Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

Have you heard of Scroogle? This is a search interface — created by the non-profit org google-watch. Put in your search term into the “google scraper” (there’s also one available for yahoo!), scroogle searches google, and returns google results WITHOUT ads, WITHOUT cookies and WITHOUT search term records (their access log is deleted within 48 hours whereas google keeps this information FOREVER!). Check it out!

As a side note, there’s been a lot of talk lately about google and the ethics of their aiding in Chinese censorship. See the boingboing story for more background.

Since 2000, Google has recorded your search terms, the date-time of each search, the globally-unique ID in your cookie (it expires in 2038), and your IP address. This information is available to governments on request. (From the Scroogle Web site)

OMB Watch - Administration Obstructs Regulation Across Agencies, Fails to Complete 70% of Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 15, 2004, Noon — An analysis of four key federal agencies charged with safeguarding the public’s air, water, food, health, transportation and workplaces reveals consistent and widespread obstruction, neglect and weakening of protections. The report attributes the pattern to a pro-corporate bias of the Bush administration and appointed agency heads favoring narrow special interests over the public good.
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Special Investigations

Rep. Henry A. Waxman has released a comprehensive examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration. The report analyzes how the Administration has implemented each of our nation’s major open government laws. It finds that there has been a consistent pattern in the Administration’s actions: laws that are designed to promote public access to information have been undermined, while laws that authorize the government to withhold information or to operate in secret have repeatedly been expanded. The cumulative result is an unprecedented assault on the principle of open government.