Teenager builds browser plug-in that allows you to see the politicians’ funders

22

senator_stern_greenhouse
Thursday 3 July, 2014

Written by: Anonymous Singer

Here we go again, with another new useful tool to keep tabs on politicians. It is a

browser plug-in named “Greenhouse” and it lets users easily access information on

where our public servants get their campaign donations from.

 

Greenhouse gives a list of the top 10 industries from which a politician receives money.

Besides that, it also highlights what percentage of a politician’s funds come from presumably

grassroots supporters, those who make donations of 200 dollars or less.

The software launched in early June and it can already be

used for browsers Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox.

Unbenannt

The creator of Greenhouse is a 16-year-old self-taught

programmer named Nicholas Rubin. He explains on his

website that “even though I am only 16 years old, not quite

old enough to vote, I am old enough to know that our

political system desperately needs fixing. I hope that this

tool is one step in that direction.”

Rubin says he got the name of his plug-in from a desire for

transparency, like the glass walls of a greenhouse. The 16-

year-old boy gives some insight into his own political

philosophy and mission:

It is my hope that providing increased transparency around the amount and source of funding of our elected representatives may play a small role in educating citizensand promoting change. If you use the extension when reading about a Congressional vote on energy policy, for example, maybe you’ll discover that a sponsor of a bill has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry. Or maybe you’ll learn that the top donors to a member of Congress who opposes tort reform are lawyers and law firms. I use data from the last full election cycle (2012) and plan to update it as more relevant data becomes available. Special thanks to OpenSecrets.org for providing access to that data.

The motto of Greenhouse is: “Some are red. Some are blue. All are green.” What it signifies is that the influence of money on our government isn’t a partisan issue. Whether Democrat or

Republican, we should all want a political system that is independent of the influence of big money and not dependent on endless cycles of fundraising from special interests. The United States of America was founded to serve individuals, not big interests or big industries. Yet every year we seem to move farther and farther away from our Founders’ vision.”

Engadget, a technology blog, gives critique on the fact that Rubin’s data is a few years old. He replied that “the information in the popup is from the last full election cycle (ending in 2012) because it is the most complete data available.” Rubin gets his information from the Center for Responsive Politics Open Secrets website, which tracks lobbying and campaign contributions, and “plan[s] to update the data in the popup itself later in this election cycle as 2014 contributions are more complete.”

 Links:

Website of plugin: http://www.allaregreen.us

 

CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US VIA PATREON

Get Your Anonymous T-Shirt / Sweatshirt / Hoodie / Tanktop, Smartphone or Tablet Cover or Mug In Our Spreadshirt Shop! Click Here

 

22 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you for uploading this article, AnonHQ and Anonymous Singer. I’m going to check out that Open Secrets website, in hopes that it will shed a bit more light to those of us kept in the dark. I think it’s pretty amazing that this kid is only 16 years old! Gives me a breath of relief.. it’s refreshing to see in the youth (representative of the future) that there is still hope.

  2. This is a step in the right detection but its almost to late. If we don’t start taking down the ” red shield” and well you get the idea within less then 10 years this world will be enslaved by the ruling elite. I wonder what Andrew Jackson would have done…..!!!!

  3. …We are a physical reality experimenting temporarily a collective consciousness…

    We must live our lives with a completely different lifestyle, a lifestyle in which collective consciousness rules over everything, where what is considered mundane, pagan, the language of the environment that surrounds us, is heard by everyone. When we reach the understanding, that our looks are redundant and that simply are part of something transitory because life is a journey that we are all experiencing and is common that our perspectives turned out to be different in the physical appearance and such, we must stop living in a society where finding out which famous actor got divorced from the most controversial pop star of the country is more important than myself, as part of EVERYTHING. Of all this global connection, because this journey is being experienced by all with different points of view, where of course also leads to worry about fitting in a multitude that is going to end up judging me by the end of the day. What’s with the mistake of the human being, to believe that having MORE is BEING more? Whoever created this selfish tendency, that at levels of expansion give birth to things such as racism and phobias, finally acting as a political response, in an era in which those who actually govern are not at sight… but are used as puppets, I would call, so they face us and be part of a butchery of countries in lust of power, is a being with no love towards himself, is someone with no heart for NO ONE, that being of suit and tie that exploits the population as if we were his property enslaving us, that being is from another planet or however you want to call it. Answer me, why do a human being, that can’t even find himself because of its lack of identity and blindness, be that who manages my wealth and made me pay for just living in this planet that we ALL share? NO ONE has the permission to allow me how much money I can get for doing a job that doesn’t fulfill the slightest particle in my body. Someone who establishes an educational system, in which the most important aspects of humanity are not even taught, shows the lack of consciousness from those who rule it. I don’t have to learn how to add the debt of my equals in order in to sink them, or to decrease the amount of shared hours with their loved ones because of the chains of time that aren’t allowing us to see, diminish my happiness, prohibit the possibility to travel and not letting me know the planet in which I inhabit as the free human being I am, neither to duplicate YOUR earnings because of your GLUTTONY of wanting to HAVE more than anybody else! Or even worse, to LESSEN the food provision to a human being to almost, reaching a point, in case it hasn’t been proved yet, of STARVING to DEATH! How those, who believe in a God that corrects, accept that such reality is being experienced by the population of OUR OWN PLANET? Because, let me emphasize, WE ARE A PHYSICAL REALITY EXPERIMENTING TEMPORARILY A COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS, absolutely EVERYONE, no one is more than NO ONE for NO REASON. We are creator of our own reality, we must learn to align our thoughts, we must take control of our though and go within, achieving to eliminate the unnecessary obstacles that cause stress and other diseases that are only bringing me a life of regret, doubt, of fear, violence, intolerance, selfishness and such. Only then, when realizing that changing those aspects in my life, brought by a blinded, closed and superficial society, we can LOVE ourselves, which brings us to the next step of finding ourselves.

    It’s time to act…the time is now and it will always be, I may sound dramatic but this situation will only get worse with the time if people keep doing the same, I support Russel Brand as well as any other spiritual person would with the proposition of STOP voting, if an ENTIRE country is AGAINST their government, then DEFINITELY they will start taking control, I think it IS time to start taking contron and building campaings and stuff stating rough articles regarding the economical situation and EVERY situation involved by those who are in charge of YOUR country, exactly…YOURS. We do NOT want to live in an era where there is only ONE reptilian controlling the population of the ENTIRE WORLD, and if we don’t start moving our asses, that WILL happen. I don’t want that for my kids (if I were to have any) I don’t want that for the many people that will inhabit this world in the future, in case it ISN’T destroyed completely by our own actions, because of our fault, beacuse at the end, we are the ones that have the chance to make things change, WE. ARE . OUR. SALVATION.

  4. It’s never too late to stand up against the government. Their power is money which is a perceived value, if you have had enough of their bull shit then do something about it. No one is brave enough to stand up alone, I’m not perfect so neither would I, but they cannot arrest or punish all if use. So instead of only expressing you unrest in forums like this, where the only audience is the people who are aware of the issues and care, take to the streets, tell people. Because the more people we have aware, the greater our force will be. But violence never solves anything so I am NOT advocating for that just use your words and the vary rights they are taking from us. This is our world it no longer belongs the corrupt who have fucked it up. Start caring about people without expecting payment. Stop the need less expiration of resources so the next monopoly can think they own us. Take back your right of to have an idea, fuck copyright, make your own decisions without someone telling you that this is what you are supposed to do. My hope is that with in the next year we rise up and end corruption and put a stop to cruelty, remember everybody love everybody.

  5. This 16 year old “kid” has more balls than most “grownups”, because he’s actually trying to achieve something, not just sit at home on the couch, watch the highly polished bullshit passed off as news and bitch about it. The next day at work, they bitch about it and come home and do it all over again. It’s time to ACT!, not talk anymore. The politicians don’t listen to us anymore because we don’t put enough money in their coffers. They take their orders from where ever the money comes from, and since the Supreme Court has become it’s own joke in saying that corporations are people, and money is free speech, we have few viable options, but options that would indeed work if enough people get their lazy complacent asses off the couch, STAND UP for a change, and decide FINALLY, that enough is enough. There are enough people with the same mindset, where at least in this country, we CAN make a difference….call it the United States Spring if you will, but whatever the name, we have to have the same core values, the same bullish attitude that the founders had, that this country and it’s people were to be FREE from tyranny and enslavement, which my friends, is exactly where we find ourselves today. The taxman owns us, we live in houses we call “ours” but the banks own them(and after the 2008 debacle, between the U.S and U.K over 10K people committed suicide because they’d not only lost their jobs due to unbelievably stupid trade bills, but it lead to them losing their homes, some within months of being paid off, not having money to feed their family, they lost their car and ALL of their hope and dignity was gone in the bat of an eye. No banker has seen a minute in jail yet, they just get bigger bonuses) giant corporations rape the land and make it unusable for generations and in some instances where radioactive chemicals have leaked and spread through once pristine rivers, or spread by what was once a gentle welcome wind, ghost towns are created, and more of them than you know. What happens to the corporations that create this invisible death of the land and the people? A fine so small they hardly notice it, and go about business as usual in a new location. We have lobbyist that have no business to even BE a lobby. Why does the Jewish people, who have their OWN country, have one of the largest lobbies in the U.S.? And why does the U.S. give so much money and military aid to them? Remember, that because of the intricate ways the money is given and hidden in other unrelated bills that pass, a completely accurate amount is hard to come by, but many that are close enough, say it’s about $3.1 BILLION a year in YOUR tax dollars, while the government gives Gaza and the OCCUPIED West Bank, a paltry $460 million. Bare in mind that Israels economy is better than the U.S!., so why do they get that much, or even ANY and to a butchering, Nazi like government to top it off?? We even give Russia money! Instead of boring you with even more countries that get YOUR tax dollars, just use this link and remember this chart is from fiscal 2012/13, so some amounts will have either increased or decreased, but not by much either way. wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_foreign_aid. Just a few weeks ago, Secretary of State John Kerry gave, or rather “unfroze” $500 million with another 70 million promised. I’m not sure at this time if that amount has been released as well. Even the bought and paid for US MSM has shown el Sisi’s true colors, but we still give Egypt “foreign aid” money each year and have for decades. Why? As a full blown bribe so they won’t attack Israel, while Israel is busy attacking both Lebanon and what’s left of Palestine and taking it over bit by bit, against several U.N. laws, bylaws, etc. The building of the ILLEGAL settlements continue unabated against INTERNATIONAL LAW, yet nothing gets done, either by the U.N or the U.S. who crows so loudly about human rights. When I first heard of this, I thought it had to be a joke, but it turns out to be true, and a sad joke at the same time. Some of the countries on the list, in my humble opinion, DO deserve some help, but you don’t just dump a bunch of money to a country that doesn’t know even what step one should be, i.e. Haiti. Because I’m human, I feel for the people and their suffering, but their government(corrupt as our own here) has improved the country about 5% in a generous estimate. The NGO’s help as much as the people will let them, but almost every picture I’ve seen of the Haitian people shows them sitting around like it’s a casual Saturday afternoon doing NOTHING, but in all fairness, sometimes I DO see photos of some of the people planting trees, which they so desperately need if they’d learn to stop chopping them down to use as a fuel source, then by doing that there’s nothing stopping landslides after a hard rain or worse, a Hurricane. They just don’t seem to learn from one disaster to another, but I still hold out hope for them. Getting away from all of YOUR tax dollars squandered in “foreign aid”, I’m DEEPLY concerned about our military budget being more than Russia, France, China and KSA COMBINED, with room to spare(for those that don’t know, KSA is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and maybe having space for The Republic of Korea(South of course). Why does the U.S. need so many bases around the world, and try through not only military actions, but add in the politics, and the U.S. has caused skirmishes where we got a person of our governments choice in office, whatever it took(probably simple vote rigging), and it’s yet to work the way they planned. Look no further back than Iran and Iraq. With elections in Afghanistan, probably more of the same. But back to the U.S. military. WHY do we need such a huge budget, and military hardware sitting in the desert unused and battle ready? Is it paranoia because we’ve made a continuous habit of sticking our proverbial nose into everybody’s business? We’ve certainly got our share of enemies, and with good cause. The MIC is never satisfied and is like a church…..god doesn’t need money, but the pressure for the congregation to give more, is ongoing. It’s simple greed from companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the usual cast of characters. Orders are made, a price agreed on, but by the time the fist shipment rolls out, it’s always years behind and 3 or 4(or more) times the original price. Business as usual, and again, this is YOUR tax dollars. How ’bout the U.S. try a different strategy….when it sticks it’s nose in, do it for humanitarian reasons, tell Israel to go piss up a rope, give foreign aid where it’s TRULY needed and deserved, rebuild some of the infrastructure HERE that’s falling apart as you read this, feed the hungry people HERE, put term limits on members of Congress….no more career job. Reduce the pay of Congress equal to the effort and time they work, not he ridiculous amount they get now. When the retire, no pension or anything else. It’s supposed to be an honor to serve the Country, not rape and pillage it for so long that you have a permanent ass imprint in your seat, whether in the House or Senate and enjoy privileges their constituents will never enjoy. Contrary to their delusion, they are NOT Kings. In just doing that much will eliminate a LOT of the politicians from being in office long enough to GET bought off, MAKE the Supreme Court reverse it’s decision on people and companies being able to give unlimited amounts of money to any campaign. Limit donations from ANYONE to a MAX. of $50 so the PEOPLE of this country have as much power and control in the process as anyone else, limit the influence of lobby’s and simply eliminate others, i.e. AIPAC. Israel doesn’t need to be trying to influence OUR government when it needs to get it’s own house in order. come up with an interim government while we wait for new elections from the President on down the line. I keep a little book with me at all times, minus the shower, and there are a few words that keep me fired up, even as screwed as the U.S. has become that continues to give me hope….”We The People” and I hold out hope that the “Oathkeepers” KEEP their oath to protect us from the enemies, foreign or domestic, because we’ve got more domestic enemies right now than foreign. If Homeland Security truly wants to find them, they need look not much further than within the boundaries of the District of Columbia. I could go on for another couple hours, but I have things to do, and I HOPE in your spare time, or just MAKE the time to make people aware, educate them, form groups, know your neighbors, help each other and look out for each other regardless of yours or their religion or lack of one, skin color, place of birth, sexuality, age, or “party affiliation” because they’re all distractions from keeping us from being ONE. When we can achieve finally that simple thing…..being ONE people, the government can’t win. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence were ALL written on a “By and For the People” pretext, and as ONE, it will be impossible for it to change or be changed by those that would destroy us from within. Stand up, shout out and let your message be heard, let your presence be seen at rallies. When there’s silence, the powers that be, assume all is well, and will continue to ruin this country and others. WE have the responsibility to NOT let that ever occur. We have too many generations yet to be born that depend on what WE do, so don’t let them down. Let them know a TRULY free country, not one that throws the word around a lot, when it really means “oppressed” and bought off. Good luck to us all, and may your days ahead be full of “going forward”, speaking up, and doing things that will bring us, not just as a people, but ONE people, indivisible, with true liberty and equal justice for ALL!

  6. The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here