While Colorado’s legislature marks the midway point in its 2008 session this week, we take a look at what its peer lawmakers are doing across the country. And I’ve got to admit, Douglas Bruce kicking a photojournalist seems positively quaint in comparison. 
From our friends at State Net Capitol Journal comes a report of a proposed law to criminalize driving with Fritz the longhaired dachshund.
We’ve all seen them: people driving around with a dog on their lap, all giddy-like and ears flapping in the breeze. Sometimes even the dog seems excited. But that will be a scene of the past if CALIFORNIA Assemblyman Bill Maze has his way. As the Sacramento Bee reports, Maze has introduced AB 2233, a measure that would make it illegal to drive with a live animal in your lap. We will presume, for the sake of argument, that it would still be okay to drive with a dead animal in your lap. Or, based on some of the really bad rugs we see some men wearing, one on your head.
But at least dogs don’t drink and drive.
In Utah, the SL Weekly writes that the state legislature is considering a bill to increase the amount of alcohol in a cocktail.
Last week, the proposed legislation allowed for “up to” 1.5 ounces of a primary liquor per drink and .5 ounces of additional flavoring (a second or third liquor) for mixed cocktails like a Black Russian, Harvey Wallbanger and scores of others. With a limit of 2 total ounces including that half ounce of flavoring, many standard drinks simply could not be made. This week, changes are being proposed that will keep the primary base at 1.5 ounces, but allow for a full ounce of flavoring added to a drink for a total of 2.5 ounces maximum per cocktail. This compromise bill has a good chance of passing. Some will rejoice-huzza! More booze in my drink! Others will not.
And speaking of dogs (or dawgs) of a different stripe. Bruce has a lot to learn from his combative brothers down south, according to State Net Capitol Journal.
If you think the ALABAMA Legislature corners the market on lawmakers engaging in fisticuffs, well, you just haven’t been to Taiwan. For the better part of the last two decades, members of the country’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have engaged in brawls – sometimes involving as many as 50 people – with the majority Nationalist Party, during the middle of parliamentary sessions. But as Reuters reports, the DPP leadership has agreed to tone it down this year, saying the constant fighting has turned voters off so much that the Party suffered significant losses in the last election. Leaders also admit the fighting has usually been pre-planned to gain attention. That part clearly worked.
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