Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Pulse of America

A website for issues that will be voted on by congress or decided by governors, mayors, etc. For bills, it would automatically list all the ones that need to be decided on, from usa.gov. For issues only affecting only legislation in a particular area, perhaps only people from that area would be allowed to vote. With each issue could be an explanation of what factors need to be considered, preferably posted by congress members or mayors, etc. Also, for bills, it would be nice if congress members posted summaries, including the gotchas that are tacked on just because they can. Bills don't seem that easy to read.

This doesn't have to be a government-supported website, because the idea isn't that the voters legally or necessarily determine the outcome--it's for politicians to peruse results and feedback at their liesure. Voters should be able to attach explanations about their feelings/opinions along with their votes. Also have the ability for users to post their own bills or other suggestions for changes in legislation or budget, vote for user proposals, or create new branch versions of existing proposals/bills. Attached explanations should be rateable so that it's easy to see which sentiments have a lot of support and are well-presented. User proposals/branches should also be rateable.

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