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Data.gov To Launch In May
An anonymous reader writes "In late May, Data.gov will launch, in what US CIO Vivek Kundra calls an attempt to ensure that all government data 'that is not restricted for national security reasons can be made public' through data feeds. This appears to be a tremendous expansion on (and an official form of) third-party products like the Sunlight Labs API. Of course, it is still a far cry from 'open sourcing' the actual decision-making processes of government. Wired has launched a wiki for calling attention to datasets that should be shared as part of the Data.gov plan, and an article on O'Reilly discusses the importance of making this information easily accessible."
How about allowing the people to e-file their taxes directly to their government while they're at it, without having to use a third party.
Hopefully this will not be like navigating the maddening Library of Congress website.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Of course, it is still a far cry from 'open sourcing' the actual decision-making processes of government.
We already know the decision-making process.
Politician: I am strongly against X! It is a moral outrage and cannot be signed into law!
Lobbyist: We understand your feelings on this matter. I represent interests that would find X to be very desirable. Those interests have lots and lots of money. Have some! This is just for your campaign, of course.
Politician: Hmm, well... Clearly X is the progressive thing to do. We have an obligation to support X because our progress hinges on it, because of 9/11, because it might protect the children, and because it might stop terrorism. To do otherwise would be unpatriotic! Quick, prepare a press release that makes this sound like it was my idea all along.
I am impressed with the data made available there in one location. I have done a lot of work with county criminal complaints mapping; SHP to KML for state, county, and local parks; and restaurant inspection reports for the general area around my home because it's difficult for the average person to get that information in a package that's useful to them.
It's absolutely fucking awesome to see that other areas are taking the time, effort, and dollars to make data available to those who pay for its creation in the first place. If anything, the Federal Government should mandate that all states funnel that data to them for display to the citizens in one place. There is absolutely no reason why data shouldn't be in one consistent format and in one place for us to pull down to aggregate ourselves if we so choose.
I for one welcome our data providing overlords.
None of the rest of us would be able to do that, which is completely backwards considering how important the "job" of the President is compared to most other jobs.
None of the rest of us would do what? Substitute an alternate document when asked for our birth certificate? For many people in the world there are no such things. There are also numerous Americans born at home and who have never had a birth certificate, who got two forms of identification without ever providing one because of the various interpersonal relationships involved and who also would not be able to provide such a document.
Unlike the president, most of us could just fabricate one, because nobody is verifying their birth certificate unless they go to work for a casino or some kind of job where you need to be bonded.
Like the president, most any of us could get away with supplying some document which is more or less the same thing if we were desired for the job. If you still think the populace of the nation hires the president, you've got another think coming.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's too bad this was modded as Troll.
I disagree.
Here's the mod's thought process: "I really like Obama and that guy seems to be saying something that doesn't promote Obama. Clearly he must be a troll!"
No, I suspect the thought process is more like this:"Oh god, another person trying to get replies by posting things that are completely wrong and everyone knows is wrong, but which many people will feel they need to respond to anyway."
I'll explain this birth certificate controversy.
You can't. There is no controversy. There are a bunch of rumors and nonsense and a smear campaign and a bunch of hysterical idiots who either can't do any research or are unwilling to believe despite any evidence presented. He released his birth certificate. He did it a long time ago, and we still have morons claiming he didn't or that it is a forgery or that a "certificate of live birth" isn't a birth certificate, despite that being what mine says on it. Please spend 30 seconds doing research next time something comes up, instead of 10 minutes writing a completely misinformed rant.
It is a troll because 1) it was posted to cause stupid fighting no one cares about and 2) is completely off topic.
Seems like a troll to me. Also, it is false, as another poster has pointed out, but that is beside the point. Still a troll.
I really want to meet the Web developer(s) who developed Data.gov's temporary home page. Its source is simply horrible.
:P
1) XHTML standards compliant? Far from it.
2) Why use <center> tags?
3) There's a couple of unused and unclosed <p> tags.
4) No CSS at all.
5) Why use an image to display text?
I hope that was a quick job by an intern. Otherwise, we're doomed
WhiteHouse.gov doesn't pass standards compliance validation, but for the most part, it's alright. It could be better in some minor points, in terms of speed and efficiency (which are unrelated to standards compliance).
Except there isn't any doubt is there? Avoiding as much politics as I can here, there were quite a lot of people who didn't want Obama to be President, the Republican Party, for instance. If he were not born in America then there would be proof and I'm sure that there would be those in the Republican party who could get hold of such evidence.
Manufactured controversy is pointless stirring. Are there not enough valid points to be argued over without squandering time on this non-issue? (yes I understand the irony of wasting time on pointing out it's a waste of time).
This is why I send paper. The IRS already figures my taxes, there is no good reason that they can't send me their figures, at which point I either agree with them and sign off on them, or I file my own calculations. Using the third party services just panders to stupid idea that they are providing something worthwhile.
Basically, anybody who took the standard deduction last year might as well get pre-filled forms, but the tax industry has better lobbyists than taxpayers do.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The borrowing of the term "open source" refers (loosely) to the ideals of the open source movement, not the management processes any project may use. In fact, "open source governance" is a governance methodology, and not the same as the governance mechanism of any existing OSS projects.
As someone who traditionally votes Republican, I still totally agree with you. You say 'avoiding politics' but I think ignoring it would be bad in this situation. Politics actually prove it to be a non-issue.
Politicians are some of the most back stabbing corrupt greedy assholes on the planet, regardless of party. If there was proof that he did something wrong, ONE of them would have found it, even someone in his own party, JUST to further themselves.
It takes about 2 days for a politician to find proof of someone else's wrong doing. It also takes about 2 minutes for them to 'not recall' all the times they themselves were the in the wrong.
If there really was something to Obama's birth certificate, John McCain would have told the world immediately. The only reason he wouldn't have told the world is because Hillary Clinton beat him to the punch.
As far as wasting time ... well, we gotta have something to comment on, don't we?
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As I said, Obama provided a Certification of Live Birth, NOT a Certificate of Live Birth, the difference is that the Certificate of Live Birth "is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL" (Source), if the state of HI requests an original Certificate of Live Birth, why shouldn't we be allowed to see it? as I said earlier, it wouldn't take very long and it would be much easier than all these lawsuits.
Aaron Z
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote
I do find it highly likely that he is a US Citizen, but there is a difference between a certificate of live birth and a certification of live birth, he provided the later which has less legal qualifications to obtain, for example if the certificate of live birth is destroyed it's still possible to get a certification of live birth. So the claims that he never proved citizenship aren't all that absurd, but really i doubt that he would be president right now if the GOP could have proven he wasn't a citizen.
Oh come on. I'm as liberal as they get, but to claim that democrats are somehow exempt from manipulation by "corporations, lobbyists, and individuals" is laughable at best. Both parties take full advantage of the fact that money somehow equates to free speech in the US.
I do find it highly likely that he is a US Citizen, but there is a difference between a certificate of live birth and a certification of live birth, he provided the later which has less legal qualifications to obtain, for example if the certificate of live birth is destroyed it's still possible to get a certification of live birth.
Except that didn't happen. They went to court in 2008 and Hawaii confirmed it matched the original records they had on file. At this point, any assertion that he is not a US citizen is officially a conspiracy theory, because it requires conspirators in and out of Hawaii to be lying to the public and it requires all the investigative reporters who looked into it to have been duped or in on it.
So the claims that he never proved citizenship aren't all that absurd...
Yeah, I'd say they are pretty absurd. They're not impossible, but they're no more likely than a lot of the "out there" JFK assassination conspiracy theories in terms of evidence and probability.
...but really i doubt that he would be president right now if the GOP could have proven he wasn't a citizen.
It's more than the GOP not having proof. Neither they nor anyone else who did research has found any evidence at all to present or at the very least has not presented that evidence. There just isn't any evidence that would make a reasonable person give credence to these wild theories.
I'm all for government transparency. But people wouldn't need this quite as much if the government wasn't spending as much to begin with.
I'm especially in disagreement about Federal mandates. If people in their states are unhappy with how their states are handling things, it's much easier for them, in theory, to make changes on the state level. The more the federal government gets involved the more states have to tax and spend just to comply with federal mandates.
Ideally, this kind of thing should be done on the municipal level the most. The cities that do it best attract people and incite change in other cities by setting an example. Then the states can provide their own systems for state-level projects that are inline with their residents demands.
As far as government is concerned, the more local the better. If you don't like what your government does on the local level it's much easier to change public opinion or, if that fails, move elsewhere. The broader the jurisdiction becomes, the less able the government is to truly represent people and the less efficient things become. The fed should exist to protect people's rights and freedoms. States and municipalities should be the ones spending according to their residents demands.
where Obama was born. His mother was a citizen of the United States. Nothing is more natural than for an American woman to give birth to an American baby. There is no doubt that Obama's mother was a citizen. The residency requirements cited by the (mostly) republicans are bullshit, plain and simple. The law was poorly written, and wrong to boot.
I still don't know how much, or how little, I like Obama. But, if I end up detesting the man as much as I detest both Clinton and Bush, IT WILL NOT BE because he is (black, foreign, noncitizen, related to moslems, just plain funny looking - take your pick out of these, or fill in your own version of bigotry).
Everyone accepted McCain's citizenship, despite being born outside the country. To me, there is little if any difference between McCain's birth, and Obama's.
This written by a veteran, who WANTED to believe in McCain, but ultimately voted for Obama. If the republican party manages to find, and get behind, a genuine conservative, I might vote republican next time. But, NO MORE NEOCONS!! Every neocon in the country could drop dead today, and I wouldn't miss a one of them.
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