Website to monitor our government

In My Humble Opinion
1

What does everyone think about this project that has been in all the papers?

http://opengov.media.mit.edu/

I worked for the federal government for 15 years and I know how information can be mis-used and that employees are encouraged to use regulations to unfairly punish people and institutions to justify their jobs. Even now I’m nervous about saying which agencies I worked for because of this new system where they gather information with your name on it e.g. car insurance, life insurance, hospital records, schools, car license, credit cards, memberships, library books you check out, and probably eventually where you surf on the internet. They’ll want to know who is saying bad things about them and undermining their authority; former employees could be dangerous to their agendas.

I hear naive people say that if you haven’t done anything wrong you have nothing to worrry about. And who, with the wisdom of Solomon, is making the decision about what is right and wrong? Lots of people have been rotting in jail for years from laws that are wrong e.g. having >1 oz of marijuana in their possession. They could have gone out and gotten plastered every night of the week however, and still been legal.

And so much of the law is intepretation; so much is where you live, if people know you and feel kindly toward you. Try being faced with child abuse charges, for example, in a strange town, with no one to speak for your character or defend you. what about when the police stop you? If the officer is your son’s high school friend who ate at your house and played football in your backyard, do you think the law is going to apply equally to you compared to a stranger passing through? This seems obvious, but believe me it applies right up the line, all the way to terrorism.

So, when your name comes up on a government list because you fit the profile, and the bureaucrats are targeting you and asking you questions and now you are guilty until proven innocent; do you think this person who doesn’t know you and doesn’t care will care to find out the real truth? Look at hate-mongers like Phil Henry or Drudge; they propagate this kind of simplistic hate-mongering; they may think it is entertainment, but it damages our country.

Letting people tell what they know (or think they know) about our government and our officials may put the fear of God into some of them. But I doubt it. Still, I think it’s a good idea.

I’m glad I won’t be here to see this county in 25 years. But I fear for my children.

2

First off, I want to applaud you for starting this thread and for your awareness of these issues. I went to the site, bookmarked it with intent to return regularly, and plan to give the URL to my boyfriend because matters of this nature interest him as much as me (we exchange this kind of thing and have lots of discussions on these subjects).

Now, having gone to the site, I noticed something and copied it so I can paste it here to ask you a question:

The “mission statement” says that the purpose of this site is “To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America. To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government-related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process.”

Now my question to you is this – if members of the government are given “a chance to participate in the process,” how do you know that some of us regular civilians who aren’t already “there” might not end up on some of these lists you mentioned and wind up being persecuted by the govt for fitting a “profile” or having views the govt might consider “undermining their authority?”

And, here’s an URL that might interest you, too, if you haven’t already been there:

http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/drega1.html

“‘Eternal Vigilance Is The Price of Liberty’ used to mean we watched the government - not the other way around.”