Cynthetiq

I was reading "http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-...s-package.html" and watching the video, and was thinking to myself,"People don't give a crap if it's 'transparent' we've got lots of transparency and no one cares about it."

So I thought let's start from the simplest of simplest... Do you watch CSPAN? specifically, do you watch the Congressional sessions at all? Ever? Once in a while?

C-SPAN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I try to watch it when I can, usually it's dry and boring. This fact makes me not so interested in watching it again in the future.

Do you read Thomas?

THOMAS (Library of Congress)

I try to from time to time when there are bills that I am interested in. As of late, I've been very busy so it has fallen off, but I generally will just pick up the phone and call my Senator. I normally forget to call my US Representative, in fact I cannot name who mine is currently.

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Tully Mars

I used to watch CSPAN when I could stay wake. Something about it makes me sleepy. I don't get it anymore. Which odd because I get something like 800 channel. Ah, nothing like watching Filipino baseball in Tagalog at 3am. But I have and continue to write my congress woman and Senators when an issue spikes my interest. While I live outside the US I still pay taxes and I still vote.

I must confess ignorance as I've never of Thomas. But I will check it out when I have more time.

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Sun Tzu

I watch CSPAN regularly. All of my representatives hear from me (well indirectly as I have never spoke or met with them personally), both senators McCain & Kyl are useless. The senate needs clearing out, congress needs clearing out.

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To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.- Stephen Hawking

snowy

I watch CSPAN sometimes, use THOMAS sometimes when I feel the need to read up on a bill, and write my Senators and Representative on a regular basis. I am particular vociferous when it comes to reproductive rights issues.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

sunstone

Although I'm hearing Republicans say that Obama snuck the Stimulus Package through Congress and that most of them have not read it and that citizens are not able to read it, it, along with so much more is now provided online by the Obama team. Anyone can read everything that is going on in Washington that affects their lives -- I've not seen such transparency before. It is bound to be effective. If nothing else, it will either quiet those that don't believe the right things are happening ....... or it will hold the current administration's feet to the fire to stand behind their promises. What more could you ask for except the full participation of America's citizens in their government?

Xazy

You can ask but sadly the citizens will not answer.

The sad truth is most people do not use these tools and believe religiously what they hear from the media. And the media is very biased.

Daniel_

I'm not American, but there are equivalent tools available to the British for awareness of our own system and most people ignore them, sadly.

I know my local MP, have invited him to community meetings that I set up about local planning issues that affect many of my neighbours and myself (which he came to and subsequently acted on our behalf through channels).

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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inBOIL

This is the first I've heard of THOMAS. I will use it in the future.

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And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.