Back during the primaries, when I was trying to decide between Clinton and Obama, I noted that I was particularly won over by Obama's stance on government transparency. So glad to discover those weren't just empty words - from a memo our new president just issued to federal agencies:

"The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and down by their Government. Disclosure should be timely."

Ok, so it's perhaps not radical, and certainly we need to see these words directly translated into some actual government transparency, but god it's just so nice to once again have a leader who at least thinks about these things!