Mayors-in-waiting; Congressional Hearings
Mayors-in-waiting; Congressional Hearings
Gene Knutson, 14-year city council member, is running for mayor. He has his kickoff fund raiser at the Squalicum Boathouse next Thursday, Mar 15. Gene is well liked as a council member who has always
Gene Knutson, 14-year city council member, is running for mayor. He has his kickoff fund raiser at the Squalicum Boathouse next Thursday, Mar 15. Gene is well liked as a council member who has always taken his job seriously. He is a very straight-forward guy who does not play games. He has given considerable thought to running for mayor and he is well qualified. We should listen to him and give him every chance as he runs against more colorful opponents.
Other candidates are Dan Pike and Dan McShane. Another possible candidate is Bill Gorman. We are moving the web links for candidates to the top of the right column. The primary election ballots will be mailed on Friday, August 3, with counting on Tuesday, August 21.
9 am
This website is - bottom line - about the public - citizens - knowing what their government agencies are doing. That includes the courts such as Bellingham Municipal Court and it includes actions that our elected officials would rather you and I did not know about. Actions that reflect on how they represent us.
Well, here is a new link for all of us to explore and use - access to US Congress Hearings. Congress really does not want us watching them. C-Span shows them strutting around in the chamber but this is useless stuff. The hearings are where the action is and C-Span covers only a small fraction of the hearings.
A private group in San Francisco has managed to start posting archives of Congressional hearings. Check out:
http://www.archive.org/ - and type in the search word "hooptedoodle". Yes, that is right. hooptedoodle This is a new effort to make the archived C-Span video coverage of Congressional Hearings accessible to all of us. C-Span resisted this but caved in a few days ago. Only a fraction of the hearings are covered by C-Span, but this is a start.
What is needed - hello Rick Larsen and staff - is for Congress to make all hearings available on video on the Internet so that we can access them. This is not expensive and is technically very easy. Congress will only do this if we citizens demand it. We can ask politely, but in the end it will require considerable effort. We can start with Rick Larsen. After all, he could sponsor this legislation. Any Representative can. We learned that in Civics 101.
In our Bellingham City Council, the action is in the Monday committee meetings in the mayor's board room - attended by virtually no one and not reported by the media. The evening sessions in the council chamber are, for the most part, a charade to make official the decisions reached in the quiet back room of the mayor's office a few hours earlier. These days, no smoking is allowed. But don't expect BTV10 to cover this. Unless we demand it.
2 pm correction
The city council committee meetings are now held in the council chamber on Monday afternoons. They used to be in the mayor's board room. I fell behind the times on that one. However, BTV10 still does not provide video of them.
Other candidates are Dan Pike and Dan McShane. Another possible candidate is Bill Gorman. We are moving the web links for candidates to the top of the right column. The primary election ballots will be mailed on Friday, August 3, with counting on Tuesday, August 21.
9 am
This website is - bottom line - about the public - citizens - knowing what their government agencies are doing. That includes the courts such as Bellingham Municipal Court and it includes actions that our elected officials would rather you and I did not know about. Actions that reflect on how they represent us.
Well, here is a new link for all of us to explore and use - access to US Congress Hearings. Congress really does not want us watching them. C-Span shows them strutting around in the chamber but this is useless stuff. The hearings are where the action is and C-Span covers only a small fraction of the hearings.
A private group in San Francisco has managed to start posting archives of Congressional hearings. Check out:
http://www.archive.org/ - and type in the search word "hooptedoodle". Yes, that is right. hooptedoodle This is a new effort to make the archived C-Span video coverage of Congressional Hearings accessible to all of us. C-Span resisted this but caved in a few days ago. Only a fraction of the hearings are covered by C-Span, but this is a start.
What is needed - hello Rick Larsen and staff - is for Congress to make all hearings available on video on the Internet so that we can access them. This is not expensive and is technically very easy. Congress will only do this if we citizens demand it. We can ask politely, but in the end it will require considerable effort. We can start with Rick Larsen. After all, he could sponsor this legislation. Any Representative can. We learned that in Civics 101.
In our Bellingham City Council, the action is in the Monday committee meetings in the mayor's board room - attended by virtually no one and not reported by the media. The evening sessions in the council chamber are, for the most part, a charade to make official the decisions reached in the quiet back room of the mayor's office a few hours earlier. These days, no smoking is allowed. But don't expect BTV10 to cover this. Unless we demand it.
2 pm correction
The city council committee meetings are now held in the council chamber on Monday afternoons. They used to be in the mayor's board room. I fell behind the times on that one. However, BTV10 still does not provide video of them.
