- ‹ previous
- 158 of 2822
- next ›
White House Visitors
Today, under the headline "Transparency like you've never seen before," the White House released visitor records from January through June. But wait! It's not all the visitors. It's only a selective dump of names that people specifically asked about. 
Someone submitted a request about Bill Ayers, for example, so all the "William Ayers" records were released. But guess what? There's more than one guy in the country named William Ayers:
A lot of people visit the White House, up to 100,000 each month, with many of those folks coming to tour the buildings. Given this large amount of data, the records we are publishing today include a few “false positives” — names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else. In September, requests were submitted for the names of some famous or controversial figures (for example Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly ("R. Kelly"), and Malik Shabazz). The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House. Nevertheless, we were asked for those names and so we have included records for those individuals who were here and share the same names.
Hold on there. This data dump includes everyone who's been on a public tour of the White House? Everyone who's been invited to some kind of White House ceremony? Seriously?
Yes, seriously. Max Doebler, for example, is the White House ceremonies coordinator, and sure enough, there are 29 visitor records linked to luncheons and receptions where he's listed as the official host. Bill Ayers is one of the many people who were there for public tours. (Plus a second mystery Bill Ayers who was there for some other reason.)
This is kind of ridiculous, isn't it? I suppose it's easy enough to filter out the dross once you figure out the right codes, but it almost seems like the White House is deliberately trying to inundate everyone in useless mountains of data by including this stuff. In particular, when the end of the year rolls around and we get the full dump, do we really need the names of all 500,000 people who have been on a tour of the residence? Is it even right to make all these names public? Is the White House staff playing a quiet little joke hoping for a few reactions like this? What's going on?
They might have been hoping
They might have been hoping Fox News would pick it up. Actually, i wonder how close they got to air.
Or you, they could be
Or you, they could be obeying the law, providing exactly what was requested under FOIA. Why should the White House spend the time to filter the data and do the reporters' work for them, when if they do, the immediate accusation is going to be "So what did you people sanitize?"
Release all the names
Release all the names, least be accused of cleansing the records. Let reporters do their work going through the records.
As long as the records
As long as the records released are in an Excel file and has a column which says *how* the individual visited the White House - on a tour, or to have dinner with the President, or ... - then I don't see any problem. Is that how they're being released? It makes no sense to merge the White House tour visitors with those who are coming to see Obama, unless you can easily demerge them.
Why not? It is a cheap and
Why not? It is a cheap and easy way to make the idiots look ridiculous, with absolutely no downside.
Alternately, think of it from a game theory perspective. Think Goldfarb is going to bite so hard on the next nugget he finds?
When I was layed off by IBM
When I was layed off by IBM I asked for a listing of all the people laid off, with no names but ages and job titles. IBM is legally required to supply this information. They gave me hardcopy of the information in the worst format possible. I knew they must have had the info in a spreadsheet but no way would they supply that.
I figured if that was how they wanted to play it, I'd type all that info back into a spreadsheet and give the spreadsheet to the local media, kinda as a public service.
The typing only took eight hours or so.
Tripp
Our Communist President
Check our “Communists in US Government” Reference Site: http://www.commieblaster.com
Facts organized all in one location. Obama, New Party, Ayers, Dunn, Jennings, Jones, Sunstein, Jarrett, Lloyd, Wright, School Indoctrinations, Soros, Cop-Killers, Cuban Spy Rings, Commie Media, Misinformation, Congress Investigation, plus details on Socialist/Communist Members of Congress like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and over 80 others. Listen to Soviet Spy defector explain how communist takeovers are performed and Reagan's guidance on dealing with Communists. Learn what a Socialist, Communist, Progressive is. Examine ACORN, SEIU's and Union Communist leaders. See FBI files and testimonies. Catch up on Takeover News and study a Communist Takeover Plan from the 1960's, along with how to resist. Videos, links, pdfs.
Commies can run, but they can't hide! - http://www.commieblaster.com
Our Communist President
Oh dear...looks like someone set his clock back to 1954 this weekend...
The funniest thing
is that the conservative "media" immediately did what was so predictable - tripped over themselves looking for boogeymen.
TRust me, even though it's been cleared that this is not the people they were looking for, we'll still hear that "Ayers was a guest of hte White House - it's in their own records!" from Rush, Beck, etc. Why should they start telling the truch now after all?