Public Please

I recently lauched a website, The Petition Archives, which I entered into the Apps for America contest.
The Petition Archives collects, geocodes, publishes, and preserves personal email petitions targeted at public figures, including government officials, corporate executives, and media personalities. Instead of sending a private email to a public figure, the Petition Archives allows you to [...]

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Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, dodged a tough accusation today from a C-Span caller that some Democratic presidents were war criminals. The C-Span caller argued that the Democratic party had previously supported presidents who were war criminals. The caller claimed that Lydon Johnson was a war criminal with his [...]

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It appears that John McCain eavesdropped on Pastor Rick’s questions at a recent question and answer session between Pastor Rick and the presidential candidates. At MSNBC’s “Forum On The Presidency”, McCain broke the “cone of silence” he was supposed to observe before answering Pastor Rick’s questions.
After winning a coin toss, Barack Obama answered Pastor [...]

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I am trying to get a list of email addresses to all elected officials from the federal government, so I thought I’d just ask for it. I went to USA.gov to find out how to Contact Elected Officials. I looked for email addresses on the contact pages of U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, and State [...]

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Remix America promises to bring political satire, and its implicit accountability, to a new level. Now, people can mix and mash embarassing videos of political celebrities like Obama and McCain. Beyond the question of rudeness, we must ask whether these entertainments, and their remixed satire, actually foster a civic perspective. Does a [...]

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I recently read Jennifer Ablan’s article, “At Reuters Summit, McCain seen as best choice for economy“, that reported that some people on Wall Street think McCain would be better for our economy than Obama because of his tax policies.
Here’s the comment that I posted in response to this perspective with respect to McCain’s war policies:
When [...]

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According to several state-controlled Chinese media outlets, including China Daily and the China Tibet Information Center, thousands of Chinese people are signing an online petition against bias in the Western media. In particular, the petition responds to the Western media’s coverage of the violence in Lhasa. China Daily translates the site’s grievances and [...]

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Today, I had the good fortune to attend a lecture on NGOs and civil society in China by Nick Young. As a journalist in China, Nick provided detailed coverage of the emerging non-governmental organization sector in China. He unpacked some of the tensions between the grassroot NGOs and, what he calls, the “corporatist” [...]

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Have you read about a bill in an online news article and wanted to read the bill? Good luck because most online news articles neither name the bill nor hyperlink to it.
Consider the waterboarding bill that Bush vetoed. According to the Washington Post article Bush Announces Veto of Waterboarding Ban, George [...]

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I recently read “Nader Announces Pick for Vice President“, and posted this comment (which has been slightly modified to include the voting record of John McCain) to respond to partisan Democrats who blame Ralph Nader for the Iraq War and the prospects of additional war mongering by the Republicans:
“Nader didn’t authorize the invasion of Iraq. [...]

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