What Fires You Up?

7/19/2003

 

Guantanomo Bay Shock and No Awe, Just Horror
Where's the story in the US media????? Is it better to draw attention away from unfavorable press regarding the Bush-Blair Twins in their performance for Congress and the media by highlighting instead the story of the British WMD specialist Dr. Kelly killed by his own hand abroad - or maybe we just want more more more on the elderly man who ploughed into the crowd, killing many and injuring more? After 12 hours now, I am not finding this story of Camp Iguano FOR CHILDREN now housed also at Guantanamo Bay!

Much better with priorities it seems, the Guardian today features these three as top stories online:

Latest http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1001258,00.html Bush aids Blair by halting trial of Britons in Guantanamo Bay July 19: Legal proceedings against the two Britons facing a military trial in Guantanamo Bay were suspended last night to allow talks between British and US legal officials. The bitterest betrayal http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1000273,00.html July 19: Among the 680 men imprisoned at Camp Delta, Cuba, are nine Britons. The US says they are hardcore terrorists, and holds them without charge. But where is the evidence? And why is our government so silent on their plight? By Tania Branigan and Vikram Dodd. Missionary position http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1001322,00.html Missionary position July 19, leader: In the US, Blair takes too much on trust.

>>>>Oh that Guardian, what a - straight line - if I ever heard one!

BJ 7/19/2003 10:36:00 AM

7/18/2003

 

GIA: Make that 15 Minutes of Fame Come Back, NOW! Remember hearing about the MIT project website written up by Heather Bray of the Boston Globe called GIA? Here is the opening of her story that was widely publicised just a few weeks ago:

Website turns tables on government officials

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 7/4/2003

Annoyed by the prospect of a massive new federal surveillance system, two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are celebrating the Fourth of July with a new Internet service that will let citizens create dossiers on government officials. The system will start by offering standard background information on politicians, but then go one bold step further, by asking Internet users to submit their own intelligence reports on government officials -- reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy. http://business.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/07/04/website_turns_tables_on_government_officials

To follow up, here are the latest links from the Government Information Awareness website which is still being developed. I hope that there is little "in the way" of the Computer Culture Club project proceeding at full tilt! This is a user-friendly site with very clear visual maps and organized layout anyone can navigate.

"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)
This is from the opening page of the GIA website

http://opengov.media.mit.edu/GIA/ About page for the GIA http://opengov.media.mit.edu/GIA/links.html Related The following sites proved invaluable in developing GIA: Open Secrets http://www.opensecrets.org/ Project Vote Smart http://www.vote-smart.org/ The Center for Public Integrity http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/ Columbia Journalism Review http://www.cjr.org/owners/ NameBase http://www.namebase.org/ This page has great graphics and links. They Rule is a site with visual maps of the interconnections between corporate and government leadership. The link from the graphic on the GIA site is: http://www.theyrule.net/ The map for the 17 Most Powerful corporations is Orwellin chiller: 30 megacorporations are pictured as terminals of spokes in a wheel with board members central in the bulls-eye. The map was drawn in 2001, and the concept of the map is key - very few people actually RULE and identification of interconnections is vital to understanding how the US government "works".

"These are the seven most connected people in the Fortune 100. Together the 6 men and 1 woman are on the boards of 26 companies!"

Donald F. McHenry, Sam Nunn, Donald V. Fites, Helene L. Kaplan, Michael A. Miles, Carl E. Reichardt, and Franklin A. Thomas.

cobalt urges bloggers, journalists and all politically-active people to bring this effort again to public attention. NOW - MORE THAN EVER!

BJ 7/18/2003 01:06:00 PM