The Importance of Public Information
January 20th, 2009 Brian Herzog
In honor of Inauguration Day 2009, I thought I'd risk talking a little politics.
One thing that I'm really looking forward to from the Obama Administration is a restoration of openness and transparency in our government's Executive Branch. Bush/Cheney was, from the very start, shockingly - insultingly - as secretive and closed-door as they could be, at all times. The even used a private email server to deliberately avoid public oversight. More than almost anything else from the Bush/Cheney years, I've followed the continuous coverage of the arrogant culture of concealment and avoidance.
I know this is all very lofty for a blog about library stuff, but the good old trickle down theory comes into play here. When the top levels of government disdain public oversight and inquiry, it can spread to other aspects of the government, right down to library issue like copyright and public records.
So, in the hopes of making this post marginally useful, here are a few Inauguration-related resources:
- Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, from Bartleby.com
- Listing of Inauguration Day live online media coverage, from the New York Times
- CNN's Inauguration Day coverage
- How to watch Obama's inauguration (and the parties) online, from c|net.com
- Live stream of the Inauguration, from Hulu and FOX
- List of public domain patriotic songs for the inauguration, from BoingBoing.net
