There is a national dialogue occuring right now at stimuluswatch.org - a wiki that itemizes each individual stimulus package expenditure and allows people to vote and comment on a specific project -- and, well, our side is outnumbered.
OK. I'll be honest with you.
There are so many calls to action every minute of every day that sometimes they seem meaningless. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they are very effective.
This one, I think, is one that could be very effective.
There is a national dialogue occuring right now at stimuluswatch.org - a wiki that itemizes each individual stimulus package expenditure and allows people to vote and comment on a specific project -- and, well, our side is outnumbered.
Now, I do have some problems with the site, to be honest with you. The top of each project's page is a "Is this Project Critical" Vote Yes or No followed by a a green bar (for yes) and a red bar (for no). Some of the problems that I have are the use of the word "critical" here which I fear feeds into a conservative mindset of the entire stimulus. Yes, a weatherizing program in Tucson, AZ might not be "critical" but that just isn't the point at all. Another problem I have is that votes can't be changed. So if you get swayed by all of the arguments, but, you've already voted, tough tittie toenails. And lastly, anyone can comment without signing in. This can lead to some mindnumbingly angering comments.
Nonetheless, I think the idea of the site is very good -- and local media are picking on the site and reporting that it could be used as a way of local managers who will ultimately decide how to spend money might look at and gauge public opinion. And, to some extent, it's working. Do a Google search for a project and the Stimuluswatch.org page is often right at the top of the search results.
And, if you follow just stmuluswatch.org then it would appear that the public opinion right now seems to be overwhelmingly made up of Limbaugh Redstaters.
Often roads outweigh new public transit options. Police spending over solar panels and weatherization projects.
We need to make sure that our voices are heard. So that when local media talks about projects, when people are curious about projects, if local managers are at all swayed by the site, then we are represented.
It's a wiki. So we can use this to our advantage. One can even edit what the project is or make the official "Points For" or "Points Against" argument. And you can vote up or down individual comments.
And now we come to the Call to Action. Please spend a few minutes to check out your local projects (or even projects in other town of which you are familiar or even by project type) and vote and state your opinion.
We need to tilt this back in our favor.