Website turns tables on government officials

Boston Globe ^ | 7/4/2003 | Hiawatha Bray

[DannyTN]

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.

[A. Pole]

"Politicians should have access to those data as well. This is only fair in face of Freedom of Information Act. "

hmmmm...yes, but shouldn't they be stonewalled first and then have to sue before they are given it?

You are right, this should be the standard and proper procedure.

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[monkeywrench]

"but shouldn't they be stonewalled first and then have to sue before they are given it?"

Yes, the standard, "I find this troubling", should suffice!

[backhoe]

Just FYI, FWIW, you can gather a lot of info using these:

General search engines:

HotBot
Description: An advanced search engine. There are many configurable options, both in simple as in advanced search mode.

-http://www.google.com/advanced_search--

-http://www.profusion.com/--

100's OF SEARCH ENGINES

Specific search engines:

Skipease:

White pages, Yellow pages, Reverse lookups, US Govt. Directories, Inmate/Prison locators, SS# info, Bankruptcy, Owner of Domain names, Medical profession, Campaign Contributions, Deceased person, US Corporation info, etc.

NewsTrove

-ttp://www.tray.com/--

-http://www.opensecrets.org/--

-http://www.issues2000.org/--

-http://www.activistcash.com--

-http://www.consumerfreedom.com--

-http://www.ussearch.com/wlcs/index.jsp?srcAdID=4040003011&sourceid=--

www.guidestar.org

Other useful sources:

-Look up ISP's, webmaster emails, etc--

-phone numbers, addresses, maps & directions for Business and People in the U.S.--

-IP Address Locator Tool--

-Just the Facts--

-Archival Databases (AAD) System--

-Researchers: What are your favorite research sites?--

[Greybird]

{{{ Chris Csikszentmihalyi }}}

{{ Must have sucked to have been him in first grade. }}

{ LOL, you need an MIT degree just to be able to pronounce that. }

Not if you're of Hungarian heritage.

Whenever I suspect that the members of Free Republic are starting to get enough knowledge to rise above the stereotype of the provincial American yahoo who doesn't know anything about the other cultures of the world they live in, and who doesn't care to know ...

... well, some people come along to wipe that notion clean out of my head. Again.

[Recovering_Democrat]

big deal. That already exists--it is called "Free Republic".

[coloradan]

And your argument that secret, incorrect information, is less damaging than published, incorrect information, is ... ?

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

I offered no such argument. I said that politicans might sue for libel if this website publishes lies about them.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy."

It seems that is EXACTLY what our goobermint does to us.

The Denver Police Department was caught with thousands of intel files they wrote on many private citizens who had committed no crime. Those reports were full of inaccuracies and false statements. They claimed people were “militia”, “anti-government”, “terrorists”, whatever they needed to say to get more funding to keep their cushy jobs of spying on innocent Americans.

It seems we have government employees who need to make themselves useful before they lose their jobs. Add in a touch of “spying is cool”, and blam-o, instant commie bastard spying on Americans in the name of the state.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"Politicians should have access to those data as well. This is only fair in face of Freedom of Information Act."

Yeah, sure, buddy. Try that FOIA on your FBI files, local police, CIA, or other goobermint files and see how far you can piss up that rope.

[cajun-jack]

i'm sure they know...but when a pol makes a really bad vote does he or she really want all the attention that a lawsuit would bring?

[coloradan]

I didn't say that you did. I asked what the argument was.

[Tench_Coxe]

Maybe in your neighborhood. But in cities with large Hungarian populations, not so sucky.

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

You seem to be as confused about what you said as you are about what I said.

[Not now, Not ever!]

Egads, I could spend the whole of next month exploring these sites, Thanks!

[DannyTN]

"Not if you're of Hungarian heritage"

My apologies to all those of Hungarian heritage.

[coloradan]

I see you are more interested in playing word games rather than answering my question.

What argument can you present, if any, that files the government may have on us, which are secret and unappealable, may have errors in them, and that this fact is no less damaging to one's ability to function in society, than libel is, which is publically published for all to see? (There are, admittedly, laws against and defenses for libel.)

Thank you in advance for your consideration of, and response to, my question.

[Betty Jane]

bumping for later.

[nathanbedford]

search ping

[Ronin]

A buck-fifty says the gubbermint will find a way to shut them down as soon as they start getting any traction.