$18M Contract For Transparency Website Released — But Blacked Out

zokuga writes "The US government recently approved an $18 million contract for Smartronix to build a website where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money, as part of President Obama's promise to make government more transparent through the Internet. However, the contract, which was released only through repeated Freedom of Information Act requests, is itself heavily blacked out. ProPublica reports: 'After weeks of prodding by ProPublica and other organizations, the Government Services Agency released copies of the contract and related documents that are so heavily blacked out they are virtually worthless. In all, 25 pages of a 59-page technical proposal — the main document in the package — were redacted completely. Of the remaining pages, 14 had half or more of their content blacked out.' Sections that were heavily or entirely redacted dealt with subjects such as site navigation, user experience, and everything in the pricing table. The entire contract, in all its blacked-out glory, is here."

Comments

nothing to see here

[mugnyte]

  The first few redacted pages are the names and histories of the people involved. This is privacy, and nothing new.

  The other pages are management chains used on the project and are part of KPMG's/Smartronix value-added business techniques, and it's their option to not reveal those practices.

  I'm not too concerned. Wait until the site opens up.

Re:tagged: !change

[Shakrai]

The DMCA was introduced to the House of Representatives by Howard Coble (R-NC) and passed the Senate unanimously. The only part Bill Clinton had in it was not bothering with a completely meaningless veto.

So your argument is that Clinton shouldn't have bothered to uphold his oath to preserve and defend the Constitution because the veto would have been meaningless?

Hint: The DCMA isn't the only thing Clinton fucked up. Remember the CDA? Remember the assault weapons ban? How about the Defense of Marriage Act?

Re:Surprised?

[xaxa]

nearly all Democracies are Republics, there is one obvious counter example.

Which one?

United Kingdom (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the Commonwealth)
Denmark
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Sweden
Japan
Spain
Luxembourg

There are lots more...

Re:Transparent? How is this government such?

[darkmeridian]

Dissent isn't un-American. What Pelosi said was that drowning out the other side so that there cannot be any debate is un-American. I agree. The town hall protesters are not interested in a debate. They are showing up, and walking up within a few feet of the speaker to yell at them in a physically-threatening manner.

Mr. Gingrinch opines that Obama's health care plan has spectres of Nazism. Protesters promptly paint swastikas onto the door of politicians who support the plan and waive signs calling Obama a Nazi. A black politician received death threats, and references to himself and Obama as "niggers". They are standing outside of town hall meetings with guns strapped to their legs with a sign saying it's time to water the tree of liberty.

The protesters don't even have anything intelligent to say other than, "YOU'RE LYING TO ME!" and "YOU'RE A BUNCH OF SOCIALISTS." That's not debate. That's a hateful mob trying to rule by intimidation. Look up videos of these confrontations. It's freaking terrifying. Tell me that's American.

For more fun, look up how Republicans and conservatives freely called Democrats un-American or anti-American. For fuck's sake, a few months ago, Republican Senator Inhofe called Obama "un-American" for opposing the war in Iraq. A speech is un-American but showing up threatening physical force and painting swastikas is not?