Here's a little round up of the Obama administration's performance on various transparency in government initiatives. The bad includes lots of failing to meet the “Sunlight Before Signing” promise. The good includes the data sharing sites data.gov and recovery.gov.

Also, competing with recovery.gov, and so far out pacing it in providing user accessible details, is recovery.org, a free independently run site, that isn't underfunded.

I heartily welcome the growth of independently built apps that will grow in number and utility as the gov (hopefully) continues to make raw data about it/us more available to the public.

Contrary to popular belief, freedom IS free.

"Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid. 50 words." Einstein used only about half his allotted number of words. It became the most famous version of an answer he gave often: "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

Overleveraging - too much borrowing - was a core cause of the recent financial crisis, or crises. It's one of the few "common sense" economic ideas that has weight: borrowing should not get out of line.
Megan McArdle looks at the plans for borrowing coming out of Washington, and raises some concern.
What's a trillion dollars again? Oh, it's a dollar a second for 310 centuries.

Have you ever considered the question: Why won't God heal amputees?

Oprah teams up with Jenny McCarthy to potentially kill children.

Witness, with the discussions about prosecuting Bush II administration members who promoted torture, the Republicans abandon their love of the rule of law, something the GOP pursued with zeal back when it was president Clinton coming under allegations of unsanctioned presidential hanky-panky.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, witness the Democrats, some of whom attacked Bush II for his ever expanding interpretation of executive power and disrespect for the rule of law, ignore said principles now that their man practices his own disregard for legal constraint on his own power.

Let me return, however, to the main point, which is the characteristic complacency of the conservative toward the action of established authority and his prime concern that this authority be not weakened rather than that its power be kept within bounds. This is difficult to reconcile with the preservation of liberty. In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule - not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them. Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who wields them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people.

From "Why I am not a Conservative", by F. A. Hayek, who’d be 110 years old today.

One of the scariest and most brazen abuses of power under Bush II were the administrations brazen rejection of any oversight or challenge to its policies. The very court cases petitioning the government were claimed to be dangerous national security risks. Over at salon.com, Glenn Greenwald has been looking for any change of substance in this area under the new administration. Results are not encouraging.

A lot of groups seeking change establish the lines of conflict by constantly naming and accusing their enemies, and insisting on their essential evilness. This isn't great politics, but it's not usually a problem -- unless it moves to the next stage, where the group starts expressing a clear intention to eradicate those perceived enemies. This can be a signal that they've accepted the need for violent action in their own minds, and may be actively planning something. It's a shift that should never be ignored.

When Sean Hannity runs a poll asking whether his viewers prefer a military coup, secession, or armed rebellion -- and armed rebellion wins -- that's evidence of this kind of shift. Right-wing talkers have built careers out of demonizing liberals; but when they start talking about what specific steps should be taken against them, that's not something we should ignore.

Link.

"...those upset about President Obama's plans for taxes and spending would be better off trying to defeat him and his Congressional supporters in the next election. They need a political party, not a tea party."

And please, Google the term "teabagging" before throwing it around any more.

The financial rescue package(s) and plans are now reaching $12.8 trillion.
The nation’s gross domestic product for 2008 was $14.2 trillion.

Has your head popped yet?

And what does a trillion dollars look like anyway?

"It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way toward answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can -- if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty."

OK, personally, I always thought it was John Edwards who was the car salesman, but I guess I was wrong.

From "A 'Breakthrough' in the Stem Cell Debate" by Michael Kinsley:

If you wish to believe that every fertilized egg is a human being with full human rights, that is your privilege. I disagree, which makes it a controversy. If I felt you were serious, we would have a quandary as well. But there’s no quandary because you’re not serious. Your actions are too different from your words. You are doing absolutely nothing about the millions of fertilized eggs that are destroyed naturally every year (in miscarriages so early that the potential mother is not even aware of them), or the thousands that are produced and unused by fertility clinics going about their normal work (which are either discarded or pointlessly frozen in the hope of some miraculous ethical breakthrough).

(Thanks, Jana)

Now that we’re in a global recession, perhaps at the end of it the citizens of the world (particularly the first-world variety) will come to a new balanced perspective of how economic growth should fit into the total framework of human existence.

In the United States, as capitalists in general, we tend to focus on economic growth for its own sake. We see it as the bellwether of the nation’s health. However, economic growth should simply be one of many positive by-products of humanity’s striving to better itself and improve the quality of life for all.

The creators of the Genuine Progress Indicator metric have embraced this way of thinking for over a decade now. If, after all the current chaos subsides, we see a groundswell of support for this “new-old” way of thinking, I for one will consider the revised world-view worth the price.

This is really quite sad: Former Bush White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. has stated publicly that he thinks Obama should wear a coat and tie in the Oval Office.

Limbaugh FAIL.

Still Delusional After All These Years.

Bad times are good for churches.

Toronto has a plan to reduce its landfill contributions by 70% by 2010. As part of this process, their city council has approved a ban on sale of bottled water in all municipal properties.

So, let me just string a few things together: (1) We, as a nation, put ourselves in debt by over-consuming. (2) Financial engineering, one of the U.S.'s primary exportable innovations in recent years, exacerbates this behavior by giving Americans ATM-like access to their home equity. Even sub-prime borrowers were included in the game because their loans could be sliced, diced, and securitized until the risks were well-contained...or so we thought. (3) This house of cards crashes, because nobody, financial wizards included, new how to appropriately price the risks involved. A global financial crisis ensues. (4) To top it all off, three people die--die!--shopping on Black Friday, a 'holiday' whose newly relevant name was supposed to bring hope to our faltering economy. We look like a bunch of idiots.

American consumer: YOU FAIL.

Again? This is why we participate in this.

Alternet's 10 Worst Corporations of 2008: A Banner Year.

Counter-protesters overwhelm the Westboro Baptist Church.

Gun sales surge after Obama's election. Get 'em while you can, suckers.

Worth reading (both the comments on Digg and the original article): "Undeniable proof that Arkansas is a backwards hellhole!!!"

Hate has prevailed...for now.

Ahhh...feels good not to be ashamed of our President.

This thread from Reddit says it quite effectively, I believe:

Dear Rest of The World
We didn't f*** it up
Signed,
America

Zzzz...

As my wife says, Sarah Palin is the kind of woman that's bad for women.

Zzzz...