Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Hsieh PJM OpEd: "Transparency For Me, But Not For Thee"

PajamasMedia has just published my latest OpEd, "Transparency For Me, But Not For Thee".

My theme is that our government's ever-increasing demands for access to our personal data while simultaneously preventing us from gathering information about it threatens to turn America into a chilling "interrogation room society" where transparency only goes one way. Hence, Americans must demand government transparency as a corollary to the broader principle of properly limited government.

Here is the opening:
When President Barack Obama took office, he pledged to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history." However, government officials are now demanding ever-increasing amounts of information about ordinary Americans, while preventing citizens from gathering similar information about government operations. If this ominous trend continues, this "transparency" will be in one direction only -- which bodes ill for the future of our republic.
(Read the full text of "Transparency for Me, but not for Thee".)