Pretty cool response, folks, to this post. We have a wiki started and a blog. Thanks to Max M and Ike for their zeal.
Now what? Let's see what happens in Congress. I don't think it's a done deal. In the meanwhile, I have some ideas for bringing resources to bear on either the blog or the wiki. Either way, the challenge is getting reliable info. I have no idea which approach, blog or wiki, is better. Maybe we should just keep both running.
As for bringing in the media, I have no trouble if anyone wants to publicize it. I interpret Pietro's comment to be mean that this should be a non-partisan project. I agree. If politicians or pundits find it useful, that's fine.
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Are we going to track both the bailout and the stimulus? Or just the stimulus?
Concerning the blog vs. wiki, I think possibly both could be useful as they serve somewhat different purposes.
I agree about the non-partisan part.
My contribution was simply to call attention to the fact that there are huge billboards where all the travelers can see them, to not use those billboards because we are not passionate about the company who owns them is kind of counter productive to the effort of spreading the words and making people aware.
Loving this idea Russ, I just made the first comment on the first post on the blog.
Hayek regulars who want to help moderate the blog are more than welcome to do so, just leave a comment indicating your interest.
Casual knowledge of Wordpress is helpful, but not required, as the backend is quite intuitive.
We just need to nail down some common nomenclature.
I second Marcus' statement; I think a blog and a wiki work well together in tandem. The wiki provides the tools, while the blog can be used to release statistics of significance and track the progress of the project.
The Act itself calls for transparency with the following language (may be amended before its passed however)
SEC. 1201. TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS.
(a) REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES.— Each Federal agency shall publish on the website Recovery.gov (as established under section 1226 of this subtitle)—
(1) a plan for using funds made available in this Act to the agency; and
(2) all announcements for grant competitions, allocations of formula grants, and awards of competitive grants using those funds
The full text of the proposed bill is available here
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/blog/2009/01/18/stimulus-bill-text/
The director of the transparency initiative called for in the bill will be paid a salary of $150,000 per year and have a $14,000,000 budget. But the staff used by the board will be detailed from other agencies and their salaries will still be paid out of their original agencies. This will obscure the actual labor costs of the transparency board itself. As employees are taken away from their regular duties, will the other agencies hire more people to supplement, thereby increasing the size of government, will the workers be temporary, or will they find themselves permanently on the payroll? Transparency, you are doing it wrong.
I also like that there is "not less than $250,000,000 for schools and detention centers" on Indian lands. Always nice to see those two things together.
I guess i should be posting this stuff on the blog or wiki, huh?
"Keeping Tabs on the Pork"
:::
Such an effort is hardly new. Why do you think it will now accomplish anything significant ?
Organizations like "Citizens Against Government Waste" >http://www.cagw.org< have been
detailing & publicizing government waste for a long, long time… including TARP — and have NOT made the slightest dent in changing things… even with fairly good coverage in the mainstream media.
Your goal is laudable, but copying a demonstrably failed strategy is unproductive. Learn from others in seeking a new/improved strategy.
Study your enemy (government politicians & bureaucrats) and find their weak points –but cataloging their spending excesses is mere background noise in American politics… and doesn't change government spending reality in the slightest.
…hate to sound negative, but you've got very tough opponents well entrenched on the Potomac.
Soerson has a point–in a rush of enthusiasm there's the danger of reinventing the wheel. I'd cite different blogs (project on government oversight, understanding government), but the point's the same: what's the most bang for the time and effort expended?
Has anyone mentioned FedSpending.org?
The only article now posted at the wiki concerns the pork involved in the torture program of the Bush administration. The salaries of torturers are cited as a pork spending items, among other things.
Methinks this does not bode well for the seriousness or usefulness of the project.
Hey everyone,
I am going to try and steer the creation of Chasing the Pork (the wikia site) towards a broad overarching framework that will keep the page relevant for matters beyond the scope of the TARP plan, the bailouts, etc. So that once we've moved on from these centerpieces the site can be used to monitor all sorts of our government's spending activities. (Although that could be a number of years). Perhaps a bit ambitious, but these sort of projects evolve and flesh themselves out over time, lets see where it goes.
Max M