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June 13, 2008 by
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About a week ago, I about a Dem voter registration drive in Louisiana that had some major credibility issues. Enough red flags were raised that a few people are checking into the validity of the registrations, and the group behind the drive.
The reported Secretary of State Jay Dardenne was scheduled to meet with VIP, the group responsible for numerous faulty registrations, last Tuesday. It also described the state of the registrations:
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blogs on VIP’s Muslim Society ties. You can gather more information about VIP from their .
Something stinks in Louisiana, and it’s not the week-old gumbo…
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June 11, 2008 by
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Open Government is an awesome and effective issue to advocate for all levels of government. The only problem is, as a New Jersey elected official found out, if you talk the transparency talk, you gotta walk the transparency walk.
reports on a scuffle involving Long Branch city councilman Brian Unger and Mayor Adam Schneider. Unger, usually a transparency proponent, allegedly sent an inappropriate email to the Mayor regarding a female city employee’s salary, which he considered premium pay. Unger employed the old copycat defense, claiming the comment was in line with comments other councilmen had made at meetings, but then refused to disclose which members were inappropriate, though Schneider sent him an email asking him to do so.
After that exchange, Unger made a crucial error:
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Oops.
This tale would be a little funny if we were talking about something other than government employees acting like children and destroying public documents, as well as public trust.
***
While I was reading the above story, I couldn’t help but notice also, regarding government employees and others using taxpayer-funded gasoline for their private vehicles. I know gas prices are high, but it’s so not worth going to jail over. From the article:
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Yeesh.
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June 11, 2008 by
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I have been tracking the progress of the North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC) and their battle to bring transparency to government in North Dakota. One of the highlights of their transparency program has been the development of a website called which is designed to track the spending and budgets of every school district in North Dakota.
Over the past few months I have posted extensively on their website and its progress. If you want to read these posts just visit cialis canada; and cialis canada
Well now the main stream media has begun to pay attention to the transparency revolution being led by the NDPC. This past weekend the , North Dakota’s 3rd largest newspaper did a great story about the website. I encourage you to read the story cialis canada and see the impact that just a few people have been making on the issue of transparency.
I got a chuckle from the quote by North Dakota State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state’s highest education official, where he admits using the website to look up information just that morning.
I am quoting from the Sunshine on Schools website, cialis canada I must ask myself the following question – Why did the Superintendent of Public Instruction have to go to Sunshine on Schools website to get information that should be available on his department’s website?
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June 11, 2008 by
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The trial of OK Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan and his wife continues this week with Lori McMahan taking the stand. In her testimony, Mrs. McMahan claimed she took large sums of money, trips, and expensive jewelry from Steve Phipps without her husband’s knowledge. Steve Phipps had business interests regulated by McMahan’s State Auditor office.
The cialis canada reports that Lori McMahan testified that Phipps gave her the following:
- $10,000 in cash late in 2002
- $5,000 on Oct 22, 2002
- cash for campaign signs
- trip to New Orleans with Mr. and Mrs. Phipps and another couple
- expensive jewelry on at least two occasions
- trip to New Orleans in October 2004
- at least $3,000 to attend the 2004 DNC Convention
- more than $100,000 in illegal contributions to the auditor’s 2002 campaign
I would understand if Jeff McMahan didn’t see an extra few hundred dollars slip into their household budget, or if he missed some of his wife’s new jewelry. However, how could he miss piles of cash plus two trips to New Orleans, plus a trip to the DNC convention, plus the new jewelry? He’s the state AUDITOR AND INSPECTOR. He should have used his business skills to take a cursory look at his own household budget and campaign account.
This case is a breathtaking example of why Oklahoma needs and needs for statewide elected officials.
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The Oklahoman has more .
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June 10, 2008 by
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I ran across this editorial from while surfing the net today. Thank goodness there is at least one old media outlet crying out for election integrity and urging elected officials to ensure free and fair elections … or at least not allowing corpses to vote.
Here is the editorial from their website.
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to read the full story on the website.
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June 9, 2008 by
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I about Adam Andrzejewski’s organization, For The Good of Illinois, and its quest to open up government entities to taxpayer scrutiny. After my post went live, Andrzejewski had his first mega-victory in working with board member and budding transparency icon David Carlin to open up ‘s books. (Coincidence? I think not.) COD’s annual budget is $140 mil, so knowing the vendors and reasons for expenditures will be a great step in holding the board officials to a gold standards of ethics.
The good folks at For The Good of Illinois also picked up on a key reason for schools to go transparent- Cost Savings. They encourage businesses to take part in this from their presser:
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Congratulations to Adam, David, and COD Board Chairman Michael McKinnon on your victory for taxpayers in DuPage County and all of Illinois.
(Note to Adam: If you can get another school the size of COD online, I’ll consider us even.)
and the have stories up also- go check them out.
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June 8, 2008 by
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There are few abuses that boil my blood more than improper or fraudulent voter registration. Signing citizens up to cast their inaugural ballot is a sacred privilege that too many groups do not respect. Not only are these cesspools of corruption bilking deserving candidates out of winning elections, but they are also defrauding all voters, and even all citizens, out of a free and fair election system.
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The group “Voting Is Power” has a goal of signing up 70,000 new Democrat voters before November 2008.
The Times Picayune has the :
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rants about the ease voters in Kansas and Missouri have in duplicate voting. KS Gov. Sebelius recently vetoed a photo ID bill that would have addressed these concerns. Meadowlark also writes about this issue and .
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Sec of State Debra Bowen for voter reg fraud. Twelve people have been charged with the offense- nine have plead guilty.
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Eight ACORN reps plead guilty to .
More on this topic to come…
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June 7, 2008 by
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Here is the Sunshine News that held my attention over the weekend. Enjoy!
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Al Baldasaro takes a whack at John Stephen at for not being fully transparent in his role in the NH Department of Health and Human Services. Stephen has resigned this post after claiming to reach his goal of bringing “transparency and openness to the department.”
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A discusses the need for citizen activists and journalists to keep government officials and bureaucracies honest by serving as watchdogs over the public till. It also discusses legislation aimed at making it easier for citizens to fill these roles.
My favorite part of the column: cialis canada
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The Times-Picayune’s James Gill wrote on Congressman Bill Jefferson’s family members being indicted for stealing government charitable grants. Warning: This article may make you a little nauseous with nepotism and complete lack of oversight.
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Great Letter to the Editor in the , submitted by Don Baker
Quotable: cialis canada
If any of these articles inspire YOU to get involved with your level of community transparency, please go to to learn more about how you can make your government more open and accountable.
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June 5, 2008 by
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Now that the presidential nominees are pretty much in place, wanted to give our readers a snapshot of where each candidate stands on our favorite issue, government transparency. Even in a highly-contentious presidential election year where agreement on any topic is rare, both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have said they favor greater government transparency.
A few highlights on the issue:
recently posted an interview with Republican National Committee Victory ’08 Chairman Carly Fiorina that touched on the topic of transparency as a presidential issue.
From the :
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Go to see The Swamp yak about McCain and Obama co-sponsoring a follow-up to the 2006 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The LA Times gets bloggy with the same story .
Find more stories on McCain and Obama’s transparency records , , and .
***Note to Bob Barr fans: I didn’t find anything to cite on your guy’s specific position on transparency; only that he opposes earmarks. If you have something, copy the link in comments and I’ll put it up.
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June 4, 2008 by
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Gov. Rick Perry is generally considered to be a friend of the transparency movement, but is working to shield his staff’s emails from public view by continuing a policy of deleting emails after 7 days. Open records advocates asked the Travis County district attorney to place an injunction on behalf of Wisconsin resident John Washburn, after he created a computer program to request all email traffic from Gov. Perry’s staff. Texas law states the records cannot be destroyed once they are requested.
that Perry has directed his staff to print and store all government-related emails, but Freedom of Information Foundation Texas director Joseph Larsen believe not all emails will be saved.
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The Travis County DA refused to halt the governor’s policy. Larsen has asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to take action on the matter.
The continuation of this policy confirms two things:
1. Gov. Perry feels his office is above the Texas Public Information Act, and
2. Workers are apparently spending government time on personal emails from the office, thereby wasting taxpayer dollars. (If they weren’t, the policy would be to print all emails, right?)
Governor Perry, please get back on the transparency bandwagon and preserve the right of citizens to find out what is happening in their government.
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