The only thing more fun than seeing the PATRIOT Act poster we made with Jonah Sachs and Free Range on the Wired blog is seeing the news that goes with it, that portions of the Act are finally being laid to rest, after being imposed and then reanimated by an overstepping White House. My colleague has the latest issue of Stanford Lawyer in his office and the cover image is the same kind of re-mix as the Patriot-bot. (Both of which owe a lot to Micah Wright.) There's a great and always jarring effect portraying a trusted protector as off the rails, wrong-headed or insane. Think of Sterling Hayden as Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove" or Frank Miller's take on Superman as a black-ops weapon in The Dark Knight Returns. Or, for the ladies in the house, the chilling nurse Libby Hatch in Caleb Carr's The Angel…

The President's remarks wonderfully echo those of my friend Rich Harwood, made earlier this week online: "To set a different trajectory will require that we check our own heated rhetoric when talking about 'the other side.' We must highlight those places where strange bedfellows have come together to get good things done. We must stand next to leaders – especially those with whom we disagree – when they act with integrity." I'm not over the sick problems with public discourse, the opportunism of the cynical and ill-informed. Read what Andrew Sullivan wrote about Sarah Palin's self-serving, victim-complex video. Or David Neiwert on eliminationist rhetoric. But, the President's speech, like his refusal to trade jabs with John McCain when the moderator explicitly invited him to in the third presidential debate, calls on people to reach out, not lash out. That's a better rebuke to Palin's blood-baiting and pandering, which Obama knows.…

The money line from FT's welcome editorial comment today on government transparency: "But the reasons for hiding public information too often stem from fear of embarrassment, force of habit or politicians going cold on previous ideals – not the public interest."We sometimes mistake institutional inertia, inexperience, and even incompetence, with more deliberate resistance to transparency (or to tech innovation more generally). When you point the finger at the institution, looking for the gatekeeper with something to hide, you'll probably find something without looking too hard. And shock and embarrassment are necessary weapons for change-makers to keep in their disruptive arsenal.But don't forget to point the finger back toward yourself and your new approaches and ask yourself "Have I done everything I could to teach away fear and build new habits through small-step changes with easy wins?"The FT also notes the progress in the UK on government transparency and mentions the…