Howard Owens from The Batavian will be joining us.
The live blog here will start around 8:30 or so. Check in then to see what's happening.
]]>Howard Owens from The Batavian will be joining us.
The live blog here will start around 8:30 or so. Check in then to see what's happening.
]]>We will be live-blogging with DragonFlyEye. Check back here around 9:30 tomorrow for the live-blog, and I hope anyone interested will join in.
Update: CW-16 is a Rochester TV station affiliated with 13-WHAM. I believe they will simulcast on the Internet at their website here. Tune in to the live blog tomorrow for more information.
]]>We will be live-blogging with DragonFlyEye. Check back here around 9:30 tomorrow for the live-blog, and I hope anyone interested will join in.
Update: CW-16 is a Rochester TV station affiliated with 13-WHAM. I believe they will simulcast on the Internet at their website here. Tune in to the live blog tomorrow for more information.
]]>We'll be live-blogging starting a little before 9 p.m. tonight.
]]>We'll be live-blogging starting a little before 9 p.m. tonight.
]]>We'll be using some new software that allows everyone to comment in real-time. It's more like IM or a chatroom, so it should be pretty interactive. If you're watching the debate and near a computer, stop in and participate.
]]>We'll be using some new software that allows everyone to comment in real-time. It's more like IM or a chatroom, so it should be pretty interactive. If you're watching the debate and near a computer, stop in and participate.
]]>In today's post on the debates, I claimed that there have been no public polls in the 29th, and that Kuhl's campaign has not paid for a poll in the recent past. A sharp reader wrote to point out a Kuhl poll which was distributed in January that showed Kuhl 20 points ahead. Just to be clear: in addition to being a poll from one side, that poll had a few other issues that made it really unreliable. Follow the previous link to learn more. There's been no third-party polling in the district that I know about.
]]>In today's post on the debates, I claimed that there have been no public polls in the 29th, and that Kuhl's campaign has not paid for a poll in the recent past. A sharp reader wrote to point out a Kuhl poll which was distributed in January that showed Kuhl 20 points ahead. Just to be clear: in addition to being a poll from one side, that poll had a few other issues that made it really unreliable. Follow the previous link to learn more. There's been no third-party polling in the district that I know about.
]]>As reported earlier, Greenpeace is bringing a solar demonstration vehicle to the Southern Tier. The vehicle will be on display at Watkins Glen, Clute Park/Lakeside (by Route 414) tomorrow, between 4-6 P.M.
]]>As reported earlier, Greenpeace is bringing a solar demonstration vehicle to the Southern Tier. The vehicle will be on display at Watkins Glen, Clute Park/Lakeside (by Route 414) tomorrow, between 4-6 P.M.
]]>Other than the appearance, the main changes are the comment procedure, and the earmarks and significant votes sections.
Comments are now "threaded" so you can hit the "reply" link to reply to a previous comment. Also, you should only be asked the "CAPTCHA" question once, and then your email and name will be remembered for a while. The security question is now a little simple math. Since few were using logins, I didn't bother re-implementing them in this version.
Earmarks and Significant Votes are now linked to pages in CongressDB that contain data from Taxpayers for Common Sense and Project VoteSmart. Both of those are new CongressDB features, by the way. You can look up other legislator's 2007 earmarks and their Key Votes (according to Project VoteSmart) if you're interested.
An old friend used to say "all change is decline". That's not my intention, so please send me an email if you see anything amiss.
]]>Other than the appearance, the main changes are the comment procedure, and the earmarks and significant votes sections.
Comments are now "threaded" so you can hit the "reply" link to reply to a previous comment. Also, you should only be asked the "CAPTCHA" question once, and then your email and name will be remembered for a while. The security question is now a little simple math. Since few were using logins, I didn't bother re-implementing them in this version.
Earmarks and Significant Votes are now linked to pages in CongressDB that contain data from Taxpayers for Common Sense and Project VoteSmart. Both of those are new CongressDB features, by the way. You can look up other legislator's 2007 earmarks and their Key Votes (according to Project VoteSmart) if you're interested.
An old friend used to say "all change is decline". That's not my intention, so please send me an email if you see anything amiss.
]]>The Senate is at the root of many of the problems Democrats faced this year. Republicans applied delaying tactics that had never been used before--on highly controversial issues as well as routine ones, and not just by filibustering, but by regularly denying unanimous consent in a body where everything moves, or doesn't, by unanimity. It had the twin effect of raising the bar to 60 on nearly every issue, and slowing down the Senate as if there were gallons of molasses poured onto the roadway. Because a filibuster can be applied as many as three separate times on a bill, and a successful cloture vote allows up to 30 hours of debate after it passes, filibuster efforts, even on widely accepted matters, can take days to resolve. And by raising the bar to 60, it meant that many matters with majority support--like limiting farm subsidy payments to non-millionaires--went by the boards. Combine these delaying tactics with the president's near-universal veto strategy, and you have a formula for gridlock.As Norm points out, it really doesn't matter what the House does if the Senate passes everything through its sphincter of delay. The inevitable end result will be bad compromises and kitchen-sink bills that serve petty partisan interests while they delay the inevitable reckoning that's coming on energy policy, our massive deficit, and our seemingly endless involvement in Iraq. I think the whole exchange between Norm and a couple of other TNR reporters is well worth reading.
The Senate is at the root of many of the problems Democrats faced this year. Republicans applied delaying tactics that had never been used before--on highly controversial issues as well as routine ones, and not just by filibustering, but by regularly denying unanimous consent in a body where everything moves, or doesn't, by unanimity. It had the twin effect of raising the bar to 60 on nearly every issue, and slowing down the Senate as if there were gallons of molasses poured onto the roadway. Because a filibuster can be applied as many as three separate times on a bill, and a successful cloture vote allows up to 30 hours of debate after it passes, filibuster efforts, even on widely accepted matters, can take days to resolve. And by raising the bar to 60, it meant that many matters with majority support--like limiting farm subsidy payments to non-millionaires--went by the boards. Combine these delaying tactics with the president's near-universal veto strategy, and you have a formula for gridlock.As Norm points out, it really doesn't matter what the House does if the Senate passes everything through its sphincter of delay. The inevitable end result will be bad compromises and kitchen-sink bills that serve petty partisan interests while they delay the inevitable reckoning that's coming on energy policy, our massive deficit, and our seemingly endless involvement in Iraq. I think the whole exchange between Norm and a couple of other TNR reporters is well worth reading.