VP Records to be Preserved
This past Saturday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Dick Cheney to preserve all vice presidential records--huzzah! Read more about the case below:
- news story about the case
- Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's memorandum opinion
- the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who filed the lawsuit
- more about the Presidential Records Act
GovGab Turns One!
A tip of the FGI hat to GovGab blogger Jacob. He reminded me that this coming week the GovGab blog celebrates its first birthday. The GovGab blog is brought to you by the same agency that brings us usa.gov, which I find as staggeringly useful as others find the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. To celebrate this first birthday, each of the GovGab bloggers will blog about what the U.S. was like when they turned 1 year old. This sounds like fun. Since I'm subscribed to their RSS feed, I'll get to see every entry. How about you? Continue reading
Hurricane Resources
I've seen a lot of good resources related to Hurricane Ike over the past week, and thought I'd compile them here.
- Images of the devastation that Ike wrought, from the USGS, NOAA, and NASA.
- Applying for assistance through FEMA.
- Hurricane assistance resources through USA.gov and Health & Human Services.
- Planning for future hurricane preparedness.
- Rebecca Blakeley has posted a list of places you can volunteer or donate at Gov Docs on the Bayou.
- I also used a recent FGI tip to stay informed! By watching the NASA tweets, I saw when this message was posted about the re-opening of Johnson Space Center on Monday.
What Should The Next President Read?
I'm begging your indulgence for a post that's not really within the scope of Free Government Information, but should be of interest to the many pro and amateur policy wonks out there. I got to thinking that no matter who wins in November, the next President will face some major challenges. But many of these challenges require knowledge and ways of thought that haven't seemed to be common to our political leaders. So, being a good librarian, I created a reading/viewing list for the next President. I used OCLC Open WorldCat to build my list and you can find it at http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/dcornwall/lists/188566. I tried to keep the list short because I know the next President may well be too busy to read much other than reports from his staff and hopefully some outside sources once in a while. Here are my choices:
Rosenberg, M. B. (2001). The basics of nonviolent communication an introductory training in nonviolent communication. Sherman, TX: Center for Nonviolent Communication. York, S., & Sheen, M. (2001). Bringing down a dictator. [Washington, D.C.]: York Zimmerman. Flynn, S. E. (2007). The edge of disaster: rebuilding a resilient nation. New York: Random House. Theoharis, A. G. (2004). The FBI & American democracy: a brief critical history. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. York, S., & Kingsley, B. (2000). A force more powerful. [Princeton, NJ]: Films for the Humanities & Sciences. Muller, R. (2007). Physics for future Presidents, supreme court justices, congressmen, CEOs, diplomats, professors, and other world leaders. Southbank, Victoria: Thomson. Beck, A. T. (1999). Prisoners of hate: the cognitive basis of anger, hostility, and violence. New York: HarperCollins. Prothero, S. R. (2007). Religious literacy: what every American needs to know--and doesn't. [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco.You can read the reasons for my choices on my list. I think all these items could be consumed and digested between the election and Inauguration Day. What do *You* think the next President read or watch? Make up your own WorldCat list and post the link to the list here. Tell your friends to make up their own lists. If enough people take up this call, maybe I'll search for ways to get the lists to the attention of our next chief executive. Continue reading
Ringtones from Your Government
Did you know that a number of government agencies offer free ringtones for your cell phone? Here are the ones we know about
- US Federal Agencies
- Army
- GoArmy.com Games and Downloads http://www.goarmy.com/downloads/ringtones.jsp - Here you *could* get a ringtone of a DI telling you to "drop and give me 20!", but I'd go for the Army Strong theme. I can so see it in many bold action movies.
- Army
- US States and Localities
- Arizona
- Arizona Fish and Game Department - http://www.azgfd.gov/downloads/ringtones.shtml - Includes ringtones for eagles, elk, wild turkeys, coyotes, rattlesnakes and more
- Kentucky
- Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources - http://fw.ky.gov/ringtonedownloads.asp - Want an angry bear to announce you've got a call? This is the place to go! Or perhaps you'd prefer a barred owl or gray tree frog
- Arizona
Need more ringtones? Go to usa.gov and search on "ringtones." One caution, some of the pages, especially from schools, appear to have been spammed. Look for site excerpt featuring complete sentences and a meaningful page title. Do you have a gov't agency ringtone you'd like to share? Let us know in comments. Ringtones can come from any level of government from around the world, but must be identifiable as an official government agency page! Continue reading