Two of the questions from Obama's Employment Questionnaire who be difficult for me to answer. How would you respond?
"Please list all aliases or 'handles' you have used to communicate on the Internet."
I suppose that includes our myLot IDs and considering some of the really less than flattering discussions and response on our Politics section about him (Obama) that could be very dangerous for many of us!! What should we do to protect ourselves?? ninja
The 63rd and last question is all-encompassing: Please provide any other
information, including information about other members of your family,
that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of
embarrassment to you, your family, or the president-elect.
Now that could be a problem as I have some member of my family who are a constant source of embarrassment!! blush
[question posted by whiteheather39]responses and comments:
Why on earth would they need to know your id's on the internet??? Since anyone can be anyone on the net it doesn't make sense. Aliases I can see but id's? As for the other family members...well I could see if they were ex-con's, conspiracy nuts, serial killers or something but source of embarrassment?? That includes just about half of my family. Sounds alot like a invasion of privacy but then that may just be me. Is there a link to the site to view the application? ~~MY OWN PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF** [twoey68]
Actually it said "Please list all aliases or 'handles' you have used to communicate on the Internet." Id's are another name for 'handles' on the internet. 'Handles' are generally what id's are called on CB's. ~~MY OWN PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF** [twoey68]
The first alias wouldn't be such a problem for me, as mine is pretty unimaginsative, evanslf. But the second question shows that Obama is trying to be very cautious when appointing his personnel, it is a catch all question so that if some skeleton does come out of the closest during the confirmation hearings, Obama can then turn around to his appointee and say 'you didn't tell me about this' and can then drop them and appoint someone else. [evanslf]
I am afraid that all the Obama supporters among my family and friend would list ME as a source of embarrassment!lol [whiteheather39]
I think that the last question is giving people a chance to be honest about anything that might turn up to be scandalous, so the Obama administration can decide whether it is worth it to deal with or not. I don't think he expects answers like "well my mother-in-law thinks I'm the worst thing that ever happened" or something. It's kinda like asking, hey, are you cheating on your spouse, do you have an illegitimate child, is anyone in your family members of the KKK? You know? As for the internet aliases, I don't get it, but it's not like it's asking for their passwords. [murderistic]
This is a public website. [murderistic]
Prs. Elect Obama didn't seem to care about the complete embarrassment of naming Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. He was part of the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac, openly called for the death of Republican collegues while brandishing a knife and other childish reactions to those who disagree with him. Apparently you can be as scummy as you want to be, as long as you are one of Obama's cronies. So much for the lie about "change". [ParaTed2k]
It's amazing how you only see what you want to see. [reshadar]
I just did another discussion on his application, and I think it must be a joke. Has he answered all these question before he became president-elect to ensure us that he would not be an embarrassment to our country? Noooooo....Am I embarrassed that our country elected Obama? Yessss....Does your family deserve to have their dirty laundry aired in this application, noooooooo. [Yestheypayme2dothis]
Isn't it amazing how quickly he is already changing things around to match his own personal agenda!!!! [whiteheather39]
I just think it's funny that associations and their actions were completely irrelevant to Obama during his campaign, yet now he suddenly feels that it's VERY important for him to know every association people have ever had. [Taskr36]
How very, very, very true! As I said before he probably would not hire himself if he was to complete the questionnaire. [whiteheather39]
Is Obama filling out the application himself? It seems to me that a number of those questions are information that the American people would like to know about him - and answered honestly! [newtondak]
Obviously not. It seems Obama is one those people whose motto is "Do as I SAY not as I DO" [whiteheather39]
Well I just wouldnt have to work for him. thats why we use what we do to be annonamus adn only tell our real name to very very close friends. I wouldnt have any problems with my side of the family but I would my hubbies lololololol [Lakota12]
lol and you thinknI am not!? [Lakota12]
I saw this on tv and thought how dumb can they get.It has a lot of questions that are plain silly,at least I think so. [judy43]
Silly but as someone said the more questions they answers then if he wants to get rid of anyone he can say they were not truthful in their answers. [whiteheather39]
Fortunately for me, I'd not likely qualify for any job in an 0bama administration anyway. Unless, they had a job for someone to tell them how 'the other side' would react to their proposals. [redyellowblackdog]
Which actually is qualification in itself. You should apply! Everyone needs some honesty in the room. If the President Elect surrounds himself with only those who say yes he fails before he gets started. [lvaldean]
This is lame. I can kind of understant the ID thing b/c they want to make sure you aren't saying one thing to their face, then badmouthing them online, but you gotta wonder how many people honestly list all their IDs. As for the family thing- that bugs the heck out of me. If some idiot in my family did something dumb, why should I have to be penalized for it? [vivasuzi]
That's politics, suzi. If some idiot in your family did something dumb, in politics, you can be penalized for it, no matter what side you are on. [reshadar]
Obama is looking to surround himself and sheild himself with with as many rubber stamping, parroting, wind up clones as he can. I realize he is only suggested one or tow definates so far, but the aplication, if acuarate, does suggest this. Perhaps he'll suprise me and in fact, choose a diverse think tank of a cabinate, I'm in watch and see mode, I don't have good feelings so far but he hasn't even taken office yet. I'm just watching him and minding my states business right now. I think thatis the best place to initiate safe guards by law against any potential funny busines. As well as take care of some funny business from the current administration. [xfahctor]
Yeh, I've seen the hamas thing, I think he's flatly denied that thing. I dunno, there isn't much I would be totatly stunned at with him. [xfahctor]
What? Oh wow, would I have a problem with those questions. Isn't the government nosy enough? [AmbiePam]
I hope we are not going to face "Big Brother is Watching You" future. [whiteheather39]
Sounds like they want to know all your alias and your nicknames so that they will know all the opposition. The Nazis probably had a similar employment questionaire list. All they need to know is how long have you been working, for whom, your salary, if you have been fired or laid off, for what reason, and your dependents. The other stuff is just so they will know who you are so they can send in the civilian police to arrest you and shut down your blogs when you start to disagree with them. [suspenseful]
I'm wondering if after Jan. 20th anyone who says or said anything about him he doesn't like will be tracked down and have their/our internet service cut off. As far as family members go, my ex-husband the crack head might pose some embarrassment though I no longer consider him a relative. [PrarieStyle]
You do know that many of these item are used to approve Government access to intelligence information levels. You would also see some of these items in Government jobs where a conflict of interest would lead to a process such as the awarding of government contracts bing called into disrepute. [ebattleon]
I've thought about this a little more, and I agree that some of the questions on the questionnaire are absolutely ridiculous, i.e. asking about traffic violations over $50 (heck, the only traffic violations under 50 bucks are parking tickets!), asking if they've ever sent any emails that could be embarrassing, etc. I do not think that the purpose of the questionnaire is to discriminate against people with any "embarrassing" history, but to rule out people with unacceptable histories and to obtain complete knowledge about the acceptable candidates information in order to protect the workers in the Obama administration from later embarrassment, i.e. to stop any leaks from getting out. This is just a guess. [murderistic]
You could say that sometimes they call you: Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Father Flager, and Tony Riezko. [kdhartford]
Yea, to be honest I don't trust him right now. A lot of stuff he's doing and his associations are kind of sketchy right now. [Demarini]
You got that right! [whiteheather39]
Well if your looking for a position on his staff & your history could be used against his campaign you better answer honestly. If you don't it's automatic reason for termination. It's not surprising or unheard of. [uath13]
Ah well they figure if they can find out about any possible problems before you get the job they will not have any embarrassing past come back to haunt in the future. I can see where they are coming from. Ok say you get a job with the Obama administration and a year or so down the track someone finds out some scandalous thing they can attack Obama with then he can pull your application and point out that you failed to mention it so it is not a case of his knowing etc. you just lied on your application. Makes sense to someone working in a world where the tiniest thing like visiting a lap dancing bar once and getting drunk can come back to haunt you. [sharra1]
It seems other people (myself included) also think it would be an easy way to get rid of someone if they do not behave. [whiteheather39]
I hate to tell you all this but most of these, if not all, of these questions would also be found on a Secret Clearance questionaire. You think this is invasive? Obviously you haven't seen one of these or been through the process of Top Secret Clearance. Oh yeah, invasive would not be the word for that. This is nothing I promise. [lvaldean]
Since he's been less than forthcoming, I'd like Obama to answer those questions first. The hypocracy is audacious. If he's so worried about associates of workers being an embarrassment, why doesn't he look at HIS associates first? This questionaire is kind of redundant anyway, not just anyone can work for the President or in the White House. You need a government Security Clearance, and it's THEIR job to do background checks. [thelastwolf113]
Excellent response..thank you. You are correct about government clearance background checks. They have a standardized form for this. [whiteheather39]
I probably wouldn't get a job with him, but I'd tell him that there are some things that are meant to be private and I would decline to answer. [6precious102]
If I didn't need the job I would tell them to drop dead. This is very scary. The first thing the Germans under Hitler did was find out who owned guns so it was easy for them to take them away. WOW! that 63rd question is the scariest of all. Is this true? God I hope not. If it is then we are in big, big, big trouble. [patms1]
I suppose you could say, " should I respond the same way you respond?" [bestboy19]
This is the first I have heard of such a questionnaire. I am highly suspect of all such things. (I don't know what the purpose of the questionnaire is.) [flowerchilde]
I hate answering stupid questions. At first I thought you meant that this was the questionnaire that Omama had to fill in before being allowed to put himself forward for election, then I read some of the responses to this. I have a number of different user names/aliases on the internet, not all of them I would be willing to publish here. As for family I would consider that an invasion of their privacy. It would be me that would be employed not family members (if they want a job they can fill in there own application). I feel very strongly that you cannot include anyone else without their express permission and if they were an embarrassment then I can't see them giving permission anyway. I would also object to anyone including me in an application (and I don't consider that I have anything to hide). [Eskimo]