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"Healther Skelter," joked Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this week invoking apocalyptic war as he broadcast clips of Americans shouting at each other, senators and congressional representatives at health care policy meetings across the country.
Did Stewart exaggerate? Yes and no. In the two weeks since 20 bloggers sat down at BlogHer '09 to talk health care with Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, the issue has ignited. No matter which version you read or prefer, policy discussions are kindling into anger and even violence.
That's why this week BlogHer is joining forces with the Sunlight Foundation and their new program, OpenCongress.org, to try to move the conversation beyond partisan mud-slinging into a civil debate (or even just a civil disagreement) about the future of health care policy in the United States. As spin zones have become increasingly spittle-flecked, many voters -- women in particular -- are losing patience with drama and losing trust in the players. We want to talk policy:
"Stop the madness," blogged Kim Pearson. "Americans have a crucial health care reform proposal moving through the halls of Congress, and we desperately need an informed conversation about its merits. Instead, we're getting people screaming about whether the people screaming at town hall meetings are sock puppets or concerned citizens. We're getting statements from some opponents that grossly distort what's in the bill, and breezy assurances from Pres. Obama that leave important questions unanswered.
"Let's have a serious conversation - you and me - about what we want Congress to do when they return from their fall recess."
Amen. In the past two weeks, women have submitted dozens of questions, opinions and recommendations to the Obama Administration via BlogHer.com and the personal blog of Erin Kotecki Vest, BlogHer's political director. I'll summarize the comments further below, but suffice it to say that one overwhelming complaint is about the quality of information available.
That's where the Sunlight Foundation comes in. Since 2006, the Sunlight Foundation has been equipping citizens with non-partisan information about Congress and the federal government. We think their projects and tools are invaluable resources for citizens, bloggers and journalists who are committed to bringing factual information and transparency into their decisions, discussions, and stories about health care reform.
By launching OpenCongress.org, an open source and non-partisan resource, the Sunlight team has worked with the Participatory Politics Foundation to combine official government data with news and blog coverage. BlogHer Community Manager Denise Tanton, who has 15 years of experience working with women in social media on sites such as Women.com, iVillage.com and WebMD, said of OpenCongress, "This site's mash-up of government data, media and blog coverage allows voters to not only read the existing health care reform bill but to also fact check statements heard on TV, read on the web, or debated over dinner with your in-laws."
We love that. So we've invited previous Sunlight's Nancy Watzman to share their investigations on BlogHer.com multiple times a week. She'll begin with:
1) H.R. 3200: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009: A step-by-step look at what information is available on the House legislation, including how to use OpenCongress tools to read the bill, follow votes, news, blogs, videos and comments about the bill, write your representative and create a bill widget.
2) An overview of tools and reports from Sunlight and how these tools can help people make sense of what they’re reading and hearing. (My personal fave, Party Time, "tracks parties for members of Congress or congressional candidates that happen all year round in Washington, D.C. and beyond."
3) An in-plain-English look at the lobbyists, the money, the influencers. Start with Visualizing the Health Care Lobbyist Complex.
As Nancy reports, our politics and policy bloggers will join in -- and as I've said many times about our highly diverse and partisan crew of righties and lefties, BlogHer is nonpartisan, but our bloggers aren't! We'll offer you resources, actual legislation, commentary from inside and outside the legislative debate and my own personal opinion, which OpenCongress captures here:
Photo credit: OpenCongress.org
More than anything, we want to hear from you. Thank you so much, those of you who took the time to answer when I asked (in open frustration), How do we make
