Once again attaching a timeline for withdrawal to its Iraq War spending bill, the Democratic Congress again failed to pass a bill that would have forced President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq – just like last time and the time before that. In response to this defeat, President Bush collectively asked Congressional Democrats to follow up their bill by “Making me a sandwich.”
Out of ideas
Rating: 8
Go constitutional or go home
Frustrated that the U.S. Congress isn’t doing enough to end immigration, several Michigan Democrats in the state House of Representatives are forging ahead with a bill to make it a felony to hire illegal immigrants. Keeping with the intolerance of the last two Proposal 2’s, which banned gay marriage and affirmative action, why not just add a constitutional ban on immigration to the ballot as the third iteration of Proposal 2? Real legislation is lame.
Rating: 5
Take it to the (green) House
Expanding on a U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer that allows the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, a federal court of appeals in California ruled on Thursday that the Department of Transportation must consider the cost of global warming when it sets fuel efficiency standards. Environments across the country celebrated the decision this weekend with carbon-neutral marijuana.
Rating: 6
The Nigersaurus
Along with a team of researchers, University of Michigan professor Jeff Wilson unveiled the “Nigersaurus” last Thursday at the National Geographic Society. Although The Ann Arbor News reported that the researchers struggled for 10 years to understand their “bizarre find,” which was made in a Nigerian desert, apparently the researchers didn’t give much thought to coming up with a less inflammatory name.
Rating: 2
Laptop theft
At an Arkansas church last week, a preacher was praying with a patron when he opened his eyes to find both the patron and his laptop gone. The man was eventually caught, but in an unusual display of solidarity, university libraries around the country rallied around the preacher, saying, “We told you so: Don’t leave your laptop unattended.”
Rating: 1
Detroit’s no. 1
Although St. Louis may have beat Detroit in the 2006 World Series, Detroit got back on top Sunday. Ranked just ahead of St. Louis and another Michigan city, Flint, Detroit is America’s most dangerous city, according to a study released Sunday by the CQ Press, which used crime data from the FBI.
Rating: 6