Why That's Just... Fascinating...

[WillyT]

Obama Promises Disappear from Web
by John Wonderlich - SunlightFoundation
July 25, 2013, 11:31 a.m.

Change.gov, the website created by the Obama transition team in 2008, has effectively disappeared sometime over the last month.

While the front splash page for Change.gov has linked to the main White House website for years, until recently, you could still continue on to see the materials and agenda laid out by the administration. This was a particularly helpful resource for those looking to compare Obama's performance in office against his vision for reform, laid out in detail on Change.gov.

According to the Internet Archive, the last time that content (beyond the splash page) was available was June 8th -- last month.

Why the change?

Here's one possibility, from the administration's ethics agenda:

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

It may be that Obama's description of the importance of whistleblowers went from being an artifact of his campaign to a political liability. It wouldn't be the first time administration positions disappear from the internet when they become inconvenient descriptions of their assurances.

Link: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/07/25/obama-promises-disappear-from-web/

Especially when you consider this timeline: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/23/edward-snowden-nsa-files-timeline

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Well, to be fair,

it was only about whitleblowers who expose waste, fraud & abuse.

Nothing was said about whistleblowers who expose war atrocities and illegal governmental/corporate surveillance.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Here is a working link to the whistleblower page at change.gov:

http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/



I think maybe the people at sunlight foundation need a vacation.

[grantcart]

3. want to wager that the OP doesn't bother to edit?

[WillyT]

5. Edit...

Update, 7/30/2013: Change.gov is now back up.

Link: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/07/25/obama-promises-disappear-from-web/

[grantcart]

6. So even though the facts in your OP have not been accurate for over a month

and the site that originally alleged that it was taken out purposefully admitted that it was online in the same form a few days after it was alleged to be scrubbed. The Wayback machine shows that over a period of several years it has been crawled 250 times and appears the same over that time. It is true that the page appears to have gone off line omce but that can happen during site maintenance and site editing, as we all know.


http://web.archive.org/web/20120104074340/http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/

Nevertheless while the sunlight foundation edited their blog over a month ago you reprinted the original statement without the edit, and even now that you have been called on it have not edited the OP to correct the impression that there was evidence that it was both purposeful and permanent.

Now that you have been called a second time will you bother to edit the OP?

I wouldn't bet on it.

[WillyT]

7. I Wouldn't Bet On It Either...

And since the Sunlight Foundation did not see fit to remove their original reporting, but updated instead... I'll do the same.

And although it COULD have been down for site maintenance, it could just as likely have been because somebody had the idiotic idea to scrub it, and then somebody smarter objected and put it back up.

But since I DON'T TRUST THEM... and since we can never know... I'll just let people decided for themselves.

[FSogol]

4. Gosh, The 2008 Obama Transition Team shutdown their website!

Hold on to your britches because they stopped printing "Obama 2008" signs and tee-shirts too.

This same faux-controversy failed to catch fire on last month when it was breathlessly announced by the usual crowd.

Thanks for kicking it again and better luck this time.