Our experiment in creating a group letter to Congress opposing HR 45, a gun control bill, is nearing its final stage, and I’ve been very impressed with the process. (I announced the experiment in March.) Plus we’re starting up two more letters. Read on for how to sign on to the letter, and for more. Read it all..

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape divx

Here are a few changes that happened on GovTrack recently: Social Action links, subject terms update, Leader-Follower scores for representatives, searching by sponsorship in archival data, more maps widgets, and a new Developers section. Read on for more. Read it all..

Last week GovTrack launched an experiment using MixedInk, the collaborative writing tool, to see how members of the GovTrack community could come together to write a joint letter to congressmen. A large problem facing Congress is their inability to keep up with constituent communication, as the rise of electronic communications to Congress has far outpaced the increases in their office budgets. One of the many ways to address this problem is to have constituents come together on a single letter, an aggregated communication. Petitions were the aggregated letter of the past. In the future, we will see the letter actually being written collaboratively, and this is what GovTrack’s first-of-its-kind experiment is about. Read it all..

This past weekend was very busy for me. I gave two presentations on the Hill about how GovTrack can be useful for staffers for Members of Congress. Some notes are posted here

• download The Punisher

They Call Me Trinity… psp

. After that I gave presentations to a diverse group during a conference on how semantic web technology can be used for civic data and on open government data standards and expectations

The Illusionist the movie

Finding Forrester release

Moving McAllister video

Kiss of the Dragon buy

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Red Dust

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Doc Hollywood psp Cool Runnings movies The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear movie

You may have seen the new YouTube channels for the House and Senate and the kind of dorky video

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• Invincible film

intro from our congressional leaders, which Sunlight’s Paul Blumenthal reported on. Basically, Congress has entered the 21st century (finally) by starting to communicate with their constituents using video, which is fantastic news.

You can follow these videos on GovTrack!

1) There is a new feed dedicated to these videos, aggregating all videos posted by Members to YouTube. You can find it on the feeds page

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• Confessions of an Innocent Man divx

• The Stickup rip

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Hidalgo move

2) Pages for Members now highlight their latest YouTube video at the top of the page: example .

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape movie

Corpse Bride movie full 3) Feeds/Trackers for Members (which you can subscribe to directly, include with your other trackers, or get email updates for) now include their latest video postings: example

Double Team move

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As GovTrack continues its fifth year and we head into the new session of Congress starting in 2009, we have a bunch of new site updates to share. Read it all..

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Sometimes I get really frustrated with politics, which has become so much about denying, oppressing, and outspending the other viewpoint rather than debate and consensus. GovTrack received this question through the bill Q&A system:

Why does anyone think our government has the right to allow women to murder their children?  What can be done to ensure this bill never passes?

and it just makes me want to shut the site down and move on with life. Read it all..

Now that we’ve passed election season, things are pretty much wrapping up in the legislative branch. The House has already adjourned and will start a new session on January 3, 2009, according to the resolution H. Con. Res. 440. The Senate is still in session and will meet this month, but without the House they will probably not push any measures forward. Read it all..

The Good Night rip We’ve hit the 50,000 mark, the number of people that have created an account on the site to configure their trackers and get email updates. More updates coming in a few weeks.

• Two Rode Together on dvd Raising Arizona dvdrip

  Hush rip

  Dunston Checks In dvdrip Corpse Bride dvdrip

If you’ve been here before August, you surely have noticed already the most obvious recent change. But besides the visual refresh, there are a number of new things here at GovTrack, and more planned. Read on for details. Read it all..