William Daroff http://jta.org/user/profile/23553 en-us rcsillag@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 For the record, while my thoughts on President Obama's Passover seder were widely quoted in the Jewish, Israeli, and mainstream US press, I had no role in planning it. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 I think you should host a "tagline" competition for the Ministry of Tourism to use with their condom distribution program. A couple have been suggested in my request on Twitter for suggestions... 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 The idea behind "earmarks" is that often times Members of Congress know the needs of their districts better than some nameless faceless bureaucrat here in Washington. Our programs that have been funded through earmarks are innovative initiatives that push the envelope of what the establishment would like to fund -- because we are ahead of our time. Clearly there is a difference between an earmark for a $400 million weapons system that the Pentagon doesn't want and a $400,000 earmark to bring innovative aging-in-place programs in Chicago that help to better the lives of real people. The key to making the earmark process "kosher" is to make them transparent -- to shine bright lighst on them -- so that they are not secretly & anonymously added into legislation in the dead of night. Shine bright lights and magnafine glasses on the Jewish community's earmarks, and you will be proud to find that we answer to a Higher Authority. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00