Tag Archives: politics

Can I just say that, after 8 years of our highest leaders denying that they have to tell anyone what they are doing, answer to anyone, or release any of their documents, I am adoring this shift to transparency in government.

The new Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization now has a website (cop.senate.gov) and is issuing (or at least planning to issue) reports every 30 days. Here is the intro video from panel chair Elizabeth Warren, who is actually pleasant to listen to:*

If you were willing to dig around on Thomas.gov and various agency websites, trawling through legalese and govermentese, you could usually find most documents. But this move toward making it easy for the everyday American (or at least those with, uh, Internet access…) to keep up with what leaders are doing, and explaining what is going on (in lay but not dumbed-down terms)… This is refreshing. This is smart. This is good.

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* In fact, listening to her gives me teaching withdrawal symptoms. That’s ok. I’ll be back in front of a classroom soon enough. Teaching a very different class, about which I am getting excited.