I was in the Austin airport today and a clip on CNN caught my ear. It was a piece on the “secret Senator” who had held up a bill, otherwise supported by a majority, which would require the creation of a database of government spending, in particular contracts, loans, and the like. What stopped me in my tracks was the anchor’s use of the term “a Google-like search function” as the reason the bill was being held up. In other words, this bill was clearly threatening to bring transparency and ease of use to information about government spending, and someone was using the secret Senator, who turned out to be our pal Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens, to try to kill the bill.
Bloggers, however, made a huge fuss, CNN and its ilk caught onto the story. But, well, will the bill pass or not?
My money is on not.