General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Obama Promises Disappear from Web [View all]avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)Profoundly embarrassed by George W. Bush's inability to keep straight whether he considers Osama bin Laden important to the war on terrorism, administration officials have begun to systematically remove from the White House's web site any material that might prove damaging or embarrassing in the future.
Brad Friedman reports:
The idea that the White House may be using their governmental website (which is owned by the People, not by George Bush or the Republicans) for potential partisan advantage is troubling at best and strictly illegal at worst. There is a strict legal line drawn that disallows the use of such public facilities (White House phone lines, etc) for blatant partisan/campaign activities.
It seems clear that the use of the White House website for this purpose would fall under that strict statute and monkeying with it -- and the historical documents it had previously provided -- for political/partisan/campaign gains, I'd think, would be strictly off-limits. I welcome the input from any political legal eagles on this.
Brad lists several things that have been positively identified as no longer available on the White House's site - press conference transcripts, graphics, and more. All of it contains information that contradicts things that Bush has been claiming during the campaign. Of course, only people in the reality-based community would care about such things as consistency and honesty, right?
http://atheism.about.com/b/2004/10/25/bush-scrubs-white-house-web-site-removes-embarrassing-material.htm
New boss looking like the old boss.