accountability at Brave New Films

SEIU Members talk about supporting Donna Edwards

2008-07-25T10:49:17Z

Members of SEIU Local 1199 UHE talk about working to elect Donna Edwards to replace Al Wynn in Maryland's 4th Congressional District. For more news, photos, blogs and video from the 2008 SEIU Convention, visit www.seiu2008.org

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Donna Edwards on SEIU & Accountability

2008-07-25T10:49:17Z

Congressional candidate Donna Edwards talks about the importance of SEIU and holding politicians accountable to the working people who elect them. For more news, photos, blogs and video from the 2008 SEIU Convention, visit www.seiu2008.org

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Anna Burger talks about SEIU's Accountability Project

2008-07-25T10:49:18Z

SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger talks on the convention floor about SEIU's Accountability Project and supporting Donna Edwards in her successful primary race against Rep. Al Wynn from Maryland. For more news, photos, blogs and video from the 2008 SEIU Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, visit www.seiu2008.org

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Donna Edwards and SEIU's Accountability Project

2008-07-25T10:49:19Z

After meeting with several bloggers covering the 2008 SEIU Convention, Political Director Jon Youngdahl talked about Donna Edwards' successful campaign as the first example of SEIU's Accountability Project in action. For more news, photos, blogs and video from the 2008 SEIU Convention, visit www.seiu2008.org

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Ambassador Joe Wilson on Impeachment and Accountability

2008-06-30T08:45:44Z

Ambassador Joe Wilson believes the Constitution needs to be defended and it will be up to the next administration to investigate the current administration.

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Barack Obama at Johnstown Town Hall

2008-06-11T09:32:43Z

Senator Barack Obama speaks to the issue of accountability at a town hall meeting in Johnstown, PA.

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What can be done to make BushCo accountable?

2008-02-08T11:04:50Z

Yes, we're appalled at the horrific policies of the Bush administration, but how do we hold them accountable? Froomkin offers this:

I've just published a provocative and insightful essay by Steve Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy, on the importance of getting the presidential candidates to say whether they'll commit to opening up the Bush administration's record.
Aftergood's point is that, by now, no one expects the Bush administration to make itself accountable for its controversial and possibly illegal practices in a number of areas. But the next president will have a unique opportunity to reveal what has been kept hidden for the last seven years -- and, by informing Americans of exactly what has been done in their name, letting the healing begin.
Aftergood's essay also answers a lot of the questions I've been getting from readers lately about what Bush can and can't keep secret after he leaves office.

I'm not sure we'll heal all that quickly, but can this lead to any kind of resolution?

Aftergood writes: "In 2005, then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey told colleagues at the Justice Department that they would be 'ashamed' when a legal memorandum on forceful interrogation of prisoners eventually became public. In fact, however, disclosure of such secret Bush Administration documents may be the only way to begin to overcome the palpable shame that is already felt by many Americans at the thought that their government has engaged in abusive interrogations, secret renditions or unchecked surveillance.
"The next President will have the authority to declassify and disclose any and all records that reflect the activities of executive branch agencies. Although internal White House records that document the activities of the outgoing President and his personal advisers will be exempt from disclosure for a dozen years or so, every Bush Administration decision that was actually translated into policy will have left a documentary trail in one or more of the agencies, and all such records could be disclosed at the discretion of the next President."

One more reason to elect a Democrat. I wonder if such disclosures can or would lead to legal action? Or won't anyone have the stomach, time, or energy for that?

Big-Citizen.com Intro - Find Presidential Flip-Floppers!

2008-07-25T10:35:41Z

Big Citizen™ is a revolutionary system created to allow every American to have a voice in our political process. Fiercely non-partisan, Big Citizen is the only web application where users have easy access to a factual view of the political past and present, allowing them to cut through the spin posited by elected officials, their campaigns and the special interest groups funding them. By building a new interface on democracy, Big Citizen has created a platform that makes the issues accessible, meaningful and relevant to every American in an easy and engaging way. Big Citizen's mission is to evoke change in the democratic process by empowering the individual and shifting the balance of power in American politics away from special interest groups and back into the hands of the people. It is the first ever web application that allows users to get the facts and stay current with breaking news from the media, government and public sources, using video, articles, widgets and much more. Big Citizen places the highest premium on producing an accurate, incorruptible and unbiased tool for the American people to obtain information and to effect real change in the political process. In the upcoming months, Big Citizen will continue to deploy a series of unprecedented technological innovations to connect citizens with their democracy and bring the process into the 21st century.

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It's time to hold the ideology accountable for its crimes

2008-07-25T10:26:55Z

Naomi Klein and Robert Greenwald discuss torture, accountability, private equity, the future of activism and the importance to get involved and take action.

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When did they know?

2008-07-25T10:44:47Z

McCain reality check. What they knew and when they knew it. Will we hold them accountable for their lies?

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Accountability

2008-07-25T10:30:10Z

It's time to hold Gordon Smith accountable. For not being honest on the Iraq War. For saying anything to win re-election.

Smith stood loyally by President Bush for years. He sent him blank check after blank check for the Iraq War. Now that it's election season he wants to fool Oregonians into forgetting about his record. We won't be fooled by a political opportunist who can't be trusted to stand up for Oregon when it counts. Join the Stop Gordon Smith Campaign at StopGordonSmith.com and forward this video on to everyone you know.

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``They waved the terrorism flag and the judge bought it.''

2008-01-12T20:28:20Z

Again with the 9/11 excuse:

A judge says the federal government can legally withhold the names, salaries and positions of more than 900,000 federal employees from a university agency that for years has made the information public.

Stories like these are getting so redundant, aren't they?

Chief U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue determined the privacy rights of the employees could be compromised by release of the information to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, at Syracuse University.
The judge also agreed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that the release of certain information could compromise national security.

Heeeeere we go:

In court papers, the OPM had argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks heightened its awareness that federal employees are vulnerable based on their employment with the U.S. government.

So many issues these days, so little time: Spying, privacy, whistleblowers, accountability, national security, September 11th, yadda yadda yadda. The hits just keep on comin':

Since 1989, TRAC has been posting an Internet database with the names, work locations, salaries and job categories of all 2.7 million federal civilian workers except those in some law enforcement agencies.
The data are often used by reporters and government watchdog groups to monitor policies and detect waste or abuse.

And we wouldn't want to whistleblow, now would we? Not under BushCo, we wouldn't, nosireebob.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Mordue's ruling was ``a bad decision. It flies in the face of 220 years of federal history.'' [...]
Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, said,``What the court should have done is considered the public right to information and the need for accountability about salaries and focused its decision to protect the specific privacy issues OPM raised.''

But since when has accountability ever mattered? I'll tell you when. Not since prior to January 2001, that's when.

President Bush on Accountability

2008-07-09T19:06:03Z

Irritated Bush answers question about 'accountability'. Defends Gonzales. Presidential News Conference, August 9 2007

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Speaker Pelosi on The War, Impeachment and Accountability

2008-07-24T22:54:12Z

Listen now:

After the flip, you will find a portion of a converation Speaker Pelosi had with several bloggers, including myself, at 2pm EST on June 28, 2007. There was much more to the call, but I transcribed the portion of the call that involved The War, the disjunct between the Democratic base and the representation we are getting from our leaders in Washington, the impeachment of Alberto Gonzalez and accountability in general.

My comments and questions are interspersed throughout (the audio is at the top of this post - click "listen now").

Time revists the Fallujah massacre

2008-07-11T06:49:29Z

Brian Bennett at Time.com has written an article looking into the outsourcing of the Iraq war and revisiting the Fallujah massacre, in which several Blackwater employees were killed, burned and dragged through the streets. Katy Helvenston (featured in Iraq For Sale), mother of Scott Helvenston - one of those killed - is featured in the article. From Time.com:

Helvenston, along with the families of the three men killed with her son--Wes Batalona, Mike Teague and Zovko--are suing Blackwater for wrongful death in a case that, after more than two years and a stop before the Supreme Court, has landed in front of a North Carolina state judge, who will move it along April 9. The families want to know what happened that day in Fallujah. But they also want to press their claims that Blackwater, in its zeal to exploit this unexpected market for private security men, showed a callous disregard for the safety of its employees. In the process, the case of the Fallujah Four, as some now refer to them, has stirred a nest of questions about accountability, oversight and regulations governing for-profit gunslingers in war zones.

Read the full article.