Happy Hangover day to all you hard partiers out there.
There’s a lot going on in the world, much like there is everyday, so here’s just a few subjects for the 1st of Jan.
The writer’s strike is no closer to over- but when the late nighters return one will have a bit more of an edge. Letterman worked out a deal to bring his writing staff back. Colbert and Daily Show are coming back too, no writers, so who knows what’s coming of that.
Obama’s leading the Dems and Huckabee is leading the Reps in Iowa right now. Also, Kucinich has thrown in behind Obama, a change from his ‘04 backing of Edwards.
Kenya is rife with violence after the elections that took place seeing President Mwai Kibaki win a second term, igniting talk of “two Kenyas” split among tribal and political lines. The death toll now rests over 100, and riots continue to take place. The reason for the riots is allegations of corruption and rigging the votes.
Pakistan has confirmed that the elections will not take place on tuesday as a result of Bhutto’s assassination.
New Hampshire approves same sex civil unions, much to the chagrin of some. *cough* jackass *cough* 180 miles to profess his wonderfully “Christian” beliefs- which obviously didn’t windup including tollerance, acceptance, love, etc…
Bush Administration secrecy is going to get a little more opaque in the near future with the signing of a “gov’t transparency bill”.
The new law toughens the Freedom of Information Act, the first such makeover to the signature public-access law in a decade. It amounts to a congressional pushback against the Bush administration’s movement to greater secrecy since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
Bush signed the bill without comment in one of his final decisions of the year.
The legislation creates a system for the media and public to track the status of their FOIA requests. It establishes a hot line service for all federal agencies to deal with problems and an ombudsman to provide an alternative to litigation in disclosure disputes.
The law also restores a presumption of a standard that orders government agencies to release information on request unless there is a finding that disclosure could do harm.
Agencies would be required to meet a 20-day deadline for responding to FOIA requests. Nonproprietary information held by government contractors also would be subject to the law.
The legislation is aimed at reversing an order by former Attorney General John Ashcroft after the 9/11 attacks in which he instructed agencies to lean against releasing information when there was uncertainty about how doing so would affect national security.
Interesting.
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