Sunlight’s Bill Allison was on Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN last night discussing the Bridge to Nowhere and the votes... View Article
Continue readingIt’s…………Party Time!
Today, we are launching a new Web site, Party Time, a project to track parties thrown at the 2008 Democratic... View Article
Continue readingThe Word on the Hill
Bush. Energy. Oil. Caribbean? These were the most frequently uttered words in Congress last week, brought to you courtesy of... View Article
Continue readingThe Nation on Lessig
Earlier today, Lawrence Lessig spoke about Change Congress at the Free Press' fourth annual National Conference for Media Reform, being held this year in Minneapolis. As always, Larry gave a killer speech. You can watch an earlier speech he gave at the National Press Club in March when he launched Change Congress here. Which reminds me...
Not to be missed: In the current edition of The Nation, Christopher Hayes, the magazine's Washington editor, profiles Larry and Change Congress. It's an extensive profile and a good read. (And I say this not only because he quotes me!) You don't have to take my word for it, Cory Doctorow called the profile "fantastic." Hayes writes "playing David to various Goliaths (armed with a laptop as slingshot) is the defining narrative of Lessig's career." If you're a Lessig fan, it's a must read. If you're unfamiliar with this bona fide and burgeoning cult hero, check it out...And join the revolution!
Continue readingNational Conference on Media Reform
I'm at my second of the mega conferences that are put on by the folks at Free Press - the National Conference on Media Reform. It's an amazing gathering (this year in tornado beset Minneapolis) of experts, average citizens and advocates. It's actually hard to pick which panel to attend -- I've never seen so few people hanging out in the halls, which is certainly a tribute to the program itself. This year there are for more panels and experts on what's happening online - sessions on social networking, citizen journalism, legislation 2.0. You can watch many of the sessions live.
Micah Sifry, our senior strategic consultant, is using his new Nokia phone/video tool to upload conversations we are having with some of the people here directly to Qik.com
Continue readingWhat Will It Really Mean?
So what will this really mean? OpenSecret.org has the answer.
Continue readingTechnologies Exponential Explosion
Earlier this week, Daniel De Groot, writing at Open Left, linked to a fascinating 23-minute TED lecture given by technology futurist Ray Kurzweil. In the lecture, Kurzweil gives a mind-blowing display of how technological progress is happening exponentially and not linearly. De Groot says he hopes people will think about the impact this revolution will have on politics. This is worth watching
Continue readingParty Time: Corporations Are Picking up the Tab
On Tuesday just as the campaigns moved into the general election phase, the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) released an analysis of the fundraising being conducted by the Democrats and Republicans for their presidential conventions in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul. CFI estimates that corporate funds will pay for 80 percent of the $112 million combined price tag of the two conventions. How is that possible?! CFI found that both parties are using local “host committees” to raise unlimited corporate contributions to pay for the conventions and the FEC and IRS decided that it’s OK for “host committees” to spearhead the fundraising, This created a huge loophole allowing corporate money to flow to the parties.
Continue readingPolicyMap.com
PolicyMap.com launched last month. It's a very cool and fun site, especially if you're into mashing up maps with demographics...And which public policy geek isn't? It's an online mapping tool that allows you to easily research market and demographic data by geography throughout the United States - down to a census tract level. It includes literally thousands of indicators related to demographics, real estate markets, money and income, education, crime and more.
The site is a project of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a non-profit community development financial institution that works across the Mid-Atlantic region financing affordable housing, schools, businesses, supermarkets and other projects "that build wealth and opportunity for the people and places that need it the most." They say that they have long recognized the need for good data and analysis about neighborhoods. And through PolicyMap, they are generously sharing information they've collected over the past decade with the public.
Much of PolicyMap is free to the public. They offer subscription options for the features and proprietary data that they are not allowed to give for free. That part we don't like so much, but hey, this is worth a look.
Continue readingEthics Problems for a Candidate
Yesterday, Rep. Steve Pearce won the Republican primary for the Senate seat in New Mexico being vacated by Senator Pete Domenici.
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM), is a third-term member of Congress representing the second district of New Mexico. Rep. Pearce’s ethics issues stem from his failure to properly report a transaction on his financial disclosure report and from trading legislative assistance for campaign contributions.
Read all the details here.
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