Open Government

One of the things I liked about Obama during his campaign were his promises for transparency, accountability, and "open government". What a refreshing change from Bush's closed, secretive, and non-inclusive adminstration. Unfortunately, Obama has not stuck to his word - whether it be classified documents or lobbying. I guess it's still "business as usual"... even when our congresswoman Matsui calls the White House to get IG Walpin fired so Mayor Kevin Johnson gets Sacramento's share of stimulus money. Later today, I'm going to join some locals to show support for H.R. 1207 "Audit the Federal Reserve" for Sunshine Day. This bill has been stuck in committee regardless of it's large number of co-sponsors, yet Obama is pressuring congress to rush his 1000 page health care reform bill to a vote without time for analysis, discussion or even reading it! There are so many examples of government without oversight: GSE's like Fannie & Freddie, the Federal Reserve, Obama's unelected "czars".

As they say "sunshine is the best disinfectant", and if government eventually opens up all it's information and data for us to reliably expose what they're doing... that'd be excellent. Until then, there are some terrific websites out there for this purpose:

• opencongress.org & govtrack.us
  These sites let you follow representatives, bills, and even vote 'aye' or 'nay' on them. I used them to create an RSS feed tracking all my local representatives votes (Boxer, Feinstein, Matsui, Herger, Lungren, Thompson, McClintock) which I follow in my Google Reader.
  Personally, I like opencongress best. This site provides tools, such as one which lets you compare representatives by voting similarity... great for doing a Ron Paul litmus test!
  
• sunlightlabs.com & sunlightfoundation.com --> opensecrets.org & maplight.org
  Sunlight Labs & Sunlight Foundation aggregate information on lobbying and campaign money, organizing and publishing it for use by sites like OpenSecrets and MapLight.
  The picture painted by these sites are very telling. For example, you see how Doris Matsui is almost entirely funded by unions and lawyers outside her district. You can also see that lobbying money influence been exploding in Washington, and that health industry is one of the biggest spenders. Hmmm... and the healthcare industry is messed up because it's unregulated? I think not. It's one of the most heavily regulated, funded, and meddled industries that exist. Reduce government programs and regulations, and costs will drop radically. (Ah, but healthcare reform... that is another blog post)