Plum Book becomes political
We've posted previously about the Plum Book and how this simple US govt phonebook has been surreptitiously changed to further a political agenda. Now Think Progress has picked up the story. They point out that both the 2004 and 2008 editions offer a startling — and erroneous — assertion: The office of the Vice President is not in the executive branch. Both versions put the description of the VP’s office last under “Appendices,” rather than in the Executive Branch section:
The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch (see article I, section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code). The 1996 and 2000 versions unambiguously include the Office of the Vice President in the executive branch. Continue reading
Yes, Public Papers of the President
Daniel,
Good eye! that is The Public Papers of the President over the shoulder of President Elect Obama in his video address today.
Continue reading
Lost in Transition
The National Journal and Government Executive have created a new web site, Lost in Transition, for "Helping you navigate the Presidential Handover." Categories currently covered include: Appointments, Earlybird, Events, Insider Interview, Paper Trail, and The Short List. Continue reading
Obama using YouTube for weekly radio address
Your Weekly Address from the President-elect at Change.Gov says:
For the first time, the weekly Democratic address has been released as a web video. It will also continue to air on the radio. President-elect Obama plans to to publish these weekly updates through the Transition and then from the White House. Today's address from the President-elect concerns the current economic crisis.Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Guides related to financial oversight
As promised, starting this week, Guide of the Week is supporting the "__ Days to Government Information Liberation" initiative by highlighting guides from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki that shed light on important Presidential transition issues as defined by the Government Accountability Office's urgent issues page at http://www.gao.gov/transition_2009/urgent/. This page highlights the following 13 "urgent issues":
- oversight of financial institutions and markets,
- U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
- protecting the homeland,
- undisciplined defense spending,
- improving the U.S. image abroad,
- finalizing plans for the 2010 Census,
- caring for service members,
- preparing for public health emergencies,
- revamping oversight of food safety,
- restructuring the approach to surface transportation,
- retirement of the Space Shuttle,
- ensuring an effective transition to digital TV, and
- rebuilding military readiness.
- Banking, Banks and Credit Unions (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
- Government Documents on Banking (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008
- Housing (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
- Annual Report Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
- House Financial Services Committee
- Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
- Australia Parliament House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance, & Public Administration
- FDIC Institution Directory contains demographic data and financial profiles of each FDIC-insured depository institution derived from quarterly reports filed with Federal regulators.
- Community Reinvestment Act Database "The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods." The database includes bank ratings and performance evaluations.
- Credit Union Data Detailed data on individual institutions and tool for data comparison.