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:
Here is your opportunity to reflect on the major thoughts related to government, politics and people. Enjoy!
David Weller
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USA Today newspaper has a special graphical webpage of lobbyist-hosted fundraisers at town houses and offices near the U.S. Capitol.
In the last decade, 18 lobbying organizations have purchased town houses or leased office space near the U.S. Capitol, joining more than a dozen others that had operated there for years. At least 214 members of Congress held fundraisers at these properties last year through November, often for free or at cut-rate prices. Events listed here benefited lawmakers' candidate committees or political action committees they head, or both. This is a partial list, since many events are not reflected in federal campaign records.
Readable Laws wiki subtitle is "Legislation in plain English". It focuses on only several Congressional bills active right now, as it is still fairly new. They are always looking for contributors to this wiki form of public collaboration, to increase its number of bills.
This site is a project of NewAssignment.Net, a project in open-source, pro-am journalism. It will prove to be very helpful to the vast majority of the general public (including me!) wanting to find out what interesting bills in legislation actually say.
USA.gov, the internet portal of the federal government, has a page of THOMAS legislative info for mobile phone users. Vital voting and other congressional news, updated around the clock, is now as close as your mobile devise.
Sphere: Related ContentReadtheBill.org is asking us to contact our U.S. Representatives to cosponsor H.Res 504. This bill would require Congress to post their legislation and conference reports on the internet for 72 hours before floor consideration.
H.Res. 504 would amend the standing rules of the House to update and strengthen the existing three-day rule in the House and close various loopholes. It would replace the obsolete, unenforceable, routinely-waived three-day rule it with the modern, tough, enforceable 72 hour online rule. Unlike the three-day rule, the 72 hours online rule would apply even in the final week of a congressional session, when the worst abuses occur.
If you wish to take action, please contact your US Representative and ask him/her to cosponsor H.Res.504.
Downsize DC has an ongoing netroots campaign to push leglislation for the "Write the Laws Act" (WTLA). Just as it says, it requires only the legislators (and their staff) to write the bills. If you agree, take action at this webpage or send your message on your own.
Sphere: Related ContentDownsize DC has an ongoing netroots campaign to push leglislation for the "Read the Bills Act" (RTBA). Just as it says, it requires all who vote for a bill to read it first. If you agree, take action at this webpage or send you message on your own.
Sphere: Related ContentThere is often tension between government agencies and their Inspector General watchdogs who can be the bearer of bad news about those agencies. POGO (Project on Government Oversight) has been researching the effectiveness and independence of the IG’s. They’ve already found other instances where IGs have had their reports unnecessarily redacted by agencies or where the agency has simply refused to post an IG’s reports on the web.
Inspector General legislation THAT passed by a vote of 404-11 in the House, despite a Presidential veto threat, would require that all IG reports be posted on the web within three days. The Senate will likely take up corresponding legislation in the coming days.
Immigration reform legislation will resume within the next several days in the U.S. Senate. Just recently, it had suffered a quick death after a very hasty legislative process involving a small group of senators. This issue is very critical to the security of this nation; we have not enforced our current immigration laws adequately, to the point that we now have about 12 million illegal immigrants in our country.
Immigration, especially in this post 9/11 world, is ultimately a national security issue, and if we can't defend our borders from millions of illegal immigrants each year-- most of which cross our southern border-- we question our very sovereignty.
Let us open up our legislative process on such a complex national bill-- many considerations go into immigration-- economics, social services, crime, culture, agriculture. By seriously employing the full resources of our congress, can we as a nation take control of this national security issue.
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