Jan/092
Tracking Obama
An action shot of the left hand that controls the Executive branch.*
Some friends and I have been interested in following and documenting Obama's actions now that he's President. We're curious to know whether he's living up to his campaign promises, and we thought it'd be useful to keep them in one easy-to-find place.
We started noting what we'd read in the news and sending it back and forth in an email thread, but really -- what is this, 1999? So I started a blog, and invited the friends as moderators. Unfortunately, we found that once our days picked up for a few hours, we quickly fell behind and started missing events. Not a very useful tool if it's ad hoc and incomplete.
Obama's first signature as president -- Jan. 20, 2009.
Brains beat brawn every time on the Internet, so off to Google my friend Chris went. For posterity, some useful resources are listed below.**
- Politifact is useful for tracking campaign promises and is being kept up to date.
- FactCheck.org is great for all recent claims made by politicians or floating around the rumor mill.
- FiveThirtyEight.com is Nate Silver's political stats and analysis site -- the best in the business.
- Whitehouse.gov tracks the various executive orders, which is kinda cool, too. So far...
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
January 22, 2009
- Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities
- Review of Detention Policy Options
- Ensuring Lawful Interrogations
January 21, 2009
- Presidential Records
- Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel
PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDA
January 22, 2009
- Review of the Detention of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri
January 21, 2009
- Freedom of Information Act
- Pay Freeze
- Transparency and Open Government
Still, Chris couldn't find a blog or other site that's just tracking what Obama does, what actions he approves or denies each day. Another oddity -- Kottke (citing others) also notes that once the new White House site goes up, the prior president's site disappears -- *poof* -- and is moved over to that president's library site.
All problems seem strange, given the ubiquity of this type of information. If anyone finds resources or tools that are particularly useful, please post in the comments.
* The President's watch is a Jorg Gray JGC6500 Chronograph Watch. Or you could go here and pay double...
** Many thanks to those willing and able to dedicate themselves to this work. Also key is Obama's dedication to transparency and the open, free exchange of information. So refreshing.
[First image via The Big Picture. Second image via Reuters, ffffound.]