cabiness42

That was discussed, but so many people go out of town on weekends that we thought that could hinder vote totals. At least by making it a Federal Holiday you get employees of Federal, state, and local governments, banks, and markets off work. Perhaps a compromise is to have extended "early voting" hours at county offices on the weekend before Election Day.

That was again a debated subject, but like the term limits, did not have a consensus.

Something I neglected to add is that states would be allowed to double the voter ID's as something else (most likely a driver's license) and they can then charge for it in that case, but the free option would still have to be available. That way you don't have to have a separate ID just for voting if you don't want to.

Not a bad idea at all, but we were trying to stick to major changes that would require a Constitutional Amendment. Your idea is something that could simply be passed by Congress (or individual states, if they wanted).

The point of increasing terms for the House from 2 to 3 years was to decrease the amount of time they are running for re-election and hopefully increase the amount of time they are actually legislating. With 90%+ incumbents getting re-elected anyway, there's not much downside to the change. The open primary is in response to the number of Congressional districts that are so one-sided. There are too many districts where the primary is the de facto election. If you have an extreme district, you are going to have one party winning the seat anyway. At least in this case, with two members of the same party in the general election, you have a chance of getting somebody more moderate.

There was, but it's not on the first page anymore, so whatever. I've been to Houston, but it was 17 years ago. Johnson Space Center was pretty cool. Not sure if you can still go in the Astrodome, but that is a pretty impressive place.

Someone that likes NIU should want Ball State to win every game except the one against NIU to keep their schedule strength up. Speaking of NIU, it seems that the poll voters have already started dropping them in the polls in order to try and keep them from a second straight BCS Bowl game.

That was a heated subject among the group, but there was no consensus so it was left out.

A couple friends of mine and I have been kicking around an idea for a Constitutional Amendment to drastically overhaul our election system. We understand the likelihood of actually passing such an amendment is pretty much zero, but there is some good political discussion here so we'd like some input as to whether these changes would improve anything: 1) Presidential term is increased from four to six years, with a one term limit. Election years will be years evenly divisible by six. 2) Senate terms remain six years, but election years will be changed such that each state will have one Senate election in years evenly divisible by six and one in years evenly divisible by three but not by six. 3) House of Representatives terms are increased from two to three years, with election years in every year evenly divisible by three. 4) All changes in 1) through 3) above shall be effective in the first year evenly divisible by twelve that is at least four years later than the date of the ratification of the amendment. 5) For the purposes of Congressional apportionment and the drawing of districts, residents of the District of Columbia shall be considered residents of Maryland. The decennial redistricting of House districts must be done by using a Congressionally approved algorithm that makes districts as compact as possible and does not take into account demographic data that may determine likely voter affiliation. This change shall be effective for the first election year after the next release of Decennial Census data that is at least two years later than the date of ratification of the amendment. 6) Candidates for all Senate and House seats shall be determined via an open primary, with the top two recipients, regardless of party affiliation, advancing to the general election. The date of the primary for all Senate and House seats in all states shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May, and this date shall be a Federal Holiday. States that hold primary elections or caucuses for the office of President and/or any state/local offices must also hold them on this day. 7) Election Day shall remain the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, but it shall now be a Federal Holiday. 8) Congress shall provide funding for and set standards by which states must create and issue, free of charge, photo identification cards that will be available to all citizens who are 18 years of age or older. These identification cards shall serve as a voter registration and entitle the holder the right to vote in all elections. 9) All changes in 6) through 8) above shall be effective in the first year that is at least two years later than the date of ratification of the amendment.

Yeah, broken bones look a lot worse, but heal much, much faster than tendon/muscle tears.

Kevin Ware played 10 minutes last night. Scored 6 points.

The applicable rule here is this portion of 3.15: Batter and runners shall be placed where in the umpires judgment they would have been had the interference not occurred. Now, you say that Viciedo is "about to make a diving catch in fair territory" when the interference occurs. So the umpires can actually justify calling Arcia out if this is their assessment as well. If the umpires decide that Viciedo would not have caught the ball, then it is clear from your description that Arcia would have safely reached third base so that is where he goes. The fact that Arcia is a step or two away from touching third base when the interference occurs is not relevant. So Arcia is either out or awarded third base, based on the umpires' judgment.

The planet will reach a serious critical point long before it gets warm enough to end winter in the upper Midwest.

I worked as a sub while in grad school. I never could work more than 2-3 days a week so it wouldn't have mattered to me, but all the subs in that area worked at multiple districts, and the good ones would have had no trouble working 5 days a week even if there was a 3 day/week limit per district.

I can't speak to the dollars and cents of negotiations, but as a fan outside of the "local territory," I appreciate having games on WGN because they are not subject to blackout.

Crap like this is what makes me very thankful that I have a cousin who is a Sergeant with the State Police and a very close friend who is an Assistant US Attorney. Local police and prosecutors will be in a deep pile of s*** if they try to violate my rights like that.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/bre...0,2270840.story

Sort of. Golic was not at all excusing the stuff Incognito did, but he was saying that if Martin really had the stuff of an NFL player, he would have beat the living s*** out of Incognito instead of just quitting.

An NFL lineman from Nebraska with anger issues? Seems like we've heard that story before.

You can't compete with a story about a fat Canadian mayor on crack. Bad timing.

Methinks foxnews.com has been hacked: Edit: It's been fixed now.

Some pork projects do happen to be infrastructure, but these tend to be very localized and not always the most necessary use of the money. I'm talking about cutting all the pork and redirecting into nationwide infrastructure improvement program. I thought something was going to get off the ground with high speed rail, but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Favre playing for the Packers is an idea that receives the full endorsement of Bears and Lions fans.

Charlie Trotter, chef, 54 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/b...0,3424072.story

The rules don't govern your entire life. Nobody is forcing you to be a truck driver. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence over the years of truck drivers plowing into and killing families after working tons of hours, so maybe you are an exception but there is a damn good reason for the rule.