Daily Archives: August 17, 2006

Search History / Privacy Debate

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Kevin Bankston & Markham Erickson:

Search queries are stored and used by Internet companies for internal purposes. Unfortunately, AOL made a mistake in publishing its subscribers’ online search requests. This should not have happened, and I hope every Internet company is evaluating its information procedures and policies to ensure that kind of thing does not happen again.

There are good, legitimate reasons why an Internet company would use historical search queries for internal uses. For example, search query information can be used in research and development to make improvements to search technology, to better tailor and make more efficient users’ online requests. Companies also analyze historical query information to detect and protect against click fraud — an activity that involves faking clicks on Web advertisements to drive up costs.

Spreading the Love (Pork): Local Federal Earmark Map – Our Politician’s Deficit Spending (and Payback?)

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Sunlight Labs:

There are over 1,800 earmarks in the upcoming Labor HHS Bill, and we don’t know where they came from. Help figure it out, by researching and posting in the comment section on this blog post.

1) Who secured the earmark?
What district is it in? Call the office of the congressperson you think might have secured the earmark and ask them if they are indeed responsible for it. Record whatever answer they give.

Check out Wisconsin’s earmarks from this single congressional bill here. (Enter Wisconsin in the search field and click go). St. Mary’s Hospital will receive $350,000 for “facilities and equipment” while Baraboo’s St. Claire Health Care Foundation will also receive $350,000.00 for “facilities and equipment”. The Boscobel Area Health Center will receive $455,000.00 for facilities and equipment. The Beloit Regional Hospice will receive $100,000 for computerization of medical records while the UW-Whitewater will receive $150,000 for “equipment and technology” for its Living and Learning Center. David Obey’s Wausau area Aspirus Wausau Hospital gets $1.2M for for facilities and equipment.

There are many more. Tammy Baldwin represents the Madison area. Earmarks are a heck of a way to increase deficit spending. I hope we see more “sunlight” on this matter. Sunlight’s National Director is Zephyr Teachout – who directed online organizing for Howard Dean in 2004. Judy Sarasohn has more.


It would be interesting to compare earmarks over time with contributions.
Finally, I sent an email to Tammy Baldwin and Dave Magnum seeking comments on earmarks generally and these items specifically.

UPDATE: Michael Byrne (Research Director – Magnum for Congress) responded:

Our view here exactly. Especially things tacked on in the shadows which is why we liked Paul Ryan’s efforts to force this stuff out in the open. Dave will be speaking about pork through the coming days and will be referencing the record of his opponent who has quite a string of earmarks she’s walked through Congress. Some were completely unnecessary and certainly not well publicized. Others were just vote trolling things that won’t help our district keep itself competitive economically… Thanks for checking in and keep coming back. Mike
=============
Michael E. Byrne
Research Director,
Magnum for Congress
www.davemagnum.com email: byrnex4 _at_ tds.net
Cell: 608.712.5340
FAX: 608.767.2187e
On Aug 17, 2006, at 9:22 AM, Jim Zellmer wrote:
I’m surprised and disappointed in the number and amount of earmarks:
http://www.zmetro.com/archives/005931.php
The projects may or may not have merit, but earmarks are clearly an abuse of the system and simply add to the debt we burden our children with….
Any comments? I’ve sent the same email to Tammy Baldwin
Best wishes,
Jim

I’ll post Tammy’s response as soon as I receive it.

Marketplace (now wonderfully available on Wisconsin Public Radio – Finally!) has more.

Keep in mind this is “one” bill!