A balance usually means that both sides have equal weight or standing. It could mean anything as mundane as putting the right amount of oregano and garlic on a slice of pizza. In a legal sense, there is a balance where the punishment should meet the crime. In politics there are checks and balances to ensure no one branch of government or political party receives too much power. These are relatively easy ideas to learn starting in a high school class on civics and government or by trial and error.

Independent Pennsylvanians,  part of the national IndependentVoting.org network, will be on hand to testify at the upcoming public hearing of President Obama’s Commission on Election Administration. The hearings will  take place in Philadelphia, on  September 4th, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, rooms 102 and 103. The 10-member commission is tasked with presenting recommendations to the president about how to “improve the voting experience.”

Had former Congressman Bob Barr decided to simply retire and return to private life upon leaving Congress in 2003, nobody would have blamed him. After an illustrious and influential career in the House of Representatives, prolific support for conservative causes, and a presidential candidacy, Barr had already accomplished a great deal. Rather than relaxing during his post-electoral career, however, the sixty-four year old attorney spent a decade writing, advocating, and speaking on behalf of liberty-minded issues.

This is the most popular, and seventh most important issue for an omnibus Constitutional Amendment for electoral reform and clean government—one that should be wildly-popular because it is designed to be that way. Here is a link to the thread on the first six.

Massively open online courses, or MOOCs, are typically dependent on outside investors to cover expenses. While MOOCs expand the education opportunities for hundreds of thousands world-wide, building a sustainable funding model has yet to be perfected.

Leading open online courses are run through highly esteemed universities like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, which can provide high quality information; but ultimately these services will need to be sustainably funded in order to operate long term.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR4nn3B_XM4

court ruling released Wednesday. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) chief justice Judge John D. Bates declared the methods undertaken by the agency unconstitutional and overreaching in authority.