- The Washington Post - BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS- Industry Is Generous To Influential Bloc
On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.
- National Journal: Under the Influence - Shedding Sunlight Through "Party Time"
Want to know the what and where on the latest fundraiser for your lawmaker? Well, Under the Influence has added a new feature to help you keep track. We have added a box linking to the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog (www.politicalpartytime.org), which has a rolling list of fundraisers. You can find that box by scrolling down the right-hand side of the blog. You can see updates throughout the day.
- The New York Times: First Look - Visualizations: The Art of Times APIs
If you’ve visited the Times Developer Network, you’ve probably noticed that it offers an application gallery. Collections of sample applications are often called “galleries” on the Web, and it’s not always an apt analogy. Browsing an assemblage of apps may be fun on a slow afternoon, but is it really akin to strolling through the wing of your choice at the Met?
- The Washingtion Times - Hot Button: Why Bother?
Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat and House Judiciary Committee chairman, thinks requests to read legislation before voting on it are useless without some substantial legal assistance.
- National Journal - RULES OF THE GAME:Health Care Industry Unleashing Big Money
The health care influence industry -- its well-connected players, its high-dollar ad campaigns and its massive lobbying expenditures -- is facing heightened scrutiny as the congressional health care debate intensifies.
- Irish Times - Harnessing power of the people online and for free
WIRED: Crowdsourcing can be an effective means of getting labour-intensive work done online if the motivation is not money, writes
- The Washingtion Times - Hot Button- 'Crowdsourcing' earmarks
Part of the trouble with tracking government earmarks is that the data can be awfully hard to track and put into one place. That's why Jim Harper will give away a Kindle reading device to the person who goes through the most government forms and uploads needed information to his earmark warehouse.
- CQ - Open Government — or ‘Transparency Theater’?
One of the nastiest running battles between Capitol Hill and the White House when George W. Bush was president concerned what the administration should disclose to Congress and how. The fight would flare regularly and then fade into a classic “he said/she said” stalemate.
- Federal Computer Week - Open Government conference roundup
The Open Government and Innovations Conference, held in Washington, D.C., last week, brought together more than 600 people from government, industry and public advocacy groups to discuss social media, acquisition reform and health care information technology. Among the speakers were Vivek Kundra, the federal government's chief information officer, and Aneesh Chopra, the White House chief technology officer.
- The Washington Post - Murtha, 12 Colleagues Back a Murky $160 Million Request
Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is $160 million intended to help Mexico's police buy U.S.-made first-responder radios.
- ABC News - Dems, GOP Court Lobbyists at Summer Getaways
It's summertime, and the giving's easy, as Senate Democrats and Republicans throw weekend getaways for some of their well-connected donors.
- The Washington Post - Military Spending Bill Shows Limits of Public Disclosure Rules
Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is a $160 million pot of money intended to help Mexico's police buy American-made police radios.
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Max Baucus is the nexus of dozens, even hundreds of interests in the health-care bill. In Congress since 1975, he's learned how to build relationships and how to leverage them.
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Candidate Barack Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would run a more open federal government.
Although it's still early in his administration, thus far his actions are falling short of his earlier rhetoric.
- The Los Angles Times - TARP watchdog cites lack of transparency in Obama administration
Reporting from Washington — As the watchdog of the government's massive bailout of the financial sector, Neil M. Barofsky had a simple question: What had the nation's banks done with all their bailout money?
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Sunlight Foundation's Jake Brewer spoke with MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan. Jake discussed what's the real issue with a stimulus contract awarded to Clougherty Packing LLC for $1.19M for the listed service of 2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED found on the Recovery.gov website.
- The New York Times- The Caucus - Tracking Web Site That Tracks Spending
Recovery.gov, the Web site set up by the Obama administration to help the public track stimulus money, may be causing more political problems than it’s solving.
- Los Angeles Times - Conservative nonprofit offered clout to FedEx -- for millions
Reporting from Washington -- In an unusual look inside Washington's lobbying culture, a sequence of letters published last week exposed how a conservative nonprofit advocacy group apparently tried to sell its clout in a legislative battle between FedEx and UPS.
- CQ Weekly - A Mottle of Transparency
One of the nastiest running battles between Capitol Hill and the White House when George W. Bush was president concerned what the administration should disclose to Congress and how. The fight would flare regularly and then fade into a classic "he said/she said" stalemate. Information would leak about some secret program. Lawmakers would object. And administration officials, Vice President Dick Cheney most prominent among them, would claim congressional leaders had been briefed and had given their approval.
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In their headline news, Democracy Now reported on the bipartisan group of centrist and conservative senators who called on Democratic and Republican leaders to put off a vote on health care reform legislation for 70 days. In the report they cite info from Paul's Blumenthal blog post (http://bit.ly/3x0heo) on how each of these senators has raised at least $1 million from the health and insurance sectors combined over the course of their respective careers.
- The New York Times - Data.gov to Face a Challenger From Sunlight Labs
ata.gov, the US federal government's new catalog of sets of public data for outside developers to mashup and analyze, now faces some friendly competition. The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan non-profit organization dedicated to government transparency, has announced that it will launch a National Data Catalog to go above and beyond what Data.gov offers.
- Washington Monthly - The Geekdom of Crowds
My favorite bar in Washington is the Raven Grill, a shoebox-shaped (and -sized) dive in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The second half of the bar’s official name is a total lie, unless you count the overpriced beef jerky on the shelf next to the liquor bottles. But the beer is sold at prices otherwise unheard of in D.C., the north wall of the men’s bathroom used to feature some very nice anatomical artwork, and the jukebox has been strategically stocked to thwart even the worst taste (the only real hazard is Bob Marley’s "Legend"). Most crucially, the Raven is an easily walkable twelve blocks from my row house in neighboring Columbia Heights. The only real problem is that in the past year, those twelve blocks have been the site of seven robberies, eight assaults, and two homicides.
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Sunlight Labs' Director Clay Johnson discusses the launch of a new project, the National Data Catalogue.
- Information Week - Recovery.gov Development Contract Details Coming
By Monday, the General Services Administration and Smartronix are expected to release a version of the contract to design and operate recovery.gov, a spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said Tuesday.
- The Boston Globe - Lawmakers, read the bills before you vote
SAY, DID you hear the one about the congressman who was asked to do his job? Talk about funny - this will crack you up!
- National Journal - Lobbyists Shed The Scarlet 'L'
Have President Obama's rules that were intended to clamp down on lobbyists and increase transparency actually made it more difficult to track influence in Washington?
- Las Vegas Sun - If shockers done, Ensign could stay in office, many say
If this happened to anyone else at any other workplace, the outcome would be certain. If Sen. John Ensign were, say, a casino manager, and he embarked on an affair with his underling’s wife, who also worked for him, he would be shown the door, or maybe thrown through it.
- Politico - Politicians hit golf course for money shots
From Jonas Brothers concerts to Boston Red Sox games, politicians can always find a timely way to host a fundraiser. And, in the summertime, why not hit the greens to raise the greenbacks?
- Politico - Admin. touts more transparency
Obama administration officials on Tuesday launched a flashy new section of USASpending.gov -- called the IT Dashboard ...
- The Los Angles Times - LAPD's public database omits nearly 40% of this year's crimes
The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city, a Times analysis has found.
- The Wall Street Journal - Contract to Upgrade Recovery.gov Stimulates Criticism
The announcement of an $18 million contract to revamp the administration’s stimulus Web site, www.recovery.gov recovery.gov, has been making waves all day, sparking sarcastic blog posts, angry tweets and even an online petition.
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Power Breakfast, a program produced by WAMU, one of Washington's National Public Radio affiliates, included quotes from Senior Fellow Bill Allison in a story about Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.)
- Newsweek - What’s in a Name?
It's no secret that big energy companies find lots of ways to influence the debate in Washington: they make campaign contributions, they hire high-powered lobbyists and they invest heavily in advertising campaigns to persuade the public (and capital decision makers) that they are good "corporate citizens."
- The Salt Lake Tribune - GOP: Dems have closed door on open government
The House was about to vote on a massive energy bill that would set limits on carbon emissions and add what GOP critics say would be a major consumer tax. But a copy of the final bill was nowhere to be found.
- The Union - Arianna Huffington: Lobbyists on a Roll
Remember all that change Americans voted for in November? Well, there's been a change in the plans for change.
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It was a recurring theme of Barack Obama's presidential campaign — a call for openness: "Transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved, that's how we're gonna bring about change," candidate Obama said.