Canvassing this weekend (in my non-Sunlight role) I knocked on the door of a man who offered to bet me a bottle of Glenlivet that the Democrats, if elected, wouldn’t pursue any fewer earmarks than the Republicans had in the past 8 years. He had recently written his Congressional delegation, demanding to know which earmarks came from which representative, and had yet to get any satisfactory answers. I might as well write in my wife, he said. I will make only one on-the-record prediction this year: there will be more write-ins than at any mid-term election in 20 years. Depending upon who you ask, between 23 and 38% of Americans do not align themselves with either major party. Some fraction of those won't vote for either party, but won't vote for a third party candidate, either. The write-ins won't be enough to tip any election or make any major news stories, but it will be there, a small, quirky fact on the side.
Continue readingHow Greater Security Could Lead to Greater Transparency
I've just had a chance to skim the opinion in the Department of Homeland Security v. Washington Post case, but it looks to me like it has some interesting implications for opening up Congress. (Its on Lexis, so I can't link.) The case requires the Secret Service to expedite the Washington Post FOIA request for disclosure of the logs of visits to Vice President Cheney's office. (It does not, as the papers say, require that disclosure, but it suggests it will likely be required.) There are two critical features of it. The first is that the judge allows for expedition of the case based on the "urgency to inform the public." This creates a legal precedent that information about lobbyist access to politicians is "urgent" to inform the public in a timely manner.
Continue readingIf the Material is Onerous to Access, It Is Not Public
Sylvia Smith wrote a great editorial yesterday in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, demanding passage of the bill requiring Senators to electronically file their FEC reports:
To state the obvious: There is no justification for senators and Senate candidates keeping their financial benefactors secret. Don’t let anyone tell you that “secret” is an exaggeration. If the material is onerous to access, it is not publicly available. If it’s not publicly available, it’s secret.Read the whole article, then call your Member of Congress. Continue reading
Time On The Netroots
Perry Bacon writes this week in Time Magazine that the netroots have reached their limits and are, "paradoxically," now going offline. I like Perry (I rode the Dean press bus with him briefly), and it's a fine article, but it misses the point that the earliest efforts that got attention for being "netroots" -- MoveOn and Dean, just as examples -- were profoundly offline.
Unlike the reigning online organizing at the time (GOPProgress), Moveon connected people in the same neighborhood to each other through marches and vigils, and the single most important use the Dean campaign made of the Internet was Meetup, a website that allows for monthly offline meetings. After Meetup, the second most important form was local listservs (over 1,000) that talked online about meeting offline. And Perry should know this, having ridden the Dean bus.
Continue readingWhat DO They Do All Day?
As Ellen writes above, the Sunlight Network launched a new project today. Watch the video here, and learn more about it at www.congressin30seconds.com:
Continue readingEarmark Exposer Updated
Carl of the Sunlight Labs has updated the Earmark Exposer (thanks, Ezra Klein, for the name) to include 477 HUD earmarks: Google Earth + HUD Earmarks + Labor HHS House Earmarks As you can see, Carl color-coded the bills, and included links to each. Enjoy browsing through, and tell us what you find. Tips and resources for citizen muckrakers on this page. We are still working on a simple report about the responses to the Labor HHS earmarks experiment.
Continue readingSite Feedback
Sunlight is still new and growing, and we're eager to get your feedback on how we could do a better job. Email info at sunlightfoundation.com, or use the comments section below to give us feedback on the site or on our projects.
Continue readingWho Has Put the Secret Hold on Transparency Legislation?
From Porkbusters:
Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed S. 2590, legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed, however, because one or more Senators placed a "secret hold" on it. Who is the secret holder? We want to know, and we want your help finding out. Call your Senator, and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. Then e-mail Porkbusters and let us know what they said! Senators who issue denials will be removed from the suspect list --- and those who do not, won't!Continue reading
Jay Rosen on Networked Journalism
Jay wrote an incredible post on this project and networked journalism over at Pressthink:
Today marks a key moment in the evolution of the Web as a reporting medium. The first left-right-center coalition of bloggers, activists, non-profits, citizens and journalists to investigate a story of national import: Congressional earmarks and those who sponsor and benefit from them.And a good discussion below. Continue reading
Craig Newmark on Distributed Earmark Hunting
One of my heros, Craig Newmark, has this to say about this Exposing Earmarks project:
This has significance beyond exposing a little corruption, it's a next step in a process where professional and citizen journalists work together to expose bad guys.Thanks Craig! And if you blog about this, send it to us! We're sitting here at the Sunlight offices discussing how to do this better next time, because this is just the beginning -- how to create a good network of people for ongoing investigations like this one, investigations that have lots of hurdles and empty answers, but are still critical to pursue. Continue reading
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