# Whitehouse.gov **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211 "2009-01-20T20:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/21 "2009-01-20T23:11:40Z")
I think he needs to add those little icons for Digg, del.i.cious, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. to all the web pages. And he needs to add me as a friend. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/22 "2009-01-21T00:13:31Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Maybe it’s the early-afternoon bourbon I’m having here (hey, celebration!), but that cracked me right up. > > Daniel I’m drunk on exhilaration and hope but otherwise sober, and it cracked me up too. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/23 "2009-01-21T00:58:27Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Not to bitch or anything, but: Let’s get crackin here, we haven’t got all day! [Right away massa!](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/a_national_day_of_renewal_and_reconciliation/) Don’t beat me massa, please. Sure it was tasteless, but if you’ve seen what [passes for taste around here](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99313947&ft=1&f=1003) you’d do it too. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/24 "2009-01-21T01:02:27Z")
Cool, their [privacy policy](http://www.whitehouse.gov/privacy) says they might “provide compilations of your comments to national leaders and other individuals participating in our efforts, without disclosing email addresses.” ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/25 "2009-01-21T01:07:04Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > [Right away massa!](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/a_national_day_of_renewal_and_reconciliation/) Don’t beat me massa, please. > > Sure it was tasteless, but if you’ve seen what [passes for taste around here](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99313947&ft=1&f=1003) you’d do it too. > > Enjoy, > Steven I came in to post this. The very first thing he signed was this proclamation. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/26 "2009-01-21T15:58:14Z")
Am I the only one that finds the whole Proclamation thing very Hugo Chavez? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/27 "2009-01-21T16:04:25Z")
Apparently so. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/28 "2009-01-21T16:31:16Z")
Perhaps a message board debate isn’t possible, but if he’s serious about citizen participation I’d like to see him answer questions posed by the masses from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/29 "2009-01-21T17:09:46Z")
yahoo news: > [@](#): > > [http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090120/pl\_politico/17700](http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090120/pl_politico/17700) > > The new White House website unveiled by President Barack Obama’s team Tuesday includes a shot at former President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina. > > Under the “agenda” portion of the site regarding Katrina, it reads: “President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.” > > “President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina,” the statement on the site continues. “Citing the Bush Administration’s ‘unconscionable ineptitude’ in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims.” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/30 "2009-01-21T17:31:02Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Perhaps a message board debate isn’t possible, but if he’s serious about citizen participation I’d like to see him answer questions posed by the masses from time to time. The “Contact Us” page includes a space to write a short message. Pres. Obama will be posting a weekly video address, I would think he might use that to answer questions posed by citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/31 "2009-01-21T17:43:24Z")
It would be nice to see others questions also though. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/32 "2009-01-21T21:03:56Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > It would be way cool to see Obama occasionally poke head in and give his thoughts on some of the more interesting topics as well. > > -XT Ahhh, I know it’s considered poor form to mention it here but, let’s face it… we all know that Obama is\* really\* **Ed Zotti**. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/33 "2009-01-21T21:06:06Z")
Are you trying to tell me that Ed Zotti really just got elected so that he and McCain could use the secret under ground tunnel system from the White House so that they could steal the Hope Diamond??? -XT ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/34 "2009-01-21T21:08:00Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Staff was pro’by too busy getting rid of the “Ws” and wiping their fingerprints off of anything that could place them there. Getting _rid_ of? They probably just got around to _attaching_ the "W"s that the Clinton staffers removed. This was an administration that considered progress to be a set-back. Why would they have needed anything like computer keyboards? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/35 "2009-01-21T21:17:53Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Are you trying to tell me that Ed Zotti really just got elected so that he and McCain could use the secret under ground tunnel system from the White House so that they could steal the Hope Diamond??? > > -XT Spot on. Except it wasn’t the Hope Diamond, it was [Simon Bar Sinister] “All the water in the WORLD!” [/Simon Bar Sinister] ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/36 "2009-01-21T21:18:20Z")
I don’t see any debate here. Off to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/37 "2009-01-21T21:50:33Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Perhaps a message board debate isn’t possible, but if he’s serious about citizen participation I’d like to see him answer questions posed by the masses from time to time. The first 100 days have already been in the works and there isn’t much time in the day to do mindless things. If there were such a thing, I’d be fine with Barack posting maybe once or twice. Aides can get the job done. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/38 "2009-01-21T21:56:31Z")
Only web nerds might get the significance of this, but the robots.txt file on the Bush version of the site had over 2,400 lines of rules on how search engines could access the site, which meant it was difficult for the public to go to Google, for instance, and search for information on the White House site on matters such as earmarks or 9/11. The new robots.txt file for the Obama [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) is 2 lines which allow every search engine to completely index every portion of the site which actually has informational content, including images. It speaks boldly of the interest in transparency in this administration. [You can download the old robots.txt and see an explanation here](http://kottke.org/09/01/the-countrys-new-robotstxt-file/) and you can see the current [robots.txt file on the whitehouse.gov site here](http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt). ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/39 "2009-01-21T22:09:11Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Put in a EULA that people signing up for the board have to agree too if they want to post. And how many people do you think actually _read_ those things? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211/40 "2009-01-21T22:10:48Z")
I clicked on the link to the “Pool Report” at the bottom of the site. I was hoping to see some more pics of the President-In-Stud relaxing by the pool in Hawaii. I was a bit disappointed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitehouse-gov/482211.md?page=3)