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Check out the most popular Elections 2008 content on Digg.

Think your Senators work for you?

projects.washingtonpost.com — Here's how to hold them accountable. RSS feeds for all senators votes.

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  • neschek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Oh man, this is really cool. Thanks for posting it. My senators are going right into my feed reader.
    • Aidenag, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7installing a second aggregator just for this feed, Big digg :)
    • Aidenag, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2dble sorry guys
    • asdfasdf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Get to know your senators. This is very important for the future of our country!

      Stay in the know of what the people who represent YOU are doing. Don't vote for them if they aren't in your favor, and don't hesitate to contact them with any matters/questions/suggestions/tips you may have.

      www.GovTrack.us is another link worth checking out. It helps you keep track of everything that's going on in the US congress.

      Note: Great link, thanks for posting it!
    • inkyblue2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18agreed! also, here's the same thing for the house:
      http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/house/members/
    • neomis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This is very nice... another site that lets you monitor all of congress or specific bills is govtrack.us. I'm almost positive that this site came from another digg article that made it to the front page but if you haven't heard about it check it out also.
    • ClassicJBC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2No surprises for me. Two Republican senators from the state of Georgia. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which way THOSE votes are going.
    • rhawk301, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I noticed there has been quite a few projects.washingtonpost.com links going up. This is totally cool. Thanks for the article +digg
    • mad1stl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@CLASSIC, The best part of this is you can find out who there contributers are and how much, also to see where their assets are, my senators stock is mostly IBM, and where donations in their name went to. GOOD INFO. Use it before, during and after every election.
  • da5idblacksun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Love it! Thanks.
  • gronne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Excellent. Hope this makes it to the front page!
  • Sunwalker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Very Cool
  • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9this may actually be the best use i've ever seen for rss. thanks for bringing it to our attention.
    • asdfasdf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I concur.

      Another excellent idea for RSS feeds would be using it for your credit card and bank statements. This way if your cards or information was stolen and being used, you'd be notified within minutes and save yourself a load of work, pain and money.

      The big evil corps wouldn't like this, though. That's why even though it has been suggested for years, it's falling on deaf ears. Remember the Firefox extension that told you how many Verizon/T-Mobile minutes you had left in real time?
    • Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know here in australia a lot of mobile phones allow you to track your credit levels/usage but all the networks have the functionality disabled (I get the feeling they dont like you knowing when to stop spending)
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@asd

      wow, excellent idea. i had not heard or thought of that ..
  • Avili, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3excellent!

    but wtf look at this guy Larry Craig (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c000858/)

    Bill to To improve the security of cargo containers destined for the United States. - Voted No!

    Why the hell would you vote no on that?
    • Metman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Read the bill(s). It may make more sense (I stress may since I havent read it either) but alot of times they boot-strap other items on these bills to get them pushed threw, although I am not sure if thats the case here. Or it may have been an appropriations problem (taking money from one area to place here.. etc).

      Yes and No, unfortunately does not give the entire story. You also need to understand the bills.

      I am not defending the guy, just trying to point out that there is more to the votes then just the titles of the bill(s).
    • TinMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yes read the bill, alot of times the author of the bill will "sneak" in something unrelated. Example, say the cargo bill had a part that said if this bill passes we can spend 1 trillion on water balloons. The problem is there are alot off bills that get passed and not read, with this kinda of thing (the sneak) happening just as often.
    • DaveV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are a number of reasons to vote "no" on such a bill.

      How about if it is an unfunded bill? Without money, it is not implementable.

      What if the bill would be ineffective or not feasable? Why vote for a bill that says "Shipping countries will inspect every container before loading"? How do we make them do it?

      What if it says "All containers entering the U.S. must be individually inspected by a team of 3"? There is no way it could be done without grinding shipping to a halt.

      Or maybe it said "All states will get $200 million each for container security". Talk about a waste of money.
    • PirateFSM, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I wanted to make this! Great tool to have.

      Regarding the Sneak factor (Yo Senator check it , go sneak that *****!) Why is this not illegal? I mean, so what if they have to read an Extra bill. I feel that this is one of the biggest things that cripples our government. Riders...
    • ClassicJBC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Mmmm, pork.
    • Idealistic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Tinman

      "Example, say the cargo bill had a part that said if this bill passes we can spend 1 trillion on water balloons."

      Who would vote against that? We need more bills like that IMO. Think of all the jobs it would generate. Balloon makers, truck drivers, aqua-phobia counselors.... the list goes on! Not to mention that would be one sick water balloon fight.
    • phlux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How can we get a bill submitted from the general populous.

      I want to submit a bill that simply states that no bill can have pork. All bills must be complete and stand on its own.

      Then any senator that votes against it gets logged and we know who to vote out next session. Simple!
  • Metman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I can only hope that everyone who takes an interest in this will continue to use it once the novelty wears off. If more people kept track of their reps.. well I think you all know (but most wont admit) things could be very different in the world now.

    Bush (or any president) is only granted the powers that we allow him to have. This talk of feeling powerless and unable to control your Commander and Chief is crap. There is not a single action taken by his administration that Congress would not be able to over-rule.
  • xtmno3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I hope this becomes popular with the general public, it would be nice to see some of these people removed from their positions for the stupidity they encompass.
  • got-haggis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i tried to add the RSS feed to my google.com/ig page, but all it does is display bill information, not which way the senator voted.
  • VaamYob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15What would be even better is an RSS feed of UPCOMING bills.
  • parlarjb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And as an aside, all the projects.washingtonpost.com applications (including this one) are powered by Django (http://www.djangoproject.com/) and written by one of the creators of Django, Adrian Holovaty (same guy that did http://www.chicagocrime.org)
    • c4mden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I met Adrian a few months ago, and he told me about working on this project. Very, very slick implementation.

      I still have faith that technology will some day save our democracy.
  • m00dy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1VA sen. also voted No for that bill @ Avlll
  • nixfu, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1This will be handy to see which Democracts vote for CUT+RUN, wide open borders, and raising taxes



  • TheKidd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Totally DUGG, great tool!
  • drsnooks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4here in the UK we have They Work For You - http://www.theyworkforyou.com - which gives you just about every detail you could want on your MP. For instance, here's my MP:
    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/rudi_vis/finchley_and_golders_green

  • TheKidd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2LMAO: You can sort the total votes by Astrological Sign BAHAHAHAHAHA
  • thewaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2freakin great thanks!
  • clyde2801, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Frak, no! My senators are both Republicans, so they work for big business and lobbyists! (I'm from Oklahoma, btw.)
    • billmania, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@clyde2801:
      I feel for you man! We have two Democrat Senators, and a Dem Governor in Mich, but you could never tell.
  • Winkyboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And of course, don't forget about your representatives, either:

    http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/house/members/

    [edit] argh; sorry for repeating the post of inkyblue2...[/edit]
  • keitho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2excellent.
  • jsls, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3thank you that is awesome!!!
  • Horseshoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Man, whats a good RSS tool for grouping all these guys from my state (florida) together? Any suggestions? The house has a lot of folks...
  • decuser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What I love about dems is that they aren't afraid to bug out of a vote - man, how many 'Not Voting' entries does it take to figure out these morons?
  • Muddle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What is probably more important is NO VOTE. How often did my representative not even show up to vote or had decided an issue based on personal bias or lobbyist influence then filed in to vote without listening to the debate. Ever watched CSPAN, our representatives never even show up for work! A wide angle camera shot of either house of representatives on any given day at any given hour is proof the seats are all empty. Nothing gets done on the floor of the congress or house, in full view of the public, everything is a backroom deal, hidden from constituents. I'm not voting for any incumbent. They are all scum!!!
  • Herald42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great find!

    Now I just wish my Senators were a little less predictable (Lamar Alexander and Bill Frist), so that me installing this would surprise me in any way.
  • moonhead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0OK this annoys me. This just shows how US centric Digg is. its Digg.com not digg.us. every day i see stuff about US politics this really needs to be separated out by country.
    • djKianoosh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I live in the US and I agree with you. But there's *-centric views everywhere.

      I can compare it to New York City and people who don't live in "The City", as they say. When you live there, the rest of the world doesn't exist. Try living somewhere else and having friends in "The City". They just don't know you exist sometimes. It's the same thing. I used to live there and I was affected by it as well. It's a great city, and the US is great too, but man, I agree with you; we're so *-centric here.
    • keitho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if you don't like it, change it. submit stories like this for your area.
  • hostelguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is a great idea (dugg it) AND I agree with VaamYob. I have been looking for a site listing UPCOMING bills for some time now. I haven't found it. Some may find the THOMAS search at the Library of Congress useful (at http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d109query.html). However, this doesn't state when the bills are due to be voted on.

    Ideally, I'd like to see a wiki/digg style site that summarizes upcoming bills in plain language that everyone can understand. Basic language of supporting and dissenting opinions would be listed as well as Pork Barrel Alerts and Erroneous Addtional Language Alerts. Citizens like us would contribute to the project (like wikipedia) and citizens would be rewarded (similar to digg) for writing in an unbiased and easy to understand fashion.

    I'm interested to know what others think about such a site. Anyone have the skills, time and willingness to develop such a site? If so, let me know I could perhaps fund it.
  • djKianoosh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's annoying to me that Republicans always vote the same as their party and Democrats always vote the same as their party. I would expect that every argument has multiple sides and *even though* you are labeled a rep/dem you would have enough intelligence and independent thinking to *sometimes*, not every time, but sometimes come up with a different viewpoint than your party. I'm just saying, sometimes. But I've perused about 15 of these senators' votes and I've only seen one vote by one person that went against his party's position.

    I'm afraid that these days, in politics, there's no critical thinking.
    • gromnie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Always vote the same as their party? Maine's Olympia Snowe, while not voting against this travesty, did not vote *for* it either. She was the only abstention.

      But that's okay... In Maine's House of Representatives, one of its ostensible Democrats -- Michael Michaud -- shamed himself and his state by being one of the 34 who openly declared themselves to really be Republicans, so I suppose it evens out...
  • Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is great, but I would like to see descriptions on Lehman's terms of all of the bills. Also, it wouldn't hurt to add the opinion of other political parties and perhaps an "internet popular vote" to the site for each bill.
  • videoCT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2chances are it will be 10 years before your average member of congress learns what an RSS feed even is - Remember when George Bush Senior asked a check out clerk how those bar code scanners worked? That was in 1988!
  • mazurskie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thank God. Now we'll know how they really voted, as opposed to the changes they make to the Congressional Record. Why the ***** are they allowed to do that?
  • Muddle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm not sure how many of you get the point I made.
    In the British House of Commons every person shows up for every debate, usually including the Head of State, who is often ridiculed in public by those who disagree. In our Government nobody shows up, nearly every seat is empty, there is no debate worth listening to, everything is decided behind closed doors prior to any vote and our Head of State does not ever appear to explain his reasoning on anything for any reason. Just watch CSPAN once in a while, they often do a panoramic view of the floor and more than four fifths of the seats are always empty. Our leaders do not care about this country and rarely care about the little patch of earth they do represent.
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