Stephen Colbert likes to talk about "truthiness" -- opinion that is not necessarily based on any facts. OpentheGovernment.org is a coalition in which Common Cause participates that really wants to substitute truth for truthiness.
The coalition consists of a wide variety of journalism, transparency, environmental, labor, and other public interest and democracy groups concerned about the increasing propensity of the Bush Administration to keep important information hidden from the American public.
The statistics about what the government is hiding from us are pretty depressing. But the flash video the coalition has put together is not. Coalition director Patrice McDermott said that its purpose was to remind Americans of their heritage of openness. "Our democracy is indeed in jeopardy but the public can join Ms. Public, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and others in fighting the foes of secrecy," McDermott said. "It is a fight we can and must win."
Take a look, and pass on to a friend. It will make you laugh, and hopefully inspire you to do more to support the fight against truthiness.
www.openthegovernment.org
Thanks to USA Today for reminding us of an anniversary that otherwise would have passed us by unnoticed -- the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is turning 40!
Signed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 4, 1966, FOIA openned up non-classified executive branch records to the public. By doing so:
Congress sought to address "the mushrooming growth of government secrecy" because it believed a "democratic society requires an informed ... electorate, and the intelligence of the electorate varies as the quantity and quality of its information varies."
And it worked. The public, including public interest watchdog groups like Common Cause, has used the Freedom of Information Act to make sure the government is working in the best interests of the people. No catastrophe occurred. The government didn't collasped amid anarchy. The result has simply been a more open and trustworthy government.
Until now.
In 2005, the executive branch made 14.2 million new decisions to classify information as secret. That's nearly double the number of secrets created in 1998. Much of this increase understandably can be attributed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and increased military and intelligence operations since 9/11. But not all of it.
The Bush Administration has issued executive order after executive order classifying things that heretofore had been available to the public via FOIA requests. Whenever people wonder how illegal wiretapping got to be a big issue, one only has to ask if the true problem doesn't lie with an administration that has closed government's doors to the people instead of openning them.
Read the full op-ed for more details, and let us know what you think on this 40th anniversary of FOIA in our Comments section.
Common Blog
