Open the government...

I found OpenTheGovernment.org today via the Huffington Post, and their Statement of Values fits closely with many of the things that I've been writing about lately. I added my name as a signatory.

What initially caught my eye was their brief video; it highlights the many areas of public policy where the Bush administration is withholding information. Click on the "Are we safer in the dark?" graphic on their homepage.

RELATED STORIES

• Attorney General Gonzales defended the collection of domestic phone records, saying that that data is not protected by the Fourth Amendment.
• USA Today reports that the NSA is not simply looking for phone calls between specific individuals but rather looking for patterns of calls which match predicted terrorist communications. I.e. anyone's calls may trigger an NSA alarm if the pattern matches what they are looking for.

OTHER NEWS

• The latest Bush administration exercise of broad executive power has raised Constitutional concerns amongst GOP congressional leaders, even though the target of the FBI raid was a Democratic representative.
• While I've never been much of a pothead, this report may have many who are breathing more easily. :-)