Track your favorite Senator's salary

Jock Friedly and his congressional staff salary tracking website, legistorm, have become dreaded additions to the Internet database community. A recent Washington Post Article called Friedly "the scourge of capitol hill," but it was hard to tell if the staff writer at the Post agreed with Friedly's motives or just found him a curiously ambitious soldier of public financial disclosure.

The important question that needs to be raised will ask what this project does for the public. So far the Post appears to be passively opposed to disclosure at this level, citing numerous examples of embarrassment and reaffirming that financial matters in America are private (especially if you are filthy rich and your friends are not). Those with their names on legistorm appear to agree. Meanwhile, Friedly lets his hate mail slip passed his conscious and he likely gets some amusement out of keeping congress on the edge of their seats.

The glimmer of hope is that this openness and accessibility will eventually alter the way public officials behave, influence people that run for public office, and draw in the most responsible public servants. Legistorm may also be serving as an interesting social barometer. We still strongly believe that economic inequality will result in social stratification. Should society be pushing for a level playing field with pressure from tools like Friedly's (he doesn't disclose his own profits) or strive for the right to privacy?

Also check out Patentstorm, Stormingmedia, Energystorm, and Sciencestorm.

(Photo from confusedvision's photostream)