transparency

[cross-posted on dailykos at and on my campaign blog]

We’ve been talking a lot about our US Senate campaign being a choice between politics as usual and speaking truth to power.

I was surprised and frankly shocked while reading Greensboro’s Yes Weekly article about State Senator Kay Hagan.

Kay points to Senate Bill 3 (SB 3) as an example of how “we do things right in Raleigh.” The legislation adopted by the state senate last year gives away the store to Duke Energy, one of the top contributors to Kay’s state senate campaigns .

You may not know about SB 3. And the problem is I don’t think you’re supposed to. The Raleigh News-Observer says SB 3 was “an insiders' deal from the get-go,” passed with “virtually nonexistent” public debate and no “serious financial analysis of its total impact on consumers.” http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/martinez/story/626147.html

NCGOP chair Linda Daves sent Jerry (NCDP chair) some sunscreen and this nice note.

They're doing some publicity stunts for sunshine week. More info to come.

Art Pope didn't send us nothing . . .

Despite John McCain's anti-lobbying stance, he has a slew of them working for his campaign.

I was lucky enough tonight to hear George Lakoff talk about politics and language. One thing I came away with is a deep desire for political conversations where everything is right out there for anyone to see. That's what happened tonight and that's what happens here.

Lakoff covered a huge amount of ground, and I hope to be able to find it out on the Tubes and share it. But in the meantime, I have this question: Is transparency a fundamental value that progressives and conservatives share?

Please kindly note that this is an example of transparency.

Rep. Heath Shuler, together with his colleagues in the Blue Dog Coalition, today introduced legislation aimed at strengthening and increasing the transparency of the budget process. The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 43 fiscally conservative Democrats, collectively crafted the resolution in an effort to begin the process of restoring fiscal accountability in the federal government.

"For the last six years President Bush and the Republicans in Congress recklessly increased spending, while driving our nation deeper into debt than ever before," said Rep. Shuler. "I am committed, along with my Blue Dog colleagues, to restoring fiscal restraint to the federal government. It is time we end this foolish borrow and spend policy once and for all."

I thought this Open House Project article might be of interest. Basically the author, John Wonderlich, is trying to start a discussion to refine what the netroots is really after. What is necessary for "perfect participation" (to quote Cesar Chavez) in Government?

We've had a lot of new registered users in past few days. The trolls are out in full force, courtesy of the NCGOP Day Care Center, and we've seen one of many hit jobs we can expect from an intra-party gubernatorial contest that's going to get nasty.

With all that in mind, I make two requests. First, keep it clean. Offensive posts and comments will not be tolerated. And second, if you are being paid by a campaign, you must disclose that fact.

If anyone has other suggestions, please chime in.