Slashdot Mirror

FYI, the petition to pardon Snowden is just a few thousand short of the 100,000 mark as of midday on Friday. There is still time to sign. Probably a waste of time, but it might be worth it. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

Sign this petition. It would be fun to see the response.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/preserve-protect-and-defend-constitution-united-states/R8JmsllN

Indeed, please also sign this petition which I would simply love to hear the administration's response to.

President Obama, if you believe in NSA surveillance, we challenge you to a live, public debate with Edward Snowden.

President Obama, you have said that the NSA's blanket tracking of Americans' phone calls and collaboration with tech giants "struck the right balance" and that you "welcome this debate". You must agree that this issue is worthy of your time, and as our president you are the best qualified person to make the case in favor of broad surveillance. To make the opposing case, we can think of no one better than whistleblower Edward Snowden. Like you, he has access to the data showing the tradeoff between securing America and damaging democracy (which at this point the public does not). He speaks with breathtaking clarity, and has left behind a comfortable life, facing death for the strength of his convictions. If you are as strong in yours, you owe him (and us) 1 hour of your time for this.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/president-obama-if-you-believe-nsa-surveillance-we-challenge-you-live-public-debate-edward-snowden/dvjXcZHZ

Maybe we can get it applied wider: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/force-all-law-enforcement-officers-wear-uniform-embedded-cameras/Mx2KDCtl

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD879 --- 404 Page not found The page you're looking for is currently unavailable to view We've been upgrading our site. It is possible that this page has been moved or renamed. You can use your browser's Back button to return to the previous page, go to the homepage, or you can browse or search for the information you're looking for. If you think that you have reached this page due to an error on our part, please let us know.

Latest count is 34,647.

Sign petition here

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD879 --- 404 Page not found The page you're looking for is currently unavailable to view We've been upgrading our site. It is possible that this page has been moved or renamed. You can use your browser's Back button to return to the previous page, go to the homepage, or you can browse or search for the information you're looking for. If you think that you have reached this page due to an error on our part, please let us know.

At the very least, sign the Whitehouse Petition, if only for the entertainment value of forcing Obama to respond.

Pardon Snowden

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD879 --- 8979 signed on in two days.
Also, over 4000 for repeal of the PATRIOT act so far and over 2000 for the impeachment of Roger Vinson, whose signature authorized some ridiculously broad data collection orders. And 11825 for the resignation of President Obama. I mention this last because people have been calling for his head for years and it's not clear what issue is the biggest factor in people calling for his resignation.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

There's a White House petition set up to request the matter be dropped. The FBI & the DOJ are both executive branch offices. Hit the petition to help Deric Lostutter - stop the senseless persecution of someone who helped justice get done!

See: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/drop-investigation-against-deric-lostutter-aka-kyanonymous/jdLfBh1z

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/force-all-law-enforcement-officers-wear-uniform-embedded-cameras/Mx2KDCtl

Sign the White House Petition to repeal this component of the Patriot Act.

I find it really concerning that a secret court can order such wide data transfer to the NSA, and also order that the order be kept secret.

Sign the petition at the White House . gov

Make it mandatory? https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/force-all-law-enforcement-officers-wear-uniform-embedded-cameras/Mx2KDCtl

Here's the actual announcement, no paywall: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/04/fact-sheet-white-house-task-force-high-tech-patent-issues

Interesting that you mention this. There is a petition on we the people about it. force-all-law-enforcement-officers-wear-uniform-embedded-cameras

I've personally run into this problem on a couple of occasions when making FOI requests. Once I requested court transcripts from a case that I wanted to provide to the local newspaper as evidence of an incredibly incompetent prosecutor, but the county courthouse wanted thousands of dollars to copy the transcripts and would not allow me to simply come down and copy them myself. I ran into a similar problem with the Department of Transportation when trying to build a database of VIN numbers for a used car sales site 14 years ago. They had no electronic records and only companies with huge pockets could afford to send people down to photocopy the new VINs every month (stack of papers the size of several telephone books) and ship them off to India for data entry. It basically killed our business model. The first example felt like a local court playing CYA, while the second was DOT simply having no incentive to make its data accessible benefiting larger corporations who could throw money at it.

I do feel it's getting better though. Things like data.gov and the Open Data Initiative are things we should be applauding, because there are some incredibly useful datasets that we the taxpayers have funded and now have access to. When things happen like this story of the AP being effectively blocked from FOIA via a bureaucratic maneuver, we should be outraged, but let's not forget the progress we're making and let our cynicism override the truth that we can change the system.

The link works, but I think it will not be searchable until it gets a few hundred signatures - you gotta promote it widely on your own.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/force-all-law-enforcement-officers-wear-uniform-embedded-cameras/Mx2KDCtl

Lets get this in the US.

We the People: Force all Law enforcement officers to wear unform embedded cameras
I'm sure anti-spam protection will slaughter the link, so just search for it on We The People.

Yes, quite true. Only members of Congress may enter bills into a congressional session. The president could write a bill then get a member of Congress to introduce it, but that isn't entering a bill into Congress is it?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/legislative-branch

"The first step in the legislative process is the introduction of a bill to Congress. Anyone can write it, but only members of Congress can introduce legislation."

ALEC writes a lot of Republican sponsored bills, but ALEX is not the one that enters it into Congress for consideration.

The emerging MERS virus poses a potential threat to the health of all U.S. Citizens. MERS may represent a second example of "SARS-like" viruses and the present emerging outbreak is a good time to practice our national response to a potential emergency.

The U.S. Army laboratories including USAMRIID, national labs, and other reasources at your disposal stand at the ready to defend the United States from various organisms. These laboratories may have the ability to quickly research the MERS virus for the people of the United States.

The United States government should in turn give the patents and other properties created by the United States to the American people, and to all the nations of the world.

White House Petition

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/overturn-franchise-laws-limit-auto-manufacturers-selling-their-vehicles-directly-consumers/rlShbLzr

"Money out of politics instantly"...I think you seriously underestimate how much money is involved. Our lawmakers get rich via indirect payments too. Campaign funding isn't even the worst problem. That gets spent by the campaign. Personal windfalls to the lawmaker don't though, so there is a long list of those too. The circle works like this:

-Company tells Congressman they want to build a new office in an area, but it needs rezoning and better roads to the location.
-Congressman purchases real estate in the area.
-The road construction and rezoning are pitched and passed as something that will bring new jobs to the area. Taxpayers foot the bill.
-Real estate prices along road increase, both due to improved transport there and due to the company buying up land there.
-Congressman sells the land at a hefty profit.

Throw Them All Out has a 20 page chapter just on real estate deals with this basic structure. They might instead nudge the path of construction toward property they already own, but the basic flow is the same. No one step of this is illegal, and the more sophisticated politicians further mask their involvement via shell companies or relatives.

There's dozens of variations on this theme. A lot of them involve stock trades. Congress didn't even try to act like they weren't doing insider trading until last year's STOCK act. All that is happening there is that the scheme have added a level of indirection so they're less obvious.

The revolving door approach works too. Give a company some breaks while you're in office, and then they provide you a hefty salary when you return to private work. Work privately for a few years, fill your piggy bank, and then return to another public position; repeat. That one is why the SEC doesn't do anything useful about insider trading at the major trading firms. Too many of its lawyers get hired by the same companies they should be prosecuting. Would you prosecute a company that offers you a big starting bonus in a few years if you just quietly avoid investigating them today? If you don't have a problem with that, why are you reading Slashdot--you should be working on your campaign instead.

The White House's official position is that they support legalization of phone unlocking.

Started this petition on whitehouse.gov https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-defcad-resume-distributing-their-files/J4TrTQkZ

Casteism is taught in schools from 6th class itself in India.
http://www.greatandhra.com/viewnews.php?id=30817&cat=10&scat=25
http://tehelka.com/karnataka-how-a-government-job-spelt-doom-for-37-dalit-families/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/90-per-cent-of-people-vote-on-caste-lines-Katju/articleshow/18117893.cms
http://www.firstpost.com/india/wont-eat-in-vessels-cleaned-by-dalit-woman-say-children-in-gujarat-school-615541.html

If you really want to help them, please write to http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ and http://pmindia.nic.in/feedback.php seeking Independent Nation for 300 million India's Untouchable People as per Congressman Trent Franks House Concurrent Resolution 139.
http://rediff.com/news/2007/may/03touch.htm
http://www.change.org/petitions/independent-nation-for-300-million-india-s-untouchables

Concerns over how the 'study' would be framed and who funds it would be the concern, not an aversion to any introspection on the topic. The term "gun study" in this thread means little more than "repeatedly politicizing the outlying events, combined with emotional mantras." See: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/preventing-gun-violence

The source of most of the federal government debt is renegade government spending. Federal outlays have more than doubled since 2000. They increased spending by 18% in 2009 alone!
If these A$$#0lZ in Washington D.C. had kept their insane spending in line with private sector GDP growth, they would now have a balanced budget.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals

(in XLS format)

"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." - Barack Obama

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment

This delay was "released" on Friday, I can't find anything relating to this at all. I wonder if this was spawned by Al Jazera or the like and it went viral. Can anyone find an actual official release? All I see is the same opening paragraph, political filler, but no authentic, non-repudiable source. http://www.defense.gov/releases/ http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases There was a delay for a Minuteman III test out of Barksdale but that was released on 2/28/13 for an upgrade to it systems: http://www.afgsc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123291773

Activism is useless when it is aimed at unproductive channels. Instead, they should have signed the petition to remove the DA in question. Or written a letter to the state.
Petition to remove DA Carmen Ortiz

Like most of the ill-worded and jurisdictionally misdirected petitions on that site, that one exists to make the public feel as if they've done something about a problem and therefore can dismiss it from the collective consciousness and go back to business as usual.

The request in that petition is not actionable by the executive branch of the Federal government.

I haven't seen any response to either the petition to discipline Carmen Ortiz or Steve Heymann, but I'm hoping the White House knows that tech professionals are watching.

The actions of these prosecutors is just an example of what is wrong with the system. I have a number of friends and family in law enforcement, but I have to say that my reaction to the recent news of harassment (even attacks) on prosecutors is ambivalence. If their version of "justice" is extorting a plea, they deserve anything they get. I feel sorry for honorable men and women who are stuck in a profession that no longer values anything other than expedience.

I haven't seen any response to either the petition to discipline Carmen Ortiz or Steve Heymann, but I'm hoping the White House knows that tech professionals are watching.

The actions of these prosecutors is just an example of what is wrong with the system. I have a number of friends and family in law enforcement, but I have to say that my reaction to the recent news of harassment (even attacks) on prosecutors is ambivalence. If their version of "justice" is extorting a plea, they deserve anything they get. I feel sorry for honorable men and women who are stuck in a profession that no longer values anything other than expedience.

Activism is useless when it is aimed at unproductive channels. Instead, they should have signed the petition to remove the DA in question. Or written a letter to the state.
Petition to remove DA Carmen Ortiz

Well, at least us Washington residents expected there would be many more than 100 applicants, especially considering that a criminal background didn't immediately bar you from consideration. The state probably expected more as well and hired a consultant accordingly. There's some tidbits in the article that stand out to me:

He created an intelligent form in Google Docs for the review form.

He ensured the security of the system by giving the users each a unique ID (e.g., Reviewer1, Reviewer2, etc.) and password, which protected the system integrity and maintained the anonymity of each reviewer

Uhh... doesn't using Google Docs negate the anonymity? Personally, I wouldn't consider it 'secure' either (if Google implodes, can /you/ restore your data?).

The system design cost just $7800 to put together. License fees for Box and DocuSign were not included in the total cost because the Liquor Control Board bought those separately.

Translated: The system design exceeded $10,000 so the Liquor Control Board started parallel, separate purchases of Box and DocuSign licenses to avoid the bid requirement.

It worked so well, cloudPWR is selling the solution to other governments processing RFPs.

Considering the level of investment (and that it's already paid for), I wonder what they will be charging. The website is one big contact form but maybe they just haven't decided. Personally, I think if WA hadn't procrastinated to a 10 day deadline, they could have afforded to hire someone who would use open-source tools.

That article just left me curious who the first Cannabis Commissioner will be! (Pot czar is so ugly; it reminds me of Gil Kerlikowske.)

Fixed link: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/review-chargespardon-alfred-anaya-federal-law-being-out-control-alfred-was-sentenced-24-years/p1P2ps4D

Petition at whitehouse.gov: http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/review-chargespardon-alfred-anaya-federal-law-being-out-control-alfred-was-sentenced-24-years/

Why not end this once and for all? Go here and vote: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/negotiate-and-ensure-peace-korean-peninsula/4vjNhTBb

But why should we spend money on an asteroid capture mission when there are still banks that need fountains in their lobbies? Priorities, people!

Man, those fountains are to be built with the funds saved by scrapping the Death Star project - the one estimated at over $850,000,000,000,000,000.
Priorities indeed! $100 million worth of fountains in bank lobbies is simply LAME, the banks would be ashamed to display them.

Federal spending has doubled since 2001 and has increased 50% since 2005. Straight from whitehouse.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals

Year | Federal Outlays
=======================
2001 1,862,846 ...
2005 2,471,957 ...
2008 2,982,544
2009 3,517,677
2010 3,456,213
2011 3,603,061

Drupal OpenAtrium is more like a forum, (that can be subscribed to, with push-email notifications). In other words the source document/content stays securely archived on the Drupal discussion forum, with email notifications and links to source for stakeholders' direct access. This also helps security and access to the actual information.

Also, any document in a library might have its own discussion and commentary thread, (with subscriptions, etc.)

Here's links to the White House Github, and some more details:

http://github.com/whitehouse

http://www.whitehouse.gov/developers

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/11/20/open-source-and-power-community

http://techpresident.com/news/23233/why-its-worth-noticing-white-houses-big-wet-kiss-drupal-and-github

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69839.html

http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/white-house-drupal-community-here-we-made-these

http://fedscoop.com/white-house-we-believe-in-using-and-contributing-back-to-open-source-software/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/11/whitehousegov-releases-second-set-open-source-code

Drupal OpenAtrium is more like a forum, (that can be subscribed to, with push-email notifications). In other words the source document/content stays securely archived on the Drupal discussion forum, with email notifications and links to source for stakeholders' direct access. This also helps security and access to the actual information.

Also, any document in a library might have its own discussion and commentary thread, (with subscriptions, etc.)

Here's links to the White House Github, and some more details:

http://github.com/whitehouse

http://www.whitehouse.gov/developers

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/11/20/open-source-and-power-community

http://techpresident.com/news/23233/why-its-worth-noticing-white-houses-big-wet-kiss-drupal-and-github

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69839.html

http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/white-house-drupal-community-here-we-made-these

http://fedscoop.com/white-house-we-believe-in-using-and-contributing-back-to-open-source-software/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/11/whitehousegov-releases-second-set-open-source-code

Drupal OpenAtrium is more like a forum, (that can be subscribed to, with push-email notifications). In other words the source document/content stays securely archived on the Drupal discussion forum, with email notifications and links to source for stakeholders' direct access. This also helps security and access to the actual information.

Also, any document in a library might have its own discussion and commentary thread, (with subscriptions, etc.)

Here's links to the White House Github, and some more details:

http://github.com/whitehouse

http://www.whitehouse.gov/developers

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/11/20/open-source-and-power-community

http://techpresident.com/news/23233/why-its-worth-noticing-white-houses-big-wet-kiss-drupal-and-github

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69839.html

http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/white-house-drupal-community-here-we-made-these

http://fedscoop.com/white-house-we-believe-in-using-and-contributing-back-to-open-source-software/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/11/whitehousegov-releases-second-set-open-source-code

Aaron Swartz's death, and the subsequent outcry, do appear to be bringing about some of the social changes he hoped for. Since his cause was public access to information, he was persecuted for this cause and died as a result it seems to meet the definition of martyr.

The hero's death is commemorated. People may label the hero explicitly as a martyr. Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause.

Solyndra? No. They will not. But on others, they already have.

The loans vary in duration, but some are as long term as thirty years. From page ii of the link:

The requirements and limitations that the statutes and regulations impose on the Programs shaped the development of the Portfolio in several ways. As summarized below, the legal constraints caused DOE to create a portfolio that consisted of:

[...]

Credits of long tenor, approaching thirty years in some cases;

I doubt anyone has paid back their section 1705 loans in full, but I'm willing to be disappointed.

Many of the companies went bankrupt quickly after getting the federal money and none of them produced anything usable.

Err, no. The DOE loan program is actually performing better than congress expected when they created it in 2005. I'm willing to bet that you don't even know the name of one other company that received a DOE loan besides the three you've mentioned. As usual, reality is more complicated than sound-bites.

I like everyone else is upset at this. One of the best Google services shut down - obviously their target audience is not me. There just isn't a good replacement for a web-based service such as this (see all the points previously stated) making an Android/iOS app a poor fit, and even standalone desktop applications poor (especially the go away for a few days and all the feeds are picked up part).

I am at the point that I will happily close my Google Plus account (don't really use it) as a protest vote if someone is organising something like this (Occupy Google Plus anyone?)

I hope everyone can sign one of the 3 petitions:
* Whitehouse - https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-request-behalf-citizens-united-states-google-reverse-its-decision-shut-down-reader/VRZTd72L
* Change.org #1 - https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running
* Change.org #2 - http://www.change.org/petitions/google-please-don-t-kill-google-reader

:-(