It seems all too often some issue will flare up around here, then it will just disappear a couple of weeks later, never to be heard of again. As much as we decry the media for its minute attention span, we in the blogs are only a little better. I don't know the best way to remedy this, but an improved and more sophisticated search would go a long way, not to mention improved tagging by diarists and integration of the tags with the search. For instance, it would be nice to be able to look for entries that have both tag A and tag B, A or B, A but not B, or even just search for diaries on "similar topics" that searches ranks diaries by how similar the tags are. Then give the user the ability to put searches into their hotlist with, say, updates once per day or per week (defined by a user setting) so that people can maintain their own list of topics to keep an eye on. That list would naturally serve as a reminder to look into things if a topic has gone stale here at DKos.
I digress. Improvements to this site would be fantastic, but they are not the topic of this post. Follow me below the fold for the more immediate topics hinted at in the title
The topic of this post is a couple of items that I have tried to dig up from that memory hole; in short, old news. Those topics are: the proposed FDA change in the definition of chocolate, the secret hold on the pork database, and the secret hold on electronic SEC filing for Senators.
Of Chocolate and Greed
The great chocolate controversy centered around efforts by the Grocery Manufacturer's Association and the Chocolate Manufacturer's Association to get the FDA to change the official definition of chocolate to permit, among other things, substituting vegetable fats for cocoa butter. There was an outcry, both here at DailyKos and at other blogs, and then the issue just seemed to evaporate. Well, about a month ago the Mars Inc came out in opposition to the measure. Naturally, having one of the large candy manufacturer's on our side is a plus. Other than that, nothing that I can see.
Squeal Piggy! We're Going to Hold you Over the Fire of Public Scrutiny Using a Database Spit
The most recent mention I can find on DailyKos is this diary by efullm01. In short, the bill eventually passed both the House and the Senate, and was even signed by Bush. A cursory Google search doesn't seem to turn up the official results (http://earmarks.omb.gov/ seems to be a Whitehouse run, partisan beast). Does anyone know if this thing has been implemented yet?
Feingold's no Brainer Senate Filing Act Inexplicably Held Up by Secret Hold from Nowhere
When last we heard of this piece of legislation, Adam B informed us that the McConnell and Ensign were holding the bill up because they wanted to add a poison pill. There doesn't appear to have been any movement since then. It's still sitting on the the Senate Calendar. I was going to lament how far down it is from whatever bill they are presently acting on, but it would seem that the calendar is more of a suggestion because the first item still on the calendar, minimum wage increase, has a "last major action" on Thomas of, essentially, "put on the calendar."
Ugh.
So, those are the updates for these items. I'm not going to make a regular thing of this, but if some enterprising Kossak does so it would seem to me to be an effort worthy of a regular, probably weekly, feature on the front page.