More than a few blogs today have ousted Sen. Ted Stevens as placing a 'secret hold' on a bill that would publish a full account of how the government spends money. According to the AAPD:
Coburn/Obama bill requires the creation of a single, searchable website – available to the public at no cost to access – that will allow American taxpayers to search for comprehensive data about how their money is spent. The Coburn/Obama bill has already received the overwhelming support of more than 70 organizations of all ideological affiliations across the country.Forgetting about many people's feelings for this particular Senator, I'm intrigued about what people could do with access to this online repository of information. Its obvious intention is to "democratize democracy," giving people immediate access to exactly what the government is doing.
But by publishing this information on the web, it gives people freedom to analyze it in ways most government officials would never have thought possible. Ingenuous Americans would be able to analyze all sorts of data, comparing it in ways that are useful to voters, not politicians.
Maybe that's what scares Mr. Stevens.
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