Secrecy

"Despite budget crunches, poor air quality, maintenance backlogs and other problems, the public is not likely to hear any bad news from staff of the National Park Service (NPS)," BushGreenwatch.org writes.

China's "censorship orders are totally groundless, absolutely arbitrary, at odds with the basic standards of civilization, and as counter to scientific common sense as witches and wizardry," wrote Beijing journalism professor Jiao Guobiao in a recent article that has been widely circulated by Internet in Beijing despite, not unpredictably, being banned by the Communist Party's propaganda department. "Such explicit outbursts of dissent are still rare in China, reports Joseph Kahn. "But Mr.

Bill Mitchell, whose son was a U.S. Army soldier killed in Iraq earlier this month, has written a letter to The Seattle Times thanking the newspaper for publishing the picture of flag-draped caskets that broke a Pentagon ban. Mitchell believes his son was in one of the caskets shown in the now-famous photo by Tami Silicio. "Hiding the death and destruction of this war does not make it easier on anyone except those who want to keep the truth away from the people," he wrote.

"Americans seeking to know what President Bush said in his phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month went to the obvious place: the Kremlin," writes Dana Milbank. "It may come as a surprise to some that the Kremlin, symbol of secrecy and repression, has become more transparent that the White House, symbol of freedom and democracy...