Fun With Federal Government Websites Forever
Some helpful soul just forwarded us this email from the Senate press office:
From: Office, Press (Finance-Rep)
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 11:10 AM
Subject: soliciting website ideas
Hi - We'll be redesigning our committee website, finance.senate.gov , soon. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make it more user-friendly. Some immediate ideas include a search function and a way to find documents by issue and not just by date. Also please feel free to suggest other websites, committee or other, that have useful features and would be good for us to emulate. Many thanks.
We're nothing if not helpful. We took a quick look at the site, and our initial reaction was "don't change a thing!" The circa-1997 web design was a clever and subtle nod to fiscal responsibility, and the five-year-old picture of Senators Grassley and Baucus reminded us of our innocent, happy days pre-9/11.
Never one to block progress, of course, we freely admit that a couple things need updating. Here are our suggestions:
* Special "Senate Finance Committee for Kids" section called, ideally, either "Subcommittee on Radical Adventures (and Fiduciary Responsibility)" or "Li'l Grassley's Junior Ranking Members."
* Tags 'n' shit.
* Pictures of cats, cat people, cats in rocket ships, etc.
* Add a Surfin' Squirrel
* Don't explain where a squirrel hailing from "the Mid West" actually surfs.
* Invite-only comments. To procure an invite, donate the legally-mandated maximum amount possible to the committee member of your choice.
Hope that helps.
Rus, the Surfin' Squirrel [USDA]