Where Your Tax Dollars Go: Transparency Update

By |2017-12-27T22:05:54+00:00December 27th, 2017|Taxes, Uncategorized|

Who We Are

At OpenTheBooks.com, we work hard to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government – federal, state, and local. We’ve successfully captured nearly 4 billion public expenditures, and we are rapidly growing our data in all 50 states down to the municipal level. We won’t stop until we capture every dime taxed and spent by our government.

As a government watchdog organization, we accept no government funding.

OpenTheBooks.com is a project of American Transparency – a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan charitable organization. All donations are tax deductible for federal or state income tax purposes to the fullest extent of the law.

What We Do

OpenTheBooks.com operates under three distinct magnifying glasses.

  1. Current Events
    We follow the national news cycle closely and apply our unique data to breaking news stories. Our data adds to the national narrative and provide a new angle for the country’s most-covered stories.
  1. Oversight Reports
    We publish in-depth oversight reports on the federal, state, and local government entities. Our reports are unique, providing detailed insight to the intricate ways tax dollars are spent.
  1. Unique Database 
    Perhaps our most important microscope for long-term impact, we have worked to make our data easy to use, accurate, and accessible. OpenTheBooks.com is the world’s largets private database of government spending. Our goal is to put every government expense – local, state, and federal – online in real time. The data is accessible via cell phone, iPad, and computer to everyone including public citizens, investigative reporters, academics, think tanks, politicians, and more.

What We Believe

It’s your money, and you deserve to see where every dime is spent! We believe taxpayers have a constitutional right to government oversight. We believe hard data is a game changer. Once citizens are able to see how the government spends their money, it will influence how they vote and how they view their government.

Holiday Survival Guide: How to Deal With the Left-Winter in Your Family

By |2017-12-23T18:54:36+00:00December 23rd, 2017|Uncategorized|

It’s the season to spend time with family and celebrate the season. Whether you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Kawanza, or Christmas, odds are you’ll be seeing a lot of relatives this year. The question on everyone’s minds is how to survive the holiday season when your child comes home from college, or when that one cousin, uncle, or a grandfather who’s been a Democrat his entire life comes to visit. We have the solution.

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Regarding Internet Neutrality

By |2017-12-13T01:26:07+00:00December 13th, 2017|Opinion|

“Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai just announced his plan to end net neutrality and the FCC will vote on his proposal December 14. This could result in internet service providers like Comcast being able to throttle or block access to content it doesn’t like. It’s never been more important for you to add your name to this petition.

The ability to organize grassroots movements, whether locally or across the globe, is made possible by an open Internet. Since its creation, the Internet has become the world’s megaphone for free speech, protected by the principles of Net Neutrality, which require internet service providers (ISPs) to give everyone equal access to everything you use the internet for — email, watching videos, listening to music, or signing petitions on Change.org.

Without Net Neutrality, ISPs can choose what you see online, favoring some sources or blocking others. For example, if someone launched a petition on Change.org against a company like Verizon, Net Neutrality prevents Verizon from blocking or slowing their customers’ access to our site.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to end Net Neutrality — which could mean giving big cable companies room to charge extra fees, block and censor users — by removing ISPs from Title II of the Communications Act, a rule that means ISPs are subjected to tougher regulations that prevent them blocking sites, creating paid “fast” lanes, and throttling internet speeds. This decision could have global implications for the way the world shares and receives information from journalists, newsrooms, and NGO’s.

Net Neutrality also prevents ISPs from creating paid “fast lanes” that would give faster delivery of content to companies who can afford to pay more. An organization or platform like Change.org that couldn’t afford those fees, couldn’t communicate with their supporters.

In the United States, there is strong bipartisan support for Net Neutrality. A recent poll conducted by Mozilla found that Republicans, Democrats and Independents overwhelmingly support these rules.

At Change.org, we believe that people everywhere should have the tools they need to make their voices heard. We’re a social good company powered by technology that empowers anyone anywhere to take action on the issues they care about. A closed off Internet means fewer ways for millions of people to make the change they want to see.

Without an internet equally accessible to everyone regardless of income or geography, we can’t continue that mission. Add your name to let Congress and the FCC know that you support an open internet.”

From  www.change.org

 

 

From a very concerned American:

I agree 100%. The government has no business regulating the internet. Hands off. Can you imagine the vote fixing slimy politicians could create and the stock market manipulation that could happen if speeds were sold and not offered equally? The world would become a nightmare due to information being manipulated by many.  I can’t imagine the corruption they would create. No, No, No. Leave it alone! It works fine the way it is

Enough with the Victimhood: Millionaire Athletes and Their Lost Cause

By |2017-12-07T21:13:46+00:00December 7th, 2017|Uncategorized|

By Sylvia Thompson

I must admit I have never in my life purchased a ticket to a sports event. I am not a sports enthusiast. But I am an American black citizen, and I have had it up to the gills with black people who embrace victimhood. I also highly resent my being expected to do the same in order to affirm my “blackness.”

Black victims these days, for the most part, are the product of decades of Black Americans being used primarily by white progressive leftists to advance an anti-American agenda.

The current brouhaha surrounding the despicable behavior of NFL athletes toward the National Anthem and the American flag is a prime example of what the Left has done to my race.

One must assume these players and their guilt-conflicted white coaches and owners (and victimhood-inflicted black coaches) are being manipulated by the Left, because no intelligent, thinking people would deliberately cut themselves off at the knees. Essentially, what these young misguided mostly black men are doing is ensuring the demise of their lucrative paychecks. Further, I would wager that if these teams consisted of all white athletes, none of this idiocy would be allowed. We are witnessing this travesty because the vast majority of players are black and can whine “oppression” if appropriate action is taken against them for their unconscionable behavior.

The twisted reasoning that claims these protests are to highlight “injustice” and “police brutality” is a laughable crock. What they do in fact is dishonor valued symbols of this nation’s heritage and cover over truth about black crime.

Black males bear the brunt of police encounters because black males commit disproportionately more crimes. Police encounters with black men are so often confrontational because so many of these men, especially the young, don’t think “compliance” applies to them. They foolishly assume they are above the law and disrespect for police officers is an act of honor.

These young blacks, sadly, took much of their direction from racists Obama and Eric Holder during Obama’s destructive, eight-year regime and Holder’s corruption of the Justice Department. These two men, abusing their federal powers, gave young blacks the impression they need not heed the law, because laws are somehow unjust when they are applied to black Americans. The NFL lot, and any other athletes taking a similar stance, are also influenced by Obama’s and Holder’s disdain for law and law enforcement.

I am not familiar with one case where a black suspect to a crime was not proven legally to have caused the behavior against him, particularly in cases where the police officer involved was exonerated by facts. Michael Brown of “hands up, don’t shoot” infamy is one good example. Blatant lies were spread to cloud the truth about Brown’s case.

Back in the day when I was growing up in the racially segregated South, the opposite prevailed in many cases. There was much injustice particularly toward black men, but not today. Today, too many blacks have been fed the notion that it is now “pay-back” time, and they can flaunt their lawlessness because some whites flaunted theirs during an earlier time in our nation’s history.

Although Obama and Holder no longer wield power in this country, some of their minions continue on the pernicious path of “paying back” American whites for wrongs, real or imagined. But as the saying goes, there is a new Sheriff in town and he is not guilt-conflicted. He expects fair play under law and tolerating pay-back is not part of his agenda. Black Americans, when they break the law, can no longer claim victim status simply because they are black. Those days are over.

American laws and law enforcement personnel will be respected in America, again; our traditions and values will not be impugned in America without consequences, again. Anybody unsettled about this turn of events is welcome to leave this country. I suggest all the black players try a country in Africa, and see how successful they will be at making millions playing games. They will all soon learn what oppression really means.

Some self-directed, independent-thinking blacks (and there are many of us) have offered that if these millionaire protestors want to tackle some real problems, they might consider the thousands of black children killed in abortions annually (by the progressive Left), or perhaps the many, many young blacks murdered routinely on inner-city streets by other young blacks (in cities run by progressive, leftist Democrats), or the downright criminal state of education of black inner-city children, orchestrated by the progressive leftist National Education Association (NEA). The NEA’s aim is to produce unintelligent pawns to feed the cause of progressivism.

I am annoyed by the expressions of “sincerity” gracing the faces of the NFL protestors—as if to convey the “hallowedness” of their cause. In actuality, they provide a picture of grown men allowing themselves to be made fools of by the progressive Left. I don’t doubt, however, that some of these men have been coerced into compliance with this lost cause, either through threats of violence or shunning (from coaches and players). Alejandro Villanueva of the Pittsburgh Steelers and former Army ranger is very likely a victim of such threats. He was publicly castigated by his leftist coach for his patriotism. The coach demanded unity behind an ignorant cause.

And finally, this issue has nothing to do with First Amendment rights. President Trump’s speaking out against the clownish behavior of the athletes, on behalf of the majority of American citizens, does not mean he can or would stop any of these misguided people from making fools of themselves. To restrict them, as a government entity, would indeed be a violation of the First Amendment. But their employers, if they were to develop even a modicum of testicular fortitude, could and should fire them for doing major damage to the bottom line of the business. The rest of us non-millionaire “Joes” would certainly be pink-slipped by an employer if we dared to be so clueless about the necessity of profits and so disdainful of the sensibilities of customers.

I will wait patiently for the true sports enthusiasts to vent their rage by simply boycotting the games. It will be sweet revenge to witness the slain goose cease producing its golden eggs.

Regarding Net Neutrality

By |2017-12-07T21:05:02+00:00December 7th, 2017|Uncategorized|

Regarding Net Neutrality:

The government has no business regulating the internet. Hands off. Can you imagine the vote fixing slimy politicians could create and the stock market manipulation that could happen if speeds were sold and not offered equally. The world would become a nightmare due to information being manipulated by the swamp. I can’t imagine the corruption they would create. No, No, No. leave it alone, it works fine the way it is

Sign the petition here and call Congress to stop the vote from the FCC on Dec. 14, 2017

https://petitions.signforgood.com/ProtectNetNeutrality/?code=kos

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