by Connie Hair, Human Events, Posted 02/13/2009 ET
Democratic staffers released the final version of the stimulus bill at about 11 p.m. last night after delaying the release for hours to put it into a format which people cannot “search” on their home computers.
Instead of publishing the bill as a regular internet document -- which people can search by “key words” and otherwise, the Dems took hours to convert the final bill from the regular searchable format into “pdf” files, which can be read but not searched. (link)
Comment
Didn't Candidate Obama promise something about "transparency?"
Updated Comment
In the comments below, Robert and Orient-Lodge offer a counter argument. They each make a valid point. Facts may be on their side. I may have been hasty in jumping to conclusions and in accepting the opinion of the author of this news item. This may very well be much to do about nothing.
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I remember reading about this controversy when Rush complained it was in PDF format, instead of txt, and he even used the term "keyword" as well.
ReplyDeleteOf course, anyone with Adobe Reader (or compatible PDF reader) and smidgen of sense can/should/would figure out that CTRL-F will look for any particular word/phrase you give it...just like Word does.
It's much ado about nothing. Just more grandstanding by the Republicans to try to make the Democrats look bad.
It's amazing how lazy zealots can be on issues that support their world-view, but work doggedly to "expose" a lie by finding the one misplaced comma, or other parsing of a sentence, that somehow negates an entire point of view from an opponent.
I have to agree with Robert above. I search PDF documents all the time. I cut and paste parts of the documents to blog posts that I write. The person that your quoting just doesn't know the facts about technology.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, here is the text, copied directly from the PDF file at the beginning of Division A of the bill:
MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR JOB PRESERVATION AND
CREATION, INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT, ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SCIENCE,
ASSISTANCE TO THE UNEMPLOYED, AND STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL
STABILIZATION, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2009, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES.
Beyond that, it is the sloppiest of writing to allege motivations when there is nothing to substantiate the allegations, and if anything there is plenty of information that would support a more reasonable explanation.
It is pretty much the standard in legislatures and the legal profession to always convert documents to PDF files. My understanding is that this is protect the document from tampering. It is much easier to change a text file or a word document then it is to change a PDF.
As a personal note, I enjoy reading your blog when you apply your own critical thinking and present thoughts about the issues that our country faces. Part of the reason I like this blog is because you do that, instead of echoing incorrect, ill thought out talking points like you did today.
I hope you can get back to writing seriously about the issues so that we can have a meaningful dialog instead of senseless and unfounded namecalling.
Robert and Aldon, you make valid points. See my updated comment. Rod
ReplyDelete