 Doodles by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missle Crisis
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From Reagan's diary to Truman's journal, Lincoln's notes, and Kennedy's scribbling we are fascinated with the inner most thoughts of our national leaders during times of intense political discourse and national change. We look towards the unvarnished, un-spinned, raw, and truthful thoughts of the elected officials we have chosen to represent us in our American Republic as having more interpretive value then the highly sanitized speeches, releases, and talking points that strip away substance in favor of non-offensiveness.
Twitter, the chief of the micro-blogging platforms, has experienced tremendous growth with something like 5 million users and 55 million monthly visits. Twitter has been alternatively described as micro-blogging or akin to a web based IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client. Twitter is only a medium, but with the right approach at the right time. Using 140 characters, it is difficult to avoid speaking in straight, direct messages. Such updates while sometimes trivial, also frequently get directly to the heart of any matter.
With 129 elected officials (at the time of writing) in the U.S. making meaningful contributions every day, the content of these updates is as worth tracking to anyone interested in the machinations of government as is the national news, newspapers, books, and political talk shows. This web site is designed to help people track the national discourse occurring on Twitter right now, whether you choose to register with Twitter or not. We would encourage you of course to sign up, as we have personally generated great benefit from the service.
How can you help move the this medium forward? The biggest influence on congressmen and congresswomen is certainly the well articulated thoughts of their own constituents. We encourage you to contact your local congressional representative and let them know that this is a communication medium you would like to see them embrace. We provide contact information for each official to assist in this process.
We also look to your suggestions to improve the look and function of the web site, as well as let us know where you see mistakes. Most important, please let us know if there is a member of the federal government we are not yet tracking.
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