Sundries: Why are people conservative?

Commenter Victoria keeps a blog called Sundries, which I enthusiastically and unreservedly recommend to you. Here's the homepage link again, just in case you forgot to bookmark it on your browser the first time.

Here's a terrific post on conservatism:

One of the most important lessons from evolution, a theory held in much respect by certain people (including myself), is that nature will tend towards survival over death, and go about ways of preserving themselves. When change comes it is most often gradual, unless a cataclysmic event intervenes.

Upheaval, revolt, anarchy, all these states of change are considerably more risky than the certainty of stasis.

And yet, this response does a severe injustice to Conservatism, because it infers that all progress is by default, Liberal in nature.

The old, "Conservatism is stuck, whilst Liberalism marches forward" theory.

This is the idea that allows political progressives to debase any proposal that doesn't emanate from the well-spring of their philosophy.

It becomes a challenge, even an affront that positive change is happening without they leading the charge.

In short, for such people, progress is inconceivable without progressives.

And this is wrong. ...

Read it all at the link.

LPJ praises CNN feature ... and interviews ITM brothers!

Sami at Lebanese Political Journal has some kind words for CNN today, in particular the network's week-long feature Eye on the Middle East. LPJ writes:

CNN is running a week long series entitled "Eye on the Middle East." Hala Gorani is reporting from Amman, and Jim Clancy is reporting from Beirut. They are holding live events in both capitals, and they are doing a fantastic job.

Jim Clancy hosted a showcalled CNN Connects focusing on issues effecting Arab youth [the program aired in Beirut at 8pm Tuesday night]. He brought together a group politically active people in their late 20s - early 30s from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Some major trends became apparent:
1) For people actually working for democracy, like the Iraqi pollster and the Lebanese activist Asma Andreos, America was not the major issue. They focused on issues that affect our daily lives. However, the others blabbered on and on about the evils of America, which really didn't advance their arguments about how they would build what they wanted in their countries.

Even when asked specific questions about how to make their countries better, these individuals chose to speak about America. They all had advice for what America should do, but had none they could vocalize for how to achieve their own goals.

2) Arabs don't know anything about each other. ...

Go to the link to read the rest. Also, don't miss the e-mail interview with Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model, covering Lebanese/Iraqi relations.

Has what happened in Lebanon had any effect on the situation in Iraq? Do people ever talk about Lebanese affairs, politics, political figures? Do Iraqis, regardless of sect, think much of Hezbollah? Are Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Ayatollah Fadlallah even known by Shia in Iraq? Do you know what Iraqi Shia think of al Manar TV?

I personally think the situation in Iraq and Lebanon pretty much began to relate to each other since the assassination of Hariri. Many Iraqis think that the freedom of speech in Iraq had encouraged the Lebanese to start the Cedar revolution.

And, also many Iraqis are optimistic to see more pressure applied on Asad and his gang and they hope the international investigation will lead to ending the rule of Ba'ath in Syria or at least get the Syrians to leave Iraq alone ...

Read it all at the link. And be sure to check out that CNN feature.

1st LAR Finds Weapons Cache - October 9

Marine Corps News:

BARWANA, Iraq (Oct. 9, 2005) -- Marines with 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion uncovered a cache of weapons after receiving a tip on the site’s approximate location.

Marines, sailors and soldiers from Regimental Combat Team-2 and from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team received the tip while conducting Operation River Gate in the town of Barwana and surrounding areas. Their mission for the operation was to eliminate insurgents, disrupt lines of communication and prevent interference with the Constitutional Referendum.

At the suspected cache site, Marines from Weapons Company and combat engineers from 1st Combat Engineer Battalion attached to 1st LAR discovered man-made dirt mounds, heavy equipment tracks and an area which appeared to have something buried underneath it.

“The area was larger than we had anticipated and it was quickly getting dark out,” said 1st Lt. James P. Donovan, a 29-year-old combat engineer. “We decided to come back at first light with mine sweeping and metal detecting devices.”

Weapons Company Marines posted security to prevent anyone from tampering with the site that night and returned in the morning ready to begin searching.

Pfc. Michael D. O’Neill, 21, and Donovan were conducting sweeps of the area when O’Neill’s metal detector began to sound.

“I had been picking up signals before and they turned out to be trash, but the length of this detection made me think,” O’Neill, a combat engineer and Amissville, Va., native commented. "I outlined the area, which was about 10 feet long, and the Marines began to dig.”

After a few minutes of digging, they discovered the outside of a structure and soon after, they uncovered the roof and a door.

“We pried the door open and I looked inside,” Donovan, East Point, Ga., native said. “The first thing I saw was 120 mm mortars ...

Read the rest at the link.
Hat tip: 1 of the Few - 1st Light Armored Infantry Bn. veterans' site

Talabani to Visit Iran

From Marze Por Gohar:

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to arrive in Iran today on a three-day visit.

Talabani is scheduled to have talks in Tehran with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among other top officials.

Topics of discussion are expected to include border security and Iran's participation in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Talabani's visit comes after Iraq's national security chief, Muwaffaq Rubaie, visited Tehran last week.

Visit MPG homepage.

Mohammed on Cairo Conference

Mohammed at Iraq the Model weighs in on the Arab League conference in Cairo:

Some try to overlook regional and international balances and forget that Iraq is part of these balances and they even try to ignore the resolutions of the UN and Security Council forgetting that they also are part of this system which they’re going to rely on for one thing or another sooner or later.

What we actually need is to encourage the reasonable middle trend that weighs things by interests and logic, not emotions and mood and does not use a use that boring poetic language when discussing a technical task.

Anyway, I think this conference is going to change very little from the situation on the ground; those who endorse and practice violence do not really seek legitimacy from this or that conference.
But there are still a few good things that came out of this meeting as this is the first time since the fall of the past regime when the Arab League denounces Saddam’s regime opening the door for discrediting more dictatorships in the future.

Second there was a condemnation for media networks that were asked to lower their tone a bit and to stop saying things that might create hatred or encourage sectarian or ethnic differences and this call addressed both, Arabic and Iraqi media that is serving certain partisan interests. ...

Read the whole article at the link.

In other news, The Religious Policeman finds a mosque that won't sweep the vermin under the rug:

So I was therefore pleased to read this small piece of news from a small town in the North of England, and incidentally home to one of the 7/7 London bombers.

Jihad videos left in mosques in tube bomber's town

The headline, of course, is bad news. Some vermin had scuttled into a mosque and left its droppings, with Jihadi propaganda tapes and DVD's placed alongside the genuine religious material.

The tape is understood to show scenes of violence against Muslims, including footage of funeral processions and burials from Iraq overlaid by verses from the Qur'an. Along with others, it was left with genuine religious material at the mosque's reception area in sleeves allegedly disguised to suggest that the contents were celebratory sermons and texts

However, the good news is that worshippers at the mosque, instead of "keeping it to themselves" or "keeping it within the community", showed that they rejected its message, didn't want their young people polluted by it, felt themselves to be responsible members of the wider community, and handed the material into the police.

RTWT.

Arash Sigarchi

Rachel Hoff at Middle East Forum:

On January 17, 2005, Iranian security forces arrested 28-year-old Iranian journalist and weblogger Arash Sigarchi for espionage and insulting leaders of the Islamic Republic. Sigarchi, editor of the daily Gilan Emrooz (Gilan[1] Today), had antagonized regime officials with outspoken dissent on two blogs, Panjareh-yi Eltehab (Window of Anguish) to which he was a regular contributor, as well as his own blog, http://www.sigarchi.com/blog.

Sigarchi was aware of the dangers of his actions. His posts chronicled the arrests of fellow bloggers. He spoke out against the abuse of two fellow bloggers, Shahram Rafihzadeh and Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi. In 2004, Iranian authorities arrested and beat more than twenty other blogging dissidents. Sigarchi had himself been harassed by the police who detained him for several days in August 2004 after he posted online an article with photos of a dissident rally in Tehran.[2]

Nevertheless, Iranian dissidents are increasingly penning blogs to voice criticism of the Islamic Republic and to push for freedom and democracy. With an estimated 100,000 active Iranian blogs, Persian is now tied with French as the second most common blogging language after English.[3]

Sigarchi's most recent arrest coincided with an Iranian government crackdown on blogging. ...

Go to the link to read the rest of the article. See also: Arash Sigarchi blog (Persian). Hat tip: Ann, via e-mail.

Related: Iran Focus via Free Iran: Tehran top cop to crack down on dissent.

Wed. 9 Nov 2005

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4360

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 09 – Iranian police are planning to boost a national security plan that will effectively increase a crackdown already in effect, the chief of police in Greater Tehran announced on Wednesday.

Brigadier General Morteza Talai told the Fars news agency, run by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the plan which was scheduled to have ended on Friday would continue to be in effect and would be enhanced.

A “Plan to Combat Trouble-makers” was launched in Tehran in September and soon spread to cities and towns across the nation. Under the scheme, thousands have been arrested within a period of several months for various charges such as “racketeering” and “loansharking”. ...

Stay in touch with Iranian activism at Free Iran News and Regime Change Iran.

Taste of Freedom

Sgt Hook: Taste of Freedom

Mom,

Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday.Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…

My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.
I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.

Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most American’s are born into their God given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.

Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.

I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.

Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?

You need not to have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????

The Iraqis pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier’s in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet American’s badmouth our President for having us here.

Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi’s. Yes there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.

I have watched brave souls give their all and lose thier lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.

My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.

Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.

SGT XXX and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

Please also visit the homepage of my old unit:
1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion, USMC

Michael Totten: The Latest from Beirut

Who to talk to, who not to talk to:

If strangers talk to you at a bar, at a café, at a party, at a club, in a hotel lobby, in the countryside, or in a village, they almost certainly are normal people who are just being friendly. On the street in the city, though, chances are they want something from you. Maybe they just want directions. And that’s fine. Twice people have asked me for directions. I guess I look like I know where I’m going. But if someone doesn’t instantly tell you exactly, precisely, what they want, get away from them immediately.

“Americans have to learn this the hard way,” my friend told me. He’s right. I know he is. I had already half learned my lesson. I tried half measures yesterday and it wasn’t enough. ...

Flak jacket optional:

When I asked my brother if this place is what he expected he said “After listening to you talk about it and reading you write about it, it is exactly what I expected.”

My mom, though, is in a constant state of amazement.

Their first night out we went to Brooke’s restaurant in Gemmayze, a classy bohemian joint run by a British expat friend from the English countryside. The floor is wall-to-wall hardwood. Each chair is handsomely carved and stained dark like mahogany. A candle burns in a glass in the center of every table. I introduced mom and my brother to the bartender Elie and asked him to bring us a bottle of Bordeaux. The DJ played cool contemporary rock music over the sound system. The ambience, somehow, is pitch perfect. Brooke's, like so many haunts in Beirut, has an X Factor.

“This is surreal,” mom said. “What a great place!” We hadn’t even ordered yet. “I know you told me there are great restaurants in Beirut, but I never expected anything like this.”

Hardly anyone ever does. ...

Read it all at the links.

OSM Launch Impressions; or, It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To, and I Don't Want To

Now I know there are a bunch of naysayers out there, even in the blogosphere, doing what naysayers do best and saying nay. Well, suit yourselves. I just went to have a good time, and by golly I had a great time. So there.

Here are my scattered recollections from the event, with my memory bolstered by other bloggers who remember the Open Source Media launch much more clearly than I.

That fashion panel. Am I the only one who thought Elizabeth Hayt was simply divine? (I can hear you groaning. I'll take that as a yes.) No, really. Let me quote Eric at The Young Curmudgeon:

The only thing memorable about it was that Elizabeth Hayt, an NYT fashion journalist, bravely showed up. And I say bravely pointedly, to contrast her dignified bearing with the hooting and hollering that occurred both in the room and on-line for her daring to depart from the blog triumphalist mood of the day.

She stated at the outset that when she was booked she told the guy on the phone that she doesn't blog, she hates blogs, and thinks blogs are absurd so she didn't know why they were booking her. He said "That's why we want you." She was brought in as a sacrificial lamb, an example of evil MSM thinking for the assembled blog horde to devour with their teeth.

Now for my own take: Almost the first words out of Elizabeth's mouth were, "I don't read blogs. They're a waste of time. I think they're absurd. ... Bloggers are mostly rich people with too much time on their hands." This in front of a room full of bloggers. Think about it: How long did it take you to develop that kind of chutzpah? Well, there you go. You see what I mean, right? The woman's already halfway to being a blogger herself. She also admitted she doesn't read blogs. Now, when she goes the other half of the way, and decides she wants to know what she's talking about, we'll all have to watch out.

The Manolo he was there, sort of. This was the kind of gag that must have sounded like a great idea in the boardroom: Have The Manolo appear (so to speak) as a disembodied voice, with a sultry Latin accent. Well, fine. (BTW, I'm almost positive I met Manolo's "voice" after the event, but I digress.) But the ten-second (or however long it was) delay was ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they had somebody e-mailing the questions to Manolo and the "voice" reading his responses. Roger tried to tell us the delay was due to "long distance". Come on, Roger. We're bloggers, dammit, we're not that stupid.

Well, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain but do pay attention to the political panel. Richard Fernandez (Wretchard of The Belmont Club) is as articulate in person as he is on the screen. For the rest of the picture, I'll give you Judith at Kesher Talk:

The political panel was like every other political panel you have ever seen. Kudlow asked the three men most of the questions, Podhoretz and Corn bloviated, Wretchard tried to be thoughtful, and Rossett tried to get a word in edgewise. Since she is one of the few real investigative journalists working in the US today, this was a shame.

Podhoretz and Corn began their own "late twentieth-century history, as seen from the Right and the Left" debate, but Roger thankfully cut them off.

The first person I met at the reception was Robert of Publius Pundit - a very bright and dynamic young individual. He talked about life as an Air Force brat, the opportunities and pitfalls of the ongoing democratic revolutions, and what he hopes to do after college. Go read his blog.

Lisa Ramaci-Vincent was one of those I prevailed upon to sign my laptop during the reception. I had the pleasure of speaking with her for a few minutes, though not as long as Eric apparently did:

Lisa Ramaci is an incredible person, warm, open, unassuming and intellectual, a medieval history expert. She spoke of trips with her husband to Viet Nam before relations were normalized and even to Iran, where it turned out everyone was pro-American. She talked about her husband's memorial service, with representatives from the fetish scene, the downtown arts scene, conservative politics etc. and is going to send me a DVD of it to watch. Like Steven Vincent, she's a true American original and an utterly amazing person. Meeting her and actually getting to talk to her at length made my day and meant a hell of a lot more than meeting some blogger or journalist.

To that, I can only add that she is full of enthusiasm and idealism about Iraq, she is very warm and easy to be with, and an utterly amazing ... oh, wait, that's already been said. Well, consider it said again. FWIW, Lisa is also very big - stupefyingly tall, big-boned, and a very impressive woman physically as well as in every other way.

I blundered into this picture. Thanks, LaShawn - again! - for the link.

Wonderful people I met. I'm almost afraid to begin, because I know I'll leave somebody out. Well, okay. There was Pieter, with whom I had the pleasure of some conversation at the very beginning of the event. Pamela, Judith, Neo, LaShawn, and Fausta it was great meeting you in person!


I never thought I'd hear myself say the words "Excuse me, are you Cliff May?" It was, and I got to talk with him about the times and challenges of FDD.

Tammy, it was a special honor meeting you - and Bruce, good seeing you again!

Susan N., it was great meeting you! If you're reading this, drop me a line.

Okay, well that's enough of this. Here is what I really want to say about Open Source Media: Maybe you think it's a great idea, or maybe you think it's a dumb idea and we're all suckers. All I can say is this: Charles and Roger didn't ask me for a dime, they just asked if I wanted to sign on. I figured anything with all these folks - and Omar and Mohammed - couldn't be a bad thing. The trip to New York was worth it just to meet the people. I don't know where OSM is going, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

James Wolcott, please make an appointment with your therapist.

At the OSM launch I had the pleasure of meeting the charming Pamela of Atlas Shrugs (another political blog that ought to be on your browser).

This morning I read about this bizarre fantasy of James Wolcott. Apparently the man has terrible eyesight and an overactive imagination ... how can you confuse a hand with a breast? Maybe he's forgotten what breasts look like. (Perhaps the blog world ought to send him some pictures of breasts to refresh his memory?)

Really, can the MSM get any more pathetic? I mean, is it even possible?

Thoughts on the OSM Launch

It's 6:30am here in New York and only 3:30am back home in Portland. I'm still recovering from a terrific and overwhelming day yesterday.

A few random thoughts about the Open Source Media launch. Everybody I met was simply wonderful - right now I don't want to start trying to acknowledge people by name because I'm afraid I'll leave somebody out. (To all those whom I bothered to sign my laptop, many thanks for your patience and your signatures!) Every person I met - whether I thrust my PowerBook and my Sharpie under your nose or not - now holds a very special place in my life.

A fashion panel? To kick off the event? Well, it wasn't quite what I would have done, but it was entertaining in its own way. Really, how else would I have found out that bloggers are "mostly rich people with too much time on their hands"?

The only thing that bothered me about the fashion panel - and I'm going to be frank here - is that I think we could have done with more time for the political panel. Why a fashion panel, anyway? If fashion, then why not sports? Was the fashion group something thrown in "to appeal to the ladies"? I'd have liked to see women political bloggers better represented. For instance, I would have liked to see more of these women on the program.

That's all I have for now. More soon.

Liveblogging from OSM Launch

From the OSM (Open Source Media) launch in New York City:


Andrew Breitbart: In the old media, I never would have introduced competitors. But in the blogging world, we're all friends.

Roger Simon: We don't just want to criticize (a short-run thing); we want to do something constructive (a long-run thing). ... This is the first deliberate blend of these factions to create a new media paradigm. ... The internet ... is an ideal place to ensure accuracy of content. ... Our guiding principle will be this openness as practiced by citizen journalists.

John Podhoretz: "The authority inheres in the words themselves."

Richard Fernandez: Your primary capital is your "rep" ... and when you have a rep, suddenly everything you say matters.

Caudia Rosett: One of my favorite papers is the "Weekly World News", because I find stories about aliens entertaining. [But] when you set yourself up as a source of "truth", you have to be responsible.

David Corn: There's a transparency that's being imposed on all of us ... and that transparency brings accountability.

Glenn Reynolds, the George Washington of the Internet: Technology is empowering ordinary people in many ways. Blogs are only part of the story: We see amateur filmmakers ... The terms "correspondent" and "journalist" are going back to their original meanings.

Judith Miller: I rarely open by quoting Karl Marx, but I'll make an exception: "Changes in production create changes in consciousness." But changes in consciousness also produce changes in the modes of production; and I think we're seeing both phenomena simultaneously. We still don't know the political ramifications of this revolution, but the ramifications for journalism are already apparent: journalists in the MSM are under pressure as never before. ... I didn't have internet access during my 85 days in the Alexandria Detention Center, but I did have time to think about a lot of things. I think many bloggers will be needing - just as we in the MSM do - a "shield law" to protect the relationship between the journalist and the source. ... Some of the more irresponsible bloggers conjured up stories of million-dollar book contracts, or published hurtful stories about my husband and family. ... There have been precious few stories - either from bloggers or from the MSM - on the threats to our freedom of expression. I urge you to support the "Free Flow of Information Act", federal shield legislation that is working its way through Congress. It is the function that we play as informers of the public that requires this legislation. ... This legislation would not cover all bloggers, but it would cover many bloggers. Those who express unsupported opinions or vitriol would not be covered - nor, in my opinion, should they be. But those whose goal is educating or informing the public, would be. We don't have an "are you making money" standard. ... The "Five Commandments" of journalism and mainstream blogging: (1) Be honest about who you are, what your agenda is, and where your funding comes from. (2) Try to reach the subject of your story for comment before you publish information about them. (3) If the subject of your article denies what you are reporting, and if the subject has corroboration, say so. (4) If you are wrong, acknowledge it through more news stories. (5) If you are wrong, commit to getting it right.

Senator John Cornyn: We are still a nation whose laws are premised on the consent of the governed; and if the governed don't know, then they can hardly consent, to what the Government is doing on their behalf. We can and should reform the culture in Washington to one where, if a citizen asks for information, the presumption is that they're entitled to it.

[All quotes are paraphrases and may not be verbatim.]

Visit OSM - Open Source Media, and be sure to mark the site on your browser favorites and/or sidebar.

UPDATE: The launch event is over - I'll have more on it later. I'm blogging from CyberCafe. It's a great place, and well worth your visit if you're in the area.