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From the Inaugural address:
(via Daily Kos and Daily Dish) Tick Tock… Tick Tock… Tick Tock… (A clip from On Board Air Force One via ThinkProgress) This morning I woke up as usual and banged on Amy’s door to let her know it was one hour until we had to leave for school. Moments later, she appeared, indignant, to let me know there was no school today and she was going back to sleep. Having thus been reminded that it is Martin Luther King Jr day, as if the TV wasn’t mentioning it enough, I went to watch the two most memorable speeches that, I at least, seem to watch or listen to at least once a year. I’m sure everybody is seeing them everywhere today, as every single outlet is taking the time to mention the historical threads connecting MLK with tomorrow’s inauguration. Nevertheless, here they are: I know I’m a sap, but both of these really get to me every time I listen to them. When W gave his farewell speech a few days ago I was out and about doing other things, so I did not see it live. As I started catching up on my Google Reader backlog after my mom left, I figured I’d find it embedded on dozens of different feeds I read. In fact, now that I’ve caught up, I know there were a number that quoted the transcript, in part or in full, there were a few that commented on it (most in passing, noting how nobody cared or just a few stray thoughts about it), but nobody embedded the video, not even on the right wing blogs I read. I’m sure there are other places that did embed it, just not any of the places I monitor. And that surprised me a bit, although I guess it is an indication of just how much people are anxious to just get on with things and stop thinking about the past. Of course, just a couple of seconds on Google found it, so here it is: Hmmm. After watching it, it probably got just about the right amount of attention. It is pretty unmemorable. Obama lawyers prohibit staff from using instant messaging in the White House
This is crap. There are plenty of ways to archive IMs. They could meet the requirements of the act. The problem here is not that the communication can’t be archived, it is that they want these communications to be “off the record”. Well too effin bad. You are in the executive branch, your actions SHOULD be recorded for posterity, and for prosecuting your asses if you get out of line. If anything, I’d be in favor of strengthening the records act to go beyond the current requirements for retention of written documents (including email and IM) to also require full audio and video recording of *all* executive branch meetings, discussions, etc… at both high and low levels… with a variety of protections regarding when and how they could be released to take into account the sensitive nature of many of those conversations, but never-the-less preserving the events for later historians (and prosecutors if necessary). Yes, people say that would make people less likely to speak their actual minds in such meetings. My view, if knowing your words would eventually be made public keeps you from recommending (or doing) stupid or illegal things, so much the better. In any case, a President advocating transparency should not be telling his staff NOT to use IM. He should be telling them to please use IM, as it is efficient and a good way of communicating, but to keep in mind that everything they communicate that way will be permanently archived and eventually made public. |
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