Changes to change.gov (Updated 5x)

RBO could use an army of h/t elves to keep up with the antics and changes to CHANGE.GOV, the web presence of the “Office of the President-Elect”.

Any takers?

It could be a full-time job.

Might even count towards your community service requirement. College students may get as much as $40 an hour towards their education. You could share in that “redistribution of wealth” the Dems are suddenly so keen on.

No takers. Don’t worry, we understand.

Thanks to GOP Mom we learn this morning that change.gov has — Surprise! — changed.

Golly gee! It’s been a grand total of 3 whole days since RBO first wrote about the new website change.gov and already it has undergone the usual Obamatron webscrubbing.

Remember that helpful navigation menu at the bottom of the page that showed “The Agenda”? GONE!

Here’s the before, with the screenshot taken on November 7, 2008:

And here’s the after, with the screenshot taken today, November 10, 2008, at 10:00 ET:

Oh, and “The Agenda”? Well, the link has been moved to the navbar and here’s what you get when you click on it. A wee bit short on details, isn’t it.

There is also a new section called “Privacy Policy”. There’s nothing at all unusual about the logging of visitors’ IP addresses but RBO thought we should pass this along as an FYI:

GOP Mom commented:

It’s public information, so why the big cover-up? Is the not-in-office-yet, as The One keeps reminding all those Liberals champing at the bit, not even President-elect, having difficulty handling all the questions and criticisms? He can’t possibly prefer questions about his social calendar, seeing as he flubbed the “Have you spoken to any other Presidents yet” question. Did he think the actual job was as easy as getting the job? Wow, we are in trouble.

Update 1: Before we move on, RBOer RV shares some startling news — the Washington Times actually noticed — Agenda disappears from Obama Website — and they used the word “scrubbed”:

Over the weekend President-elect Barack Obama scrubbed Change.gov, his transition Web site, deleting most of what had been a massive agenda copied directly from his campaign Web site.

Gone are the promises on how an Obama administration would handle 25 different agenda items – everything from Iraq and immigration to taxes and urban policy – all items laid out on his campaign Web site, www.BarackObama.com.

Instead, the official agenda on Change.gov has been boiled down to one vague paragraph proclaiming a plan “to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.”

Now here’s the rich part of the Times story:

“We are currently retooling the Web site,” said Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro.

The site went active on Wednesday and was available to the public Thursday. The agenda items, which were active for at least part of the weekend, appear to have been deleted by late Saturday.

Think about it. Obama knew that he had the election in the bag for how many months? Easy to figure out when you know that you’ve won bought it with millions of illegal foreign contributions. The Deaniac web team has been on the job since April 2004. And, after two or three days they are “retooling”?

Puh-leeze, folks, do you really think that we’re THAT DUMB?

Update 2: Now, for proof that today’s was not the most recent Obamatronic webscrub we turn to Tom Blumer at NewsBusters, who posted Obama’s ‘Service in College’ Program at Change.gov Promises $40 an Hour on November 8, 2008.

Blumer links to BizzyBlog, which has the full capture of the original page on November 8, 2008 (with another update yesterday, November 9, 2008):

First, “The Problem”:

Second, “Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan”:

Can you say “community organizer”, Woods Fund, Joyce Foundation, Small Schools Project, Chicago Annenberg Challenge, ACORN, etc. etc. etc.????

Update 3: The question has also came up on other blogs as to the source of this “American dream” quote at the top of the Agenda page:

It comes from Obama’s July 2, 2008, “A New Era of Service” speech delivered at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs:

There is a lesson to be learned from generations who have served – from soldiers and sailors; airmen and Marines; suffragists and freedom riders; teachers and doctors; cops and firefighters. It’s the lesson that in America, each of us is free to seek our own dreams, but we must also serve a common purpose, a higher purpose. When you choose to serve – whether it’s your nation, your community, or simply your neighbor – you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That is why this is a great nation. Because time and again, Americans have been willing to serve on stages both great and small; to draw on the same spirit that launched America’s improbable journey to meet the challenges of each defining moment in our history.

The final sentence, “That’s why it’s called the American dream,” as you can see, did not follow in Obama’s speech and was obviously added. In fact, the words “American dream” do not even appear within this speech. Another Obama refinement.

Update 4: Apparently, as MacRanger reports, Gateway Pundit discovered that the webscrubbing began on November 7, 2008. MacRanger also noted yesterday that “The Agenda” links were gone and preserved Obama’s “Plan for Iraq”, which has also disappeared. Here’s the text that was on the change.gov website:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.

Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.

Bogger DSM at Reboot Congress suggests:

I’d recommend that you guys port the change.gov site to a wiki. That will allow everyone to see the sausage being made—the historical edits to each page. Open government is a very good thing and it will prevent the new administration from being painted as Orwellian.

RBO: Fat chance of that.

Update 5: RBOers send along some more pre-webscrub change.gov links:

Here’s a text copy of the Agenda links at change.gov, as well as a pdf link to the same text.

Here’s a screen grab of the Urban Policy page of the original Agenda.