Things are building up to a head, what with the Bowen California revelations and now the Dan Rather revelations.

These come at a stressed out time in Washington, with political polarization at a max, the stock market declining, and a disheartening war in Iraq and Afghanistan tiring the troops and everyone else out.

Probably not the best time for passage of good federal laws to reform the garbage infested system currently in place.

Even though such reform is a must.

Of course to pass good federal (election) reform laws some congresstypes have to first write and sponsor some good federal (election) reform laws...

... and no, Dredd, none the current assortment of proposed bad-to-worse federal (election) reform laws fit that particular requirement just because they each have a few good ideas.

Hmmm... will Holt and company make their play just as soon as Congress reconvenes, trying to hide the moves in the bustle of returning Congresstypes facing the mess they made before the August recess? Is some serious backchannel arm-twisting being tried by the House leadership during the recess?...

I predict that the republicans will break the record for filibusters this year. They are at about 50 now. And so, if S. 559 comes around, as the text now reads, it will be filibustered by the republicans. They are very against the open source code provisions.

However, with all the war stuff, budget stuff, and contempt of congress stuff coming up, it may not make the floor this year.

That is why I am neither for it nor against it. It is a waste of time to advocate for or against it in the sense that it is a pipe dream under current conditions.

We can't agree as to what it says, and being for or against something that has a ambiguous meaning is spitting into the wind anyway. The more intellectually honest practice is to say "if it means this I am for it, but if it means that I am against it".

That being said, it is good to exercise and practice up on legal hermeneutics (statutory construction) and try to estimate how the judiciary would construe it.