A new Google Earth layer keeps tabs on political spending by pinpointing where and for what projects U.S. government officials are budgeting funds for across the country:
Members of Congress know where the money is going: now citizens can, too. The Sunlight Foundation today released a Google Earth application that plots the locations for almost 1,500 earmarks in the House Defense Appropriations bill. This graphic illustration of defense earmarks gives anyone with an Internet connection a bird’s eye view of exactly where Congress is directing federal spending—and the ability to investigate whether the earmarks address pressing needs, favor political contributors or are simply pure pork.
Download the free Google Earth layer from The Sunlight Foundation
One of the really cool things Google does is Google Talks, where various people are brought in to speak about a number of things important to their employees. And now you can see exactly what the employees are seeing through YouTube.
Candidates@Google.com is hosting a number of presidential candidates, including Ron Paul, Hillary, John Edwards, John McCain and others.
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson’s first experience with big league politics thrust him in the spotlight as chief Republican counsel on the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal. Thompson’s pressing of former Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield led to revelations of the existence of recorded conversations in the Oval Office.
And according to NPR’s report, Thompson is very proud of that. But apparently there’s evidence to say that it wasn’t all Thompson’s doing.
Today, the Web site of Thompson’s presidential campaign says he “gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office.” But in other accounts, Thompson’s role in the Watergate probe was much more ambiguous.
One instance came at a hearing three weeks before Butterfield testified. The witness was John Dean, formerly Nixon’s chief counsel, then the star witness against the president.
Thompson opened his cross-examination with an attempt to disarm Dean: “I hope I’m not considered to be badgering you in any way, but I’m sure you realize, as one lawyer to another, that your actions and motivations are very relevant.”
Dean shot back, “In fact, if I were still at the White House, I’d probably be feeding you the questions to ask the person who’s sitting here.”
Thompson hesitated and then began, “Well, Mr. Dean,” as laughter rolled through the hearing room. “And if I were here as I am, I would respond as I have responded, that I don’t need any questions to be fed to me from anybody.”
In fact, Thompson was being fed information — by Nixon lawyer J. Fred Buzhardt. White House tapes, later made public, captured Nixon, Buzhardt and others discussing the cooperation of both Thompson and Baker, not once but several times.
Training Tip 5 talks about teaching people with various learning styles. This is a great listen for anyone who leads anyone anywhere.
“Engage every learning style… Engage as many learning styles as possible.”
Some may learn better by listening and taking notes, others may do better with music, others may do better making art or doing something with their hands. I’m sure my mom could give some great examples of this.
“Culture never informs Scripture but Scripture informs culture.”
“The type of question you ask in your small group could engage learning styles or disengage learning styles.”
What if you walked in to small group and a pile of pipe cleaners were lying in front of you and the leader said, “The one thing I need from God this week is… Answer it with a pipe cleaner.â€
What if we thought about our small groups/church like the game Cranium? Engage the whole brain.
“A small group leader who understands the concepts behind Cranium, that’s a great small group leader.”
I probably don’t open up emotionally enough on my blog like I could/should. Maybe that’s why my mom says she enjoys reading Laurie’s blog more than mine ;-). Or maybe that’s why you keep reading my blog. Who knows.
Either way, yesterday was a pretty emotional morning for me at church.
I think it had to do with several things and everything just kinda peaked right at the end of the service.
We’ve started a new series this month entitled, Face the Lion.
I put together a brief intro video for the series that I had a lot of fun putting together…
The music and sound F/X are all released through Creative Commons. And the music is from the movie Elephant’s Dream, which was created entirely on Open Source software and with Creative Commons license.
But I digress.
Throughout the month, different folks from encounter will share their testimony of how God has brought them through struggles and difficulties to bring them to the place they are now. My best friend Matt and I will be sharing our testimonies next week, Nov. 11.
As we geared up for the message yesterday I think I had a flurry of thoughts going through my mind. Thoughts of loosing my sister Amy nearly 2.5 years ago. Thoughts of all that Matt has gone through over the last 2.5 years, loosing his fiance, Amy, a good friend and then his dad, all within a year. And now Matt has learned that it’s very likely he has MS.
I told Laurie the other day that a big part of me wants to say, “What did Matt do so wrong to deserve all this?” and “Why is God being so unfair to him?” Yet I know that God has something bigger and better in store for him. I know that Matt is being a shining example of God’s glory to those he comes in contact with – yet I still want to raise my fist and say it’s unfair. And even still I simply can’t believe in a vengeful God who attacks us anytime He sees fit to punish us for doing something wrong. I can’t believe that everything that sucks in our life is because we did something wrong in our life. If that was the case, my sister never would have gotten sick and she never would have died. In fact when people begin to suggest that our lives would be so much better if we just “trusted God with all our heart, mind and soul” and if we stopped sinning we’d live long, happy lives, I want to punch them in the throat. Show me where Scripture assures us of that. But I’m digressing again – maybe a good reason not to get emotional on my blog….
Just before the message, Scott and the band led everyone with the song, “Worth it All.”
[audio:http://www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan/wp-content/uploads/worthitall.mp3]
I just can’t help but know and believe that someday, all the crap we put up with in life will be worth it. It’s all going to seem trivial when every thing’s done and we cash our chips in and because of that, that song has gotten to me everytime the band plays it.
As Brian spoke I was reminded over and over again, “God doesn’t waste your hurt. God doesn’t waste your sorry.” It’s something I reminded some friends of last Tuesday night at our community group and yet it seemed like God was reminding me of that very thing all morning long. It’s one of those things that’s a whole lot easier said than done.
Brian asked me to pray for Matt at the end of the service and I just about fell apart before I could even get started. I think everything just hit me at once again yet I knew, “It’s gonna be worth it all” because “Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.” (Isaiah 60:20)
