I think I’ve finally had enough time to absorb all of the people, projects, thoughts, and feelings I experienced while attending the Sunlight Foundation’s TransparencyCamp last weekend, but I still don’t know that I’ve found a good way to discuss them with you. Oddly, what ke...

…well, at least that’s how Journalism 2.0 describes the recently launched fully-searchable database of US government spending. According to USAspending.gov: “The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act) requires a single searchable website, acc...

Down in DC a few weeks ago, a friend of mine had the gall to say, "you know, you're not only a politics geek, you're a real geek geek." The nerve of the guy. This post isn't going to lessen my geek rep one iota, but whatever. What I have to report is pure awesome and I don't care who knows...

I'm at my second of the mega conferences that are put on by the folks at Free Press - the National Conference on Media Reform. It's an amazing gathering (this year in tornado beset Minneapolis) of experts, average citizens and advocates. It's actually hard to pick which panel to attend -- I've never...

The Bush Administration's lust for secrecy is well documented. And as davidk at TPM Muckraker wrote recently, Bush and Company is "the most secretive administration in history." But even so this latest gambit by the Administration is over the line. The Washington Post's Walter Pincus repor...

If you haven't discovered GOOD magazine yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. It bills itself as a venue "for people who give a damn." It's also a lot of fun. In the past couple of weeks, the magazine has published four political visualizations in its TRANSPARENCY section. The first i...

Speaking of Change Congress, I was reading Japhet Els' posting about earmarks and wanted to weigh in here. (I just joined the Change Congress Google Group and will post this there, too.) First of all, it is always easier to identify the problem than to solve it, no matter which policy arena you are ...

Every time I see one of these stories about the failure of "reform" efforts to deliver the goods I don't know whether to tear my hair out or say "I told you so." Politico reports that the new reports filed by lobbyists don't do very much to make it easier to track what's really g...

It's wonder no one ever thought of launching a Fix The FEC campaign before. Thanks to CREW it's been done and you can pitch in to help. There are so many things wrong with this agency that it would be hard for me to even know where to begin, but CREW is focusing on the lack of commissioners which pu...

From a cynical, but entertaining Web site that was just pointed out to me: Over 11,700 Members of Congress have served this great Nation. Overwhelmingly, they have been hard working, dedicated, intelligent, and deserving of the courtesy title "The Honorable." But then there are the Congres...