President-elect Barack Obama has launched the website change.gov, where one can find news about the transition and inauguration and information about his agenda. The site also has a place for people to share their ideas for government and their stories about the campaign. This might sound fine and dandy, but it change.gov was illegally registered!
NSLOOKUP of change.gov = Address: 69.25.74.162 = Blue State Digital INAP-BSN-BLUESTATE-17797
CustName: Blue State Digital
Address: 1000 Vermont Avenue, NW
Address: Suite 1000
City: Washington
StateProv: DC
PostalCode: 20005
Country: US
RegDate: 2007-11-21
Updated: 2007-11-21NetRange: 69.25.74.128 – 69.25.74.191
CIDR: 69.25.74.128/26
NetName: INAP-BSN-BLUESTATE-17797
NetHandle: NET-69-25-74-128-1
Parent: NET-69-25-0-0-1
NetType: Reassigned
Comment:
RegDate: 2007-11-21
Updated: 2007-11-21RTechHandle: INO3-ARIN
RTechName: InterNap Network Operations Center
RTechPhone: +1-877-843-4662
RTechEmail:
Blue State Digital (BSD) is a leader in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, and constituency development programs for nonprofit organizations, political candidates and causes, and corporations. Since our founding in 2004, we’ve delivered successfully on the promise of the Internet to over 200 satisfied clients, including Obama for America, Wal-Mart Watch, the Alliance for Climate Protection, and the Communications Workers of America, raising over $200 million in contributions to date and generating tens of millions of online signups and actions.
First, the General Services Administration (GSA) issues .gov domains (http://www.dotgov.gov). On their website, they list specific eligibility requirements which change.gov does NOT meet:
Eligibility for .gov
To preserve the integrity of the .gov name space, .gov domains are limited to United States government organizations at the federal, Native Sovereign Nation, state, and local level, and U.S. territories.Registrations that qualify for a .gov domain
U.S. Governmental departments, programs, and agencies on the federal level
Federally recognized Indian Tribes (-NSN.gov domain)
State governmental entities/programs
Cities and townships represented by an elected body of officials
Counties and parishes represented by an elected body of officials
U.S. territories
Second, the change.gov domain was registered on 2007-11-21, nearly a year ago. Not after he was elected, not even after he won the Democrat Primary. He was just a Senator at the time, and that does not qualify for a .gov domain, especially since he was campaigning for President of the United States. The GSA specificially states:
No Political or Campaign Information: The Gov domain is for the operation of government, not the political, political party, or campaign environment. No campaigning can be done using Gov Internet domains. The Gov Internet domain websites may not be directly linked to or refer to websites created or operated by a campaign or any campaign entity or committee. No political sites or party names or acronyms can be used. Separate webites and e-mail on other top-level domains (TLDs), such as .org, will have to be used for political activity.
Third, the change.gov website has the following footer: “Content copyright © 2008 by Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization. All rights reserved.” Well, guess what… a 501c(4) organization, is a tax-exempt non-profit organization that can engage in lobbying or political campaigning. So, based on information on his website, he is in direct violation of GSA rules governing .gov domains, since non-profit organizations are NOT eligible for .gov domains.
Fourth, his website (and press conference) use the term Office of the President-Elect. THERE IS NO SUCH GOVERNMENT OFFICE! Exactly where in the Constitution is this “Office” defined? What are its delineated powers and responsibilities? Not only that, but the candidate known as Barack Hussein Obama II is NOT the President-elect yet. There will not be a President-elect until the electoral college meets, votes, and that vote is certified by the United States Senate. So he is only the “presumptive president-elect.” Not only that, but the seal on the sign on the podium is in violation of current United States law. And it is against the law to make up a seal of the likeness of the official seal and try to use it to convey government authority (Title 18 Part I Chapter 33 Section 713).
Related posts:
What do you expect from a fraud that did everything he could to steal the election. He paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to an organization to commit voter fraud, his campaign website allowed online credit card fraud to run rampant, and now he is committing fraud against the United States government for the “Office of the President Elect” which does not exist, while using a fake presidential seal. Barack Hussein Obama is the fraud and scam of the century! …even worst than Hitler!
[...] Obama has illegally registered a governement level domain name nearly a year [...]
We have raised similar issues on our blog, http://obamashrugged.com, but we have still seen nothing in the MSM about it. One more interesting point, the site contains a copyright, but government sites (with the exception of the Commerce department) are prohibited from copyrighting materials.
Well, once he appoints his Cabinet-level technology czar he can change these rules and begin to regulate the rest of the internet. Discussed on http://www.IsThisTheChangeWeNeed.com
It is interesting to note that the change.gov website recently changed the footer to read “Content copyright © 2008. All rights reserved.” Nonetheless, a government website can not be copyrighted. Obama must think that the American people are stupid …at least the 53% that voted for him (over 66 million people). He may be able to fool most of the people, but there will be others that will always know the truth.
According to Copyright Law 17 U.S.C. § 105, “Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government.” Since the site is in the .gov domain, people expect the material on the site to have been produced by government employees and thus as being in the public domain.
If the bulk of material at change.gov was not created by federal employees, then Obama should move the content to a .org domain, which internet users understand can have copyrighted material.
Keep up with the information…keep us who do not know, enlightened.