Proposed LA Constitutional Amendments Posted

The Louisiana House of Representatives has posted a complete list and detailed descriptions of the proposed Louisiana Constitutional Amendments online. Read them before you go vote!

You can also access them from the Legislature home page and click on the link to "Proposed Constitutional Amendments". To view the PDF with detailed descriptions, select "click here".

Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and fun Halloween! Here are some government resources about Halloween that may interest you:

NASA's "Spooky Space Sounds". Seriously...it is kinda creepy. Don't listen in a dark room by yourself.

Library of Congress Folklife Center's Halloween Page and Library of Congress American Memory "Today in History" page about the Halloween Holiday.

Census.gov's "Facts for Features" page on Halloween Stats. Do you know that 26 pounds Per capita is the consumption of candy by Americans in 2005? It is believed a large portion is consumed around Halloween. Dang...

Halloween safety tips from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

And check out the comprehensive list of Halloween government resources found by my fellow Gov Doc Librarian friend, Valerie Glenn, on her blog: 'Bama Docs.

EconomicRecovery.gov

EconomicRecovery.gov is a new interagency website from the Commerce Department that acts as a resource for the "latest information from government agencies on America’s economic recovery for people to keep their homes, find jobs and protect their savings".

It includes an interactive online forum, "Ask the White House." Various help guides include: "Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure" or "Eating Right When Money is Tight". Good to know!

Economic Doom n' Gloom

I have been procrastinating on blogging about our economic crisis. I admit it. Mainly because it's a depressing topic, but also because it is such a complex issue, I didn't know where to begin. Oh, and the legislation was revised so many times or removed from various websites, that is made my head spin. So I've decided to simply point you to the infamous "Bailout Act" ("version 2"...the one that actually became law) and some other tools to learn more about it.

H.R.1424 which was enacted into law as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008(Public Law No.110-343):

Get your own - Open publication

Legislative history and more info about H.R.1424 (P.L.110-343) from THOMAS.loc.gov.

More information on the act, including voting history, sponsors, floor speeches, etc. at OpenCongress.org.


Even more information on the act, including an extensive tracking of the different versions, analysis, and a Q&A section at GovTrack.us. The GovTrack.us page explains that this bill:

This is the Senate's October 2008 Economic Stimulus Relief Bill. This bill was originally introduced in March 2007 and passed the House as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. In October 2008, it was co-opted as the so-called "vehicle" to pass the relief bill with an amendment that rewrites the whole bill. The House's initial vehicle was H.R. 3997, but they failed to pass their amendment co-opting the bill.

And check out MSUGovDoc's bookmarked government websites on economics.

Secret Patches

This is probably the best title I have ever seen for a book about classified information:


I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World by Trevor Paglen.

This book discusses and documents the patches, emblems, and insignia from "black" military projects. I really need to suggest this as a purchase for our library! The author's website is just filled with fascinating information too. Check out the various patches on the website.

More Election Doodads

Most of these resources are government related, with a few non-profit orgs tossed in for good measure.

University of Michigan Documents Center: Election 2008 Guide includes background information, candidates and campaign links, policy issues, resources on elections and voting, and links to scholarly sources for further research.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides statistics and research reports on voting and registration.

CQPolitics is a free news site provided by Congressional Quarterly (CQ) with political news, blogs, and articles.

The Pew Research Center publishes surveys and reports that are relevant for anyone interested in campaigns and issues.

The Federal Election Commission provides information about the rules and laws relating to federal campaign finance issues. It also has a searchable database of all campaign finance data provided by other groups.

Follow the Money and Open Secrets are non-profit organizations that provide data about campaign finance contributions, lobbying, etc.

On the Issues: Every candidate, every issue.

Barack Obama - Democratic Party
Bob Barr - Libertarian Party
Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party
John McCain - Republican Party
Ralph Nader - Independent
All Presidential Candidates listed at Project Vote Smart,

And check out the MSUGovDoc's bookmarked websites on elections and voting.

Election Doodads

Election Day is November 4th! Can you feel the excitement in the air?

Here are some election resources and tools that you may find informative and fun:

Voting America project helps to visualize and analyze election data back to 1840.

Want presidential poll or electoral projection resources? Mashable.com has a nice list of them, including 270towin.com and the Gallup's election poll page.

And if you need to find out where to vote, or how to register to vote, check out Google's U.S. Voter Info Map tool. I just typed in my home address and it told me exactly on the map where I have to go to vote (and the driving directions were actually accurate!). It also gave me links to the Louisiana election website, Louisiana voter registration, how to get an absentee ballot in Louisiana, and the phone number for the Louisiana election hotline.

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

I just love that they use "mullet" as a search strategy.

Government Widgets

I've caught the widget bug, thanks to Daniel Cornwall, who mentioned on Twitter that he found some nifty EPA Widgets.

So, out of curiosity, I did a search for other Government Agency widgets and widgets that use government information (such as those found on Govtrack.us or the Sunlight Foundation website). I found quite a few but I know there must be more out there.

I've compiled a "government widget guide" at my Gov Docs 2.0 wiki page. Please feel free to suggest others by commenting here or on the wiki page.

I thought it would be nice to have a guide so you can quickly browse widgets that you may want to add to your blog or webpage. For example, see my Environmental Law guide (a work in progress, mind you) for ideas!

Beer & Brewing: A Scholarly Research Guide

In lieu of a million other things I could discuss, I choose to present you with this very important scholarly library resource...on beer. Brought to you by the Library of Congress!

Beer and Brewing: A Guide to Selected Resources

Web 2.0/Gov Doc 2.0

Web 2.0 is a term many of us have grown tired of, but you got to admit...the way the internet functions now sure is fun. The internet is always evolving. In fact, Web 3.0 (a.k.a. "The Semantic Web") is here and in development.

If you want to learn more about how to use these Web 2.0 tools and how some of them relate to Government Documents or Government Information, then visit the very first blog post I wrote for this blog, or take a look at this guide I created: Gov Docs 2.0: Web 2.0 Tools and Resources.

I just got back from speaking on a Web 2.0 Panel at the LOUIS User's Conference, and Rebecca Miller of LSU created a wiki on Web 2.0.

Finding Candidate Voting Records

Here is a great guide created by my friend and fellow librarian, Daniel Cornwall, on finding candidate voting records.