Slashdot Mirror
$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."
Are there really conservative groups making claims about death panels and the like? So far all I've heard are sound bites on NPR of Obama and democratic senators debunking the claims and never original sources. It seems shady to me that with such sweeping legislation, the only thing being said about it is that it doesn't have forced abortions or death panels. Well no shit. What does it contain, exactly, and why is it that people who oppose this particular reform are being painted as corporate shills supporting the status quo instead of individuals who have different ideas for reform?
Oh, hell, I'm already off-topic, so I might as well say that I find it interesting that despite all the bad-mouthing of big pharma and how much they'll hate this new plan, they're running ads in support of it.
As for this document, it's a non-issue. That actually increases the chances it will show up in both wings of mass media, first in the right claiming it's an outrage, then in the left to ridicule the right.
Anonymous because I know how this post will get hammered, and since I'm off-topic it might deserve it.