Happy Sunshine Week!
In recognition of the importance of government openness and transparency, Public Citizen is asking us to contact our congressmembers to support a few related bills. Go to their campaign web page and send your letter, or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Tell your US Representative and two US Senators to improve transparency to our government by:
1. Supporting the immediate passage of the Presidential Records Act Amendments (H.R. 1225/S. 886) in the Senate to override a Bush Executive Order that is undermining the original purpose of the post-Watergate law.
2. Fully funding the Office of Government Information Services under the National Archives and Records Administration as the OPEN Government Act requires, instead of under the Department of Justice, which the Bush FY09 budget proposal suggests.
3. Protecting the rights of governmental whistleblowers by ensuring that the final conference bill tracks closely to the stronger House bill, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 985).
4. Limiting presidential signing statements, so that a President can’t alter legislation with a stroke of a pen, as President Bush did when he nullified Congress’s whistleblower protections for government contractors in Iraq.
5. Bring the Senate into the 21st Century and pass S. 223, which provides for electronic disclosure and prompt Internet searchability of Senate campaign contributions. Senator Ensign should stop blocking enactment of the bill with his poison pill amendment!
Thank you for helping to ensure that our government is more transparent and accountable to the public.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tell your US Representative and two US Senators to support government openness bills
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Write a letter to the editor in support of Sunshine Week 2008
I wrote a short letter to the editor for my local newspaper. It is in celebration of Sunshine Week 2008, upcoming around the country next week. I invite you to do the same today, to get the word out on, perhaps, the most important issue of these times...
To: Editor, Abilene Reporter-News
In these times of peril, when our nation is under assault by a closed organization, we come to Sunshine Week 2008 March 16- 22. One of the great strengths of our own society has been openness; a national journalist association has founded this week of celebration. Many activities will take place around the country and in Washington, DC-- check them out at www.sunshineweek.org!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Write articles on Helium in celebration of Sunshine Week March 16 to 22, 2008
Sunshine Week 2008 has partnered with Helium to offer authors opportunities to write about open government and Freedom of Information.
Sunshine Week, which will be celebrated March 16-22, 2008, engages people in conversations about open government and why it must be nurtured and protected. A non-partisan, good-government initiative led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, it is joined by students, the online community, libraries, civic groups, government officials and agencies of all political stripe, non-profits and others.
Sunshine Week articles posted on Helium leverage the site's fair and trusted peer-review rating. Every article at Helium is sorted for quality in a simple, yet effective A versus B comparison. After many ratings by many people, quality content rises to the top.
Writers also have the opportunity to donate their article earnings to Sunshine Week.
Visit Sunshine week at Helium to write, learn and donate www.Helium.com/partner/sunshineweek.
Positions on open government and Freedom of Information issues by the three major presidential candidates
In October of 2007, the then 16 presidential candidates were asked their positions on open government and Freedom of Information issues. Only Bill Richardson answered all of the questions; John Edwards answered some. In response, researchers for the Sunshine Campaign for Sunshine Week 2008 compiled a web page of how the remaining three major presidential candidates-- John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama-- stand on these issues.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, March 11, 2008
Don't miss Lawrence Lessig lecture on corruption Thurs. March 20th 1:30pm to 3:00pm ET by web cast
Sunlight Foundation announces on its website a lecture to be held on Thursday, March 20th from 1:30pm to 3:00pm ET by Stanford University professor Lawrence Lessig. He will be unveiling a new website called "Change-Congress.org" and will discuss the state of democracy in the United States and how corruption plays an influence on it.
The event will also be Web cast: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/thepressclub-lessig-032008 for the general public. Full details for the event are here.
Don't miss OpenTheGovernment's Wed. March 19th 1:00pm to 2:30pm ET web cast for Sunshine Week 2008
OpenTheGovernment.org will be actively participating in next week's Sunshine Week 2008, a nation-wide look at government's role in society's needs for openness and transparency. Their newsletter this week gives a concise update on their Wednesday, March 19th 1:00pm to 2:30pm ET activities next week and how all of us can participate from wherever we are-- unfortunately, when I copied and pasted it from email into my blog, the text turned white. Here is information on the event from SunshineWeek.org events page:
 | Wednesday, March 19: OpenTheGovernment.org and several other associations are sponsoring the third annual Sunshine Week National Dialogue on Open Government and Secrecy. This year's panel discussions will focus on "Government Secrecy: Censoring Your Right to Know." The event will be webcast for free from the National Press Club to sites around the country. Satellite feeds will be available with prior registration and for a fee. Those interested can also attend at the Press Club. To see the additional sponsors and a list of speakers, as well as for registration information, visit the OpenTheGovernment.org Web site. |
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunshine Week 2008 Webcast March 29, 2008, 1 - 2:30 PM EDT
OpenTheGovernment.Org presents an internet webcast: "Sunshine Week 2008 Webcast: Government Secrecy: Censoring Your Right to Know". It will be held on March 19, 2008, 1 - 2:30 PM (EDT) Participate in person at the National Press Club in Washington DC, or Online Anywhere. Details for the event are here. Please register to watch or show the webcast; a fee is required if you also want to show it from your own physical location.
I. The Secret Executive -- What Can Congress and the Public Do?
Confirmed Speakers: Mickey Edwards, Director of the Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership and former Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma for 16 years (1977-92), Ann Beeson, Director of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute and previously Associate Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress, Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, and formerly in senior staff positions in Congress, will discuss executive branch power and secrecy, congressional rights and responsibilities, and the role of the press in combating government secrecy. Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, will moderate the discussion.
II. Citizen Self-Help: Finding the Information You Need
We will be visiting and talking with creators of web sites that help the public avoid having to file official requests or go to offices and meetings to learn what our government is doing. These sites make hard-to-find government information -- federal, state and local -- easy for the public to find and use and may inspire you to do likewise. A quick report will be given, as well, on an initiative to develop a 21st Century Right-to-Know agenda and recommendations for the next President and Congress.
In each segment, opportunities will be available for audience questions from all participants.
The event will be held in the Holeman Lounge of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C and webcast to sites around the country. A satellite downlink option will be available for a fee.
We're inviting you to host a program in your community! Participants are encouraged to show the national program and plan local programs tailored to open government issues in their communities.
Audience members at all sites viewing the live event will have an opportunity to call in (using any telephone) and email questions to our live panels. We will answer as many questions as time permits.
Sites are encouraged to show the national program and plan local programs tailored to open government issues in their communities. Audience members at all sites viewing the live event will have an opportunity to call in (using any telephone) and email questions to our live panels. We will answer as many questions as time permits.
Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Ask your local, state and federal candidates where they stand on open government
Sunshine Week, which is March 16-22, has begun compiling an unprecedented Web database that will chronicle the positions of candidates running for president and Congress on issues of government openness, access and secrecy.
Sunshine Week Campaign database planned
From David Westphal, and Pat Yack, co-chairs of ASNE's Freedom of Information Committee:
Sunshine Week has begun compiling an unprecedented Web database that will chronicle the positions of candidates running for president and Congress on issues of government openness, access and secrecy. We're calling this the Sunshine Campaign.
Our aim is a one-of-a-kind repository that will inform voters on where candidates stand, and will serve as a touchstone for measuring the winning candidates' performance in office.
We need your help in asking candidates their views on Freedom of Information issues. Many of you will have the chance, over the next 14 months, to grill candidates in editorial board meetings, debates, town-hall meetings and on-the-road reporting. We'd like to suggest that these are golden opportunities to ask what we think are among the most important questions of the campaign.
We've put together a list of questions we hope will get to as many candidates as possible, but we encourage you to formulate your own as well. We also hope you'll take this model and apply it to candidates at the state and local level.
We know there's never enough time to ask all the questions that need to be asked, but access to government information lies at the heart of our democracy. At a time when world events have prompted strong pleas from some to expand secrecy in government, it is fundamental to the public interest to know where the candidates stand — just as we need to know their views on war and peace, jobs and the economy.
Getting candidates to address openness issues is the big challenge. But we ask your help as well in getting their answers to Sunshine Week Coordinator Debra Gersh Hernandez, who will compile this searchable database. Simply e-mail transcripts or clips — from your reporting or from others' that you spot — to Deb at dghernandez@asne.org.
Visit Sunshineweek.org for more of the story.
Freedom of Information Day is March 17, 2008
Sponsored by the Program on Law and Government's Collaboration on Government Secrecy ("GCS")
March 17, 2008: 9 am - 4 pm (registration at 8:30 am)
American University Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Room 603, Washington, DC
In the United States, "Freedom of Information Day" is celebrated annually on March 16 (James Madison's birthday) or proximate business day, at the beginning of what is now known as "Sunshine Week." This program is the first annual celebration of Freedom of Information Day by WCL's [Washington College of Law] new Collaboration on Government Secrecy ("CGS"), and this year it helps launch the "Sunshine Week" (March 17-21) of related activities by media and public interest groups. Panels of leading experts will discuss major issues of current importance to the openness-in-government community.
Sphere: Related Content
Sunshine Week is March 16- 22, 2008
As Judicial Watch says, open government is honest government. The American citizen, through the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), has rights to request information, except homeland security-sensitive info, from the federal government; all states have laws regulating public information requests, too.
SunshineWeek.org has myriad materials for use free during Sunshine Week, March 16-22, by any participant. Some resources are themed specifically to the Sunshine Campaign initiative. Others are the general Sunshine Week items offered each year, such as editorial cartoons, logos and opinion columns.
