Topic: Recovery Gov

President Obama proclaimed September 2010 as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. The hosts link the timing of this proclamation to the high-profile arrest of Paris Hilton for cocaine possession. They argue the celebrity arrest serves as a propaganda tool to raise awareness for drug monitoring technology and recovery initiatives.

Smartronics, the company that built the $18 million Recovery.gov website, has acquired Kogan Systems. The hosts point out that White House officials Vivek Kundra and Anish Chopra previously worked at Kogan Systems, suggesting a lack of transparency in federal tech contracting.

The hosts discuss a GAO audit of Recovery.gov that found the $18 million website used outdated data. They critique Federal CIO Vivek Kundra's "cloud" initiatives and the government's attempt to promote apps through portals like apps.gov.

The $18 million Recovery.gov website is criticized for its dysfunctional accessibility features for the visually impaired. Specifically, the "Report Fraud" form utilizes an audio ReCaptcha system that plays unintelligible movie quotes, making it impossible for blind users to submit complaints. This is cited as a primary example of government mismanagement and lack of quality assurance.

The acquisition of NBC by Comcast is expected to shift the network's political tone, with the hosts noting that Keith Olbermann has already begun to "back off." A report from ABC News highlights massive inaccuracies on the recovery.gov website, where 58,000 jobs were claimed for projects with zero spending. The White House dismissed these as minor errors, but the GAO and oversight boards refuse to certify the data.

The Obama administration's stimulus tracking website, Recovery.gov, was found to contain data for non-existent congressional districts in Arizona and New Mexico. Despite costing $18 million to develop, the site is criticized for reporting "saved jobs" in areas that do not exist, which officials attributed to database errors. This is framed as part of a broader pattern of deceptive government reporting, including the official unemployment rate which ignores "disenfranchised" workers.

The federal government's Recovery.gov website transitioned from the open-source Drupal platform to Microsoft SharePoint, costing millions in licensing and implementation. Officials claimed the switch was necessary to improve data visualization and tracking of stimulus funds. Critics argue that Drupal was capable of the same tasks and that the move was an unnecessary payout to Microsoft.

The Recovery.gov website, managed by Vivek Kundra, is criticized for using "information overload" to obscure where stimulus money is actually being spent. While the site claims billions of dollars have been sent to California to create jobs, the state's unemployment rate continues to rise, leading the hosts to label the reported data as "bogus."

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra discusses government transparency and the release of public data during an FCC broadband panel. Kundra highlights services like flyontime.us and mobile applications for tracking metro stations and crime in the District of Columbia. Critics argue that the $18 million recovery.gov website remains opaque due to redacted contracts with Smartronics.

The recovery.gov website is confirmed to be running on the open-source Drupal platform. Critics question the $18 million price tag for a site built with free software, comparing it to the much lower costs of government websites in Germany. The development team defends the choice, stating Drupal allowed for rapid deployment and future scalability for dynamic data.

The $18 million redesign of recovery.gov is criticized for using "speculative" methods to estimate jobs created or saved by the stimulus package. The hosts trace the data back to a January report by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, arguing the figures are essentially "made up." They also note that the Del Monte Corporation received $9 million in stimulus grants.

Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Board, is overseeing an $18 million "Web 2.0" upgrade to recovery.gov intended to provide interactive mapping of stimulus data. The project is criticized for its high cost and the use of the phrase "let me be clear," which is noted as a recurring rhetorical trope in the Obama administration. Devaney is also promoting a "Citizen IG" initiative to encourage Americans to investigate federal spending irregularities.

The hosts revisit the $18 million contract awarded to Smartronix for the development of Recovery.gov. They mock the General Services Administration's excuse that the contract cannot be released yet because it is not "508 compliant" for the disabled. Curry and Dvorak argue that the high cost of the project is unjustifiable for a standard website.

The federal government awarded an $18 million contract to a company called Smartronics to redesign and maintain the Recovery.gov website. Critics point out that the high cost for a SharePoint-based site is excessive, suggesting that the project could have been completed for a fraction of the price using platforms like Squarespace or WordPress.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the banking industry is lobbying the FDIC to allow banks to use taxpayer aid to buy back their own toxic assets. The hosts argue this confirms their previous analysis of the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) as a scam. They claim the program allows banks to clear their books while the taxpayer assumes 80% of the risk with little upside.

The transparency of Recovery.gov is questioned, with the hosts describing it as a news blog that redirects users to other agencies. A Mother Jones report is cited, revealing that various California counties are trading and selling their federal stimulus funds to one another at a discount to bypass earmark restrictions.

President Barack Obama's shift in terminology from "save or create" to "save and create" jobs in his weekly address is analyzed as a significant linguistic change. The actual impact of the stimulus package is questioned, citing a press conference where only 25 police cadet jobs were reportedly saved. Data from recovery.gov regarding TSA aviation jobs is also examined.

A discussion on Florida labor laws reveals that Disney World classifies employees as "cast members" to bypass certain regulations. The conversation shifts to the new Recovery.gov emblem, analyzing its imagery of gears, leaves, and stars. The logo's design is compared to socialist or fascist aesthetics, with speculation about the Chicago-based team behind the branding.

The official stimulus tracking website, Recovery.gov, has been updated with new charts regarding highway infrastructure funds, but the hosts criticize the lack of detailed reporting on where the money is going. Similar issues are noted in the UK, where promised aid for small and medium businesses has been delayed by bureaucratic paperwork.

President Barack Obama delivered an address to a joint session of Congress, which the media incorrectly labeled a State of the Union speech. Vice President Joe Biden appeared on the CBS Early Show and struggled to remember the URL for recovery.gov, the administration's stimulus transparency portal. Critics argue the website has remained stagnant despite promises of real-time updates on government spending.