While editing in my dark bedroom office the other day, I realized that I needed to take a break and go outside. It is amazing how a quick stroll under the warm sun can increase my energy level and help me to refocus. While walking, I struggled with how we plan to present the idea of accountability in Executive Power. The Constitution made Congress responsible for holding the presidency accountable, but the voters have increasingly less access to their own government’s activities and other information to demand accountability.
I headed back to my dark office resolved to find and talk with organizations that promote a transparent government. Perhaps not so ironically, the first organization that I found was the Sunlight Foundation. Their goal is to use the power of the internet to shine a light on the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington in ways never before possible. What a wonderful concept.
Through their grants and projects, the Sunlight Foundation has been the driving force behind Congresspedia, OpenCongress, MAPLight.org, and OpenSecrets.org. These tools aid dissemination of information, an extremely important part of a transparent government, by cataloging information and making it accessible in a uniform manner. I hope that more people will go take a walk in the sun.
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July 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I just wanted to strongly suggest that if you have not already done so, that you should read the book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, By: John W. Dean.
It is also available as an audiobook if you don’t have time to read it, but do have time to listen on your iPod while you’re taking a walk, riding the bus, or working out at the gym.
As an attorney, John Dean will walk you step-by-step through the creation of the unitary president, the ridiculousness of some of today’s claims of “executive privilege”, presidential signing statements and packing the US Supreme Court with activist “fundamentalist” justices.