Two great websites for flexing our citizenship muscles

One of my hopes for this blog is that it'll be a repository for good directions on how to make our voices heard about public issues -- no more are we to be sheep to the slaughter! To that end, here are two sites we should keep in mind.

• Check out the salaries and financial disclosure forms of members of congress & senior staff on the hill at http://legistorm.com/. You'll be surprised by what these folks own and what & who they owe. Warning, however.. my registration didn't work, so either the site rejected me (truly a worthy site), or it crashed due to too much interest after it was written up this a.m. in Washington Post, or it was shut down by nefarious forces who did not want this public information made easily available to the public. Try it in a few days. One worry -- the site builder may charge for access in the future. Too bad. What a great resource. (I had to fill out these forms when I worked at OTA and CBO. It was one reason I never invested in health care companies, or even in health care mutual funds, and sold some stock I inherited of health care co's as if they were hot potatoes. So, disclosure helped keep me uncorrupted by financial interest. Thank you, disclosure.) Update as of Friday p.m. - I got into the site, but couldn't have fun looking up the salaries of my former CBO co-workers because CBO doesn't seem to be included! Way to go, CBO.
• Become a member of IRS's Taxpayer Advocacy Panel & tell them how they can improve IRS service. You'll have to be squeaky clean when it comes to your own taxes and subject yourself to an FBI criminal background check...well, hey, that means there's plenty of room on the panel for new members. It could be fun for the right "active retiree" who predates the marijuana generation.