Tools For Citizens – Be A Watchdog or Just Smarter
HELP STAMP OUT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION:
It is your duty as a citizen to protect the constitution. Here are some tools that will help you research things that sound “fishy” to you. Please do not rely on the media to do this for you. It is clear they will not. This by no means is a complete list. There are many more web sites that will enable you to discover the truth. Please become a citizen watchdog. We need help rooting out corruption in our government. If you find somthing you wish to pass on, please alert me, via my Twitter account http://twitter.com/DesireePaquette, my blog https://soldierforliberty.wordpress.com/ , or contact The appropriate agency from the list posted here:
Lists of websites that will help you in your fight against corruption. Please let me know if you are aware of anyothers and they will be added to the list.
Fedstats.gov
Celebrating over 10 years of making statistics from more than 100 agencies available to citizens everywhere
Earmark Watch
Bringing Citizen Oversight to Congressional Spending
OMB Watch
Promoting open government, accountability and citizen participation
Fedspending.org
Contract and Grant Database
Follow the Money.org
The Nation’s Most Complete Resource for Information on Money in State Politics
PatriotPost.US Linkbank
A plethera of Government Links and check out their collection of historic US documents as well
Metavid
The Open Video Archive of the US Congress
Congressional Research Reports
American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a “think tank” that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events.
VoteSmart.org
Bring the Truth to Light: Get the facts on those who control your future including Bios, voting records, positions on issues, interest group ratings, public statements, campaign finances.
State and Local Government Issues
Library of Congress site for local issues and links
Sunlight Foundation
Committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency.
Propublica
Journalism in the public interest.
Taxpayers for Common Sense
An independent and non-partisan voice for taxpayers working to increase transparency and expose and eliminate wasteful and corrupt subsidies, earmarks, and corporate welfare.
Complete List
The complete list of email addresses and fax numbers for all congress members, senators, committees in Washington DC
This Nation
Dedicated to providing factual, unbiased information about government and politics in the United States of America. Includes library of historic documents and other educational materials about how our government works.
TRAC
Comprehensive reseource for DEA, DHS, ICE, IRS, ATF, FBI data. How it spends, where it spends, who benefits, how it enforces what laws, etc. Very complete.
Washington Watch
Washingtonwatch.com tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available.
Open Congress.org
Everyone can be an insider. Track bills, votes, issues, money trails.
Muckety.com
Exploring the paths of power and influence
Votesmart.org
The Voter’s self defense system
Uncle Sam
Who’s Who in the Federal Government
Lobbying Disclosures
Government site with actual lobbyist disclosures
Senate Lobbyist Database
Senate Query Search Board
Who’s lobbying your Senators?
House Lobbyist Database
Who’s lobbying your representatives?
Legistorm.com
LegiStorm helps bring transparency to the U.S. Congress by disseminating public docu- ments and non-partisan infor- mation over the web.
American Voice
Fax your reps for free over the internet.
Investigating Obama
Investigating many aspects of this administration
Open Secrets.org
Nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government. Count cash and make change.
NNDB Mapper: Tracking the Entire World
The NNDB Mapper allows you to explore NNDB visually by graphing the connections between people. Over 34,000 individuals are listed in our network
Discover the Networks.org
The Guide to the Political Left
Maplight.org
Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection
USA Spending.org
A journey toward greater transparency and accountability
Federal Audit Clearinghouse
GOVERNMENTWIDE AUDIT DATABASE
Guidestar.org
Analyze Nonprofit Data
You Tube
Invaluable for catching people in lies
ACORN CRACKED
Revealing the nuts and worms of ACORN
Federal Register
What’s going on in DC? Find out here. Regulatory Documents, Sunshine Act Meetings, Presidential Documents
ACTIVIST CASH
This site is AWESOME! Tons and tons of info on Groups, Foundations, Celebreties and Key Players. You just have to check this out.
UNDUE INFLUENCE
The GREEN Tracking Library- Green Groups, Foundations, Bureaucrats, Labor Unions, Media and Players
VRRESEARCH
Forum on working with public records, analyzing the data. This may help you decifer what you find.
USA.GOV
Directory of Federal, State, Local, Tribal Governments – WOW you could easily go on info overload here. Cool site.
IRS CHARITIES SEARCH
Cumulative List of Organizations described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code
STATELINE
Researching data on a particular state regarding spending, pending and passed legislation, Governor speeches, news, etc.. Fairly complete.
GRANTS
A ton of information on who is eligble, what is available through private and public sources.
GRANTS.GOV
Federal grant information
PI BUZZ
Government Pay Database, Union boss pay database, and all kinds of interesting figures.
CENSUS.GOV
A ton of public information collected by your friend, the Government
HOMELAND SECURITY
Statistical Database
GOVERNING SOURCEBOOK
State and local sourcebook for all kinds of government data
GLIN.Gov
A public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations.
MASS OPEN BOOKS
Your money, your government. An online tool to find out how Massachusetts State government is spending your tax dollars!
DOCUTICKER
A daily update of new reports from government agencies, ngo’s, think tanks, and other groups.
CAMPAIGN MONEY
A unique website that lets you see for yourself the hidden world of American political campaigns.
PROGRESSIVE PUNCH
How left leaning are your politicians? Check their records.
GovTrack
Keep tabs on the U.S. Congress. This is the independent, nonpartisan website that started the “civic hacking” movement in the United States.
Citizens Against Government Waste
America’s #1 Taxpayer Watchdog – Pork Hunters Extraordinaire
Source Watch
your guide to the names behind the news
KNOW YOUR NET WORTH
And everybody elses, too (public figures net worth statements, etc)
Purple People Beaters
Exposing SEIU Corruption
Soldier For Liberty 