Category: take action

politics, social justice and ways you can make a difference in the world around you.

Where’s Congress spending your money

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.

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Download the free Google Earth layer from The Sunlight Foundation

via lifehacker

Learn what Google knows

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.



See all the talks online.

Thompson’s Watergate role not as advertised

From NPR:

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.

Listen to the full story on NPR.

Candidates debate Social Security

Barack Obama wants to tax the wealthy, those over $200,000, to help improve Social Security. Sucks for the wealthy – but sure sounds good to the middle class (like myself) or the poor. Other Democratic candidates say they back that idea. But Hillary Clinton won’t address her plans publicly. She said she won’t address or advocate any specific fix until the budget was balanced.
Fred Thompson said he has his own ideas for Social Security, like price indexing. Other GOP candidates want to allow private investment accounts and while NPR didn’t address it, Mike Huckabee (and myself) wants to fund Social Security with the money raised from the FairTax. Abolish the income tax and pay for Medicaid and Social Security with sales tax rather than money from my pay check. When the 78 million baby boomers end up on Social Security, they’ll be paying into the system just like everyone else everytime they go buy a loaf of bread or a new car.
Here’s an interesting stat as to why Social Security is going bankrupt…
The first person to receive a Social Security benefit was Ernest Ackerman, who paid 5 cents into Social Security during one day of work. He retired the next day and was paid 17 cents for his retirement in January 1937. This was a one-time, lump-sum pay-out, which was the only form of benefits paid during the start-up period January 1937 through December 1939. The first person to receive monthly retirement benefits was Ida Mae Fuller of Brattleboro, Vermont. Her first check, dated January 31, 1940 was in the amount of US$22.54.
I think Ackerman got one heck of a deal. That’s more than 3 times the return on an investment. Sign me up -except that the system is going bankrupt any day now.