HuffPost Off The Bus / Open Reporting
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Although the money power that controls Congress could thwart everything Obama proposed in his State of the Union address, there was not a single word in his speech about taming the power of private money over public policy.
And so it goes: The golden rule of politics. He who has the gold, rules.
We’re working with Rootstrikers and Fund For The Republic to ask representatives to go on the record about campaign money.
Here’s what we need you to do:
Go to a gathering that your representative or senator is attending and ask him/her:
In his farewell speech, John Kerry said that the “unending chase for money” in politics has led to the “corruption” of the political system. He said everyone knows it, but nothing is done. Yet the Supreme Court, with its Citizens United decision, argued that money doesn’t corrupt. What is your view on this? Do you believe that the “unending chase for money” has corrupted politics?Record their answers to both questions on video. Use your cell phone or whatever device you want and then post it with the other videos so that we have an exact record of what they said.
Upload your audio to SoundCloud and tag it #campaignmoney
Or, send us video clips through SendSpace.
Or, send files to us directly at openreporting@huffingtonpost.com
The goal of this project is not merely to get every one of them on the record, but then to use what they say to help propel them to act - to reform the system — or to hold them accountable when they either fail to act or fail to acknowledge the crisis of corruption.
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Jeremiah Johnson’s “The Dream Homes Project”, is a series of 8 hand crafted replica homes built entirely from unopened credit card applications he was sent after he graduated from university.
Speaking of credit applications, do you have a foreclosure horror story to share? Tell us yours: openreporting@huffingtonpost.com
We’ll feature our favorites on Fridays on the site.
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Hey so the Israeli ballot system is actually pretty effing ingenious - you just take a piece of paper premarked with the abbreviated name of your preferred party and then drop it in the ballot box. Absolutely no way to spoil or miscount the ballots, and it would probably be easy to automate counting with some kind of OCR system (or by adding magnetic strips to the ballots, like on Vancouver bus tickets).
Turnout is up substantially; this was not expected, and it’s not clear what it indicates for the election outcome. Polls were predicting a Likud Beitenu/hardline nationalist coalition that would expand settlements in the West Bank and probably adopt right-wing economic policies, even though two-thirds of voters favoured a two-state solution with a divided Jerusalem. Actually pretty interested to see how this turns out now.
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Resentment of the Day: Smoothie Shop Charges Liberals One Extra Dollar
George Burnett, a smoothie shop owner from Vernal, Utah is in the local news spotlight after implementing a unique pricing structure for his customers: if you’re a liberal, you pay a dollar more. According to KSL’s news report, Burnett says he will donate the proceeds from this surcharge, as well as any tips received, to various conservative political groups including the think tank The Heritage Foundation. While only a handful of people have volunteered to pay the liberals price, many others have taken to the store’s Facebook page to complain about the perceived discrimination. Yet Burnett stands by his methods, noting that he’s trying to start a conversation about the financial problems in this country.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to hold a U.S.-Liberia Partnership Dialogue signing ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on January 15, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2013/01/202201.htm
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I did not know the desk came from the Arctic. Great read by nedhepburn:
(via theweekmagazine)
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Today in Civic Duties: Tell President Obama what you want from his second term, via NPR’s great new Tumblr.
(via huffpostpol)
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Lessig Blog, v2: REQUIRED READING: Great piece about fundraising in Congress Ryan Grim and Sabrina Siddiqui have an incredibly important piece in the HuffingtonPost about the time Members spend raising money.
One picture captures it all. This is a slide taken from a PowerPoint deck, given to incoming freshman congressmen about how they are to allocate their time.
(via markcoatney)
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