October 2010 – Your Code of Ethics

Reference: Exec. and Leg. branches: advisory committees, links to

Fido.gov provides the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Database, which "is used by Federal agencies to continuously manage an average of 1,000 advisory committees government-wide." It is also "used by the Congress to perform oversight of related Executive Branch programs and by the public, the media, and others, to stay abreast of important developments resulting from advisory committee activities." "Although centrally supported by the General Services Administration's Committee Management Secretariat, the database represents a true 'shared system' wherein each participating agency and individual committee manager has responsibility for providing accurate and timely information that may be used to assure that the system's wide array of users has access to data required by FACA."

Historic Views on Government – Leo

Honest opinion about government from John Leo:

The minority liberalism of the New Deal narrowed and hardened into a sectarian movement that Prof. William Galston of the University of Maryland calls "liberal fundamentalism." It was presided over by a top-bottom coalition of elite professionals and the poor, with less and less room for the middle class and the working class and their values. Along the way, a great many Democrats came to see the party as indifferent, if not hostile, to their moral sentiments and not much interested in their economic struggles either….

…[G]alston, in a paper, co-authored with Elaine Kamarck, warned that for many Americans, "Democrats are part of the problem: Democrats have become the party of individual rights but not individual responsibility, of self-expression but not self-discipline, of sociological explanation but not moral accountability." That helped keep the national party out of touch with voters for a generation.

U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 7, 1992

An outspoken critic of contemporary liberalism, John Leo writes a column entitled "On Society," which regularly appears in U.S. News and World Report.

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.

Reference: Exec. branch: boards, commissions, committees, links to

USA.gov provides links to the various Boards, Commissions, and Committees
of the executive branch.

Historic Views on Government – Carey

Honest opinion about government from George Carey:

[S]ince at least the advent of the New Deal,…the dominant political forces have seen their main task as one of achieving "social democracy" which, when distilled, comes down to greater economic and social equality. The extent of the shift over four decades can hardly be exaggerated. What were formerly regarded as dispensations by government are now looked upon as vested rights. We now have entrenched interests in the bureaucracy whose very livelihood depends upon identifying social "wrongs" and developing long-range plans to ameliorate them. The quest for equality in all spheres of social life seemingly knows no bounds short of repealing the laws of nature.

In Defense of the Constitution, 1989

A contributor to several leading political science journals, George Carey has edited such works as Liberalism Versus Conservatism (with Willmoore Kendall, 1966), A Second Federalist (with Charles S. Hyneman, 1970), and In Defense of the Constitution (1989).

Reference: Leg. branch: independent agencies & govt corporations, links

Click here for USA.gov links to websites of the various
Independent Agencies and Government Corporations created by Congress to "address concerns that go beyond the scope of ordinary legislation." They are "responsible for keeping the government and economy running smoothly."

The following is a similar list of many, if not all, of congress's independent agencies:

Reference: Leg. branch: Senate members

Click here for links to the websites of each member of the U.S. Senate, arranged alphabetically (and can also be arranged by state or by party). Click here for alphabetical list of links to members' websites that also includes corresponding links to the websites of the committees assigned to each member.

Videos of each Senate member's time on the Senate floor in the current session, arranged by amount of time that member appeared, are found here at the C-SPAN site.

Click here for links to historical lists of Senators who have served in the U.S. Senate from each State, listed alphabetically by State.

Reference: Exec. and Leg. branches: cross-agency topical websites

The following is a list of links to websites of what USA.gov describes as "Cross Agency Portals." They include websites on topics to which one or more government agencies, legislative or executive or independent, pertain.

Historic Views on Government – Calhoun

Honest opinion about government from John C. Calhoun:

The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.

speech, Feb. 17, 1835

Government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.

speech, Senate, June 27, 1848

A champion of states' rights, John C. Calhoun was an American lawyer, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1811-1817), Secretary of War (1817-1825), Vice-President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson (1825-1832), Senator (1832-1843, 1845-1850), and Secretary of State (1844-1845). Calhoun's views on human nature and the abuses of political power and his theory of the "concurrent majority" are important to American Conservatism.