The Liberty Lamp: Libertarian News & Editorials

Yesterday, The House approved a bill today that appropriates money for some really stupid stuff, in addition to SE Asia tsunami and Darfur genocide relief (which is good). Amongst other things, though, it pumps more $ into build a freakin' stadium in DC, random "donations" to foreign countries for unclear reasons, and other such things. Once again, no one read the bill, and there's some major pork in it. However, there is some good that's come out of this.

For the last month (though it would have been nice for them to let me KNOW about it), DownsizeDC.org launched a campaign to defeat HR.418. Though it was not ultimately successful in stalling the said legislation, it did forment changes to the bill, and has led to a full national campaign to force Congress (and I'm assuming the Senate too eventually) to actually read the bills before voting on them. If passed, the DownsizeDC proposed bill would not only require a 7-day mandatory "reading period" for all eligable congressional voters, but would also make any proposed bills public knowledge for that same peoriod. This increased government transparency would allow other congressmembers and us the public to be able to search for and point out any pork or other weaknesses before a bill becomes law.

Long story short, check out the above link to read more about the bill, and then sign the petition.