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Look like I'm a little late to the party, but I also started a petition here. I like mine better, I'm not sure I understand where he's going with the military bit in this one, but there's no reason why you can't sign both.

The current leading petition about net neutrality is this one:

https://petitions.whitehouse.g...

We put it up on We The People and The White House responded:

Absent net neutrality, the Internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries. The resulting decline in the development of advanced online apps and services would dampen demand for broadband and ultimately discourage investment in broadband infrastructure. An open Internet removes barriers to investment worldwide. ... It was also encouraging to see Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, whom the President appointed to that post last year, reaffirm his commitment to a free and open Internet and pledge to use the authority granted by Congress to maintain a free and open Internet. The White House strongly supports the FCC and Chairman Wheeler in this effort.

I think we're going to need another petition, or perhaps a series of petitions that cover the front page of We The People, asking for Tom Wheeler to be executed ... sorry, that should read "terminated" ... you know what? either way. -- and for common carrier to be restored.

Yes, right here.

The Republican governor of Hawaii certified that his birth certificate was valid a long time ago, like in 2004, but I dont really feel like digging through google just to prove you're an idiot, so search for yourself.

His birth certificate is available on the WhiteHouse.gov website.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog...

It looks pretty much like my birth certificate as well. If people think he's hiding something more than that, then I guess I've never used a "real birth certificate" either.

Tune into http://www.whitehouse.gov/, just like any other idiot box channel be it http://abc.go.com/, http://www.nbc.com/, http://www.cbs.com/, http://www.cwtv.com/, http://www.fox.com/, suck up the corporate cool aide and be informed, of what you are meant to know, and about how you are meant to think and whom you have to vote for. All the channels with the same corporate message, all the talking heads reading off the same Teleprompter feed. The US no longer has a president, it just has another puppet, saying what it is told to say, pretending it thinks for itself, and working ever so hard at dumbing down the airwaves. Of course the rest of the world is looking at the office of the President of the United States and realising just how a empty suit really occupies that position.

sign my petition to prosecute NSA leaders: https://petitions.whitehouse.g...

The poster asserts, "Government-funded science is struggling in the United States."

The Federal Government spends more than $130 billion on research and development (R&D) each year, conducted primarily at universities and Federal laboratories.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog...

How much should the taxpayers spend on research? Show your work.

Have you looked at the budget this is referening?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/...
Table 6.1â"Composition of Outlays: 1940â"2019

The "Budget" consist of essentially 2 items.

National Defense: 506 B
Payments for individuals: 2221B
Net Interest rounds up the 3rd biggest item for 208B

While yes, we probably do spend too much on some of these "payment to individuals" items, essentially all services the government buys/pays for is a payment to an individual.

I think there are too many people who do not think but rather take whatever modified information in and believe it. If they are somewhat in the middle (not extreme to either left or right), they would be sceptical to any news like this.

First, the author of TFA has bias toward the far right. Therefore, the summarized information given in TFA is to both feed the same mind (right wing) and attack Democrat party. Even though I am not all for the current President, I feel that TFA is not telling the whole truth but rather oversimplify the raw data and exaggerate the analysis toward the author bias.

Let's look at http://www.whitehouse.gov/site... which is the data cited by TFA. It shows how much money, in each category, is distributed toward directly individual expenses. In the file, it shows that the highest payout to individual is Social Security ($807m) which is still much higher than the health & Medicare combined last year. The $430m is paid out to disability and pension [ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/... ].

If you are going to argue about the amount of Medicare expenses going up from $200s millions in 2001 to $600s million in 2014, then I am guessing you are still blind with your bias. What you need to do is to create a line graph for Medicare expenses from the year 1999 to 2014. Then, look at the rate of change (line slope) and THINK. You will see that there is not much different in the line slope from 2004 to 2008 and 2008 to 2014. In other words, during the second term of Bush administration, the expenses were going up as fast (if not faster) as the Obama administration.

Therefore, the TFA is giving only the true raw data but analyses it badly by applying his bias. This kind of analysis ticks me off because it is similar to telling a lie with omission. When someone said it is all good, I doubt it is that good and may look for the catch. If I couldn't find the catch, I will give a benefit of the doubt. When someone said it is all bad, I would look into it because I want to verify the person's judgement regardless his or her credential. Error is in human nature and even a smart person could be wrong from time to time...

If you make $50,000 a year you pay

$247.75 a year for Defense
$3.98 a year for FEMA
$22.88 a year for unemployment ins.
$36.82 a year for food stamps
$6.96 a year for welfare
$43.78 a year for civil an military retirement
$4000 for a year for corporate subsidies

Are you sure that you're pissed at the right people? sources http://www.commondreams.org/ http://www.whitehouse.gov/2012...

The political ignorance of you and timothy is, I am affraid to say, embarrassing. Let me explain what has happened here.

The POTUS has made a budget that he suggests to the House of Representatives. You can find and explanation of this on Wikipedia.

You can also know more about this if you would just RTFB that was posted today.

"Calls on the Congress to enact bipartisan commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform consistent with the President’s principles and that builds on the bipartisan legislation that has already passed the Senate, which the Congressional Budget Office has found would reduce the deficit by almost $1 trillion and increase the economy by $1.4 trillion over the next twenty years."

Federal tax receipts, historical. In 1957 tax receipts were basically $80 billion. In 2013, tax receipts were $2,775 billion.

Population of the US, historical. In 1957, there were about 172 million people. In 2013 there are about 317 million.

Inflation calculator. A 1957 dollar is worth about $8.46 in 2013

Tax receipts in 1957, per capita: $465. Correct for a 2013 dollar (multiply by $8.46) and you get about $3900 (the Federal Government also ran a real cash surplus and the national debt decreased).

Tax receipts in 2013, per capita: $8754. Or a bit more than double that 1957 per-capita after you adjust for inflation (deficit - pushing over $2000 per person).

Essentially, the Federal Government is taking about twice out of everybody's pocket as it did back in the "high tax" 50s. The difference is in the deductions allowed today versus then, so the actual, effective tax rate was dramatically different than what many suspect. And given that the overwhelming majority of tax receipts come from high income people (the top 10% pay more than 70% of all Federal income taxes, and when you include SSI/FICA - which they would all cap out - and capital gains, approximately 88% of individual, and 40% of ALL, Federal receipts comes from the income of these top 10%), we are witnessing a massive wealth redistribution at the hands of the Federal Government. The fact it's happening so poorly is not a reflection on the taxpayers, but the inefficiency and corrupt nature of the Federal Government.

Given that being in Congress makes one quite wealthy, perhaps a lot of that redistribution is strictly for the benefit of those IN Government. It's still a Federal Government by the people and of the people, but increasingly FOR Government, not for the people.

A 5% budget cut is "the destruction of the greatest source of innovation the U.S. -- and the world -- has ever seen"?

Just for some perspective on Federal government spending, "General Science, Space, and Technology" spending is up 12% (after inflation adjustment) from 2002-2012 and "Health" spending is up 41% during the same period. "Energy" spending is up 2400%.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/... -- see table 3.2

Apparently, the employees' concerns were ignored since the actions of the supervisor are now in-line with the Obama administration's national "Insider Threat Policy".

Why has Government spending as a % of GDP taken a nosedive?

Might want to check those talking points, they appear to be about four years out of date.

Oh, reports you say? well then, I guess that clinches it.

Salaries our paid be the government, not whom ever happens to be in the white house.
Not that those numbers are really believable:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/file...

If you will note, there are more women at the entry level position.

The president has no control over their salaries.

What this shows is the Obama is doing a pretty good job as president. All number show improvement, so no one can attack him with actual job performance facts. SO Fox et. al. Attack things near him, attack with ad homs, attack with lies.

Actually, the Obama administration has mandated open data for all federally supported research. Good news indeed.

Hey, so they want to make another site just like https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ with the same level of support, feedback, and quality of response, correct? /sarcasm>

Make sure and sign the petition to stop this. https://petitions.whitehouse.g...

Petition at Whitehouse.gov

A petition of the White House to `Restore Net Neutrality By Directing the FCC to Classify Internet Providers as "Common Carriers" just attained the 100k signatures required for a response.

I'm sure a number of you would have liked to have known about that and signed it at the time... but the story submission was declined. Guess there were too many terribly important climate change stories or something.

We'll send this junk back, up to 221K, so far.

I don't care if you kick him out, but for God's sake, don't send him back to us!!!

We'll send this junk back, up to 221K, so far.

People killed them. Either by direct means or global warming.

Or, I blame God.

What about Justin Bieber, I'm sure he had something to do with the extinction of the mammoths.

To be on the safe side, sign this petition The species you save may be your own.

for what it's worth - https://petitions.whitehouse.g...

Full Pardon. Presidential Medal of Freedom. Full stop.

(a) It's time to highlight the oft-neglected Presidential power of pardon and what it's meant to be used for. (b) The Obama White House contact webpage still claims that "President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history." It's time put up or shut up on that BS.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

All he has to do is prove that all previous administrations were less open and accessible. Politically, that's much easier than giving Snowden a full pardon.

Full Pardon. Presidential Medal of Freedom. Full stop.

(a) It's time to highlight the oft-neglected Presidential power of pardon and what it's meant to be used for. (b) The Obama White House contact webpage still claims that "President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history." It's time put up or shut up on that BS.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

CiviCRM is extremely good at what it does, and works with Drupal, as well as Joomla.

I like Drupal a lot. Drupal is like LEGO bricks you can build anything out of, and if you install CiviCRM on top of Drupal, that's like building the Millennium Falcon Star Wars Edition LEGO along with a spaceport for it. If that interests you, then also add OpenAtrium to your short list of things to check out too. In fact you can combine them if you want and they'll give you complimentary functions, however you might also find OpenAtrium is good enough for your CRM needs. Or you might swap out CiviCRM from your OpenAtrium platform as described, and use RedHen CRM instead.

Whatever direction you choose for CRM, I hope you'll give OpenAtrium consideration towards your requirements, (that is what the White House uses for its workgroup collaboration too). It's a good Space Dock Platform to hold your calendaring, notifications, public/private docs, etc.

http://openatrium.com/
http://redhencrm.com/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog...

Pro-Tip: In a lot of places where I have introduced OpenAtrium, when I get around to installing the sheetnode module, and everyone gets collaborative spreadsheets, I often hit a home run. The spreadsheet usefulness and ajax is extremely good.

https://drupal.org/project/she...

Do you mean http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf
At the risk of demeaning the message due to the messenger, I don't believe a godforsaken word the man utters.

Restore Net Neutrality By Directing the FCC to Classify Internet Providers as "Common Carriers".

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-net-neutrality-directing-fcc-classify-internet-providers-common-carriers/5CWS1M4P

And send them your feelings on the matter.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

This is ok. For many purposes, software improvements in terms of new algorithms that are faster and use less memory have done more for heavy-dute computation than hardware improvement has. Between 1988 and 2003, linear programmng on a standard benchmark improved by a factor of about 40 million. Out of that improvement, about 40,000 was from improvements in software and only about 1000 in hardware improvements (these numbers are partially not well-defined because there's some interaction between how one optimizes software for hardware and the reverse). See this report http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf. Similar remarks apply to integer factorization and a variety of other important problems.

The other important issue related to this, is that improvements in algorithms provide ever-growing returns because they can actually improve on the asymptotics, whereas any hardware improvement is a single event. And for many practical algorithms, asymptotic improvements are occurring still. Just a few days ago a new algorithm was published that was much more efficient for approximating max cut on undirected graphs. See http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.2338.

If all forms of hardware improvement stopped today, there would still be massive improvement in the next few years on what we can do with computers simply from the algorithms and software improvements.

Maybe if the President responded to this then Snowden would be home: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

What is it? Still not sure about where I stand on the whole thing, but isn't this meant to be an opinionated reference; possibly an aspersion?

Affordable Care Act

Editors: Saying Obamacare sounds similar to calling, at every chance, Social Security as Rooseveltaid or the conflicts in the Middle East as Bushwar.

You better tell the White House then, since the White House website (President Obama's own) refers to it as "Obamacare" in places. Will you shame President Obama for that?

Obamacare in Three Words: Saving People Money

Obamacare means that health insurance companies have to be accountable to you. If they spend too much money on overhead and not enough on medical care, you get a rebate -- just like 8.5 million Americans this summer. Here's a graphic that breaks things down. Will you share it to help answer questions in your community?

You know, if I didn't know better this might seem like people trying to distance themselves from Obamacare now that it is turning into a train wreck whereas they were quite happy with the association when it was all sunshine and glorious (empty) promises.

it is much easier to prevent the removal of a back door when the code base is owned by a private organization with identifiable representatives

Linux (and BSD) committers are just as identifiable. Although the codebase is open to all, very few people go through it. If it follows the documented coding style, compiles, and "works", there is simply no reason to keep reviewing it — for most people. The Debian hole I cited earlier remained open from 2006 to 2013 — more years, than Turing spent working on Enigma.

In the Linux community, being international, such pressure would be more difficult to apply.

Maybe, but I would not count on it. Which country would you consider unlikely to cooperate with the US on such matter — without itself being an even greater threat to liberty (like China or Cuba)? The entire Western world's spooks cooperate with the US. As does Russia — to some extent, at least. Who would not help their American colleagues in exchange for Americans helping them — a little? Someone like Sweden? Well, they did hit Assange with rape charges, when he made himself an overly tiresome nuisance to the Americans...

Its interesting to note that Microsoft's anti trust settlement was negotiated and overseen by a member of the FISA court. The mandate to open APIs and source probably stopped short of revealing all the built-in back doors.

In other words, Microsoft, probably, was coerced into it. A similar coercion — or conviction, or fooling — can be applied to an open-source project's participant. Whether it is easier or harder to do, I would not know.

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and lead in clean energy, EPA today released its 2013 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan that outlines actions planned over the next year to cut energy use and waste in agency operations. President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance in October 2009, setting aggressive targets for reducing waste and pollution in Federal operations by 2020. EPA’s 2013 Sustainability Plan builds on four years of progress under the Executive Order and provides an overview of how the agency is saving taxpayer dollars, reducing carbon emissions, and saving energy.

The 2013 Sustainability Plan will also help guide EPA’s actions to meet the new goal President Obama set today with a Presidential Memorandum directing the Federal Government to consume 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 – more than double the current level. Meeting this renewable energy goal will reduce pollution in our communities, promote American energy independence, and support homegrown energy produced by American workers.

Since 2009, EPA has:

- Reduced energy use by almost 8%; allowing EPA to avoid $1.5 million in utility costs annually. Compared to the 2003 baseline, EPA has reduced energy by more than 25%
- Used renewable energy and purchased Green Power Renewable Energy Credits equal to 100% of its conventional electricity use. Use of Green Power, coupled with energy conservation and fleet management efforts, reduce EPA Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions by nearly half from FY 2008 levels.
- Reduced annual water use by more than 25% – that’s more than 30 million gallons per year.

The 2013 Sustainability Plan outlines actions planned for the upcoming year to continue progress in meeting the President’s goals, including:

- Pursuing reconstruction of key EPA research infrastructure. Projects completed at the Cincinnati, OH, A.W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center, EPA’s second largest research center, have already reduced energy use by more than 30%.
- Consolidating the Research Toxicology Laboratory in Durham, NC into the Main laboratory at Research Triangle Park, NC. This project will reduce agency rent costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and result in a net reduction in EPA space without impacting research capacity.
- Continuing work on EPA’s award winning water conservation program.

Federal Agency Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans are available now at http://sustainability.performance.gov

Stop trolling. Of course the Senate will pass it - the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has stated they look forward to it (though they will probably make some changes). The President has already endorsed it and it has widespread bipartisan support in general.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/113/saphr3309r_20131203.pdf

Wow, looking that up, on Applebees and Chili's: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-waiters-and-waitresses/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/02/applebees-tablets-table-top-devices-restaurant-technology/3698561/

I think people overestimate the "human touch" need in service (like mentioned as a reason everything won't be automated in other posts). While it is true humans need other humans to be human, and physical human touch is important, interactions with "strangers" can be stressful for many, and they also expose people to a risk of disease. And example if banking, where many people now prefer using an ATM machine to talking to a bank teller. Same with many automated phone systems for routine transactions. It may depend in part on a person's personality of course. At some point thought, "more sanitary" and "more personalized and interactive" may become arguments for more automation. For example, who likes to wait around for the wait staff to bring you a bill when you are ready to go at the end of a dinner out?

One can hope though that as we see more abundance from more automation, people may have more time to cook at home and entertain at home. That may be the bigger long term change here. Why go to a restaurant at all, where you have little control over the ingredients, the people around you, and so on? Or, alternatively, when a robot can fetch your meal for you, as in this video of a PR2 robot going to Subway to fetch a sandwich:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYRQC2iBp

Marshall Brain's "Manna" explores two possible answers to your last question.
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

Regarding "socialism", here is a great graph on US perceptions, preferences, and reality regarding wealth distribution:http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealth-inequality/
"As you can see from the figure, participants rather badly estimated the current state of wealth disparity! Furthermore, they offered an ideal wealth distribution (under a "veil of ignorance") that was even more different (and more equal) relative to the current state of affairs.
What this tells me is that Americans don't understand the extent of disparity in the US, and that they (we) desire a more equitable society. It is also interesting to note that the differences between people who make more money and less money, republicans and democrats, men and women -- were relatively small in magnitude, and that in general people who fall into these different categories seem to agree about the ideal wealth distribution under the veil of ignorance.
Maybe this suggests that when there are no labels, and we think about the core of our morality in abstract terms (and under the veil of ignorance), we are actually very similar?"

Graph picture there seems broken; see it here:
http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-income-inequality-real-perceived.html

Still, you are right about the "allergy", and that is why planning through the market in the USA along with a basic income may be the easiest way forward:
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/change/science_market.html
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/establish-basic-income-guarantee-all-americans-similar-what-being-proposed-switzerland/jF

She is an avid supporter of UMNO - a RACIST ORGANIZATION which is still practicing APARTHEID in the country that it rules over (Malaysia, in this case).

Citation please?

She is an active player in an organization which supports the global jihadist movement.

Plus even if she is an UMNO member you'd have to show she is "an active player".

Otherwise you could tar all Democrat and Republican members with a similar brush.

Plus the last I checked the US was still friendly with the leader of UMNO.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/10/02/readout-president-s-call-prime-minister-najib-malaysia
  http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/10/11/John-Kerry-US-Secretary-of-State-Najib-Tun-Razak.aspx

Is Najib on the no-fly list too?

Whitehouse.gov Sign the petition, and at least get your voice out there.

Who know's? It might not fall on deaf ears.

"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what." -- Barack Obama, June 15, 2009

http://www.politifact.com/obama-like-health-care-keep/

The idea of a Basic Income is far wider and older than just what is happening in Switzerland and the EU. It's building popular support all around the world.

In the US, it goes back to Thomas Paine and his 1795 publication of Agrarian Justice.

The state of Alaska has had a working Basic Income since the 80's. Every person in the state gets a check every year of around $1000 as a Basic Income. Brazil and Iran both have a type of Basic Income in place today.

There's a petition at whitehouse.gov right now if you want to sign it and gain support for the idea in the US:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/establish-basic-income-guarantee-all-americans-similar-what-being-proposed-switzerland/jFbgDZ4h

In the late 60's in the US 1200 economists signed a petition and sent it to congress advocating a Basic Income. It was debated in the house but ultimately failed to gain traction. The idea has been around for a long time, and it keeps coming back. It's needed more today, than at any point in the past.

There are always people quick to call it stupid (as we see in this thread), but those people clearly don't understand the larger complexities of economics, sociology, and the problems we face in the world today. Economic Inequality is the world's single worst problem today. All other social problems such as poverty, health, crime, and war, are all fueled, driven, and created by, economic inequality. Even the very attitudes we see in this thread ("Oh fuck that. Produce or die.") is directly created by economic inequality. Though the world is rich enough to create a safe, healthy, peaceful, and easy life, for all 7 billion of us, where no one needs to struggle, or feel insecure, we have failed to do that. People live in constant fear because we have no security. And it's the economic inequality that creates and drives that fear. No matter how rich any person is, they always end up fearing they will lose their wealth and power because there are always people below them who are suffering to remind them how bad life can get.

No matter how much, or how little one has, they always fear losing it. And it's that fear that makes them say things like "Oh fuck that. Produce or die.". They fear that someone will try to take away the little they have, so that statement is really written to mean "I'm so scared of losing the little I have, that I have to speak out and kill any ideas of letting someone else take something away from me".

The rich that have so much more than we do, act as reminders of how much we have "failed" to be "productive" in society, and the poor that have so little, remind us that there are always wolves nipping at our heels. This effect keeps everyone in constant economic fear. The larger the total inequality in society, the larger the stress and fear it creates all across society. It creates as much stress at the top of society, as the poverty does at the bottom of society. The inequality turns society into a a big dogfight where there is constant pressure to climb higher and push others down, before they push you down.

Inequality continues to get worse, and worse. In the US, inequality is at a 80 year high worse than it was back in the great depression. This is because of technology. Technology creates wealth, which is should be good, but at the same time, it creates greater levels of inequality. The wealth of technology, always tends to flow to a minority. It does not naturally trickle down. Technological wealth trickles up. We have offset 100's of years of advanced technological wealth, by building these large welfare states. But despite how large the welfare states have become, they are still not enough to fix the growing inequality. Higher taxes for the rich and more government services for the poor will help offset it, but it won't fix it. Technology is getting to

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/establish-basic-income-guarantee-all-americans-similar-what-being-proposed-switzerland/jFbgDZ4h

I have no affiliation to 23andMe except as a satisfied customer. I have found 23andMe's services very useful and low cost to me, and hope that they are not destroyed by this FDA action. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/overrule-fdas-decision-bar-23andme-selling-their-potentially-life-saving-diagnostic-kits/96BRCYNB

Micro fixes to macro problems always creates more problems that it fixes. Companies will find ways to compensate CEOs that skirt the laws.

Overall social inequality is the macro economic problem that must be fixed, not just CEO salaries.

The correct way to address overall inequality, is with the other approach the Swiss will soon be voting on, which is a Basic Income for all citizens. That is the correct macro solution to the macro problem of inequality. That will fix CEO income relative to the average worker income, as well as all other forms of inequality, The US needs this far more than the Swiss do. Our inequality is far higher, and the social problems created by inequality are far worse in the US.

There's a petition at whitehouse.gov in need of more signatures to bring this problem to the atention of the American People. Please check it out and consider signing it.

Petition: Establish a basic income guarantee for all Americans, similar to what is being proposed in Switzerland.

That isn't true. They are independent. Who would pay attention to them if they were not independent?

You just did.

I'll just add that CBO deficit projections are one of the areas that they are particularly notorious for getting wrong (2009 CBO economy and deficit projections). For example, in that link they forecast 4% real GDP growth rate for 2011-2014. So far it's been about 2.5% through to this fall. They understated unemployment (6.4% through the same 2011-2014 period, actual average unemployment appears to be a bit under 8% so far, but probably will remain above 7% average when 2014 ends IMHO).

But it's their deficit projections which are off the most. Here's the figures from that report of 2009:

CBO projected deficits in billions of US dollars:
2010 -703
2011 -498
2012 -264
2013 -257

Actual deficits in billions of US dollars:
2010 -1294
2011 -1300
2012 -1087
2013 ~-680 (picked up from news sources)

Notice the problem? How far off these CBO projections are (over 800 billion over for 2010 and 2011!)? I picked this particular report because it was the most important CBO report of the past few years since it was used to justify 2009 stimulus spending and as justification for increase other sorts of spending in 2009 and early 2010.

Now you might think it just a coincidence that the CBO greatly exaggerated the fiscal health of the US budget at a time when it was highly advantageous to Congress to have such an exaggeration. I don't. I think this sort of deceptive propaganda is part of the CBO's reason for being.

The government should have done it in-house,

No, perhaps the government should have done it out-of-house. That code, legally, is in the public domain. It's just not publicly available. I see no reason why the (presumably php and sql) code behind healthcare.gov shouldn't be open to public viewing.

You can sign the petition here.

The Clinton administration used Lotus Notes, and none of this was newsworthy. Lotus Notes is a solid database system with excellent replication.

Then the Bush administration came in and ditched Notes for Exchange and made headlines for lost emails and failure to archive; almost as if the crappy Microsoft functionality was desirable for not being up to the task of keeping operable, accurate archives of staff messages.

The current administration uses a Drupal/OpenAtrium intranet with email notification.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2008/04/bush-lost-e-mails/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2008/08/white-house-memo-no-white-house-email-recovery-this-year/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/11/whitehousegov-releases-second-set-open-source-code