heads up

Remember that Researching your Congressperson post I did a while back? Political Money Line is unfortunately no longer free, but there's a new website that may take its place in terms of tracking campaign contributions to the U.S. Congress.

MAPLight.org aims to make it easy to find the connection between campaign contributions and legislative votes. It achieves this by cross-referencing voting records, campaign contributions, and interest group positions. Could be useful.

Democracy For America's night school returns tonight, with a tutorial on how to run for elected office.

In this session we will be joined by DFA endorsed and newly elected state representatives Elesha Gayman from Iowa, and Maria Chappelle-Nadal from Missouri to tell their stories about running for local office.

Should be interesting.

The whole thing can be accessed here.

Bruce Fealk recently launched a progressive talk TV show entitled Michigan Progress.  This is exciting new territory for progressives in Michigan.

Thanks to the wonders of Google Video, the first show can be posted and viewed anywhere.  Check it out!

Michigan Progress is the name of a new community television show that will focus on Oakland County politics and issues and from time to time we will have special guests. Our first two guests will be Dave Woodward, Oakland County Commissioner, and chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party, and Tim Greimel, freshman commissioner and part of the new Democratic caucus.

The County Commission is now aligned with 13 Republicans and 12 Democrats. The goal in 2008 is to turn the commission blue. We'll need your help to make it happen.

Our second show is going to have a very special guest and I'm very excited about the opportunity to talk politics and issues with our surprise guest. Please stay tuned for an announcement on when our surprise guest will appear. I know you won't want to miss this exciting interview.

I look forward to providing exciting, relevant programming to progressives in Oakland County and beyond.

UPDATE:  Thanks to the commenter wizardkitten who provided the schedule:

Just a heads up:  the proposed tax on services is going to be debated on TV in Flint, Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing.  Unfortunately, I don't know what times or which stations they will be playing on.

Democratic legislators say Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed two-penny tax on services to solve the state's budget mess will be a hard sell with the tax-weary voters she'll face as she heads to Flint on Monday to begin a week of televised town hall meetings.

...

Granholm, who'll be in Flint, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing on successive evenings this week, plans to focus on Michigan's future and the tough choices that must be made this year. Studio audiences will be selected by each television station.

Also, be sure to watch out for the First Gentleman's new radio program, which starts tomorrow evening.

Marcy Wheeler's website to promote her book Anatomy of Deceit is now live.  The website features a blog and several different options for ordering the book.

Wow, Drupal 5.0's garland theme really is very flexible.  I've seen a bunch of sites use it and they all look unique.

Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) will be doing a booksigning for Anatomy of Deceit at the Kerrytown Concert House on Thursday, February 8 at 7PM.  If you're in the Ann Arbor area, be sure to go and pick it up.

I haven't actually bought the book yet, so I'll probably go just to grab it.

The good folks over at Leelanau.com have launched a website entitled "Save the Wild UP", dedicated to preventing the drilling of a metallic sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains.

You can also sign the petition, which has a little over 1,800 signatures as of today.

Mad props to the always-excellent Zack for pointing both of these out.

Michigan Tax Truth is a website that aims to emphasize the value that state-funded services contribute to Michigan.

In a related editorial, Craig Ruff argues that raising taxes in a fair and responsible manner can help us lower our unemployment rate. He points to Virginia as an example. Mark Warner accomplished some incredible things during his term as Virginia's Governor, and I've long felt that his approach toward governance is an ideal model to follow.

Remember, Warner raised taxes in a Republican-leaning state and still walked out with an 80% approval rating and one of the most well-managed states in the nation. It can be done.

MSU today launched a wiki dedicated to the Great Lakes and environmental issues. Its intent is to promote grassroots journalism by accepting user contributions. Given the scope of the issues that are related to the Great Lakes, I think this is a fantastic idea. According to the wiki, here's what they intend to cover:

This site explains the region's environment, explores its culture, celebrates its recreation, discusses its challenges. You can launch an exploration of those topics and more from the links in the banner.
But this is an important story best told by you and others who care about the fate of 18 percent of the world's fresh surface water. Go ahead, contribute. Create an article or add your unique twist to those already here.

Wikis are great and I'm really excited about this. Still, I'm a little concerned about anti-environment special interest groups tampering with the content of the wiki. One of the reasons why Wikipedia is insulated from these kinds of attacks is because it has a very thorough editorial policy and a team of volunteers dedicated to ensuring its neutrality. Even then, there are often inaccuracies in its content that are intentionally propagated by non-neutral interests. The people maintaining this wiki are going to need a strong process in place to deal with these sorts of issues.