Paul Blumenthal fills us in on the stories we missed over the holiday break: Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Obama's vacated seat, everyone and there mother is seeking apiece of the bailout pie, and more abuse of power issues for Rep.Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
Paul Blumenthal explains two pieces of important transparency reform legislation currently being held in committee by two Senators. The bills, one requiring disclosure of contributors to Presidential Libraries and the other reversing a Bush executive order that keeps presidential records hidden from the public indefinitely will go along to help shed life on the executive branch if they can overcome opposition.
Last month, the Federal Election Commission invited the public to join in on a January 14thhearing about how the agency can improve it compliance and enforcement processes. Ellen Miller shares the recommendations the Sunlight Foundation afforded up.
John Wonderlich crystallizes the rampant discussion on what kind of person should lead the soon-to-be-established Chief Technology Officer position and offers what he finds important in his own wish list.
Bill Allison applauds news reporting that respective chairmans of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have agreed to require all earmarks be posted online on the requesting member's website along with an explanation of why its a good use of taxpayer money, starting with the 2010 appropriation bills. Bill wonders why these requests can't be centralized in online, searchable database rather than be scattered across 535 member websites.
Paul Blumenthal highlights some of the important moments in the history of congressional transparency and reform thanks to the Sunlight Foundation's Transparency Timeline.
Paul Blumenthal dissects the latest news on the bailout legislation and the new Obama Administration's plan to bring accountability and transparency to the process of doling out taxpayer money. Perhaps a online, searchable database? One can hope.
John Wonderlich tries to make heads or tails of what the new earmark disclosures requirements mean for lawmakers and if its really the game changer it promises to be.
Ellen Miller distills the important talking points from Mark Drapeau's post on how government could and should adopt social media tools to revolutionize how it interacts with the public.
Paul Blumenthal throws in his two cents on the new earmark disclosure requirements which have made some noise on the transparency front.
Ellen Miller shares five ideas for electronic governance from mysociety.org.
Paul Blumenthal suggests everyone check out the a discussion entitled “Wiki White House” hosted by Wired, Google, the New America Foundation which happens to feature Sunlight Foundation's own Ellen Miller.
Ellen Miller shares her thoughts on the bill requiring donor disclosure to presidential libraries and points out some of the flaws she hopes get fixed before the bill gets passed through Congress.
Paul Blumenthal discusses the reuniting of earmark superheroes Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold to battle for earmark reform in the Senate. Check out his analysis of the reform package.
Ellen Miller mentions some of the open data stories of the day: The Center for Responsive Politics announced it will start opening its vast databases and the New York Times new congressional information API.
Ellen Miller hashigh hopes that transparency on the bailout keeps coming: Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General of TARP announced that recently approved agreements with automakers and Citibank require greater disclosure on how money is spent.
Paul Blumenthal points us to Sunlight Foundation's Bill Alison's appearance on Brian Lehrer Live on putting the stimulus bill online in a searchable format.
Paul Blumenthal shares the link to watch the Wiki the White House event featuring Sunlight Foundation's Ellen Miller.
Paul Blumenthal suggests we check out Sunlight Lab's James Turk's post on the New York Times Congress API and the colorful discussion it has sparked.