This is my anonymous middle finger being given to lawmaker “Tim Couch” who wants to ban anonymous internet posting.

I’ve heard of some out of touch people before but, Tim, honestly have you ever been on the internet?

We retrieved a copy of the bill from the Kentucky BillWatch site. (FYI: It sucks compared to Sunlight) which basically says that website needs to obtain full legal information about anyone who writes posts or creates comments on a site like ours. Are you kidding me? How are you going to do that? Talk about someone being out of touch with reality.

Tim needs to be seriously welcomed to the internet. I sure hope that no idiotic Virginia lawmakers try to do the same thing.

For a full copy of the bill titled “HB 775(BR-1943),” click through the break.. »Read More

Popularity: 51% [?]

In case anyone hasn’t seen Richmond Sunlight, you should check it out.

So, let’s take a recent C-Ville Weekly story about the upcoming banning of Salvia by Virginia legislatures. It’s a good read if you are into drugs (and I mean in a purely academic way). Salvia is a “drug” that for some reason, has passed under lawmakers eyes for the last century. You can still buy it online and the effects are supposed to be similar to LSD. If anyone gets it can you make sure to write us a testimony?

So, what is this bill? Enter Richmond Sunlight.

A quick search for Salvia reveals the HB21 bill. On this page you can find the status of the bill (salvia is no longer legal in Virginia and is classified as a Class 1 Hallucinogenic), the entire history of the bill, video records of the bill, RSS feeds to update you regarding bill changes, commentary, lists of those who approved it, and a lot more.

Our friend at cvillenews, Waldo, built the thing together with funding from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. Anyway, you should absolutely use Richmond Sunlight if you need to see details about any bill in Virginia. This thing is really cool and I love how easy it is to find out who is accountable for things. I wonder if the politicians are a little nervous about the ease of these public records. Well done!

[more reading at UVA] [pic]

Popularity: 23% [?]