Presidential Transparency?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:51 pm

Wondering if anybody has any great ideas for a 21st century White House.

I'm thinking there are a ton of great reality shows just waiting to be made:

Security: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Barrack's Soul Kitchen, etc.

What do you think?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:11 pm

never gonna happen for oh so many reasons...

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:49 pm

You, are an idiot.

The whole damn gov't infrastructure is falling apart (or at least it will because of disgruntled amerians that are very upset the gov't raises taxes just to piss it all away and waste it on politicians) and you think about reality shows?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:40 pm

You need to stop watching so much TV and realize there's a lot of very important issues to think about. For instance, the US health care system...the most expensive in the world by far (practically double the median per capita as the rest of the developed world) and yet it's one of the worst in the world (unless you're in the top 5% income bracket). And it's been like that for over 10 years, progressively getting worse. Then there's education...we got teachers buying their classroom school supplies out of pocket, and we're cutting education budgets. Reality shows? Revolution! Confused

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:45 pm

Personally I'd start with a more basic problem...

The Republican idea of "Fiscal Responsibility" (or whatever their meaningless euphemism is) seems pretty far removed from reality.

They're assuming discretionary spending will freeze as of financial year 2007, which seems pretty f**kin strange given the War on Iraq, the War on Error & all the other things they're throwing money after. So lets instead assume the growth rate of the nominal GDP.

They also assume the various tax breaks/tax cuts/provisions won't be extended (like the AMT, the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts & so on), which seems to be the opposite of what they promise to do, so let's instead assume they'll be extended indefinitely.

If those rather more realistic assumptions are true, then instead of a surplus by 2011, the deficit will increase throughout the 2007-2017 period.

My source? The Congressional Budget Office and the Bush administration's own budget plans.

I don't know precisely what the hell the Democrats intend. Whether that's because I haven't really looked or because they're being deliberately vague about it, I couldn't say. I'd guess both though.

There's no doubt reforms would help. A tax reform, for a start, could go a long way towards both damage control & stimulating growth. Likewise, a health care and social services reform would work wonders. Alternatively spending will break your state budget frames by something like 1% over the next decade. And of course, it's just not a good idea for a nation to gut social services, health care & pensions, because it turns the citizens into unhappy, unhealthy, criminal, undereducated malcontents (though of course, it does make them die sooner).

Something else that might help would be putting a leash on your military-industrial complex. Right now, you're spending approximately the same on your military as the top 20 biggest spenders do on theirs, combined.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:41 pm

Meh... Reality tv...

I hate it. I haven't watched but about 3 cumulative hours of tv my whole life, and 1 was spent on advertisements, 2 on reality tv... it's stupid...

So much fluff... like anyone with a life, or who cares about what really matters, or getting stuff done, would give a flying bat turd over what spoiled ass rich kids do with their lives, how much they cry or complain.

I admit... it might be funny to have something like that... in the white house, but "reality" tv blows. That's all there is to it. It blows. Not to mention as everyone else pointed out, we have so much other stuff to worry about right now than as to what the presidential candidates might do amusing to said brain dead, fluff-driven zombiance [amalgamation of zombie and audience].

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:33 pm

I think there will. Eventually they will be everywhere. It will be like like google street view. Creepy! Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:46 am

Mystery is power, and in order for a government to function effectively they have to be somewhat secretive.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:51 pm

AlexR666 wrote:

I think there will. Eventually they will be everywhere. It will be like like google street view. Creepy! Twisted Evil

Google Street ? Creepy ? You optimist, you Smile

How many people don't disconnect their webcam ? That's not being paranoide, that's a lifetime spent and/or waisted behind computers. I've been into computers ever since the ZX-spectrum and all I've learned is that there is "always" someone out there that is "just" that little bit better then you.

Most of you here, I'm sure, think they are totaly protected. Most laugh at people why plug in a router/firewall right out of the box and forget to change the standard password. Most laugh at people that get keyloggers, spam, browser highjacks... we all know those. But would you bet the soul of your firstborn on it that you are 100% safe ? I wouldn't, I know there's people out there that are better, much much better at IT then me, so no webcam for me.

You say Google Street is creepy ? I think Google Living Room is much worse Smile

As for it being in the White House... naaaaa never, they wouldn't be able to use the fat black marker of NATIONAL SECURITY like they do on transcripts or the blacking out of magnetic audio tapes.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:40 pm

84life , i think your op is hilarious though i hope your joking cos it would never happen. It would be the best thing in the world and probably bring a lot of benefits to a whole matter of things. I mean, when was the last time you ever saw that your leader was a human been????????? I would hate it personally as a president, though if i was president i would do it, as you say, for transparency. It would be an all out brawl with the media and their obligations to turning the world upside down.

The reality of a president should be a mental person running into walls screaming "nothing makes a difference"

I have a prediction. I bet that Hillary Clinton has just landed herself the next presidential election. Just becoming Obamas secretary of state could mean the world 4 years down the line when she says "well i tried my best but the guy is black". JOKE. Though, she has the perfect opportunity to just say. "Well i told you so"

Thats if a secretary of state can run for election??

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:05 am

If Clinton was in office yes but otherwise no.