Making the People's House More Transparent
Holding Nancy Pelosi to Her Promise
By Bluey Posted in Congress | Featured Stories — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Today I officially signed on as a coordinator for the Open House Project, a new endeavor by the Sunlight Foundation to make the House of Representatives more transparent and open to all Americans.
The effort was launched to hold Speaker Nancy Pelosi to her promise that the 110th Congress would be the “most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history.” Our goal is to present Pelosi with a list of achievable initiatives.
Since its launch, the Open House Project has received support from across the ideological spectrum (from MyDD and Daily Kos to Porkbusters and Heritage). It got a big boost today from the Washington Examiner.
My role will be reaching out to conservative bloggers to generate ideas and suggestions for a final report we’ll be putting together by the end of next month. If you’d like to get involved, you can leave a suggestion here or join the Google Groups listserv. You can also e-mail me directly at rbluey@gmail.com.
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Making the People's House More Transparent 7 Comments (0 topical, 7 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I have been impressed by efforts of people here and on other blogs to do these important watchdogging tasks, notably on earmarks.
How about making C-SPAN broadcasts public and non-copyrighted? This would let us actually see what our Congress is doing. For instance, C-SPAN footage can't be used in political commercials. This would be a good way to make sure people are held responsible for their words and that everybody can see all that is actually said in our Congress for free.
I can see why Congresscritters don't want this, as things they say when they are fumbling around on the floor or hearings could be shown to put them in a bad light. But, tough. Explain it away if you can. If it becomes a force against anti-incumbancy, that's probably a good thing.
you will want to read this.
Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi's new blog, The Gavel, features a lot of video, nearly all of which is C-SPAN content.
Is it really appropriate that the Speaker of the House can't show some of the proceedings on her House floor on her own website? That's absolutely ridiculous. That's why CSPAN, as per my earlier comment should have to make all of their video public and available online for all to look at and use how ever they please. We should be able to see what our Congress does when we want and Nancy Pelosi should be able to post videos on her website. This should be a nonpartisan thing.
If a member of Congress runs afoul of using congressional debate broadcast on C-SPAN! Let alone the Speaker.
What is alleged to be the original creative content here, the camera angles?
Copyright protects creative efforts in writing, graphics, or as it has been extended some software and other new media areas.
You shouldn't be able to point a static camera at politicians and claim copyright.
I kind of think Pelosi is fighting the good fight here if she is actually breaking copyright law. If she is actually breaking the law, hopefully Congress will wise up and change it.
I'm glad to see left and right working together on this. It isn't really a conservative or liberal issue, it is an issue between the people and those who purport to represent them.
If all these widely divergent viewpoints can hammer together a single plan, it will be impossible for The House to ignore it.
One question: do you have any individual Representatives involved in the discussion? It would be great to have at least one experienced Republican and one Democratic Rep (even better, several from each party) working along with the group to provide inside perspectives. They might explain why something that seems like a good idea isn't the most practical or efficient way to go about it, or suggest something good that didn't occur to you all based on their experience. That way, you'd have built-in bipartisan sponsorship for any proposed legislation, too.
Good luck, and don't forget the Senate.