Big Brother's Big Brother?
April 18, 2004 9:40 AM   Subscribe

Watching Justice -- a new blog keeping an eye on the Dept. of Justice, drawing on the research and insight of a vast list of organizations, from the ABA to the Violence Policy Center, and brought to us by Soros' Open Society Institute.
posted by amberglow (5 comments total)
 
Who does Soros think he is, anyway - Richard Mellon Scaife, or somebody ?
posted by troutfishing at 10:45 AM on April 18, 2004


Soros rocks. I know your joking but Richard Scaife had is pantys in a puff because it wasn't him in the Whitehorse smoking cigars with young interns.

Anyway, Soros spent over $500m on the OSI in 2002 .. OSI is kind of like the Open Source Software movement... but writ large for all of society to make every institution transparent, open the closed doors and expose to the light what goes on and engage people to be involved. It's the same ideas at the core of the Democratic movement that started 200 years ago with the American and French and English (industrial) Revolutions, not just the elite but everyone should be involved in society. I think Soros is more clued in than most who play in this space, it's bigger than just the IMF or Bush or globalism.

Watching Justice is interesting, probably a vehicle to help discredit Bush.
posted by stbalbach at 11:20 AM on April 18, 2004


I think Soros is more clued in than most who play in this space, it's bigger than just the IMF or Bush or globalism.

Soros tries my ability to be cynical. I remember a conversation in college between a couple of friends about people like Soros. One friend called him--and Gates, at least insofar as he is a philanthropist--a hypocrite, and the other smiled. "That's the freaking point!" or something like that. The OSI is the most worthy NGO in the world, IMO. It provides real templates for dealing with broad social problems like failed states and terrorism, and it's emphasis on assisting with home-grown civil society creates an amazing end-run around the ethical and logisitical pitfalls of the states and beauracracies that usually try (and fail) to meet such objectives.

Someone say something bad about Soros, please, so that I can go back to feeling cynical and cool.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 11:45 AM on April 18, 2004


Nice link. It should be interesting to see how the organization responds to any future changes in the administration. Assuming there is a turnover and the org is still around, and they remain vigilant and committed to their stated non-partisan mission, I think they will earn some credibility from people who right now won't respect anything Soros touches.
posted by Harvey Birdman at 12:18 PM on April 18, 2004


On a related tangent, have you seen this NYT article -

Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions ?
posted by y2karl at 8:33 PM on April 18, 2004


« Older Japanese English Advertising Slogans   |   Plan of Attack Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments