BSO: Broken Promise

MAD About Obama

The eternally irreverent MAD Magazine continues to refuse to treat the new President like a sacred cow, as illustrated in its latest issue:

Meanwhile it looks like President Obama has already broken one of his major campaign promises - to stop the insane practice of not giving bills enough time for public scrutiny before signing. According to Politifact:

One of President Obama's major campaign planks was making government more open and accountable. It's a reaction to a habit in Congress of rushing bills through the House and Senate without giving people much opportunity to know what the bills would do. Indeed, sometimes members of Congress don't even know what's in the bills.

So Obama pledged during the campaign to institute "sunlight before signing."

"Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them," Obama's campaign Web site states . "As president, Obama will not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days."

But the first bill Obama signed into law as president — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — got no such vetting.

In fact, the Congressional Record shows that the law was passed in the Senate on Jan. 22, 2009, passed in the House on Jan. 27, and signed by the president on Jan. 29. So only two days passed between the bill's final passage and the signing

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Sweet Tax

I like this funny Boston Herald cover about Governor Patrick's proposed new tax on soda and candy.

Let's hope the legislature puts coal in his stocking instead!

Eye of the Beholder

At Northampton's Smith College the ladies have a new symbol for their athletics program. Some use terms like strength and determination to describe what the new symbol inspires, while others see an angry bitch or a castrating feminist.

According to the Smith newspaper The Sophian:

After a yearlong effort led by the Spirit Mark Committee, the new Pioneer visual identity was revealed last December, a female figure head that has incited some controversy on campus.

The Sophian surveyed a group of students about their reactions to the spirit mark and found that, although there were positive reviews, a majority of students interviewed had unfavorable opinions about Smith's new visual identity.

Words used to describe the image ranged from "angry" and "frightening" to "ugly" and "masculine."

"I am really unimpressed by the new spirit mark," said Caroline Winschel '09. "I understand that whoever designed the image was trying to portray Smith as a school of strong women, but as I said in last year's ballot, the particular image simply looks pugnacious and angry."

Some students questioned whether the image fit the name of the Pioneers. "I think the spirit mark does not make sense with the Pioneers mascot. I like the mark, but it doesn't go with the name at all to me. If we were the Furies or something else, the mark would make sense, but not the way it is now," said Alissa Ortman '10.

In any case the new symbol came at a bargain price, it cost only $30,000 to design as opposed to the standard price of around one hundred grand!

Signs of the Times

I came upon these interesting signs in downtown Northampton today. I've never noticed this lady in red at Uncle Margarets before.

God Bless Lucky's for keeping us informed on the cannabis wars.