US Senate & House Create YouTube Channels

eldavojohn writes "Following an election in which online videos played an important role, the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate have opened YouTube channels (or 'hubs') advertised to be a 'backstage pass to your government.' Ideally this will bring transparency to citizens and inform them of their senators' & representatives' positions and ideas."

Comments

oh goodie

[Zashi]

This we be watched as much as c-span! ....
>_

Re:oh goodie

[betterunixthanunix]

Which is unfortunate but true. Most people do not care about their government.

Even more unfortunate is that I cannot download these videos, at least not without violating the TOS, and so I cannot store my own copies of those proceedings.

Re:oh goodie

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a nice human interest video from Pelosi:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wtOW1CxHvNY

Re:oh goodie

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a nice human interest video from Pelosi: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wtOW1CxHvNY

That one's good but even better is this video on equal rights for women from Senator John:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfLAv3JHRwY

Re:oh goodie

[FiloEleven]

There is a bill being aggressively pushed by DownsizeDC, the Read The Bills Act, which requires not just that the congressmen read the bill, but requires each bill to be read aloud in session before it can be voted on. This ensures that all congressmen voting on the bill will have heard its text, and it will also do a lot to cut the size of these monstrosities.

In addition, the bill must be posted online 7 days in advance, and no changes may be made without resetting that 7-day period, ensuring that the public can see and react to exactly what will be passed.

Everyone whose heard of this thing (and is not in the political class) is for it, and there's been enough pressure that the House Minority Leader requested the 7-day full-text posting of Obama's stimulus package. It's a great step, and it shows that the pressure from the electorate's phone calls and messages is working, but there's no reason that it should only be applied to a single bill.

The other bill they're pushing for, which I'll mention here because it also represents another process to improve our quality of legislation, is the One Subject at a Time Act. It's pretty self-explanatory, and would end the use of "riders" - sneaking unpopular chunks of legislation (or pork) into other popular or necessary bills.

If you want to see these changes made, one of the best things you can do is to raise awareness of these bills, call your congressmen, and convince your friends and family to do the same.

I'll be impressed

[MikeRT]

When the federal budget is released in a well-documented, well-designed XML file format.

Re:I'll be impressed

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Heck, I'll be impressed when I find a well documented, well designed XML file format from anyone..

Re:I'll be impressed

[dmayle]

If that's what you're waiting for, than you might want to have a look at this article about http://www.usaspending.gov/... It's an eye opener...

Re:I'll be impressed

[RulerOf]

You sir, have won in a way I would have never, in my entire life, imagined possible.

Bravo!

there needs to be a "save" mechanism

[johnny cashed]

If youtube is going to start carrying government videos, presumably funded by taxpayers, the videos need to be public domain and youtube needs to have a built in mechanism to allow views to save the video. I know there are ways of saving the videos already, but youtube does not provide this functionality.

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