Brilliant! Obama has appointed Edward Tufte to the newly-formed Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, whose mission is:
To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information.
Tufte will be serving as chairman. Can’t wait to see what comes out of that. Tufte’s apparently up for the challenge, but can he step up to the plate? I hope so.
Also, going outside of the political circles in Washington to not only include someone from academia but make him chairman shows good will and should draw broad support for the initiative.
EXPERIENCING INFORMATION 
Pretty depressing that the role is even needed though, but hey. I’m surprised they didn’t approach Laurence Lessig though (or maybe they did?)