Tell your two US Senators and US Representative YES to a strong whistleblower protection bill

Public Citizen is asking us to send a message to our respective two US Senators and US Representative in support of government whistleblowers. Last year, strong whistleblower protection bills were passed in both houses of Congress. Now, the Senate and the House have both passed bills by a veto-proof majority, but they must be reconciled- now it's time for Congress to finish the job by passing a final bill; emphasis should go to the House version.

When scientific research is altered or suppressed, government contractors waste millions of taxpayer dollars, or national security documents are falsified, witnesses need to know that they can blow the whistle without reprisals endangering their careers and their lives. Please go to this Public Citizen whistleblower campaign's webpage and send your message to emphasize the House version for strongest whistleblower protection (you can edit the message if you wish). If you prefer to call the Capitol Switchboard, the phone number is 202-224-3121. Thank you

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New political discussion blog: Understated Priorities

I have begun a political blog called "Understated Priorities"-- it's at www.understatedpriorities.blogspot.com

It is mostly entries from reference books on the topic of politics: quotes, aphorisms, poems and a lot more. I discuss each entry and am open for your comments, too. Current posts included:

• Circumstances
• Boldness

Here is your opportunity to reflect on the major thoughts related to government, politics and people. Enjoy!

David Weller

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Announcing the Congress Reform team lineup!

Well, today is the big day, when All Things Reform's Facebook has determined the current lineup for our Congressional Reform team.

We have two "starting" levels: the All-Stars, and the practice squad. Here are the lineups:

Congress Reform All-Stars

• US Rep. Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi
• US Sen. Russ Feingold
• US Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin
• US Rep. Jeff Flake
• US Sen. Jim DeMint
• US Rep. Dennis Kucinich
  

Congress Reform practice squad

• US Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
• US Sen. Ted Stevens
• US Rep. Jack Murtha
• US Sen. Larry Craig
• US Rep. William Jefferson
  
• US Sen. John Ensign

There you have it, the Congressional Reform team! Check out the pictures and the strengths/ weaknesses of these players at All Things Reform Facebook page right now!

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Watch a slideshow video about the new Change Congress grassroots movement

Lawrence Lessig, founder of Change Congress, has uploaded a nice slideshow video of his recent talk concerning his web site's launch. As discussed here three days ago, Change Congress aims to bring reform issues to candidates and congress and lobby them until the issues are enacted in legislation.

There has been a great display of enthusiasm already for this new grassroots campaign; Mr. Lessig is world reknown for his path-breaking work as founder and head of Creative Commons, a new method to keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work.

I have added a badge proclaiming my support and aid to Change Congress; you, too, can sign up and, if you have a web site or blog, display one as well! Join us today! Thanks.

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Almost all Americans believe their government should pay attention to their views between elections

World Public Opinion has released results of a poll, revealing that 94% of Americans believe their leaders should pay attention to the views of the people as they're making their decisions. This overwhelmingly asserts our view that "the will of the people should be the basis of the authority of government," the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

More results of the poll are here. Clearly, twice as many Americans (79.9%) believe that America should be governed by the will of the people than believe it is actually occurring (40%). This is reflected by the fact that 81% say when making "an important decision" government leaders "should pay attention to public opinion polls because this will help them get a sense of the public's views."

All Things Reform supports these assertions, and encourages citizens to stay informed of today's news stories from reputable sources and follow up with own opinions on major bills and other issues currently being debated in the legislatures.

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Change Congress aims to bring reform candidates to congressional office

Change Congress is now open for business! Founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi, Change Congress aims to find, debate with and win over congressional candidates on several reform issues. Citizens can get involved right away, by pledging their support for this cause, finding candidates in their districts, and asking them to pledge their support for these reforms. Join now!

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Follow Fiscal Year 2009 US budget legislation

washingtonwatch.com has a web page for following the Fiscal Year 2009 United States budget legislative process-- it follows the congressional activities for funding the operations of the federal government. FY 2009 officially begins on October 1, 2008.

Spending allocations have not yet been made; refer back to the page for regular updates, or, receive updates with their email newsletter.

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Tell your US Representative and two US Senators to support government openness bills

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.

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National Freedom of Information Coalition conference May 9-10 2008 in Philadelphia

The NFOIC - National Freedom of Information Coalition - will hold its national conference on May 9 - 10, 2008, in Philadelphia, PA. Called the "2008 FOI Summit", it promotes an active and informed citizenry; your participation is vital.

Please visit the conference web page for all of the details.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Write about citizens and government decision-making at Helium's AmericaSpeaks page

AmericaSpeaks connects citizens with decision makers to discuss the most critical policy issues of today.

Using innovative deliberative tools such as the 21st Century Town Meeting, AmericaSpeaks has engaged more than 130,000 people in governance, in all 50 states and around the world.

Among other projects, AmericaSpeaks has brought large-scale citizen participation to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and New Orleans; to the creation of municipal budgets in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco; and to regional planning and economic development efforts in the greater Chicago area and Northeast Ohio.

Helium

AmericaSpeaks has partnered with Helium, giving you the chance to write for a cause.

Browse AmericaSpeaks' featured titles, pick an issue and write!

You can also donate your article earnings.

Share what you know, learn new perspectives and donate now.

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Get involved locally with WhatDoTheyKnow.com and GroupsNearYou.com

mySociety.org is introducing two new citizen activist websites: www.WhatDoTheyKnow.com and www.GroupsNearYou.com. Both focus on local activities, from your neighborhood, street or town. Meet and keep in touch with your neighbors and issues, and improve your quality of life. Even though mySociety.org is based in England, they are encouraging people around the world to: (1) find out what your local government bodies know about what is happening in your area, and (2) join or start a local citizens group and to add it to their online directory.

This is a chance for you to make a difference in your local community.

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2007 National Government Ethics Survey released by the Ethics Resource Center

On January 29th, the Ethics Resource Center released the National Government Ethics Survey (NGES). 774 federal, state and local government employees were interviewed by telephone for NGES from June 25- August 15, 2007. From its press release:

" Slightly less than one-third (30%) of federal workers surveyed believe their organizations have well-implemented ethics and compliance programs, which ERC has found greatly reduce the incidence of misconduct. Only one in 10 said there is, indeed, a strong ethical culture in their federal workplace. But the results were considerably less impressive at the state level (where only 14% saw strong ethics programs and a mere 7% perceive a truly ethical culture) and in local government (where the figures were 14% and 9%, respectively).

Almost two thirds of local government employees (63%) said they observed at least one type of misconduct in the previous year. At the state level, the rate of reported misconduct was 57%, while 52% of federal workers had witnessed ethics breeches. In the aggregate, 57% of public servants surveyed had observed misconduct in the past year. There has been no improvement since ERC's last survey of government employees in 2005, and the rate is worse than that of the biennial survey in 2003.

Local government had the highest level of workers who witnessed misconduct but did not report it – 34%. That compares with 29% at the state level and 25% within federal agencies. "

This free downloadable report requires registration with ERC. Also, related webcasts, articles and other information is available at www.ethics.org.

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Transparency International Surveys/ Indices

Transparency International reports annually on government corruption on a country-by-country basis. I have distilled their rather byzantine presentation of their latest reports from their website onto All Things Reform's Google Notebook, entitled "Feb. 24, 2008 All Things Reform blog post: Transparency International Surveys/ Indices". I focused on the United States results.

Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world. TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption.

Transparency International challenges the inevitability of corruption, and offers hope to its victims. Since its founding in 1993, TI has played a lead role in improving the lives of millions around the world by building momentum for the anti-corruption movement. TI raises awareness and diminishes apathy and tolerance of corruption, and devises and implements practical actions to address it.

Transparency International is a global network including more than 90 locally established national chapters and chapters-in-formation. These bodies fight corruption in the national arena in a number of ways. They bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and in business. TI’s global network of chapters and contacts also use advocacy campaigns to lobby governments to implement anti-corruption reforms.

Politically non-partisan, TI does not undertake investigations of alleged corruption or expose individual cases, but at times will work in coalition with organisations that do.

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Participate in a government document social tagging experiment

Free Government Information needs your help to investigate whether social tagging of government documents is a viable idea.

They have stashed 32 documents from the Government Printing Office's EPA Web Harvesting Pilot Project in the Internet Archive. They would like as many people as possible to bookmark, tag and provide brief descriptions of all 32 of these test documents using the del.icio.us bookmarking service.

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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.

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Congressional earmark database complete for FY 2008

Taxpayers for Common Sense has completed its database of fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills earmarks.

Congress inserted 12,881 earmarks worth $18.3 billion into this year’s spending bills, $14.8 billion of which were disclosed by lawmakers. This represents a 23 percent cut in total earmarks from the high water mark of 2005, but a smaller cut than the 50 percent reduction House leadership initially set as its goal.

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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.

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