When the media consisted of a few people working for a few companies, it was a lot easier to verify a story and trust a source. A reporter’s and by extension the entire network’s reputation and value was based on the quality of the information and the reliability of the sources the information came from. In today’s twitter/facebook/blog world, there isn’t an obvious structure of trust to fall back on, but a new system is emerging.

Peer Source Verification is occurring in a really strong way for the first time with the Iran election situation driving the process. With Iranian citizens blogging and twittering about what is happening in Iran at the same time as Iran’s efforts to control, limit and often co-opt the information coming out of Iran people around the world are using their existing trust networks, their personal relationships, common sense and a sophisticated understanding of our modern tools to ferret out who is really presenting factual information and who is spewing spam or chaff. One such example is an effort going on at Twitspam to identify Fake Iran Election Tweeters.

This emerging model of trust has some existing models to draw ideas from, but its implementation and effectiveness are developing both organically and through the concerted efforts of several bloggers, tweeters and activists around the world. How are your altering the definition of trusted source and how are your perceptions of  trusted sources changing as the new Peer Source Verification model develops?

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On the advice of then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, the Bush administration signed a memorandum that denied baseline protection for Al Queda and Taliban prisoners provided by the Third Geneva Convention in order to “substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act”.

Truthout has an informative article about this attempt to cover their asses…

t r u t h o u t | Gonzaless Advice to Bush on How to Avoid War Crimes.

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The anti-abortion movement is a terrorist, fascist movement. They do not believe in the rule of law. They reject the rule of law. They’re not trying to change the law through violence. They reject the American Constitution. This is a very dangerous movement.

- Dr. Walter Hern

via The Well-Armed Lamb: “The Only Difference 8,000 Miles…“.

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Find out more and make sure you are making good decisions about what your put on your face or on you skin through this excellent and enlightening resource! Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews.

Sunscreen Hazards Table

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Anatomy of a Crash by Wall Stats

anatomy-of-a-crash.png 1029×792 pixels.

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1. Dick Cheney — The worst Dick since Nixon. The man who shot his friend while in office. The “most powerful and controversial vice president.” Until he got the job, people used to actually think it was a bad thing that the vice presidency has historically been a do-nothing position. Asked by PBS’s Jim Lehrer about why people hate him, Cheney rejected the premise, saying, “I don’t buy that.” His top placement in our survey says otherwise.

2. Karl Rove — There wasn’t a scandal in the Bush administration that Rove didn’t have his fingerprints all over — see Plame, Iraq war deception, Gov. Don Siegelman, U.S. Attorney firings, missing e-mails, and more. As senior political adviser and later as deputy chief of staff, “The Architect” was responsible for politicizing nearly every agency of the federal government.

3. Alberto Gonzales — Fundamentally dishonest and woefully incompetent, Gonzales was involved in a series of scandals, first as White House counsel and then as Attorney General. Some of the most notable: pressuring a “feeble” and “barely articulate” Attorney General Ashcroft at his hospital bedside to sign off on Bush’s illegal wiretapping program; approving waterboarding and other torture techniques to be used against detainees; and leading the firing of U.S. Attorneys deemed not sufficiently loyal to Bush.

4. Donald Rumsfeld — After winning praise for leading the U.S. effort in ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001, the former Defense Secretary strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq and then grossly misjudged and mishandled its aftermath. Rumsfeld is also responsible for authorizing the use of torture against terror detainees in U.S. custody; according to a bipartisan Senate report, Rumsfeld “conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees.”

5. Michael Brown — This former commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association was appointed by Bush to head FEMA in 2003. After Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, Brownie promptly did a “heck of a job” bungling the government’s relief efforts, and was sent back to Washington a few days later. He was forced to resign shortly thereafter.
…

43. George Deutsch — As a young, inexperienced press officer for NASA, Deutsch “told public affairs workers to limit reporters’ access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word ‘theory’ at every mention of the Big Bang.” He resigned in 2006 after it was discovered he had lied on his resume, falsely claiming that he had a journalism degree from Texas A&M.

It is a long list and many of them are candidates for prosecution. Check out the entire list at Think Progress: The 43 Who Helped Make Bush The Worst Ever.

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“… He called last night to wish me well for the debate. Just before he hung up the phone, he mentioned being halfway through Amartya Sen’s collected works and wondering if he had fully absorbed the practical implications. “You know what I mean,” he said.

I ended the phone call hastily and pondered his words for a minute. Had he, or one of his aides, seen me toting my copy of “Collective Choice and Social Welfare”? It has already been a few weeks since I put down my Sen and picked up Friedrich Hayek. Still – was Biden trying to rattle me before the debate? Merde!”

- Sarah Palin’s Secret Blog.

Won’t the fundementalist christians and the right-wing gun lovers and the conservative republicans be shocked when they learn that the new poster girl of ignorant America is really one of the “elite” that they scorn?!

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(Illustration: ABC News)

Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.

t r u t h o u t | McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry

Are you willing to bet on this entrenched politician and his sketchy ties to the big money of Vegas? It sure feels like the odds are stacked against the people of this nation if McCain is elected!

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and I bet they don't use any big words so she can read it herself!

If You See Something » Archive » Highlights Magazine for Palin

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