connecting*the*dots

Hey, I’d vote Jon Stewart into office over the boneheads we currently have prancing about, talking loud and saying nothing.

(illustration by Serifcan Özcan)

Good Magazine
Political NASCAR
by Morgan Clendaniel

In the 2006 midterms, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Rick Santorum (R-PA), both running for re-election, have raised the most money of any candidate in their respective parties. Here are the NASCAR-style uniforms they would wear if companies were proud of their political donations, and if running for senate required a flame-retardant suit.

HILLARY CLINTON
Hillary Clinton’s top contributions by sector
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate $4,650,601
Lawyers & Lobbyists $3,533,740
Other $3,258,584
Miscellaneous Business $2,332,809
Communications/Electronics $1,808,119
Health $1,122,341
Construction $521,796
Ideology/Single-Issue $432,270
Labor $340,545
Agribusiness $211,565
Energy/Natural Resource $206,462
Transportation $118,210
Defense $86,050

TOTAL (as of June 30th): $33,180,949

RICK SANTORUM
Rick Santorum’s top contributors by sector
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate $2,812,841
Miscellaneous Business $1,373,537
Lawyers & Lobbyists $1,357,125
Health $1,258,021
Other $1,243,951
Construction $666,015
Energy/Natural Resource $651,541
Ideology/Single-Issue $563,073
Communications/Electronics $474,990
Agribusiness $399,237
Transportation $299,574
Defense $76,000
Labor $56,706

TOTAL (as of June 30th): $17,252,473

Like many people, I often think about the chasm in the relationship between our state representatives and us, the constituents; how in so many cases, our elected representatives tend to not represent the desires of the people that put them in office, instead succumbing to the efforts of lobbyists and special interest groups.

While the concept of wearing logos on campaign duds is probably a bit too extreme for our culture, someone really needs to build a web site that displays such contributions and relationships in an easy to digest manner, across numerous data slices. I assume that the information is already available to the public; the big question is whether or not it’s being gathered, managed and distributed in the most open formats available.

I mean, can I get an RSS feed of newly submitted documentation of Clinton, Santorum and, say, Vernon Robinson campaign contributions?

If the answer is no, then why the hell not?

Maybe when the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590) is finally passed, we can start serious work on the infrastructure and interfaces that support centralized repositories for decentralized accountability. Or is this not sexy enough to fit into the social networking investment craze of Web 2.0?

(via BoingBoing)

As I strolled home from having coffee downtown this afternoon, I paused before crossing Arlington at MLK, as two cars were already there — one a single woman in an SUV, the other a police car with a male officer driving and a female officer riding shotgun.

After eyeballing both drivers and getting the vibe back that neither were in much of a rush, I continued across the walkway.

Big mistake.

The female cop all of a sudden started screaming and pointing at me (I thought behind me at first, I couldn’t hear her), so I picked up my gate and — after landing safely on the other curb — turned around to see what the problem was. Greensboro’s finest then rolls down her window and yells, with attitude:

“You may not be in a hurry, but we have to be somewhere! Move!!”

Before I knew it they were gone, hanging a right and flying down MLK into the distance. I looked over to the SUV driver — thinking maybe she was thinking the same thing as me — but she just shrugged her shoulders and slowly turned in the opposite direction.

Cops. In a rush. No turn signal. No siren. No nothing, except for a frantic, bitchy scream of authority… in my neighborhood.

I didn’t even have enough time to give her the obligatory Jersey response of “fuck you.”

Courtney forwarded this email to me the other day. I thought it was great, so, with permission of the original author:

From: Andrew Kling
Date: September 1, 2006 12:31:51 PM EDT
To: mailingList
Subject: Adam Smith Does Not Make Good Material

So today in the campaign office we were discussing the stem cell initiative, specifically that the Chamber of Commerce had started running ads in favor because it would be good for business. That’s a horrible, horrible reason, but whatever.

Then my colleague recalled a bill that was looking like it was going to pass despite our side’s best efforts - allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions. Not just EC or birth control, any prescriptions. “Want AIDS meds? Serves you right for being gay” kind of stuff.

All of a sudden, the bill disappeared. Gone. It looked inevitable, but in one quiet instant it simply vanished. Who shut it down? Chamber of Commerce. Why? Not because of the ethics, but because such a bill would be “bad for business”.

I responded,

“Wow. Pimp-slapped by the invisible hand.”

Oh come on, rest of the office - that’s comedic gold.

Hope you are having a wonderful day, or at least one with a better audience. ;)

-a

Andrew Kling
Rebecca McClanahan for State Representative

(originally uploaded by zippy_monster)