Open Thread (11/14/06)

Posted November 14th, 2006 at 01:42 PM by Gordy Hulten
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On November 14th, 2006 at 02:37 PM, Wally "the Fen" Fenwick (not verified) said:

Hey, that nitwit at lone tree on the prairie won some stupid award last year and is bragging about it. He's not nearly as funny as Opening Blands. I think that dork with the bowl haircut, Seth, writes some good stuff there.

Oh and by the way, has anyone seen Don Gerard circulating his petitions to run for Mayor of Champaign?

On November 14th, 2006 at 02:54 PM, AnF (not verified) said:

A little recognition, and see what happens?

On November 14th, 2006 at 06:00 PM, redstatewannabe (not verified) said:

No time for a real post today, but this is a great article - suggestions for some good conservative things the lame duck Congress should do:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWVmMDg5N2U3ODQ5MGIxYThmZjQwNzBlODU2MWFiZTU=

On November 14th, 2006 at 06:57 PM, run4cvrlib (not verified) said:

Who's Don Gerard?

On November 14th, 2006 at 07:57 PM, Local Voter (not verified) said:

Hey RSW---How about having them work on one or two of these?
-require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
-select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
-cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
-limit the terms of all committee chairs;
-require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
-implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.

On November 14th, 2006 at 08:59 PM, Mollie (not verified) said:

Don Gerard is simply the finest candidate for Mayor we have had for decades. Non partisan, independent, truly concerned about the city and its people, not inclined to give in to every special interest group and he works extremely well with others. He's not in it for the fame, he already has more of that than all the council put together, he'll do the right thing because it is the right thing, not for media time or to curry favor.

If you haven't heard of Don Gerard you must be new to town or have been away for a long time, he is very well known and respected in the community.

On November 14th, 2006 at 09:00 PM, redstatewannabe (not verified) said:

LV,

1. Love it - if the GOP won't do it, maybe the new responsive Dem Congress will

2. The cost of an private audit of the Feds would be mind-boggling, and we already have an federal department that does this full time. Besides, I think the findings would be "the Department of X can't account for 10% of their expenditures" - then what? I like the suggestion of requiring all earmarks be publically available on the internet - how about a little "fresh air"?

3 & 4. No opinion on staff and committee chairs (but I won't be upset to see Specter lose his post)

5. we already need 60 votes in the Senate, via rule making. Your suggestion sounds like it might require a Constitutional amendment - I still wouldn't mind it.

6. Zero baseline budgeting - never happen - we already know that reductions in the rate of growth are "cuts" - like the idea though

On November 14th, 2006 at 10:07 PM, run4cvrlib (not verified) said:

There is a website with a Don Gerard some kind of music guy. Does he work somewhere? How old is he? Has he been to College? What Civic clubs is he part of? I guess I have ran across him I and I will probably know who he is once I see who he is but sorry I don't know him.

On November 14th, 2006 at 10:33 PM, Local Voter (not verified) said:

Hey RSW---Those six items are directly from the GOP's Contract for America 12 years ago when they took over as the majority party in Congress.

On November 15th, 2006 at 12:29 AM, AnF (not verified) said:

CBS EVENING NEWS DOWN OVER YEAR AGO...

For the first time since Katie Couric became anchor, CBS EVENING NEWS is down compared to a year ago, falling 4% from 8.069 to 7.758 million last week among total viewers, and the program also declined 9% among adults 25-54 from last year's 2.2 to a 2.0 rating last week...

www.drudgereport.com

*******************

Poor Perky Katie... She has fewer viewers than an old retread like Bob Schieffer.

On November 15th, 2006 at 12:51 AM, Handy Smurf (not verified) said:

Like Schweighart, Gerard is from the old school. Gerard used to write for The News-Gazette.

Both good guys.

On November 15th, 2006 at 02:45 AM, Kevin Sandefur (not verified) said:

run: Don't feel bad. I first got here in 1974, and I've never heard of Don Gerard either. Of course, I've been out of the local music scene since Darcy was born, but it doesn't ring any bells from the seventies or eighties (or even the early nineties) for me. (And now I just feel really, really old...)

On November 15th, 2006 at 04:21 AM, run4cvrlib (not verified) said:

Kevin--I am with you there, I guess going to bed at 10pm I miss a lot.

On November 15th, 2006 at 05:00 AM, Kevin Sandefur (not verified) said:

Ok, so I've been checking up on the "famous" Don Girard, and I've at least heard of some of the bands he was in, although I don't think I ever actually heard any of them play. Chances are, though, that we were in the same room multiple times over the years, even though no one ever introduced us. (I only say this because for about a decade there it felt like I got drunk with everyone in CU who ever even looked at a guitar. I had more stamina back then...)

He apparently wrote stuff for the Hub (which of course I completely missed because I blinked, geologically speaking), and the News-Gazette as well, but since I rarely get past Section A anymore, that's all pretty moot.

It also looks like he hangs out with all the really "cool" kids in the blogoshere, and has apparently been running for Mayor for at least a year and a half already, if not longer. How, oh how ever could I have so completely missed such a "famous" person...?

Anyway, he seems a decent enough sort, at least from a distance, and has probably had a very interesting life, so far. I think I'd like to meet him, finally. We could talk about softball...

On November 15th, 2006 at 05:52 AM, run4cvrlib (not verified) said:

Does everything kind of get dark after the A section and then Laura wakes you up and tells you to go to bed. I can relate to that too. Well thanks for filling me in on Mr. Gerard so he is the one from the music scene. Your life hasn't been interesting?