Written by Neil Kelty on April 29th, 2009
Nearly one hundred years ago in 1914, Congress created the Legislative Reference Service to provide “nonpartisan, objective analysis and research on all legislative issues.”
In 2003, we taxpayers paid more than $86 million dollars to provide this service to our representatives and senators. If we’re going to pay that much for people to write summaries of legislation I think the public has a right for easy access to this information.
The Problem
A 2003 CRS internal memo states three areas of concern:
Impairment of Member Communication with Constituents – So instead of recieving a form letter from my congressman telling me in their biased opinion how they plan to vote on the issue I could read an unbiased summary? Sign me up! I wouldn’t contact my representative …
Written by Neil Kelty on January 16th, 2009
We hear everyday about local and state governments struggling to make ends meet. I see lots of positions and services being cut down, while that’s one way to make those cuts these governments should rely on students looking for experience in government to help professional staff complete basic functions. While it’s certainly going to cost those government something to bring in these interns, it will allow some services to stay afloat by allowing staffed personnel to focus on other tasks while delegating some tasks to interns.
There certainly are plenty of students looking for work experience and even an unpaid internship in local or state government would be a bonus.
Think of all the computer knowledge that young students could bring to …
Written by Neil Kelty on November 19th, 2008
This is the first in a series of posts I will make on the Obama cabinet in the next few days.
State
Hillary Clinton – Senator Clinton appears to have a lock on the job if she’d like it; however, I’m not convinced she will accept the position. The Secretary of State position would give her enormous experience points in foreign policy, but I think the Senate is still the place for her if she is even thinking about running in 2016. But the other question is will the offer still stand after the Obama team finishing digging up dirt on Bill Clinton’s dealings – he’s quite a lot of baggage.
Senator John Kerry – The runner up for the job and possible …
Written by Patrick McAlister on November 1st, 2008
I’m not one that believes in the paranormal, but the similarities between the West Wing and the current Presidential race would make Miss Cleo’s head explode.
Yesterday several reputable blogs and some highly disreputable alleged news organizations have reported that if Obama is elected, he would like his chief of staff to be Congressman Rahm Emmanuel. How is Emmanuel linked to the West Wing, you might ask? For years it has been said the show was, at least in part, based off of the Clinton presidency. Lyman was under his president in the West Wing world was Deputy Chief of Staff and known for his political ties …
Written by Patrick McAlister on October 30th, 2008
The New York Times finally got it. With just days to go in the election they finally published a story about the uncanny similarities between the West Wing presidential election and the real life Presidential election. I reached my conclusions five months ago as you can see here, but I’m glad they’ve finally caught up. Here are some updated predictions/premonitions from the show…and the similarities blow me away.
Vice Presidential Candidates
I noted that Santos..err I mean Obama needed to pick a party stalwart – a known quantity in Washington and somebody the party elite is comfortable with. It is obvious that Biden is roughly equivalent to Santos’ …
