Instructify

Through the window of your computer screen, Washington grows one step closer to transparency.

For people who can’t spend their weekends with C-SPAN, Opencongress.org provides bill-by-bill breakdown of what’s going down in the House and Senate. It also relays campaign contributions from the reputable Opensecrets.org. Other relevant congressional news goes up on the Congress Gossip Blog.

This is a great tool for showing students the legislative process inaction in action, not to mention a lunge at the unicorn of political accountability.

As ’08 candidates keep plowing down the campaign trail, prepare to hear a lot of impassioned generalities like “I think we really need to think about how we think about education in this country!”

Next year, hopefully, websites like Opencongress.org will let us know if we’re still just thinking about it. -PATRICK O’BOYLE