"Obama Transition Answers First Web Press Conference"

Ari Melber (The Nation):

In another Internet milestone, Barack Obama's transition team responded to some of the most pressing questions on Americans' minds on Monday evening, at least according to the twenty thousand citizens who participated in the first user-generated press conference of the new administration.

Transition staff posted answers to the top five most popular questions, based on a transparent process that enabled visitors to vote for or against questions submitted by fellow visitors to Change.gov. The 10,300 submitted questions drew about 978,000 votes, with the leading queries focused on marijuana legalization, restoring Constitutional protections, avoiding waste in the financial bailout, Stem Cell research and education.

Some more controversial questions, however, did not make the cut. As Politico's Ben Smith first reported last week, visitors to the site abused the option of flagging "inappropriate" questions to hide perfectly appropriate inquiries about the corruption complaint against Gov. Blagojevich. Transition staff also avoided a popular but more pointed question on restoring the Constitution. With over 4,000 votes, the sixth most popular question was posed by netroots activist Bob Fertik, pressing specifically on whether Obama will appoint a Special Prosecutor "to independently investigate" torture and warrantless spying conducted during the Bush administration.

Presidents and candidates have previously taken questions from the web, of course. The State Department currently responds to citizen questions on YouTube, and this year President Bush answered Yahoo! readers in the first online video interview in White House history. This transition effort is far more transparent and interactive, however, because it lets people write and rank questions. Instead of having gatekeepers -- in the media or government -- handpick the questions without any public scrutiny, citizens are engaged in the agenda-setting process. Even if Obama's staff chooses to duck some of the top questions, (they didn't this time), the public will know instantly and the press will have an even stronger basis for pressing those issues.

The "Open for Questions" feature is a great start. The next step for participatory governance, naturally, will be applying this model to a press conference with the actual President.

Citizens pick the questions, reporters do informed follow up, and ducking is only allowed for flying shoes.

Howie P.S.: Speaking of flying shoes, does anybody but me care about what is happening with that guy right now?? Will his body parts ever function normally again? Roads to Iraq says

Iraqi TV al-Sharqiya just reported on the news that AL-Zaidi is transferred to Camp Cropper prison [the Airport prison, managed by the American forces].

The TV Channel announced that Al-Zaidi is in a difficult condition, with broken ribs and signs of tortures on his thighs. Also he can not move his right arm.

From the Code Pink Press Room: "Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity with Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist Call for his release and tribute to Iraqis who have suffered under US occupation."

Barack Obama