poor-mans-fech.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'rubygems'
require 'open-uri'

committee_id = ARGV.shift
search       = ARGV.join(" ")

if committee_id.nil? || search.nil?
  puts <<-USAGE
    Poor man's fec searchin'

    poor-fec <committee_id> <search string>
  USAGE
end

URL = "http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/#{committee_id}"

ids = open(URL).read.scan(/HREF='(.*)\/'/).map(&:shift)

ids.each do |id|
  data = open("http://query.nictusa.com/dcdev/posted/#{id}.fec").read
  data.split("\n").each do |row|
    puts row if row =~ /#{search}/i
  end
end