How the Open Government Dialogue got slimed (whitehouse comment site over run)

Federal Computer Week ^ | 6-4-09 | unattributed

[dynachrome]

Let’s cut to the chase: The Open Government Dialogue — the Obama administration’s much-ballyhooed initiative to engage with the public in an online forum — got slimed.

The brainstorming forum, managed by the National Academy of Public Administration, was designed to allow the public to provide input on how to make government operations and information more transparent.

Participants were invited to submit ideas and rate other people’s ideas with a thumbs up or thumbs down. The system would tally the votes and assign a score to each suggestion. This mechanism would make it possible for the public at large to identify the most important issues and police the site for off-point or abusive content.

Of course, the Open Government Dialogue was intended to explore the process by which government ensures transparency. But that is not how WorldNet Daily posed it: “Obama asks which public records you want to see,” the first headline read.

-snip-

No matter. The article was picked up by various blogs with similar interests, including Morality 101, Free Republic and The Ron Paul War Room. The topic also hit Twitter, with numerous tweeters encouraging readers to keep the birth certificate issue alive at the Open Government Dialogue.

[dynachrome]

Which of you eeeeeeeevil freepers helped do this? 'fess up!

LOL

[Bon mots]

Hey, I only made a couple of lousy bumper stickers...

[dynachrome]

You on the bad boy/bad girl list now!

[cripplecreek]

They should run to the media and have them try to slime us. In fact I dare them to go to the media with this.

The media isn’t going to touch this because its mere mention brings too many unanswerable questions.

[Iron Munro]

This is an issue easily remedied:

RELEASE OBAMA’S REAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

When a democrat says they will have the most ethical administration ever - they won’t.

When a democrats says they will have the most open and transparent administration ever - they won’t.

When a democrat says “It’s fo’ the chi’rens” - it’s not.

When a democrat puts the word “Fairness” in a bill you can be sure the intent is to eliminate fairness.

When a democrat says anything at all, get ready for the exact opposite and you won’t be disappointed.

[edcoil]

Isn't that quaint, someone actually believes the government cares what the people think.

[Mr. Lucky]

Unless the people learn how to behave, there will be repercussions I tell you.

[frog in a pot]

Thanks, great link.

“But what the ‘birthers’ are doing is the equivalent of spamming up a public bulletin board and reducing its utility for everyone else.”

This is a classic argument. O’s legitimacy to serve as president is one of the single most important issues facing our country and the numerous inquiries are thought of “as spamming up”

“NAPA and the Obama administration have moved into the next phase of the Open Government Dialogue, focusing the conversation on a handful of specific issues.”

And, eliminating “uncomfortable” issues. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a blatant example of governmental censorship.

“Is it possible to conduct a national online dialogue that is civil and productive? “

Not so long as a totalitarian host/government (via taxpayer’s money) squelches the free exchange of information vital to our nation.

[Voter62vb]

Comments after the article:
/
Thu, Jun 4, 2009 Editor
Editor’s response: Contrary to commenters who say otherwise, the Web site was focused on HOW to make government more transparent, not WHAT to make transparent.
/
It was supposed to be groovy, not ask real questions...

[cripplecreek]

“But what the ‘birthers’ are doing is the equivalent of spamming up a public bulletin board and reducing its utility for everyone else.”

Roughly translated I think that means we've replaced the all important marijuana legalization issue with that unimportant constitutional issue.

[cripplecreek]

There's gonna be consequenses and reprecussuions.

[cripplecreek]

You’re going to enjoy this one.

[editor-surveyor]

I confess, Dynachrome did it!

[dynachrome]

I prefer this site:

http://www.whatobamameanstome.com

I am undecided whether it is a phony pro-obozo site or was set up and abandoned. funny stuff there.

[Deb]

This is an American tragedy, for up until the moment the site got blown into a poopy ditch, President Dumbo arose every morning to check the hopeful and multi-colored responses from the American people he loved.

Ready, he was, to jump to his feet and put those nation-saving suggestions into action!

Now, his dream lay in tatters that remind him of a desecrated flag.

[cripplecreek]

New tagline?

[SeminoleSoldier]

Evil slimers! Asking questions they shouldn’t - poor Obama. Maybe the DHS should go after these mean rightwingers.

[Polarik]

Oh, yeah. I saw it. I also knew that they secretly opened the next phase blog two days ago.

My “idea” is still posted.

This whole “open government” thing is a farce and a crock of sh*t. We already know that ZERO has “no open government,” “no transparancy,” “highly selective participation,” “highly exclusionary collaboration,” “no real capacity building” and “no accountability.”

ZERO has the most opaque, closed system of government this country has ever seen.

Too effing bad if they got a lot of different posts about the same thing. They did not bother to explain how to use the site, nor did they exert any effort to catalog the responses, like they do on Forums and Blogs.

If there was a link on the left side, saying, “Put your birht certificate sugesstions here,” this overload could have been easily avoided.