According to the annual personal financial disclosure statements, 42 Members of Congress own stock in Verizon (10 Ds and 32Rs). Thirty-six own stock in Time Warner (16 Ds and 20Rs). Thirty-three own stock in AT&T (11Ds and 22 Rs). Or, if net neutrality ain't your cause, how about Wal-Mart and the 42 members who own stock in the low-wage discount giant?

It used to be that the only way to figure this stuff out was ridiculously time-consuming. You could patiently download hundreds of PDFs, or try to read individual pages online. No wonder hardly anyone ever looks at what Members of Congress actually own--or that the fact that the number of millionaires in Congress outpaces the general population by a ratio of 35-1 is hardly ever mentioned.

Not any more. Want to know exactly how the federal government spends your money, or which contractors get the bulk of government deals, or what percentage of those contracts are bid competitively? Or, would you like to find out how much your Member of Congress is worth, or how many Members own stock in specific companies? Feel like checking out who's taken the most trips sponsored by private groups? Three new databases, one built by OMB Watch and two built by the Center for Responsive Politics, have just gone live, and judging by the intense press interest in the launch, I think there's going to be a lot of new and interesting stories appearing soon. (Full disclosure: I am a consultant to the Sunlight Foundation, which funded these new databases, and helped with this launch.)

Hello, this is my first diary on MyDD and, who knows, maybe it will be my last! (But I love Matt and Chris and what they're doing, so here goes.)

I have a different answer to the question originally raised by Terrance Heath when he asked "What's wrong with this picture?" after seeing a shot of President Clinton surrounded by fourteen A-list progressive bloggers last week.

The bloggers look just a bit too happy, standing proudly and in some cases grinning broadly, like they just won a million dollars or got invited to the Oval Office. And these are many of the leaders of the progressive blogosphere.