Could you write a 1000 page novel in a weekend?

[Stinky The Clown]

Who, specifically, wrote .... The Patriot Act? It was huge, yet there it was. In what? A week?

Who is writing this bailout bill? How long is it? When did it get written and printed?

Are these things kept on a shelf in the room with the sign "Evil Fucking Contingency Laws" on the door?

Who, specifically, writes these? There is no way on earth these get written contemporaneously.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Me personally? No. But a few dozen people, each working on different sections, could. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

2. i think that has to do with the '1000 monkeys on typewriters' - joke

[melody]

3. One person? I doubt it. And certainly not a good one.

The best I've done is 100 pages in a weekend.

[dmallind]

4. Sure, but it would be about as readable

As the Patriot Act if I did. Besides, these bills obviously have multiple sources and are cut and paste jobs. Having only a few days or hours to review it is the big problem (and yes that does apply to Dems too - the drilling bill was a piece of transparent politicking even if the good guys did it and even if it was indeed better than the alternative).

[rucky]

5. Chapter 1:

No.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. The art of legislative drafting is

a fine and subtle one, something that takes lots of training and hard work.

We all know that Fuckface and Dickless had that little work of art - the Patriot Act - sitting on some neocon's shelf until it was time for their takeover. The events of 9/11 were their trigger, and aren't we lucky that we had such alert and prepared leaders to protect us? :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm::sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm::sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Sabriel]

7. Sure, if I'd had it all ready to go ahead of time

And then I pretended I just wrote it.

[endthewar]

8. During his testimony, Paulson implied they had been looking at this for months.

[gravity]

9. Paulson had a 3 page proposal

which will probably be hundreds of pages after Congress gets to it

[donco6]

10. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.

redrum

But seriously, maybe Jack Nicholson could pull it off while he was losing his marbles, but it's highly doubtful anyone else could produce anything of substance in a weekend all by their lonesome.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. dupe. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

14. 700 billion monkeys on 700 billion typewriters?

[Viking12]

11. Much of the Patriot Act had been floated before Congress at various times prior to 911

Clinton had actually proposed many elements of the Patriot Act as part of his anti-terrorism measures but they were rejected in the 1990s.

[4lbs]

12. There are over 1000 sections of The USA Patriot Act...

also called H.R. 3162.

Here's a link to the full text:

http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html


So, 100 Congressional aides, each writing about 10 sections, could have it done in a day or two.

EDIT:

By the way "USA PATRIOT" is a fully contrived acronym that stands for:


Uniting and Strengthening America (U.S.A.)
by
Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (P.A.T.R.I.O.T.)
Act of 2001

[kestrel91316]

15. I heard the USA PATRIOT Act was written well in advance by some

Vietnamese-American RWer in Orange County, CA, I forget his name, some compatriot of the Bob Dornan crowd. They were waiting for the perfect PNAC "Pearl Harbor" moment to whip it out.

[Indenturedebtor]

16. Outsourcing is the future

We have all of our legislation written in Burma nowadays. Jeez get with the program :eyes:

[kimmerspixelated]

17. Your point is important.

Because I believe this "proposal" was planned, I think it's probably been written for awhile. In other words, maybe the crisis isn't as bad as it appears. How will we ever really know?