Hey, the folks at Consumer Reports/Consumers Union are in the vanguard of serious health care reform, have been so for years.

They're trying to counter some of the disinformation that bad guys are spreading.

Check out Opponents say public plan will be too popular and not popular at all

Opponents...

Hey, I've just heard about a group representing California business people known as the Bay Area Council. These guys have just called for a "limited" constitutional convention in California.

By "limited," they mean it would be empowered to get into and to propose ballot measures only for matters related to governance,...

The folks in New York City already do really good work in online government, particularly on NYC.gov and NYCstat.

Now, in the spirit of accountability and transparency, they're proposing that they open up data in the spirit of data.gov.

What that means is that people can write applications which...

Hey, one way to get big expensive projects done is to make everything visible, and White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and White House New Media Director Macon Phillips are really getting it together.

The idea is a dashboard which shows all details of Federal IT/computer projects, good...

I don't have a good way to say it, but there are hundreds of people here committed to make government and governance work.

I'm overwhelmed.

Check out the Twitter stream at twitter.com/#search?q=%23pdf09

or check out something new, the "twitterslurp"

The conference is at personaldemocracy.com/

Hey, these folks prepare welcome packages for wounded troops, who pretty much lose all their stuff when they need to be airlifted out of battle in a hurry.

RescueTaskForce.org gives you a way to show your appreciation to a wounded soldier returning home to the U.S. for medical care.

Looks like they're getting it done, despite all the drama in NY state politics.

These guys, led by New York State Senate CIO Andrew Hoppin, deserve a lot of credit, they've already done "crowdsourcing portals" for property taxes, ethics reform and campaign finance."

More from NY...

Hey, things continue to turn around for those who sacrifice so much for us.

President Signs Two Major Provisions for New Veterans into Law

"Washington is finally paying more than lip service to our...

There's a lot of excitement regarding United We Serve, serve.gov, and AllForGood.org, the "Craigslist for service."

You can also help out by participating in the Open Government Initiative, which is all about real grassroots democracy.

Check out Open Government Directive, Phase III: Drafting:

President Obama issued a...

Hodgman! You stole my material! and did it much better than I ever could!

Update re Who's Spock? or, Nerds Win?

Who's Spock?

Smell like a nerd!

"Obama's Internet Adventure: revenge of the nerds"?

Hey, Kiva.org is the big microfinance group in the US, helping out a lot of people throughout the world.

They're the folks I connected to CHF International for to help small businesses in the West Bank, which is in addition to LendForPeace.org

Check out A Letter from Kiva...

Right now, Congressional humans don't actually read the legislation they vote on. Citizens like us don't have the time to make our voice heard before passage. This is really bad, but as of Wednesday afternoon, we have the beginning of a solution.

Bipartisan sponsors Reps. Baird (D-WA) and Culberson (R-TX) introduced...

Hey, you're invited to the Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp this Saturday at UC Berkeley.

Lots of good speakers including Arianna Huffington, Randi Zuckerberg, Jonathan Greenblatt and also Craig. (The last on the list might not be in the "good speaker" category.)

Media folks can get media passes by e-mailing  bootcamp@craigslistfoundation.org

Tickets...

New social networking tech can be used to solve down-to-earth human needs, by enlisting millions of Americans in service to the country. This involves a new kind of person-to-person public/private partnership which need not be very formal, but might involve challenges to the existing legal and regulatory environment.

The largest challenge...

Hey, I'm working with the folks at LendForPeace.org, they're a microfinance group working exclusively with small business on the West Bank, in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative.

The deal is that we all can contribute...

Hey, you might recall Stephen Colbert's challenge, regarding the use of DonorsChoose.org to support classrooms and teachers who teach the kids of troops.

One great thing about this is that after you do, and the students and...

Hey, another step to health care reform, proposed new legislaton from Senator Mark Warner, Enhancing health care choices for seniors

The Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009 will:

• enhance Medicare and Medicaid coverage of advanced illness care management services;


• require doctors to provide patients with...

Hey, I just found out that a session for AllForGood.org will be at the craigslist foundation volunteer boot camp this weekend.

It'll be led by Jonathan Greenblatt, who chairs Our Good Works, which the newly-formed nonprofit which governs AllForGood.org.

The All For Good session will cover topics such as...

Obama's Cairo speech had a comment about providing youth in Cairo and the broader Muslim world to connect with young people in Kansas City and the US in general.

The Palestine/Israel peace process also requires...