The Department of Homeland Security was sorely embarrassed by an announcement by the Federation of American Scientists that the DHS web site ready.gov contained “inaccuracies and incomplete information,” so much so that it launched a counterattack on FAS.
An FAS intern created reallyready.org in about two months, reusing the graphics from the DHS web site, and providing clear, comprehensive preparedness information.
FAS created the site to demonstrate “numerous inadequacies in Ready.gov” and along with more comprehensive information, also published an analysis (PDF) of how Ready.gov confuses the public and provides inaccurate and misleading information.
DHS objected to the use of its graphics and sent a cease and desist letter (PDF) to FAS, demanding that they stop using “designations and logos that are substantially similar to service marks” which DHS has registered, and the use of which “already has confused the public.”
“We created a website that represents a significant improvement on the Department of Homeland Security’s website. If the public and press did not think our website is more useful, there would be no story,” wrote (PDF) director of biology policy Michael Stebbins in its response to Homeland Security. “However, as long as there is a need, we will continue to provide the best possible information to the public in the clearest possible terms and plan to expand our site further. Our hope is that ReallyReady.org will soon become redundant and unnecessary, at which point it will be retired.”
“An unbiased observer would be forgiven for at least suspecting that DHS is not really concerned about confusing the public, they are using these use mark demands as a way to stifle a site that is embarrassing to them,” wrote Ivan Oelrich, vice president of strategic security at FAS.
“Rather than worry about what they should be worrying about, providing clear information to the public, they are worrying that they look bad. We could hope for more, but the DHS that we are dealing with turns out to be a bunch of petty cover-your-ass bureaucrats more concerned about embarrassment than doing their jobs.”
FAS altered its graphics slightly to comply with DHS’s cease and desist letter.
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Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
Gardner Goldsmith explains why claims by politicians that consumers can become "irrational" and why claims by the same politicians that government can help "fix" markets are both false and misleading. He also explains what the terms Praxeology and Epistemology mean, which is key in understanding how to place free markets in their proper place among human history.
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Sep 03, 2006
Web 2.0, Meet Homeland Security » Technology, Blogging and New Media
Rob Davidson
Sep 05, 2006
Just a rhetorical question, but should the government have the ability to trademark or copyright anything produced by that agency or its employees? Any code that I write while at work belongs to my employers, since I wrote it on their time and was paid for my work; therefore, logically, everything produced by the government should automatically be in the public domain, since they (supposedly) work for us.