Follow Friday Blogs, July 27, 2012 -- Money In Politics Edition

Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings about the impact of money on our political process.  Since this subject is both timely and a key interest of mine (and of the CoffeePartyUSA, of which I am an Editorial Board member and weekly radio host), I've decided to focus this week's blog recommendations on the issue.

First up is the site for Rootstrikers, founded by Lawrence Lessig of Harvard University. Rootstrikers calls itself "a network of activists fighting the corrupting influence of money in politics. Lessig and his team have created a vibrant community around this issue, and the site provides a variety of thoughtful and provocative articles.

Next up is The Money Tale, the blog hosted over at FollowTheMoney.org. This site has an interesting take on the topic, focusing on specific instances where money in politics has impacted specific legislative actions and/or communities, allowing us to see what money came from where, and how it may have been used to influence important decisions.

Finally this week, I recommend a visit to Maplight, a site that is focused on "revealing money's influence on politics." The site has a variety of areas that cover interest groups, contributions, companies, etc., but the one I found most fascinating was the "Bills in the News" section where you can see the proportion of money spent to either support or oppose a particular position.  While the site isn't really a blog, I was impressed enough with the info provided to list it here as well.

That's it for this week, except to say that each of these sites has quite a few links to other sites as well, so if this topic is important to you, there are plenty of places to get information.

Oh, and feel free to check out my recent posting as well!