Does the EFF exist in the UK?

Is there a UK branch?

How do you get involved?

A fantastic article by Matt Taibbi about how the White House press core and the mainstream media no longer serve a useful function.  (My spin in italics).

Here are my highlights, but read the whole thing:

• After watching George W. Bush's press conference last Thursday night, I'm more convinced than ever: The entire White House press corps should be herded into a cargo plane, flown to an altitude of 30,000 feet, and pushed out, kicking and screaming, over the North Atlantic.
• Particularly revolting was the spectacle of the cream of the national press corps submitting politely to the indignity of obviously pre-approved questions, with Bush not even bothering to conceal that the affair was scripted.
• Abandoning the time-honored pretense of spontaneity, Bush chose the order of questioners not by scanning the room and picking out raised hands, but by looking down and reading from a predetermined list.
• In other words, not only were reporters going out of their way to make sure their softballs were pre-approved, but they even went so far as to act on Bush's behalf, raising their hands and jockeying in their seats in order to better give the appearance of a spontaneous news conference.
• In his best moments Bush was deranged and uncommunicative, and in his worst moments, which were most of the press conference, he was swaying side to side like a punch-drunk fighter, at times slurring his words and seemingly clinging for dear life to the verbal oases of phrases like "total disarmament," "regime change," and "mass destruction."
• Moments later, the camera angle of the conference shifted to a side shot, revealing a ring of potted plants around the presidential podium.
• It would be hard to imagine an image that more perfectly describes American political journalism today: George Bush, surrounded by a row of potted plants, in turn surrounded by the White House press corps.
• This was just Bush's eighth press conference since taking office, and each one of them has been a travesty.
• But the White House press corps' idea of "taking a shot" is David Sanger asking Bush what he thinks of British foreign minister Jack Straw saying that regime change was not necessarily a war goal.
• And then meekly sitting his ass back down when Bush ignores the question.
• They can't write what they think, and can't ask real questions.
• What the hell are they doing there?

What indeed?

You are about to go to war.  A war which the secretary general of the UN has stated publicly could be an illegal act.  And the best your ace reporter can do is ask Shrub "How is your faith holding together?"  Shit!

Have any of you guys looked at Afghanistan lately?

It's not Iraq you should be torching.

How about:

• Action Journal

I like action because it emphasizes my view that good knowledge is inextricably woven into what we do.

I like journal because it sounds more diary like than logging.