's environmentally destructive love affair with corn-based ethanol, contains numerous provisions drafted or urged by various special interest groups, and (at least in one version) contained provisions designed to create a national housing code, can be adopted by a House of Congress within hours of being written (let alone becoming public), then any claim of transparency in government is a farce.
  
  UPDATE: FWIW, the Waxman-Markey climate bill passed 219-212. Any guess how many of those 219 (or, for that matter, the 212) really know everything that is in the bill?
  
  SECOND UPDATE: As it turns out, there was not even a copy of the final bill language available in any form when the bill passed. Rather, as David Freddoso reports, the House Clerk had a copy of the 1090-page bill that emerged by committee and a copy of the 300-page set of amendments agreed upon at 3am Friday morning, and many provisions in the latter consist of the likes of 'Page 15, beginning line 8, strike paragraph (11) . . .' In other words, it is highly doubtful that more than a handful of member of Congress knew the contents of the legislation they voted on."
• The know-nothing party - "To become a citizen, immigrants must answer six of 10 basic civics questions, such as: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution? Who was the first president of the United States? When the Goldwater Institute asked Arizona public high school students 10 random questions from the citizenship list, only 3.5 percent got six or more questions right, writes Matthew Ladner in a preview on Jay Greene’s blog. Half the students got only one question right."
• Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime, a review by Anthony Swofford - "The elder Mr. Griffin and his son had been engaged in a decades-long debate that they called "The Great Conversation." The senior Griffin guided his son's reading when the boy was younger and then was led by the son as he grew older and hungrier for knowledge. The men decided that when Skip returned from Iraq after his second tour they would write a book together, based on their intellectual engagement. One father wants to take his son to a bar; another wants to write a book with his son. This fact alone is rather remarkable." ht ALD
• Youth Not Liking Catcher in the Rye - "The classic (1951) book of teenage angst, Catcher in the Rye, is about a young man, Holden Caulfield, who finds the world filled with phonies. Adults are shallow, hypocritical, insignificant. He seems to have Tourrette's syndrome, as every other word is 'goddam'. The New York Times reports current teens find the protagonist whiny, as opposed to 'deep'. Perhaps reality television and more complex TV shows are paying off."

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June 28, 2009 12:37 PM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Proxy Vote"

Proxy Vote: The practice of permitting a member to cast the vote of an absent colleague. Proxy voting is permitted only in Senate committees if committee rules allow them.

This definition is from the Glossary in our Congressional Deskbook. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Congressional Deskbook: The Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Congress, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training and a Certificate in Congressional Operations and Federal Budgeting. We show you how Washington and Congress work. ^TM

June 27, 2009 12:37 PM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/25/09

The No-Rights List

• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• States Fight Medicaid Expansion - "Some governors are pushing to scale back or kill proposals to expand Medicaid to provide health-care coverage to the uninsured, raising a new challenge to President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the system. Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor, is funded through a combination of federal and state tax money. Proposals in the House and Senate would expand the program to cover at least a third of the nation's 46 million uninsured, but states are worried they would get stuck with a big part of the tab."
• AmeriCorps feared bad press if IG investigation continued - "Walpin's objections were the subject of a now-controversial May 20 meeting in which Walpin, to use his term, 'lectured' the board on what he believed was its mistake in approving the Johnson settlement. On the morning of the meeting, the Sacramento Bee reported that a man named Rick Maya, who worked with Kevin Johnson in the St. HOPE project, claimed that Johnson's emails had been deleted during the time of Walpin's investigation. The Maya news suggested that there might have been obstruction of justice in the St. HOPE affair, and Walpin used it to drive home his point that the board should have let his investigation stand. ... Later in the meeting, members questioned Walpin about his intentions. It was at that point that they say Walpin became confused and disoriented. But whatever Walpin's demeanor, it appears that board members, of both parties, were worried about the possibility of embarrassing new revelations involving a sensational case they thought had been closed. After the meeting, the board began an accelerated effort to remove Walpin, compiling an informal list of grievances against him -- he could be difficult, he telecommuted, he was somehow disabled -- that the White House would ultimately cite as cause for his firing. But there is no doubt that, whatever the other reasons, the board feared that a revival of a scandal they thought was in the past would be embarrassing to the newly-prominent AmeriCorps."
• BigLaw: How to Work With Very Difficult Clients
• Housing Bust and Mobility
• Deflating our way to Prosperity: Five Major Sectors of our Economy Pointing to Demand Destruction Price Deflation. Education, Wages, Housing, Stocks, and Automobiles. - "As we highlighted early in the article, only two areas are now seeing inflation. Those are medical care and education. Education I hate to say is also experiencing a bubble with easy financing. How many people do you know who went or sent their kids to a private non-elite college paying $40,000 a year in tuition to pursue a career that wouldn’t pay more than $30,000 a year? Clearly, many of these people would have never been able to afford the tuition cost if it wasn’t for easy access to student loans."
• How Difficult Is It To Post A Bill On The White House Website For Five Days?
• Insightful books on politics, written by politicians
• Daredevil: Riding motorbikes without a helmet, flying planes while half asleep--not to mention discussing books he’d never read and using words he didn’t understand--William F. Buckley courted adventure in all that he did. Here, the conservative godfather’s onetime protégé and longtime nemesis [Garry Wills] fondly recalls their friendship--and argues that Buckley was not the snob many thought him to be.
• PBGC Assumes Pensions at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
• Beating the Heart Association diet is child's play - "Elimination of wheat and sugars yields dramatic effects on basic lipids, especially reductions in triglycerides of up to several hundred milligrams, increased HDL, reduced LDL."
• How Much Dough Did Clear Burn Through? - "Clear was, as I said yesterday, a very expensive failure. With two or three people staffing its access lanes at 18 airports, and with one or two others staffing the enrollment kiosks in terminals, the weekly nut had to have been quite impressive.

  And that doesn't count the money spent on the GE-produced electronic shoe-scanner kiosks that the TSA adamantly refused to approve for security use, or the equipment to produce biometric ID cards at each Clear location. Or the development of other technology, which was well underway.

  Clear was the brand name of the version of the ill-fated 'registered traveler' program that Steven Brill's Verified Identity Pass Inc. tried mightily, and futilely, to install as a component of airport security. The TSA, as I said yesterday, wanted no part of private-enterprise incursion on its security turf, and successfully bled Clear to death."
  

• The U.N.'s 10-Year Plan to Eradicate Drugs: How'd That Go? - "In 1998 Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N. Drug Control Program, declared: 'Global coca leaf and opium poppy acreage totals an area less than half the size of Puerto Rico. There is no reason it cannot be eliminated in little more than a decade.' How's that going? Today Antonio Maria Costa, Arlacchi's successor at what is now the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), issued a 314-page report that takes stock of what was accomplished during the U.N. Decade Against Drug Abuse. Among other things, estimated global production of opium more than doubled, from 4,346 metric tons in 1998 to 8,890 in 2007. During the same period estimated cocaine production rose from 825 to 994 metric tons. But don't be discouraged, Costa says; a century after the dawn of international drug control efforts, we're about to turn the corner."
  
• Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on glycemic control in outpatients with severe type 2 diabetes
  
• Not Every Child Is Secretly a Genius - "Multiple intelligences put every child on an equal footing, granting the hope of identical value in an ostensible meritocracy. The theory fits well with a number of the assumptions that have dominated educational philosophy for years. The movements that took flower in the mid-20th century have argued for the essential sameness of all healthy human beings and for a policy of social justice that treats all people the same. Above all, many educators have adhered to the social construction of reality -- the idea that redefining the way we treat children will redefine their abilities and future successes. (Perhaps that's what leads some parents to put their faith in 'Baby Einstein' videos: the hope that a little nurturing television will send their kids to Harvard.) It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Gardner's work, both in repudiating that elitist, unfair concept of 'g' and in guiding thought in psychology as it applies to education.
  ...
  Finally, as Waterhouse noted in her exchange with Gardner, the theory of multiple intelligences has little value for clinical testing of intelligence or the prediction of future performance. 'G' alone is highly predictive of both academic and work success. The other intelligences, or whatever they are, add very little.

  Part of the confusion that has allowed the theory to survive long past the stage of empirical disrepute is the irascible debate regarding what intelligence is in the first place. Intelligence is among the most stable of psychological constructs. It is as possible to define it both operationally and conceptually as it is for almost any other psychological variable, although that might not be saying much. At worst, intelligence is like pornography: I may not be able to define it to the satisfaction of all, but I sure know it when I see it (or, in the case of intelligence, when I come across its absence). At the optimistic extreme, a reasonable definition of intelligence is not hard to come by. Intelligence: an innate cognitive ability that powers learning. Perfect? No. But that's basically it.

  Aren't there plenty of Ph.D.'s who can't fix their cars? Sure, but the majority of them could learn if they were so inclined. An individual with low 'g' is going to struggle at both book learning and auto repair (although perhaps car mechanics would prove more manageable than literary theory or quantum physics). In other words, individuals high in "g" are going to be able to learn a wider range of activities with greater ease than individuals low in 'g'.
  ...
  Many people like to think that any child, with the proper nurturance, can blossom into some kind of academic oak tree, tall and proud. It's just not so.

  Multiple intelligences provides a kind of cover to preserve that fable."
  

• A&P Mechanic's Cable Key Ring
  
• Amazing footage of lunar probe's final moments before it crashes into Moon
  
• Bing and Google Agree: Slow Pages Lose Users
  
• Richard Marx, One Of The Artists Jammie Thomas Supposedly Shared, Blasts Verdict, Apologizes
  
• Amanda Palmer Connects With Fans, Gives 'Em A Reason To Buy... And Makes $19k In 10 Hours

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June 25, 2009 09:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments: A Hands-On How to Program for Professionals

TheCapitol.Net Hosts Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments: A Hands-On How to Program for Professionals

Do you or your staff need assistance shaping a piece of legislation or an amendment? If yes, look no further than TheCapitol.Net’s comprehensive, one-stop course, Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments on July 29, 2009.

Attendees gain a hands-on, how-to guide from faculty, starting with putting their thoughts on paper, to drafting, style, and organizational guidelines. This course is meant for professionals who have advanced negotiating, strategic thinking, and written communication skills. Participants should have familiarity with congressional documents, operations and procedures.

Experienced legislative drafters will show attendees how to:

• Research and define your audience
  
• Improve your measure's appeal
  
• Assess existing law and policy objectives
  
• Structure bills and amendments to streamline the drafting process
  
• Comply with the U.S. Code rules of construction, style, grammar and punctuation
  
• Use drafting styles that work in your favor
  
• Apply drafting language to your ideas and goals

Attendees will learn about guidelines for writing a piece of legislation, drafting styles, and approval and transmittal motions for federal agencies including the Office of Management and Budget clearance process.
As part of the course, attendees participate in hands-on exercises where they dissect errors in a sample piece of legislation to draft their own legislation, while faculty give one-on-one feedback and guidance.

The conference is approved for .6 CEU credits from George Mason University. Fee includes all course materials, the training edition of the Legislative Drafter’s Deskbook, a continental breakfast, and a networking lunch. To preserve the small-group, hands-on atmosphere, seating is limited. This course is an elective for TheCapitol.Net Certificate in Congressional Operations. To register, learn more, or view the complete agenda, please visit http://www.draftinglegislation.com or call TheCapitol.Net directly at 703-739-3790.

Based in Alexandria, VA, TheCapitol.Net is a non-partisan firm that since 1999 has offered media, legislative, budget and advocacy training for thousands of government and business leaders each year.

###

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090623005886/en

June 23, 2009 11:27 AM   Link    Training    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/23/09

What they are chanting in Iran

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• Book touring in Beijing - "It was when the elderly Chinese lady clambered up on to the stage as I was doing a reading and began a curious, undulating dance to music playing out of her cellphone, that I first started to think: book touring in China is very different from elsewhere and, in many ways, totally weird. It all began with the sale of my most recent book to a Chinese publisher. I had written about the eccentric Cambridge biochemist Joseph Needham, whose adulterous love affair with a Chinese student in 1937 led to him writing what turned out be the longest English book on China ever written--25 volumes and more than 4m words. In Britain, Needham is almost entirely forgotten beyond the confines of academia. But in China he is widely known and universally revered."
• The Left watches as industry hijacks yet another "progressive reform" - "It was hard-core anti-smoking groups hoping to drive cigarette companies out of business that started the push for federal regulation of tobacco. Now Philip Morris ended up writing the bill in a way that may drive smaller companies out of business, but preserves and likely the tobacco giant's dominance. It was Upton Sinclair's The Jungle that started a rallying cry for federal regulation of meat, but it was the meatpackers who wrote the legislation, again crushing competitors, bilking taxpayers, and helping the Bigs get Bigger through regulatory barriers to entry. ... When you give government more power, you give the big lobbyists more influence."
• Chinese Coal Rides A Maglev. Why Don’t We?
• What will drive future growth?
• Oregon Decides to Tax Jobs, Not Suds
• House Prices and the Unemployment Rate, Washington D.C.
• Confessions of a TARP Wife - "I know people are angry--angry at those they view as responsible for the subprime crisis and the subsequent economic meltdown. I don’t blame them. I’m angry too. But my fury extends to any number of culprits: to Alan Greenspan, who encouraged the loose-money policies that undermined the pricing of risk; to Barney Frank, who cudgeled Fannie Mae into supporting loans to unfit homebuyers; to the rating agencies that were ethically compromised; to the subprime-mortgage brokers who chased fees and ignored any accountability; to the investors who didn’t do their homework and absurdly leveraged up their balance sheets. I’m an equal-opportunity blamer. And yes, I blame those who were in charge of the big banks--including my husband--for not seeing the default tsunami coming. But almost no one did. Everyone knows this, yet financial CEOs have replaced the Mob as the most despised group in the country. The good news is that Americans have short attention spans. Before long, some other group will come along to absorb all the frustration and anger."
• The Best Places to Start Over
• It is about Iran, not about America! - "What has changed is Iran. Back in 2000 Iran was run by a so-called reformist who was running into opposition from the same forces that have recently showed just how dishonest Iran's system is. Today Iranians are on the streets in protest against that act of massive electoral fraud and the regime's violent response. It is about them. It is not about us"
• Say Farewell To Kodachrome Film
• The Benefits of a Classical Education
• Two students, two schools - "Kyle is taking community college classes this summer. Henry hopes to return to LA to hang out with friends."
• Toyoda: “Toyota’s Screw-Ups Look Like GM’s”
• CRE: Chicago Eyesore - "Every CRE bust leaves what Crain's Chicago Business calls the Waterview: 'a 26-story concrete monument symbolizing the excesses of the real estate boom'"
• Belkin Announces Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit - "Even if you lose a good part of that bandwidth, most network cards still only operate at 100 Mb/s. If this device holds up to its claims (and can provide a more reliable connection than wireless), it might be worth the $150 price tag."
• Arthur Conan Doyle, Good Kindle Books at a Glance #15
• Buying two Kindles
• Kindle 2 for Singaporeans!
• Medtronic's Aggressive Move into Diabetes Market
• Glucose Buddy Helps to Watch Glucose Levels Over Time - free app for your iPod or iPhone

. . . . . . . . .

June 23, 2009 08:27 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/21/09

St. Louis Blues - 1958 - A Jazz Dream?




Watch Walpin for yourself: does this man seem confused?

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
  
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
  
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
  
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
  
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
  
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
  
• Khamenei on the Ropes? - "Iran is not a theocracy. It is a military dictatorship headed by Khamenei and advised by a coterie of generals from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Army, as well as hard-liners in the secret police. Ahmadinejad is little more than the spokesman for this group"
  
• Keep the $3.65 - I Don't Need it Anymore - "I truly cannot believe what it took to get a $3.65 refund from the Metro system in D.C., also known as WMATA, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. It required a chat with station agent, filling out a paper form and mailing it, two phone calls and two emails. I purposely put myself through this to test the system. When my farecard didn't work last month (I usually use a more technologically advanced 'SmarTrip' card that I just flash at the barrier and the gates open, but I'd left it at home) I showed it to the station manager. He gave me the option of sending the dead card in for a refund of the amount left. Yes, $3.65 is a trivial amount but this can be a bigger issue for people who load a card up with, say, $100."
  
• A Swat At PETA - "I realize the PETA folks like to blur the distinctions between various life-forms, but flies aren’t animals. They’re insects. They don’t plan for their futures, they don’t fall in love, and they don’t miss their cousin Boo-Boo if he has an unfortunate encounter with a presidential hand. A fly is probably about as intelligent as a medium-sized potato - and therefore only slightly more intelligent than a medium-sized PETA volunteer. ... p.s. - some months ago I wrote a little poem in a comment on Mike Eade’s blog:

  PETA, PETA, Pumpkin eater,
  Had a wife but served no meat her.
  Fed her corn and pasta shells,
  And only killed her beta cells."
  

• The Newsweekly’s Last Stand - "The Economist prides itself on cleverly distilling the world into a reasonably compact survey. Another word for this is blogging, or at least what blogging might be after it matures--meaning, after it transcends its current status as a free-fire zone and settles into a more comprehensive system of gathering and presenting information. As a result, although its self-marketing subtly sells a kind of sleek, mid-last-century Concorde-flying sangfroid, The Economist has reached its current level of influence and importance because it is, in every sense of the word, a true global digest for an age when the amount of undigested, undigestible information online continues to metastasize. And that’s a very good place to be in 2009."
  
• Coldwell Banker CEO: "Move-up buyers absent"
  
• More Layoffs at Cessna in Business-Aircraft Malaise - "Cessna Aircraft is cutting another 1,300 jobs, following the 6,900 job cuts it announced last month, citing lower demand for new aircraft. Last year, Cessna employed over 15,000 people."
  
• Down with capitalism! (sort of) - "Yet again we find evidence that the current global economic crisis hasn't resulted in political swings against markets."
  
• More New Regulation! - "The problem with Washington oversight is they haven't a clue what is important, only what is popular. The pitchfork and torches crowd is against 'rich guys in suits' and derivatives, and want to appear pro-active. ... Warning labels? Has anyone seen a mortgage in the past 5 years? There are tens of pages, and you have to initial it in 17 places, so many none are read by your average borrower. So now we will have to initial in 34 places. If the warning light is always flashing, people ignore it. But to prioritize implies understanding the relative magnitudes of risk, and that is outside their scope. This doesn't change anything. ...The positive feedback loop of nonprofits getting Federal grants, giving money to poor people to buy homes they could not afford, supported by homebuilders and lenders who would then donate to legislators, could not be more corrupt."
  
• House Prices and the Unemployment Rate - "this graph suggests that house prices will not bottom (in real terms) until the unemployment rate peaks (or later, especially since the current bubble dwarfs those previous housing bubbles). And it is unlikely that the unemployment rate will peak for some time ..."
  
• Obama Lawyers Talk Gitmo and Judge-Picking at ACS Convention - "The final question of the night-- 'What does the Obama presidency mean to you?'-- came from an audience member. It even gave [Jones Day partner Noel Francisco, the sole conservative on the panel], who represents oil and tobacco companies now grappling with tougher regulations, an opportunity to see the bright side of a Democratic administration. His answer: 'Enormous amounts of business.'"
  
• No, Obama can't govern like FDR in 1933 - "But this is not 1932, and Obama is not FDR. FDR came into office with 20+% unemployment and a banking crisis that was wiping out peoples' life savings every day. FDR also came into office with a trivial national debt, and a Federal government that consumed less than 4% of GDP. He had a lot of run room. Maybe more importantly, he came into office without the kinds of institutional arrangements that made it politically difficult to pass his policies. ... No president will ever again face a Congress as ready to follow a president and as unprepared to set a different course as the Congress Franklin Roosevelt called into special session in March 1933."
  
• Is the revolution over? - "I'd just like to repeat a simple question I asked at the beginning of the Obama administration: which would you rather have, the fiscal stimulus or $775 billion in public health programs?"
  
• Foreclosure Reality Check: 1.6 Million Foreclosure Filings with 5 Months of Data. California Notice of Defaults and Foreclosures Skyrocketing. - "Foreclosures are jumping not because of home prices falling but because home prices went too high! Can you imagine during the tech bubble bursting someone explaining that the bubble burst not because of over valuation but because Pets.com was falling and we need to put a bottom on prices? How about giving tax breaks for those buying AOL stock? The same thing is occurring with housing. In fact, the easiest way to fix this problem is to give every American $20,000 more as 'wages' and you’ll see prices of everything go up. Not a smart idea but neither is giving trillions to Wall Street and banks who designed the eco-system of this bubble. We are giving those 'wages' to Wall Street and that is why they are now back up. Have you taken a look at Goldman Sachs recently? ... How people can be calling a bottom while foreclosures reach historic levels is beyond me."
  
• P.J. O’Rourke on the American Car
  
• Book Review: 'The Birth of Plenty' Is a True Economic History of the World - "The Birth of Plenty is meant to be an economic history of the world. A tall order, for sure. But it delivers. Bernstein’s basic premise is that healthy institutions promote prosperity. In particular, countries must possess the following basic institutional ingredients in order to prosper:
  
  1. Property Rights
  2. The Scientific Method
  3. Capital Markets
  4. Effective Means of Transportation and Communication
  
  After describing the historical development of each of these institutions, Bernstein then goes on to describe which countries were able to develop such institutions, which countries were not, and to what effect. "
  
• "Public debt could represent 80% of GDP before today's third-graders graduate from high school."
  
• Dr. Frank Luntz: Evil Genius Preventing the Cure for Cancer - "Back when I was merely middle-aged and the Golden State was considering a mandated-insurance statewide health care reform proposal, I had fun trying to get Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to use the word 'coercion' in describing how he was going to get hundreds of thousands of Californians who didn't want to buy insurance to buy insurance. His response -- that he was seeking to change the 'mentality of people' in order to make Californians more closely resemble the Austrians he once bragged about fleeing -- was instructive. Schwarzenegger's health care overhaul failed specifically because its breezy assumptions couldn't survive the light of day. And that was in the land of the nuts and the fruits. Imagine how much bogus language remains to be unpacked as the realities of multi-trillion-dollar state-run programs and death's inescapable victory reveal themselves through the summer."
  
• Cooperating Against the Censors - "One of the consequences of governments attempting to crack down on dissent is increasing cooperation among groups in different countries pushing for greater liberty and human rights. For instance, some of the most important aid for Iranian protestors is coming from Chinese dissidents."
  
• Signaling and Solidarity - "So folks on Twitter have been turning their avatars (little profile photos) green to show solidarity with the protesters in Iran. There are websites to help you do this. But why do this? How does it help? I want the Iranian people to live in freedom, just as I want all people to live in freedom. But the point of the gesture eludes me, unless the point of the gesture is to be seen making the gesture by others who will credit you for it. Like so many political gestures, it is vanity dressed up as elevated moral consciousness."
  
• Hard to Understand - "A low-time GA pilot buys a hot new ride, gets trained and certified by the company to fly it exclusively in visual meteorological conditions, inadvertently enters IFR and crashes, killing himself and a passenger – pretty much the oldest story in the books."
  
• Another watershed moment in American indebtedness - "The people lending us the money know that we will eventually have to further weaken the value of the dollar to pay off the loans or we would start defaulting. The price we pay to lenders has risen 2 percent since January -- billions more in interest. So the interest rates will keep rising as lenders try to stay ahead of the inflation they know will eventually follow, just as it does in other desperately indebted nations."
  
• How do recessions affect friendships?
  
• Reports: State income levels plunge - "States racing to cobble together new budgets for their July 1 deadline could find themselves sinking back into red ink sooner than they think, as Americans’ income and the taxes they pay on it shrink, new data show."
  
• In tough times, consumers tend to trade down on college choices too - "Just as grocery shoppers trade down to private-label products in hard times, consumers of college services are making a similar value-for-the-dollar transition. ... 'The primary way a bubble bursts in higher education is a reallocation of students,' said Andrew Gillen, research director at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. 'The schools dependent on charging students $30,000 a year are really going to be in trouble.'"
  
• Google Voice to Offer Phone and Messaging Services
  
• Using Gmail Aliases for Better Organization
  
• 21 of The Coolest VoIP and Skype Gadgets
  
• Update on ‘Barrel Monster’
  
• Beware of These Speeding Ticket Myths - "If you're going to fight a ticket, don't believe everything you read. I've listed some common myths...."
  
• Consumer Reports Rates Digital Cameras
  
• MySpace: That Great Club Everyone Used To Go To
  
• Kindle DX vs. Kindle 2 - "If you like to read on the go and portability is important to you – go with Kindle 2. If you need to work with PDF files or graphically intensive content that K2 can’t display properly because of lack of support or small screen size – go with Kindle DX."
  
• Kindle’s DRM Rears Its Ugly Head… And It IS Ugly - There is a limit on how many times you can download a Kindle book. "This entire episode makes me question whether or not I will purchase any additional books from Amazon. I never wanted to get on the 'DRM-Complaint Bandwagon'."
  
• Gnome Sweet Gnome - "You see them in gardens, peeking out from shrubbery; they even star in TV commercials for an online travel agency, for some odd reason. They're garden gnomes, and love 'em or hate 'em they're a fixture of the suburban landscape. The question is, WHY??"
  
• Why Laptop Battery Claims Are So Useless, And Why That Won't Soon Change

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June 21, 2009 08:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony

TheCapitol.Net Hosts Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony: Audience Analysis, Research, Drafting, and Delivering Congressional Testimony

Are you being called to the Hill within the next few months? Does the thought of testifying in front of Members of Congress make you nervous? If so, TheCapitol.Net course, Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony on July 30, 2009, will prepare you with the tools you need to impress the big shots on Capitol Hill.

Taught by faculty who have more than 10 years' experience working with and helping professionals prepare for testifying before congressional committees, this course eases the nerves and jitters of those being called to testify.

Attendees learn all aspects of testimony preparation including research, persuasion and the effective structure of written and oral testimony. Delivery techniques to enhance oral delivery, ways to deal with stress, and techniques for addressing Q&A sessions are discussed.

This course is open to all attendees who write or deliver testimony before Congress. Faculty will answer attendees’ questions about the do’s and don’ts of congressional testimony.

This course is approved for .6 CEU credits from George Mason University. Fee includes all course materials, a continental breakfast, and a networking lunch. To preserve the small-group, hands-on atmosphere, seating is limited. This course is an elective for the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy. To learn more, please visit http://www.congressionaltestimony.com or call TheCapitol.Net directly at 703-739-3790.

Based in Alexandria, VA, TheCapitol.Net is a non-partisan firm that since 1999 has offered media, legislative, budget and advocacy training for thousands of government and business leaders each year.

June 19, 2009 06:37 PM   Link    Training    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/19/09

James Randi and Steve Novella

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• No master of that domain - In California, "a domain name is not something a judgment creditor can have 'turned over' as an asset of the debtor"
• The Neocon Right Swoons for Iran - "I can’t get too pumped about what’s going on in Iran. Perhaps on balance Mousavi would be better for the United States and the Iranian people. It’s hard to say. But lots of angry people in the streets does not mean he’s a great guy with a great plan to support a more liberal and decent regime in Iran. Muqtadr al Sadr used to get the crowds out too. Indeed, so did Khomenei. It’s just as likely, considering the people and history involved, Mousavi would spend much of his energy oppressing his erstwhile oppressors if elected. This is the way politics runs in the Third World."
• Unrest In Iran -- Why Obama Is Proceeding With Caution - "While the election of Ahmadinejad or his rival and more pragmatic fellow insider, Mir Hossein Mousavi, may ultimately have no effect on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons or its support for terrorism, the outcome is likely to dramatically affect how Iranians live and conduct their internal affairs."
• Trying to Cover the Unenthusiastic Uninsured - "[A]ny government plan would have to confront and overcome a troubling characteristic of the uninsured that rarely gets discussed in reform debates: Many of them, perhaps nearly half of the 47 million Americans without coverage, earn enough to afford insurance, or qualify for existing government health programs, but still remain without coverage. Why do they lack coverage, then? One reason is that some of them have simply decided to spend their money elsewhere. ... Designing a health care effort that offers newfangled options for all of these folks won’t mean much unless we actually get them to participate. And to do that we need some honest assessment of why people in this huge group aren’t insured already. You won’t get much of that in a lot of the coverage of America’s health care woes. ... Some 45 percent of uninsured adults without children who earn more than three times the poverty level are in their 20s and 30s, and 93 percent of this group report their health as good or excellent."
• How to Strategically Cut Your Healthcare Bill - "Rather than paying for an all-inclusive healthcare plan, CNN Money says that now might be a good time to ditch the vision and dental options. The article suggests running a quick calculation to determine if this method would benefit your situation."
• The Illinois Admissions Scandal - "Illinois, the state where Senate seats are sometimes sold, has now scandalized higher education with the revelation that hundreds of applicants to the University of Illinois were placed on a special 'clout' list, many receiving favorable treatment. According to a series of investigative reports by The Chicago Tribune, state legislators, university trustees, and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich successfully pressured University of Illinois officials to admit less qualified applicants, including a relative of influence peddler Antoin (Tony) Rezko."
• The Second Coming of Corn Flakes - "Remember not too long ago, when I was talking about the history of the Protestant churches and how it all started with Henry the VIII and Martin Luther and went downhill from there? I was admonished by some for being 'too simplistic', a criticism I fully embrace. My excuse? It's only a blog. Each denomination could take up several volumes. As time goes on, new denominations spring up like weeds in a vacant lot and their seeds blow in the wind and plant even more denominations."
• The Politics of the REAL ID Revival Bill - "But while all the stars aligned for repeal (or continued rigor mortis), one cloud came across the sky: State lobbying groups, the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures found in REAL ID an opportunity to gain influence. (Or perhaps it was just the lobbyists within those groups.) If REAL ID were to move forward, and if they could make a plausible case that the federal government would fund it, the state lobbies would cement their role as supplicants in Congress for their 'clients,' the governors and legislatures. They would have a permanent job begging Congress for money and managing federal control of state driver licensing policy. ... With its huge tax revenues - and willingness to borrow on the credit of future generations - the federal government may put up the tens of billions of dollars it takes to fund the national ID system. The states will get to grow their driver licensing bureaucracies, even though they lose power to decide what their driver licensing bureaus do. NGA and NCSL - the real winners - lock in their lobbying business. This is not the kind of bargain our politicans and government are supposed to produce, though. The distinct roles that the Constitution sets out for the states and federal government are supposed to create conflict among them, not collaboration. When governments get together, the result is not good for liberty. And the national ID system found in the 'PASS ID Act' is not good for liberty."
• Zotero - "Zotero is a free program for citations management and bibliography generation designed to be competitive with Endnote and similar products. ... If you are looking at a paper on JSTOR, for example, you can "one-click import" the citation. One-click import is also available from Amazon, Cite-Seer, ABI-Inform, the Library of Congress, many university library catalogs, Medline, Google books and many others."
• The Simple Fitness Rules

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aguyinnewyork-20

June 19, 2009 06:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Engrossed Measure"

Engrossed Measure: Official copy of a measure as passed by one chamber, including the text as amended by floor action. Measure is certified by the clerk of the House or the secretary of the Senate.

This definition is from the Glossary in our Congressional Deskbook. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Congressional Deskbook: The Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Congress, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training and a Certificate in Congressional Operations and Federal Budgeting. We show you how Washington and Congress work. ^TM

June 18, 2009 06:47 AM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/17/09

John Williams and Julian Bream: C.Debussy-Clair de Lune

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• The Singularity is Near - I "doubt that Marx is the best guide to this new world. try Charlie Stross instead"
• Capital One Chargeoffs Rise To 9.4%; American Express Chargeoffs 10%; Card Issuance Drops 50%
• Iran's Disputed Election - in photos
• HDMI cables don’t have to be a ripoff - "And in this little scenario we see exactly what’s wrong with the American consumer. Why wait a few days when you can blow four times as much money for the same exact product in order to get it instantly? Why wait to get something you can’t afford at the moment when you can put it on a high interest credit card? Why wait to get a nice house via a reasonable down payment when you can take out a subprime mortgage that you won’t be able to afford in five years? You want to know what’s wrong with the American economy? Just look at Best Buy’s cable aisle."
• Twitter, Data Center Delay Upgrades Rather Than Cut Off Iranian Communications - "Twitter has emerged as an amazingly powerful communications tool as to what's happening in Iran ... it's fascinating to see that Twitter and its data center partner, NTT, have actually chosen to delay some critical updates, knowing that cutting off communications from Iran just as so many people are relying on it would be a disaster. "
• Reflections on the Iranian Enigma - "Is it all that moral, or all that wise, or all that much in US realpolitik interests to apologize to a thug? Does it show solidarity with the Iranian people to court a nut? What is so smart in making Iran the center of our attention rather than the Maliki democratic government in Iraq? Hamas rather than democratic Israel?"
• Why Obama Should Stay Silent on Iran - "If Iran’s government has overreached, the right response is schadenfreude. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of guys."
• Obama on the Iranian Election - "But you don't want to get to a point where foreign leaders think that the best way to immunize yourself from American criticism is to become America's sworn enemy, and the worst way is to be great friends."
• Dr. Krugman: This Patient Needs More Bloodletting
• The health care lobbyist in the White House--and the State House - "Why is a lobbyist for for-profit hospitals, nursing homes, and other health-care companies going to the White House tomorrow to participate in a health-care forum chaired by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius? Because that lobbyist is also an elected member of the Maryland House of Delegates."
• Now For The Real Interbuildability - "Years ago, I was in a new Volkswagen factory. Different cars of different brands were rolling down the same assembly line, most of the work done by robots. A huge stamping machine made fifty fenders, dropped the tool into a storage bin, grabbed another tool and made eighty doors. I said to the guy who showed me the factory: 'Soon, you can ship the tooling to another factory via e-mail.'"
• Bariatric Surgery: Bad To The Bone - "But of course, you don’t have to become vitamin deficient to lose weight. You can lose weight by cutting out sugar and starch, which don’t contain any nutrients we need – or to be more accurate, they don’t contain any nutrients."
• Asus Eee PC 1000HE review - cnet
• Spain Cracks Down on Radar Detectors, Laser Jammers and . . . Sat Nav

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June 17, 2009 08:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/15/09

Katrina Pierson Invites Janeane Garafolo to Dallas Tea Party

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• Money And Politics: Why spending millions on personal campaigns might help you lose - "Having to ask people for money forces a candidate to take their feedback, thus learning about their concerns directly rather than filtered through pollsters and consultants."
• Editorial: General Motors Zombie Watch 5: Cross-Eyed and Painless - "If President Obama wanted to save GM, he should have let it fail. There’s only one way to change deeply-ingrained habits: pain. GM’s management will not change its slavish devotion to the fundamentally inefficient status quo unless it’s more painful for them to keep doing what they’re doing than to do something else. By making bankruptcy painless for GM’s upper echelons, by adding complexity rather than removing it, politicians have effectively sealed its fate."
• Eugene Debs v. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. - "Holmes and his progressive fans advocated granting the state vast new authority to manage all walks of American life while at the same time weakening traditional checks on government power. ... Mencken accurately denounced Holmes as 'no more than an advocate of the rights of law-makers':"
• A Socratic Dialogue: Fearing the Collapse of U.S. Treasury Bond Prices
• Fitch Expects Home Prices to Fall through 2nd Half of 2010 - "Fitch expects 'home prices will fall an additional 12.5% nationally and 36% in California' from Q1 2009."
• Study: Home Equity Borrowers in Danger - "There will be many foreclosures of homes bought before the bubble (or in the early stages of the bubble), because the homeowners extracted too much equity from the home. This is not surprising, but probably means more foreclosures than policymakers expect. "
• The Debt Conundrum, Part I - " Only stooges would expect the same borrow and spend policies that ruined our economic system in the 1st place to fix the problem. The housing and debt crisis needs the attention of reality based, blunt, straight shooting doers. Not a 3 Stooges solution."
• "If They Can Find Time for Feminist Theory, They Can Find Time for Edmund Burke" - "The politicization of everyday life by the socio-economic-professional-New Class I hang out with - the tendency, for example, to twitter one's fleeting political thoughts twenty times a day, or to Make Political Statements with status updates on Facebook a couple of times a day - strikes me as somewhere between bizarre and pathological. Or, worse, trivial - merely the identification of professional sports. I understand it if it's sports; I don't understand it at all if it's politics."
• Weekly wrap: California faces July 1 deadline - "If lawmakers fail to act before the July 1 start of a new budget year, Schwarzenegger says he will not go along with a short-term loan to keep the state afloat. "
• "Brutal" budget cuts loom in Colorado: State lawmaker: Lagging tax receipts paint a picture far grittier than area economy suggests - "Just when it seemed Colorado's economy was improving, tax collections are backsliding and there are new worries the state budget will be $150 million to $300 million deeper in the hole than expected, a top lawmaker warned"
• To Discourage Water Bottles, a Little "Tap" Dancing - "U.S. cities could take a cue from Venice -- 'rebranding' tap water is a great idea! Now, if only they could figure out a way to charge for it, citizens would flock to it in droves."
• Property Rights Take a Hit - “'Crony capitalism' is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes what you know, and favoritism trumps the rule of law. Unfortunately, this week’s events demonstrate that the phrase now more aptly describes our own country."
• Moscow’s Commuting Dogs - "In Moscow, it seems there is an outbreak of commuting dogs. According to England’s Sun (the U.K.’s most eminently respected trashy tabloid): 'STRAY dogs are commuting to and from a city centre on underground trains in search of food scraps. The clever canines board the Tube each morning.'"
• "Drugs Have Won" - "The NYT's Nicholas Kristof joins the ranks of those urging an end to the drug war. The War on drugs, Kristof notes, has had three consequences: 1) 'we have vastly increased the proportion of our population in prisons'; 2) 'we have empowered criminals at home and terrorists abroad'; and 3) 'we have squandered resources.'"
• They also serve who only sit in class - "Maryland mandated student service in 1992. It’s taught cynicism, Greene concludes."
• Oops dept. - "The lead plaintiff in Alli v. Decker, an ACLU-led class action lawsuit aimed at preventing the deportation of various aliens who commit crimes, turns out to be a conman who played a role in a huge Nigerian-led identity theft scam."
• Why is there a dire shortage of hippies in the country and what should the government do to address it?
• Archbishop Chaput gives 'Stoning of Soraya' two thumbs up
• 8 Ways Reading Makes You Better at Life
• Fried Food Is Tasteless: Let’s Thank The Guy From CSPI
• Jogging does NOT cause heart disease - "Having seen coronary plaque detected with heart scans in many runners, virtually all of whom demonstrated increased Lp(a), I believe that Lp(a) is causal."
• Good Science: Dr. Leibel Explains Metabolic Slowdown with Weight Loss - "most people eating carb controlled diets or using strategies that keep their blood sugars normal do report that they are able to maintain their 15-20% weight loss long term"
• Why ants survive in a microwave
• Cherettes -- Postered, Painted and Pasteled - the "guy who really invented the modern poster was Jules Chéret (1836-1932)."
• Dream discoveries

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aguyinnewyork-20

June 15, 2009 08:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/13/09

As Time Goes By

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• As Time Goes By - "Let's get it out of the way once and for all: that's not Louis Armstrong in Casablanca, folks. If you've heard the famous version of the tune from said movie, that's not Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong recorded many, many standards in the studio and though "As Time Goes By" would have been an apt choice, it was never to be. Louis Armstrong never recorded tune. There. I'm glad that's out of the way. Of course, I didn't say that Louis Armstrong never performed the tune..."
• A Manifesto for Scholarly Publishing - "books remain the most effective technology for organizing and presenting sustained arguments at a relatively general level of discourse and in familiar rhetorical forms -- narrative, thematic, philosophical, and polemical -- thereby helping to enrich and unify otherwise disparate intellectual conversations. ... In effect, books remain valuable precisely because they are distinct from the other, more transitory, forms of scholarly communication."
• Taleb Watch - "I think folks are beginning to catch on to what I and others have been saying for a long time--Nassim Taleb is fantastically overrated."
• Jihadists ‘Smell Blood’ in Pakistan - "Influential former Obama administration advisor on South Asia, Bruce Riedel, told a Washington audience yesterday of the very real possibility that Islamic jihadists could seize control in Pakistan."
• Online museum devoted to telling horrors of communism goes active Tuesday
• Mortgage Market Remains Solidly Frozen - "'Mortgage rates jumped again to 5.75% and refis are frozen solid. The trade-up market is dead but some new houses are still moving .... for now. '"
• Mandatory composting in San Francisco
• Unemployment Claims: Record 6.8 Million Continued Claims
• Stiglitz: America's double-standard on economic crises infuriates the poor world - "In the eyes of many throughout the developing world, the revolving door, which allows American financial leaders to move seamlessly from Wall Street to Washington and back to Wall Street, gave them even more credibility; these men seemed to combine the power of money and the power of politics. American financial leaders were correct in believing that what was good for America or the world was good for financial markets, but they were incorrect in thinking the converse, that what was good for Wall Street was good for America and the world."
• Do Lower Rates Help Recasts? - "not only are there many homeowners sitting on neg-ams about to recast, but many specuvestors used them to purchase flips that are now unable to sell"
• Barney Frank Runs Away from Tough Questioning - "Congressman Frank is a bully pure and simple and today he was put in his place."
• Households with Mortgages: Approximately 20 Percent Equity
• An Uneven Playing Field - "Similarly, a frustrated executive from AC Milan blames Kaka’s departure on the Italian tax system: 'I repeat, this is all a matter of different types of taxation. If we were a Spanish club, we would have saved €40 million.' Policymakers and soccer fans alike should take note."
• foodie nonsense - "So the Scotts are having their burn barrels fabricated out of scrap metal by a local welder for ideological reasons, as opposed to the frickin’ common sense reason that ALL custom welding is done by local tradesmen?"
• You don't (want to) know yourself
• "We got the Duke!" - "Today marks the passing of another famous convert who only entered the Church a few days before his death in 1979. John Wayne was raised a Presbyterian but he married three Catholic wives, and his children were all raised Catholic."
• Lancets, bloody lancets - "How about the humble lancet? Here's a device that someone with type 1 diabetes could use between 1,200 and 4,000 times a year."
• HP Mini 110 XP Edition - $299.99
• Hummingbirds outpace fighter pilots - "Hummingbirds are the fastest animals on Earth, relative to their body size. They can cover more body lengths per second than any other vertebrate and for their size can even outpace fighter jets and the space shuttle -- while withstanding g-forces that would make a fighter pilot black out."
• How to Discover Your Kid's Real Values
• And a Dog Named Gyp: 1922

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June 13, 2009 08:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Cordon Rule"

Cordon Rule: Senate rule that requires a committee report to show changes the reported measure would make in current law.

This definition is from the Glossary in our Congressional Deskbook. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Congressional Deskbook: The Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Congress, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training and a Certificate in Congressional Operations and Federal Budgeting. We show you how Washington and Congress work. ^TM

June 12, 2009 07:37 AM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/11/09

How to Slice and Dice an Onion Like a Pro
See also "How to Chop a Red Onion"

• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• Advanced Federal Budget Process, August 3-4, 2998
• Advanced Legislative Strategies, August 5-7, 2009
• State-run health insurance plans - "1. Three dozen state governments currently run such plans and they do not in general drive private insurance companies out of business. In California, the largest such plan, two-thirds of all eligible people choose the privately-run health insurance plans."
• Facebook Used to Nail Bail Violator in DUI Case
• Thomson Reuters Lawsuit Against Competing Software Product Dismissed - "wouldn't it be nice if the company focused on competing by innovating on tools and features, rather than trying to sue competitors out of existence?"
• Arizona Judge Throws Out Political Arrest Based on Photo Ticket - "Judge Keegan took the case as an opportunity to reinforce his previous judgment that the Arizona law governing freeway speed cameras is unconstitutional."
• Judicial "Activism" Isn't the Issue - "Jeff Rowes of the Institute for Justice has an important op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: Judicial 'Activism' Isn't the Issue: Liberals and conservatives both show too much deference to Congress."
• Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters
• Apparently If You Work For The AP, You're Not Allowed To Criticize Newspaper Management
• Remembering Tiananmen, 20 years later - photos
• Was the TARP a Ruse? - "What was that explanation? In Bailout Nation, we discuss the possibility that The TARP was all a giant ruse, a Hank Paulson engineered scam to cover up the simple fact that CitiGroup (C) was teetering on the brink of implosion. A loan just to Citi alone would have been problematic, went this line of brilliant reasoning, so instead, we gave money to all the big banks."
• 600,000 jobs “saved or created”
• Price, Demand, and Money Supply as They Relate to Inflation and Deflation - "Is money supply growing faster than real per capita GDP? Yes, decidedly so. And unless this trend changes significantly we will face a whopping monetary inflation."
• I am afraid I no longer believe . . . "That we have an inquisitive American media as we once knew it. There has emerged something as bad as state-sanctioned coercion--which we could at least identify, and thus struggle against."
• Beyond graduation - "Only seven in 10 students finishes high school in four years. Is college a realistic goal for all students?"
• Lawrence H. White joins GMU faculty
• Ask the Best and Brightest: International House Of Penske Lineup?
• Cash for Clunkers
• Earmark My Words - "What do top earmarkers talk about in Congress? Does our money go where their mouths are?"
• My talk on economics for university administrators - "4. The higher education bubble has burst. The expiration of stimulus funds in 2011 will be a crushing event for many public sector universities."
• John Viega Talks About Beautiful Security - "The average home user, as long as they are not doing anything dangerous that leaves them prone to social engineering or out in a very hostile environment like potentially a conference, they're usually okay. So on your home network, you're behind a NATing firewall usually. So there's really little threat from the outside world, except what the user browses to. And then there are tools like Site Advisor that can help make the browsing experience a lot more safe as well. ... When you're on any open wireless network, you should assume that the security problems on your computer might be accessible to other people."
• Use Microsoft Outlook with Google Apps for email, contacts, and calendar
• 30 Rock = The Muppet Show rebooted
• Education: Another Money-Saver - "more education about diabetes is associated with fewer hospitalizations down the road. ... the hospitalization rate for people who had had at least one educational visit was 34% lower than for those people who had had none. And the cost savings were considerable: Having had any type of educational visit was associated with $11,571 less in hospital costs per person. All types of education were effective, but nutritionist visits were associated with the greatest reduction in hospitalizations and costs."
• PDF Transformer 3.0: Read Our Exclusive Report - "The new version of PDF Transformer doesn't just convert PDF files into an editable Word or Excel file, but it retains all the formatting as well thanks to ABBYY's Adaptive Document Recognition Technology, which it initially developed for its OCR software. This technology preserves footnotes, tables, fonts, headers, footers, page numbers, and more."
• Health-Monitoring Football Helmets Take All the Fun Out of Death Sports
• Tall Tales About Exercise - "So after carefully thinking through all the evidence, I came to the obvious conclusion: playing basketball makes you tall. And the longer you play, the taller you become. Nothing else can explain why the players become taller as they move from high school, to college, to the pros."
• Tech Upgrades: GPS Quest
• How 18th Century Technology Could Down an Airliner - "While the mystery of what caused Air France Flight 447 to vanish into the Atlantic Ocean is far from solved, preliminary reports suggest equipment first developed in the 18th century may have contributed to the crash of one of the most sophisticated airliners ever built."
• One-Third of U.S. Doesn’t Have Broadband
• The meaning of the $99 iPhone 3G to Pre and RIM - "The point I’m trying to make is that Apple really nailed it with the price on the iPhone 3G 8GB model [$99]. Now not only do they have models competing in the more expensive smart phone market but the average consumer market as well."
• Sirius XM Passing Music Royalty Rates On To Subscribers, Raising Lots Of Questions

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June 11, 2009 08:07 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/8/09

Trailer for Mr. Hulot's Holiday

• Capitol Hill Workshop, June 10-12, 2009
• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments, July 29, 2009
• Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, July 30, 2009
• 40,000 Fewer Students: Good or Bad? - "Those not going to college now, on average, have lower cognitive skills, less motivation, less already accumulated human capital, than those who do. Pushing those currently not attending college into universities is setting up millions of Americans to fail --either out of school (probably with big debts), or successfully graduated with the prospects of taking relatively menial jobs."
• Why U.S. health care policy is especially egalitarian - "I am amazed (but not surprised) by how frequently people think of egalitarianism in terms of social markers of status rather than actual forward-looking endowments. It is common for more egalitarian policies to be less efficient."
• The problem of nationalization: Barney Frank pressures GM to keep warehouse open - "It's common sense that putting the government in charge of a company opens that company up to all sorts of politics."
• Work Till You Drop? - "We are ignoring the pensions timebomb at our own peril. Unfortunately, for far too many people this means that they will have to work till they drop - if they still have a job."
• Militant Unions Raise Muni Risk - "This intersection of finance and politics has resulted in a steady increase in local debt and, more disturbing, an increase in offerings that circumvent state and local legislative debt limits. States and cities have created a bevy of public authorities and other bodies that they use to issue debt that’s officially off-the-books but still leaves taxpayers on the hook. Several years ago an audit in New York State found that public authorities there had issued some $43 billion in so-called ‘backdoor debt,’ that is, debt not approved by voters--one reason why the state will spend nearly $5 billion this year just to service its debt."
• Reports: Bleak state budgets through 2011 - "Even if the national recession ends this year as many predict, state budgets will likely be in the red for the next two years, with budget gaps topping $230 billion as tax collections of sales, personal and corporate income lag, two new reports show. ... Some of the revenue drops are eye-popping."
• NY's Pension Peril - It's Worse Than They Say - "But the situation isn't as bad as it sounds. It's actually worse -- when you realize that New York, like most other government employers across the country, systematically understates the true value of its long-term pension promises."
• Geithner faces sluggish market, rents out NY home. Treasury secretary grapples with sluggish market -- for his own suburban NY home
• A diploma isn’t enough - "Students who lack the motivation or academic skills to earn a college degree should be encouraged to aim for a vocational certificate at a community college. The effort will pay off."
• The Reckoning - "A sojourn at an elite university, you see, can sometimes become a very dangerous thing indeed."
• "Study, Study, Study" - A Bad Career Move - "I asked him why he considered it important to tinker with admissions instead of just letting the chips fall where they may. In an unguarded moment, he told me that unless the university took steps to 'guide' admissions decisions, UC would be dominated by Asians. When I asked, 'What would be wrong with that?' I got an answer that speaks volumes about the underlying philosophy at many universities with regard to Asian enrollment. The UC administrator told me that Asians are 'too dull - they study, study, study.' He then said, 'If you ever say I said this, I will have to deny it.' ... There is one truth that is universally applicable in the era of 'diversity,' especially in American universities: an absolute unwillingness to accept the verdict of colorblind policies."
• What should university presidents and provosts know about economics that they don't?
• The Tyranny of Shelter - "[The Poorhouse] makes a compelling case that the modern homeless shelter is more draconian than the 19th century almshouses he studied."
• Presidential Signing Statements -- The More Things Change - "I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the ABA denounces as 'contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers' President Obama's use of signing statements to voice constitutional concerns about legislation he signs into law."
• Chrysler to Emerge from C11 on Monday - "Provided, that is, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) turns down Indiana’s request to overrule the sale of assets from Old, Crap Chrysler to New, Italian-controlled Chrysler. This after the U.S. Appeals Court told the gearbox-factory-jilted state’s lawyers to piss off. Or, more specifically, 'You can’t wait for a better deal to come in from Studebaker.'"
• How Patents Are Harming Small Companies Too - "While there have been plenty of high profile fights between patent holders vs. big companies, that's only a small part of the issue. And, in fact, it's often smaller, more innovative companies that are the most harmed by patents."
• No PDFs! - "This week, Speaker Pelosi asked House administrators to post House members’ expenses on the Web, for the first time. ... Congress needs to be urged to provide these reports in a format that is structured, searchable, downloadable and mashable. This will enable the reuse of information to improve public scrutiny. Assurances should be given to the public that these records will be permanently archived and the House should be encouraged to make these reports happen in as close to real-time disclosure as feasible."
• Sotomayor and the ADA/bar-exam case
• Selflessly Giving…to Themselves - "A couple of days ago, I was driving through the streets of D.C. and ended up behind what appeared to be a new, black Jaguar. Now, trailing a Jag wasn’t all that extraordinary--D.C. is home to a lot of fancy cars. What was extraordinary was the wholly inconsistent declaration printed on the frame of the status symbol’s license plate: 'Proud to be a social worker.' ... public-service-as-a-synonym-for-sacrifice is largely a political myth, a narrative repeated by public employees to win your sympathy while they grab for your wallet."
• Can't Get Your Act Together? Embrace Your Inner Eccentric - "A tweak here, an adjustment there, and we will seem charming, zany, madcap, instead of just disorganized and haphazard. After all, what's the difference between eccentric and flaky? A certain touch of whimsy, perhaps? A sense of purpose? A willingness to embrace the peculiar?"
• The Learjet repo man - "Nick Popovich is a repo man, but not the kind that spirits away Hyundais from suburban driveways. Popovich is a super repo man, one of a handful of specialists who get the call when a bank wants back its Gulfstream II jet from, say, a small army of neo-Nazi freaks. For the past three decades, Popovich has been one of a secret tribe of big game hunters who specialize in stealing jets from the jungle hideouts of corrupt landowners in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil and swiping go-fast boats from Wall Street titans in Miami and East Hampton"
• Book with Low-Fare Carriers to Maximize Leg Room "consider booking with a low-fare carrier to get the most leg room possible."
• More biking = safer biking

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June 8, 2009 06:57 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Lobbyist Registration and Compliance Handbook

Lobbyist Registration and Compliance Handbook
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA) and the Lobbying Disclosure Act Guide, House and Senate Rules, and Lobbying Regulations for Nonprofits

The Lobbyist Registration and Compliance Handbook is an easy-to-use manual that compiles information, forms, guides, rules and regulations governing federal lobbying, including an overview of HLOGA. The Handbook has 23 chapters and includes Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance; user guides for the official Lobbying Disclosure Electronic Filing System; congressional rules for and examples of allowed and prohibited gifts, gift exceptions, travel, and conflicts of interest; gift-giving under executive branch regulations; the restrictions on lobbying after leaving the House or the executive branch; observations on lobbyists' compliance with the disclosure requirements; and a guide for lobbying by non-profits.

Softcover, 2009, 376 pages, $47.50
ISBN: 1587331527 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-152-7

Complete Table of Contents, sample pages, and online ordering here.

June 6, 2009 08:57 AM   Link    Congress    Comments (0)

Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't)

They reached the conclusions that the more selective an institution, the higher the graduation rate, and that there exists wide discrepancy in completion rates among schools that admit similar types of students (lowest at the most selective colleges).
. . .
[S]tudents ought to know their chances of receiving a degree at a particular school -- Diplomas and Dropouts makes this possible.

Making Graduation Rates Publicly Available

Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't). The full report is an 80 page pdf.

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June 5, 2009 08:47 PM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/5/09

A Vision of Students Today
I'm a fan of anthropologist Dr. Michael Wesch

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
BiG Mess
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Economic Crisis

Daily Show: The BiG Mess

• Capitol Hill Workshop, June 10-12, 2009
• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• New Terror Attack Continues Troubling Pattern
• GM Keeping In-House Lobbyists
• Educational bankruptcy
• What kind of iodine do you take?
• The Party of Nixon - "The message, I take it, is that the damn hippy kids can appoint bisexual robot Latinas to the Supreme Court and tell GM to make cars that run on fairy kisses as long as they know the Serious People will continue to control the power that matters. All signs point to Obama going along, which, as Nixon knew, is what you can expect from self-impressed Ivy League assholes."
• Reports: Bleak state budgets through 2011 - "Even if the national recession ends this year as many predict, state budgets will likely be in the red for the next two years, with budget gaps topping $230 billion as tax collections of sales, personal and corporate income lag...."
• If Only His Bootstraps Were Made of Red Tape
• Public defender offices are in crisis nationwide
• The Next Bubble - "It has been the habit of the United States, in its capacity as a nation of investors and consumers with a highly developed sense of entitlement when it comes to returns and little or no tolerance for corrections of any kind, to sate the appetite of the cult of buoyancy by inflating various bubbles."
• Fiscal Disorder: The broken budget process and the dire need for reform
• Sunlight maps Visclosky's 'pay-to-play' earmarks
• Benefit Spending Hits $2Trillion, Highest Percent Since 1929; One Dollar Out of Every Six From Vouchers
• Black Wave: a book worth $1 million - "Have you been considering saving up some money, selling your house, and retiring to a 55-foot catamaran for a round-the-world trip? If so, reading Black Wave by John and Jean Silverwood should save you approximately $1 million. "
• Is the U.S. "One of the Largest Muslim Countries in the World"?
• College rankings: Did Clemson play fair in quest to be the best?
• Protect Your Income Before It’s Too Late
• GooGone: Vanishing goo - "GooGone is a liquid that helps remove adhesive residues. I've been using it for years to clean off the adhesive residue left from stickers, labels, tape, etc."
• Plantronics Voyager PRO Bluetooth Headset Sounds Like a Winner
• Weber Grilling Goodness
• How to Lose Weight by Eating More
• The Art of the Schmooze - "Marketing is Not Advertising: Ben Franklin once said that the Constitution only guarantees you the right to the pursuit of happiness, you have to catch it yourself. In other words, don't wait for opportunities to happen, make them happen. Whatever type of law you practice, networking should be a part of your business development plan. I'm not talking about Facebook or Twitter social networking here. "
• Undelete Plus 3.0 can get that file back | Crave - CNE
• Google expects 18-20 Android handsets this year
• Here’s what’s wrong with the Palm Pre
• Pre Is Not Competing with the iPhone

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June 5, 2009 07:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/3/09

Rappin' Jesus, Ronald Reagan and Atlas Shrugged

• Congress in a Nutshell: Understanding Congress, June 4, 2009
• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process, June 5, 2009
• Capitol Hill Workshop, June 10-12, 2009
• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? - "In the fields around this giant chemicals factory in Gujarat, the barren soil smells of paint stripper and the water from the well makes you gag. So why has it been given tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer-funded UN ‘green reward points’, which are traded hungrily on the financial markets at huge profit?"
• The National Security Risks of Gov 2.0 and the Social Web - "How do you mitigate the risks while enjoying the benefits of Gov 2.0 and the social web? You do it by thinking like your opponent; or like the Trickster. Read your post twice before you hit send; once as you and once as your adversary who is looking to exploit you. If you work for the DOD or a government contractor, start by re-reading your employer's OPSEC guidelines and edit your profile and your posts accordingly. If your office hasn’t created any OPSEC guidelines for social media yet, please let me know. My company GreyLogic is creating training for precisely that purpose. In the meantime, here are five things that you can do right now to reduce your risk profile:"
• Jim the Realtor: Check out this Backyard!
• Metro Dig at Tysons Stirs Underground Intrigue: High Anxiety Over Top-Security Cable
• Patron Saint of Turpentine
• Hot or Not? Consumer Reports
• The Economy is in Good Hands - "It's funny, but just the other day I was telling my wife that I hope the automobile industry's future [and, more broadly, the economy's] is in the hands of early 30-something political operatives working on law degrees from Yale who have no formal background in business, economics, engineering, or marketing."
• Tax What You Love - "Governor, why don't you tax golf carts?"
• The Last Empire: China's Pollution Problem Goes Global: Can the world survive China's headlong rush to emulate the American way of life? - "China has become not just the world's manufacturer but also its despoiler, on a scale as monumental as its economic expansion. Chinese ecosystems were already dreadfully compromised before the Communist Party took power in 1949, but Mao managed to accelerate their destruction. With one stroke he launched the "backyard furnace" campaign, in which some 90 million peasants became grassroots steel smelters; to fuel the furnaces, villagers cut down a 10th of China's trees in a few months. The steel ultimately proved unusable. With another stroke, Mao perpetrated the "Kill the Four Pests" campaign, inducing the mass slaughter of millions of sparrows and a subsequent explosion in the locust population. The destruction of forests led to erosion and the spread of deserts, and the locust resurgence prompted a collapse of the nation's grain crop. The result was history's greatest famine, in which 30 to 50 million Chinese died. Yet the Mao era's ecological devastation pales next to that of China's current industrialization."
• Former Chinese Central Bank Advisor Questions Geithner's Math, Calls Federal Reserve Assets "Rubbish" - "Referring to the Federal Reserve 'as the world’s biggest junk investor,' and to Chairman Ben S. Bernanke as 'helicopter Ben,' Yu said the Fed has dropped 'tons of money from the sky since the subprime crisis.'”
• GM’s Nationalization and China’s Capitalists
• What plagiarism looks like
• Google throws down the gauntlet, announces plans to sell e-Books (NYT)
• Selective Outrage - "This has all the proper elements: Violence against women with a religious nexus. I wonder what the difference could be?"
• Vanishing Muslims and the Shift to Africa
• The Death of George Tiller - "For an extended critique of the idea that moral blame for Tiller's death extends beyond the person who pulled the trigger, see Brendan O'Neill's excellent column from yesterday, a powerful assault on the notion that "public debate should be watered down to the level of polite tea-party disagreements, lest any borderline cranks be agitated or inflamed by it.""
• When You Can Hold Every Song Ever Recorded In Your Pocket... Does $1/Song Still Make Sense?
• Booksfree Is Like Netflix for Audiobooks
• Why aren't more theatrical plays on DVD?
• Jazz Me Blues
• Tips On Running Your Food Business
• Jet Cyclist Hits 73 MPH and Lives to Tell the Tale
• Signos Portable Ultrasound Billed As World’s Smallest
• Making your own charcoal
• How to make charcoal at home, by Dan Gill
• Barbecue 101: A guide to Wicked Good Barbecue. Part II: The Fuel

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June 3, 2009 06:47 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Assorted Links 6/1/09

Beniamino Gigli - O sole mio

How The Lock Industry Put Its Head In The Sand, Rather Than Deal With Vulnerabilities To Locks
The Ultimate Lock Picker Hacks Pentagon, Beats Corporate Security for Fun and Profit

• Congress in a Nutshell: Understanding Congress, June 4, 2009
• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process, June 5, 2009
• Capitol Hill Workshop, June 10-12, 2009
• Tracking and Monitoring Legislation: How to Find and Use Congressional Documents, June 25, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• How to Research and Compile Legislative Histories, June 26, 2009 - with WiFi Classroom
• Be careful what you wish for - "Suppose you have a crystal ball, and are given one peak at the future, say May 2011. But you are only allowed to look at one variable--and it’s not the Dow, it’s the fed funds rate. Now suppose I tell you the following, it will be one of these two numbers:
  ...
  Long time readers of this blog will note that I continually harp on the idea that what matters isn’t the current setting of monetary policy, but rather the expected future path of policy. "
• Property Rights Cases are Not "Pro-Business" vs. "Anti-Business" Cases
• Bailout Watch 541: Treasury Gives New Chrysler $6.6 Billion; Bailout Tally Tops $100 Billion
• A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences - "I like to tell people that I grew up in a working class neighborhood in Detroit and that my father made his living with his hands. Both statements are true, but not the whole truth. When I was 11, we moved to Bloomfield Township (a high income suburb) and my father is a surgeon."
• The ultimate travel guide isn’t a Blackberry, iPhone or even a guidebook; it’s the people you meet
• Spontaneous combustion, vampires, and goitrogens - "What do the following have in common: - Lima beans - Flaxseed - Broccoli - Cabbage - Kale - Soy - Millet - Sorghum?"
• Here Comes World Government
• Marines vs Taliban
• CRE: See-Through Buildings on the Beltway
• May 29, 2009 Right-Wing Comment of the Day
• Beniamino Gigli
• Alt-A Foreclosures in Sonoma - "Since a majority of the sellers in low priced areas are lenders (DataQuick reported 57.1 percent of sales in Sonoma in March were foreclosure resales), there will be few buyers for these Alt-A foreclosures. "
• Stuff Journalists Like: #48 desk dining
• Zune HD Official: Multi-Touch, OLED and… Radio?
• Dangerous home experiments: Theo Gray's Mad Science
• On rebooting Star Trek
• Mining for Concise Tech Tutorials on wikiHow
• A Triglyceride-Neuropathy Connection? - "A routine blood test for triglycerides, used as a screening tool to determine whether a person is at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, may also be a useful predictor of nerve damage, according to a recent study in the journal Diabetes."
• Excellent List of Online Historical U.S. & English Electronic Sources
• Autobiography of BS: How I Violated the One China Principle
• Could netbooks with ePaper screens spell the death of single purpose eBook readers?

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June 1, 2009 08:07 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)