Senator Coburn wants to defund political science research
Today Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has proposed an amendment (No. 2631) (PDF) to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 (H.R. 2847) which would eliminate the National Science Foundation's program for political science research. I don't understand this anti-intellectual sentiment that can equate CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC with real academic analysis. There's absolutely *no* comparison between CNN et al and the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the other important political science research funded by NSF. ANES is a national survey of voters after every presidential election since 1948 widely considered the gold standard of election studies (Disclosure: Stanford University, my employer, is one of the partner institutions that manages the ANES) Please help the American Political Science Association by signing the petition and contacting your Senator, urging them to vote down the Coburn amendment.
The largest award over the last 10 years under the political science program has been $5.4 million for the University of Michigan for the “American National Election Studies” grant. The grant is to “inform explanations of election outcomes.” The University of Michigan may have some interesting theories about recent elections, but Americans who have an interest in electoral politics can turn to CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, the print media, and a seemingly endless number of political commentators on the internet who pour over this data and provide a myriad of viewpoints to answer the same questions. There is no shortage of data or analysis in this field that would require the government to provide funding for additional analysis.[Thanks Steve Benen, Political Animal!] Continue reading
More about Federal Register in XML
The Open House Project mailing list has been abuzz this week with discussion about the availability of the Federal Register in XML format. I cannot remember a time when government information has had so many active followers and supporters and such intense interest outside the FDLP community. This is an indication of how important this change in distribution is to the public. Now, Carl Malamud has an interview with Raymond Mosley, Director of the Office of the Federal Register and Michael L. Wash, the Chief Information Officer of the Government Printing Office (O'Reilly Radar, Oct 6, 2009). Wash says that GPO plans to add data feeds (e.g., RSS) for the FR in the near future. Check out Carl's interview for an up-to-date, behind-the-scenes view of this important news. Continue reading
Federal Register in XML
The Federal Register is now available in XML for download from data.gov and GPO's FDSys (http://www.fdsys.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/FR).
- Federal Register 2.0: Opening a Window onto the Inner Workings of Government, by Ray Mosley, White House blog, (Oct. 5, 2009).
- A More Web-Friendly Register With Federal Data in XML Form, Users Have New Options, By Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post (October 5, 2009).
- Federal Register XML Release, By John Wonderlich Sunlight Foundation blog (10/05/09). "
Now that the XML will be available, we can expect to see a renaissance of public reuse of Federal Register data. Sites that let you follow government activity by geographical or issue area will now feature more reliable, more timely data, since all that scraping and parsing will now be unnecessary. More advanced analysis will also be possible as well, allowing for trends and patterns to more readily emerge from this vital collection of national information.According to the documentation, this version is not "official" -- yet.
The XML-structured files offered for bulk download are not part of the official on-line format of the Federal Register. While GPO’s XML files are based on the original source data submitted by Federal agencies, OFR markup, and GPO typesetting and composition markup in SGML, only the PDF and Text versions of Federal Register content on GPO Access and FDsys have legal status as parts of the official online format of the Federal Register. Additional development will be required before OFR/GPO can specify that XML files are a part of the official online edition of the Federal Register.Continue reading
Supreme Court Week on C-SPAN
C-SPAN is offering a week of special programming about the Supreme Court October 4-11, each night at 9pm (EST).
This Sunday night, Supreme Court Week kicks off on C-SPAN with the premiere of our new feature-length documentary The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court. Hear directly from all 11 current and retired Supreme Court Justices about the role of the Court, its traditions, and history. Tour the building and see the grand public spaces of this historic building, including the Great Hall and Supreme Court Chamber, and spaces only accessible to the Justices and their staff, such as the Robing Room and the John Marshall Dining Room. The rest of the week features more original Supreme Court programs, including interviews with the sitting and retired Justices, Supreme Court staff, historians, and journalists at 9 pm ET, Oct. 5 - 11. For video clips, a trailer, bonus material about the Supreme Court, and series information, visit www.c-span.org/supremecourt.Some highlights: Friday, Oct. 9 9 - 11:30 pm Interviews with Justices Kennedy (9 pm), Ginsburg (9:40 pm), Scalia (10:20 pm), and O'Connor (10:55 pm) Saturday, Oct. 10 9 pm - midnight Interviews with Justices Sotomayor (9 pm), Thomas (9:40 pm), Breyer (10:30 pm), and Alito (11:25 pm) Sunday, Oct. 11 9 - 10:40 pm Interviews with Justices Roberts (9 pm) and Stevens (10 pm) See the complete schedule for the week here: http://supremecourt.c-span.org/TVPrograms.aspx . Continue reading
Commenting and sharing on legislative documents
Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly & Associates) recently observed that Representative Jim Culberson (R-Texas) saw a demonstration of a product called SharedBook at the Gov 2.0 Summit and decided to use it to collect feedback from his constituents on the healthcare bill. SharedBook is a publishing and annotation program advertised for a variety of purposes, including creation of dynamic documents:
Policy makers, nonprofits, educators, and special-interest communities can use SharedBook's platform to allow their members or constituents to engage in an online dialogue on bills, rules, research and other important documents. Starting with highlighted excerpts from the original content, a series of comments and replies can be posted and shared with any and all interested users to facilitate a pointed and detailed discussion. The source document is locked down and the community discussion is stored and presented back as footnotes at a granular level.My first reaction to this was that opencongress.org already provides an excellent interface for viewing and commenting on bills before Congress, including the House's health care bill, why go to the trouble of setting it up for this one bill? The answer is that Mr. Culberson is using SharedBook because he wanted comments only from his own constituents. Here's the press release. Continue reading