User talk:Avelino Maestas

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Hello Avelino,

I'm a bit of a stranger round this namespace these days, but I noticed on the Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Appropriations Act talk page that OpenCongress had not yet published the file, and was wondering if you were aware of the Library of Congress' thomas.loc.gov?

To reference all of the site's data on a speific bill from the home page, just make sure the bill number radio button is clicked enter the bill number and search.

If you see a link for GPO PDF Display enabled, it is a direct link to the Government Printing Office's PDF file of the Bill.

If you see the XML Display link enabled, it is a direct link to Thomas' XML file of the bill.

Sometimes it will not show ma mark-up of the bill's text. Usually what they refer to as a "Bill Summary & Status file" appears. It is a table with link options. Look for an active link that says "text of legislation" in it.

Thomas has some other data worth looking at:
 * CRS Summary: a Congressional Research Service synopsis of the bill
 * All Information (except text)
 * Cosponsors
 * Committees
 * Related Bills
 * Amendments
 * Related Committee Documents
 * CBO Cost Estimates

Depending on the bill, some of these may not be available.

If you poke around this data, you can find a good link or too, such as Roll Call No 1108, a direct link to the House of Representatives Official vote tally for H.R. H.R.4156.

Downsides of Thomas

 * be careful about linking to anything you find, as many of the links reference your search and are not permanent URLs.
 * both the GPO PDF, and the XML versions of the Bill text carry a great deal of data overhead with them. PDF files are always bloated in wsize compared to HTML versions.  The style sheet that gets attached to the XML file, billres.xsl is over 300 KB in size.

cheers, --hugh_manateee 15:41, 15 November 2007 (EST)

Portal Categories
Hey Avelino,

I expressed a concern to Bob Burton (User talk:Bob Burton) regarding the posting of a table (image) by the Portal:Economic Policy (U.S.) group at a page I helped create and maintain, Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act of 2007. He in turn suggested I contact you, regarding what I'd assume to involve, the appropriateness of its 'design' and inclusion on the page.

Suggestions? Gospelnous 03:32, 6 February 2008

Copy of Email Sent in Response to Avelino

February 7, 2008

Avelino, Per SourceWatch's stated objectives: "SourceWatch is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy." You'll notice I didn't just remove the 'portal headers' I found overbearing and that had, since raising the issue, been added to two other articles I'd originated, but revised their respective categories in order to 'tie legislation and articles into issue areas' that would in fact, help readers 'find related articles'. Because I'd followed Bob Burton's suggestion to contact you with my concerns in order to address their resolution, but not heard back from you, I simply resolved the issue to my own satisfaction. Consequently, I would have 'objections' at this point to restoring the 'offensive headers' as serving only to (perhaps) enhance SourceWatch's 'entertainment' value for certain visitors. However, I don't think doing that would be consistent with your 'stated objectives' to document 'PR and propaganda activities' of those 'engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy.' Respectfully,

Brian McConnell

--Gospelnous 12:36, 8 February 2008 (EST)

New York Delegates / Super Delegates
Avelino Maestas, for the wiki page, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_York_2008_presidential_primary_and_superdelegates, I think you can use the New York State Democratic Party's new guide at http://nydems.org/dncdelegation.php and http://nydems.org/pledged_delegates.php. It's unofficial since the board of elections hasn't certified the results, but I think it can help.

full list of super d's
This should help you fill up your list... then you will just have to rely on people to get the endorsements in.

In TN, Cooper and Cohen, who are correctly down for Obama, do reflect their Congressional district preferences. Al Gore is not going to endorse. If I hear any others, I will report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/primaries/2008_superdelegates.html

SW: External Articles
I would like to add External Articles to the Superdelegates in the 2008 presidential primaries page. I have added one -- is this the correct way? It appears that this page pulls in links from other places using variables (?), so I am not sure if what I've done is correct. --Caffeinated 13:30, 14 February 2008 (EST)

SW: Senators & "Agrees w/ voters?"
Hey Avelino, How should we count Senators in terms of Agreeing with voters? If the total delagates for a state were split 55/38, should both count as Candidate One? Should both Senators split 1 for Candidate One & 1 for Candidate Two? Thanks,  Xscinx 09:02, 15 February 2008 (EST)

Broken Table
Somehow I have managed to break the table at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Connecticut_2008_presidential_primary_and_superdelegates#_note-COURANT so that it no longer shows the fifth row (DNC Ellen Camhi). I've looked it over carefully, but I can't figure out what's wrong. Help? Thelatinist 11:30, 18 February 2008 (EST)
 * Fixed -- a couple of the ref tags were not closed properly. --Caffeinated 14:51, 21 February 2008 (EST)

Adding Info to charts from external sources
Hello, Avelino. Being new and wanting to help input info on the Iowa chart, I have some simple questions: If I find vote counts from the AP, how do I make note the AP as the source? Or is that even necessary? Or from what other sources are you obtaining your counts for the charts. Thanks.

Concerned about candidate "hype" on this site
Please visit Jill Martinez profile and consider inappropriate marketing language and verbiage. Quite inappropriate for a opensource site such as this. What is your view point?

Thanks!
I appreciate the heads up on how you want the citations done. That looks SO much nicer! I went back and corrected Indiana and PA and will work through the others as I have time.

Yael

It didn't take any time at all
I was bored. :)

Delegate Update
I would be happy to update the main page today.

Edit -- I do not have access to do this. Here are the new endorsements and one switcher. Hit "edit" to copy this in list format as it is wrapping when I save it.

Dave Regan (OH-Addon) for Barack Obama - 5/10/08 Carole Burke (VI) for Barack Obama - 5/10/08 Arthur Powell (MA-Addon) for Hillary Clinton - 5/10/08 Kristi Cumming (UT-Addon) for Barack Obama - 5/10/08 Edward Espinoza (CA) (aka Mr. Super) for Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Vernon Watkins (CA) for Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Wilbur Lee Jeffcoat (SC) Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Laurie Weahkee (NM-Addon) Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI) for Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Joe Johnson (VA) for Barack Obama - 5/9/08 Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (TX) for Hillary Clinton - 5/9/08

Kevin Rodriquez (VI) switched to Barack Obama - 5/10/08

Edit -- have updated with these...

Yael

Sorry -- wrong link
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pbbO5K4njsUv_hkAVN7dIIg

Edit to add my thanks to you -- I have enjoyed helping out!

Yael