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Government Web Sites Are Not for the Incumbents
Hal Plotkin has a column pointing out a severe deficiency in how the U.S. government handles web sites - they are often designed more to promote current office-holders than to conduct governmental affairs. The practice of using official resources for partisan political purposes is not new - the big rush actually hit about 3-4 years ago - but we could make such better use of the web, if only...
Those who seek the power are least deserving of it.
Ravenn
Of all the things you can accomplish by screwing up your face and swearing into a dark room, sleep is not one of them.
the big new here is ?
i mean the president (take your pic any one ive been alive for) has flown all over the counrty on tax payer provided planes and fuel to campain for OTHER canadates in tight races not to mention a convient trip to a party fund raiser
Damn the man!
It's standard practice in .gov to "rewrite" some of the findings, achievements, etc. of the previous administration to appeal to the current politicians thoughts and ideals.
I've always thought what a waste of time and resources it is for a particular State to rewrite road signs and post the picture and "thoughts" of the current governor on the backs of road maps. Of course there's many things you see, such as this /. article that shows just how much waste (and graft) occurs in .gov.
No matter how the politicians spin things, their primary goal is to get reelected. Very few policitians have enough guile to tell the establishment (and stick to their guns) that they're only there for one/two terms, to make a difference.
Jerry Fletcher,
Privacy Protection By:
http://www.cotse.net/servicedetails.html
"they are often designed more to promote current office-holders than to conduct governmental affairs."
And the other avenues of communications aren't? How is Congressman Tauzin's self-promotional website different from, say, the form letter I got from Congressman Tauzin explaining how good the Tauzin-Dingel through franked mail (who needs to buy stamps when you're a member of Congress?) in response to the complaint I sent to him about said bill? Tell me how that letter and all the other form letters various members of Congress send to concerned voters isn't just so much political advertising?
No, I'm not saying all members of Congress are guilty of this (at the very least somebody read letters I've sent to my Senators, for example), but there are some who are quite guilty of this, and all we've seen come of it is legislation against using franked mail within X number of days of election day.
Come back when you've noticed the problem in general and not just the websites in particular.
What we need are congressional terms limits and less seneiority priviliges. Once representatives realize that gorverning should be a short detour from their normal lives, and not an occupation, our government should improve.
...is designed to favour the incumbents.
The two big parties have enough funding to brainwash the masses into thinking that they are the only parties capable of winning, yet their policies differ very little.
The net effect is that by voting for either of them, you are voting for the status quo - nothing ever happens and they keep lining their pockets.
Vote for someone else. Left or right, it doesn't matter, just shake out the incumbents.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
His main point seems to be that government web sites should be dedicated to organizing grass roots groups. First of all, the idea of the government organizing grass roots groups is oxymoronic. It is also a pretty dumb idea. I can just imagine the paranoia if the government tried to monopolize all of the grass roots organizations by hosting them on government web sites. "I spent the last 5 hours typing up my opposition to the mayor's speech when my computer crashed and the whole thing was lost. Then I got to thinking, who controls the web site? (The mayor.) Was it really a mistake that my post was lost?"
This guy, Plotkin, should go back and dig up some real abuses to complain about. Lacking that, this article just sounds like a big long whine.
If electricity is produced by electrons is morality produced by morons?
GDict says:
Shouldn't the headline read:
as the incumbents are the people already in power?All data is speech. All speech is Free.
freedom.gov is running IIS (our government money at work!). I think by default, IIS hands out cookies to each visitor to keep track of sessions (though I don't remember if it does anything with this information by default -- I think it's mostly for server side ASP stuff). You can always not accept the cookie.
Of course, it's been a couple years since I've had to work with IIS, so I may be remembering incorrectly...
"Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
Let's see. . .what CAN'T they fly Coach: the rest of us do. And as for baggage handlers, why not subject them to the joys of our new Federalized (and supposedly "Professionalized". . .) Baggage Handlers and screeners. Thay're SUPPOSEDLY there to represent us, as opposed to being the Senator from Disney or whereever.
Then again, if **I** was running things, I'd have Congresscritters and Senators living in general-issue family housing on any of the local military bases in the DC area. After all, if it's good enough for our boys and girls in uniform, it oughta be good enough for a Congressman or Senator....
Um. No. Median is good enough for me and close enough to the average that I can call it average. Keep in mind there are more in the 20K-30K range and lower then there are in the 90-100K range. Also, why get technical about it? At least I attempted to provide figures instead of saying things like "Well the congresscritters should try living on the 15 K a average citizen makes". The original poster didn't even do that!
While I agree healthcare costs have gotten out of hand, they only get that way because sniviling losers with the sniffles go to the doctor and say help me, when they can go to the pharmacy themselves and get some cold medicine and be ok. Only if I can't shake it or don't start feeling better after about a week do I ever consider going to the Doctor. Same thing goes for vomiting. I may have thrown up, but there are literally hundreds of viruses out there and there's not much to most of them and not much a doctor can do for you (believe me I have had to teach my wife this with my son who had the sniffles and a cough when he was 6 months old...wife had me drag him to the hospital at 2 am and the doctor told her there was nothing he could do unless it got worse and I had a 50 dollar bill to pay for the ER).
Also, if you stay long enough, you can make money. My brother and sister in-law both were supporting themselves and their kids working at McDonalds (well, my Sis-in-law worked at Wendy's). My brother is now a store manager and pulls almost as much as I do at my tech job counting bonuses and the like. You obviously haven't checked McDonalds lately. They HAVE to increase the amount they offer because if they don't, they won't get anyone. Why would you want to work there when you can go work for UPS and get paid more? And yes you can literally walk into some of these places and they will almost hire you on the spot. I see signs all over my town in every fast food retaurant, every restaurant, every retail store and grocery store and they are literally screaming for help. Grocery stores pay better then fast food in a lot of cases because they are unionized in my area. When I worked at a grocery store full time I had benefits at least as good as my state job now. Point is, fast food does not and has not for a while paid minimum wage. You hardly ever here anyone talk about them raising it because noone pays that little any more. According to the Department of Labor, the current minimum wage as of 1997 is 5.15 an hour. I know of at least 3 places where I live where you can get a job that pays as much as twice that and you can literally walk in, interview and walk out with the job. This isn't BS. Sure, your big salary players may not be hiring (read Tech Jobs) but the service industry always needs folks who want to work. Most folks who are in the Tech Industry don't really work much but thier brain. Only time I break a sweat is when I have an AC Unit out in the server room. You can get a job today even. It's not impossible and it IS possible to work at one of these places and survive. No, you don't NEED a Computer, DVD Player, Big Screen TV, VCR, CD Player, Tons of DVD's and CD's, a car in some cases (if you live on a Bus or Subway Line), Cellphone or whatever new tech toy comes out. You don't need these to survive! You also don't need Day Care even if you both work. You can both work different shifts(if your marriage is strong to begin with, you can survive the separation). You can live with in range of other family members willing to do it for free. You can try to get by with only one working (it is possible....my brother is the only one who works at his house and they are making it oh and he works fast food too).
Oh and in my tech job I CHOOSE to ride the bus instead of drive because I can't afford the car payment and refuse to get another one until I have to or I can afford it (my car is paid off).
You DON'T need a SUV just because you have kids. You DON'T need a 500 W Car Stereo. Most don't NEED a cell phone. Americans in general have it easy by far when compared to the rest of the world where it will take some folks almost a year to make what you make in a week. Yet those other people live year after year after year. It is a fallacy that you need lots and lots of junk to make life worth living. I challenge you to not logon the net for a while day. I bet you can't do it. I have been instituting family hours after I get home. I check my mail, synch my PDA and then we wil do a family thing (I even shut off the PC so as not to tempt myself). Last night we watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Winney the Pooh and Boo to You Too with my son. We had a great time. Some nights, as soon as I figure out something to do, we might even shut that boob tube off and do something else. It's nice to unplug. If you never live without it, what will you be like psychologically when you have to live without it?
We Americans are blessed. An economic downturn in America is so easy to live out compared to one in any other country. You CAN get a job and keep it while you keep looking. If you fall back to unemployment, well, that's just plain being lazy.
Everyone bitches about paying taxes, but yet they want the government to give them everything for free. You know the money for those food stamps and other aid programs come from TAXES my boy! Ever paid any? There's a school levy to vote on in my area come November and it will only raise the taxes on a 100,000 dollar house by 75 dollars A YEAR! And some folks don't want to do that! That's 6 bucks A MONTH increase! Whoopity do! They don't want to pay it, yet they want the schools to get better. I am not saying money is the solution. Lord knows it isn't in alot of cases and lord knows there is waste in government programs. But you mean to tell me that you aren't willing to part with one latte a month for your kids??
On the other hand, I do see a ton of wasteful programs that should be cut. Also, if you want the government out of your life, you should get the government out of your life. Never pay more then you should ever on your taxes at any point. What I mean there is if you get a big refund, adjust your withholding so it evens out. That way you always have what is yours. Only saying that you need to pay taxes cuz you will go to jail if you don't. Next step, if you collect from any government program, stop. Give up that aid. Figure out how to do it on your own. Don't collect unemployment. Send your kids to private schools. Don't ask the government for things that are supposedly rightfully yours. If more people would do this instead of asking for more, then they would have to reduce the tax and you'd get more automatically anyway. Government will only increase if there's a need and if you remove the need, in fact if you do away with it altogether, then the government will shrink (well you'd hope it would anyway). Isn't that something we all want?
I do agree Senetors are over paid. They are one of the few that their pay increase doesn't usually match their "performance".
Gorkman
Yes, I do.
The matching funds program that you reference is funded by the voluntary "Presidential Election Campaign" checkoff on the 1040 form (and its variants).