Update: For some reason it appears the Times has pulled this awesome research tool. I'll try to find out why.
The New York Times launched an amazing research tool, creating a great online browser for all their content from 1851-1922. The Times is also offering the data in API so that, if you can, you can create your own browser. The Times blog says:
"As part of eliminating TimeSelect, The New York Times has decided to make all the public domain articles from 1851-1922 available free of charge. These articles are all in the form of images scanned from the original paper. In fact from 1851-1980, all 11 million articles are available as images in PDF format. To generate a PDF version of the article takes quite a bit of work — each article is actually composed of numerous smaller TIFF images that need to be scaled and glued together in a coherent fashion."
If you do research - or are in any way in need of scanning the 1855 adverts for local New York haberdashers - this is not to be missed. Check out the TimesMachine. (There might be some kind of server problems right now.)
The article to the left references a large scale congressional investigation into lobbyist actions in an attempt to block President Woodrow Wilson's tariff bill, a key element of his New Freedom agenda. The investigation sought to discover if Senators had been bribed or received undue influence from these lobbyists and ultimately required every sitting Senator to testify to their personal finances, campaign contritbutions, and relationships with lobbyists and other company agents. This amounted to the first full disclosure by members of Congress in regards to the personal finances, their campaign contributors, and the nature of the lobby. A first for transparency in Congress.
Don Young Doesn’t Know
Rep. Don Young has been on the hot seat ever since he sponsored the infamous Bridge to Nowhere earmark. Since then he has come under investigation for more things than any other sitting member of Congress. Young faces an FBI investigation into his participation in fishing and golfing events with VECO oil executives; he is receiving scruting for the hiring of his former aide Mark Zachares, who has pled guilty, by Jack Abramoff; and fellow Republicans are seeking an investigation into his inclusion of an earmark for Coconut Road in Florida - which happens to be a long ways from Alaska. In the face of all these difficulties Young sat down with reporters to discuss his reelection campaign, but reporters wanted to talk about something else. If you want to see what an arrogant stone wall looks like, you should follow the link and watch this interview. It's a doozy.
Don Young's KTVA Interview Video.
Continue readingRick Renzi Indicted
Congressman Rick Renzi was indicted today for a land swap in his state of Arizona. The Politico's Ben Smith reports:
Republican Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona was indicted Friday morning on charges connected to a land deal in his home state, according to the Associated Press.
The indictment comes one day after Renzi, who had already announced his intentions to step down from Congress at the end of the year, buried his father, Army Maj. Gen. Eugene Carmen Renzi.
For more on the background of the investigation into Renzi read this section of his Congresspedia page.
View the indictment here. (via CREW)
Continue readingLobbyist Trent Lott Under Federal Investigation
After the President signed his name to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, members of Congress had until January 1st to vacacte their seats if they wanted to trade the black suit and American flag lapel of Capitol Hill for the black suit and American flag lapel of K Street. The ethics reform bill extended the "cooling off" period for lawmakers-turned-lobbyists from one year to two years, which would leave retired members of Congress with 2 years to find something to do - write your memoirs or teach a class at the university that got so many earmarks they named a building after you - before they can make the big bucks on K Street. When Sen. Trent Lott announced his sudden retirement before the "cooling off" extension took effect it was clear that he wasn't looking to settle down at the Trent Lott Leadership Institute at Ole Miss. No, Lott was getting out early to work with his old bipartisan pal John Breaux on K Street.
There were, however, rumors that avoiding the "cooling off" extension was not the exact reason for Lott's early exit from his long congressional career. The Wall Street Journal puts those rumors to rest by publishing details of a federal investigation into Lott's possible role in a case involving the bribing of Mississippi judges by his half-brother Richard "Dickie" Scruggs:
Continue readingLobbyists Upset at Homebuilder’s PAC
Last week, the National Association of Home Builders announced that it was suspending PAC contributions to members of Congress because of the failure to obtain a tax-break provision they desperately wanted. (I'm sure that they aren't too happy about the bashing they're taking over the mortgage meltdown.) This action isn't being treated with open arms by other lobbyists and industry shops. Why, you ask? Well, because the NAHB is explicitly stating that their PAC contributions are tied to votes by members of Congress. Straight from the horse's mouth: contributions buy votes. Listen to these lobbyists try to distance themselves from NAHB (via The Hill):
“It’s not going to make a damn bit of difference,” said one senior business lobbyist, who said that the $10,000 limits on contributions to candidates’ campaigns were too low for such a threat to have any bite.
A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, Mary Trupo, said her group had no opinion about the NAHB’s move except that “it’s not a tactic that we would take.” She added, “We continue to support members who have been supportive of the housing sector.”
“I’m embarrassed by what the homebuilders did,” said one lobbyist, who characterized the NAHB’s move as “inappropriate behavior.”
Of course, acknowledging fact in Washington is often "inappropriate behavior".
Continue readingEarmark Season Opens
The floodgates are open in Congress as members are ready to begin work on a new season of appropriations bills. That can only mean one thing: more earmarks. This season, being an election year, will be frought with perils and politics for many members of Congress. Today, the House Republican conference released a new Web site to fight for earmark reform, and, of course, to put Democrats in politically precarious districts on the defensive on reform and spending. Many of these Democrats are freshmen, including Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak. In CongressDaily, Sestak explains how earmarks are used to help support these targeted freshmen:
But he acknowledged that his requests for add-ons were not always given the same priority as those of more vulnerable freshmen. "I do know this," Sestak said. "Because I wasn't on Frontline. I was not on the Tier One list for earmarks."
Continue reading
NewsTrust Focuses on Congress
NewsTrust.net - an online social news rating site - is focusing in on Congress this week and is looking for users, new and current, to contribute stories that exemplify quality reporting on Congress. Over at the NewsTrust blog they've singled out some of the stories submitted so far, including a number of articles and blog posts on the Senate fight over telecom immunity in the FISA reauthorization bill. They are hosting this Congress feature through Sunday, so get over there and review some articles. Feel free to submit blog posts or articles, I just submitted this great Alaska Daily News article about Sen. Ted Stevens' use of the earmarking process to help enrich a former staffer and fisheries industry lobbyist.
(NewsTrust is a Sunlight grantee.)
Continue readingLegislative History Detective: Senate Electronic Filing
We've expended enormous energy and blog space to advocate for the Senate to file their campaign finance reports electronically, something that probably shouldn't take that much effort, but it does. If you need a primer on the issue you can watch this video we made. One thing of note in this whole saga is that Congress, in 1999, mandated electronic filing for all campaign committees, but somehow the Senate doesn't have to comply. Why is this?
In December of 1995, Congress passed a bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to allow the FEC to accept electronic filing, a legislative recommendation previously made by the FEC to give them a statutory requirement and funding to create an e-filing system. The bill, which became Public Law 104-79, also changed the filing location for members of the House from the Clerk of the House to the FEC. This seems innocuous, but it is important.
Continue readingS.1 In Action: Senate Ethics Committee Reports
I've spent a lot of time on this blog deriding the Senate Ethics Committee - and the frivolous complaints leveled by Sen. John Ensign against the current ethics process - for failing to investigate Senators who have allegedly violated the trust of their office (or the law, in the case of Sen. Ted Stevens). Thanks to the recently passed ethics bill, S.1, we finally get some transparency in the Ethics Committee and some statistical information about the committee's activities. The Committee is now required to issue an annual report of activity. Here are some highlights:
Number of alleged violations received in 2007 (from any source): 95 (not including the 16 carried over from 2006)
Number of alleged violations dismissed in 2007 (including 7 cases carried over from 2006): 86 (71 for lack of jurisdiction; 15 for failure to provide sufficient facts)
Number of alleged violations which resulted in a preliminary hearing: 16 (includes 9 matters carried over from 2006 and 5 matters that have carried into 2008)
Number of alleged violations that resulted in adjudicatory review: 0
Number of alleged violations dismissed for lack of substantial merit: 11 (includes 7 matters carried over from 2006)
Number of matters resulting in disciplinary action: 0
The Face of Corruption
Matt Stoller at Open Left reveals what the face of corruption looks like: an invitation to a fundraising dinner. (They better be standing while they eat.) It's truly amazing that Verizon has a Good Government Committee. That goes above and beyond all the necessary trappings of traditional Orwellian naming conventions.
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