VoterWatch’s Transparency Recap: An Introduction to Our New Recap of the Blogosphere!

We’re excited to be launching our Transparency Recap, a new regularly-updated overview of what’s happening on the blogosphere in terms of government transparency and accountability.  We’ll regularly recap some of the most interesting and informative blog entries, commentary and discussion. If you have a tip for us, send us an e-mail at and we’ll be sure to follow up. Here’s the day’s scoop:

If you don’t know about PublicMarkup.org, you’re missing out. PublicMarkup.org is a new collaborative project from the Sunlight Foundation. After drafting a comprehensive piece of legislation (Transparency in Government Act of 2008), Sunlight decided that it would be best to place the text of the legislation online for public review and scrutiny - a measure Sunlight believes will increase the bill’s chances of earning lawmakers’ support.

In Sunlight’s own words, “This project is not intended to be the ultimate technical solution to the challenge of drafting legislation online, but an experiment in online collaboration.” Be sure to check it out!

Speaking of Sunlight, Ellen Miller penned an interesting piece about the current debacle going on with the Federal Elections Committee:

“[David] Mason [one of the two sitting commissioners] has opposed a move by Sen. John McCain to pull his presidential campaign out of the public finance system...Mason’s position is that the FEC would have to approve his request to leave the system...Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is spending away and has long surpassed the spending limit. Bush’s solution...Good bye Chairman Mason.”

Meanwhile, over at the Free Government Information blog, chatter centers upon a report about the National Archives’ plan to provide online access to the Founding Fathers papers. When completed, the digital files from America’s founding era will provide quite a rich resource! According to a press release published by FGI,

“This report is the National Archives response to concerns raised by the Committees that the complete papers of America’s Founding Fathers are not available online. The Founders Online is a plan for providing online access, within a reasonable timeframe, to researchers, students and the general public.”

And yesterday, All Things Whistleblower focused on the raid on the Office of the Special Counsel and on the home of Special Counsel Scott Bloch. Interestingly, ATW’s Dylan Blaylock reported the following:

“While FBI spokesman would not publicly state what the nature of the raid was, Bloch has been under severe scrutiny since last November when he hired an outside service, Geeks On Call, to erase an unknown amount of information from OSC computers. Bloch has been investigated by the Office of Personnel Management’s IG over allegations that Bloch “retaliated against career employees and obstructed an investigation.”

Over on the Legislative Analysis Community Blog, Josh Tauberer features a piece that discusses the debate over electronic voting systems. Discussions are currently underway to address whether paper should be required - and whether a paper trail is truly needed. The entry explains that,

“The lack of a paper trail has...spurred Congress to action on the issue. There are currently two pieces of Democrat-sponsored legislation still alive and proceeding toward becoming law.”

And, if you’re a fan of OpenSecrets.org, head on over to their site to catch a sneak preview of all their new design! There are some big differences on the new site, but don’t take my word for it. Take the tour!

by billy

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