After 8 long years of a lying administration, a war that the majority of Americans were opposed to and a President with an approval rating hovering in the 30's, I find your outlook just a little naive.

Any citizen that wanted to exert influence in this process has had at their disposal the tools of citizenship that we have always had, most important among them being access to our elected representatives. You want to read the House or Senate Bill - go here http://thomas.loc.gov/. You want to comment, send an email or a fax.

If however you would rather whine about the lack of an invitation from the President to comment in an article entitiled 'What's Obama Hiding?', I would suggest that you get real.

The least they could do is put out an iPhone app where people can rate legislation up or down. If they like it, they gently rock the iPhone forward to backward. If they don't like it, they shake it furiously.

What I don't get is how Mr. Ciarelli and the "Sunlight Foundation" see the Stimulus Bill as non-emergency legislation. We can't wait for five days while ten ordinary people look at it and make inane comments, meanwhile more and more people get laid off. We're in a economic death spiral and while I'm of the opinion that ~$800 billion is too little to stop it outright, articles like this make the author (who pretends to be something of a liberal-minded person) seem to be a closet conservative looking to criticize for the sake of criticizing. I'm sure they'll get to this little campaign promise in good time. I'd rather they deal with much, much more important issues first like...almost everything.

Transparency is not just a good idea, it is a necessity. 21st century technology can make it happen. BUT - President Obama is up against the old guard, the politics-as-usual folks who don't want that level of transparency because it will interfere with their under-the-table deals on pork and pet projects, on favors given and repaid, on getting theirs first.
It may not be that President Obama doesn't want to do this, or that he is dragging his feet on it. It may be that right now, he can't do it. Give him a couple of months, then start complaining. After all, the stimulus thing might be just a little more important right this second...

While I too am disappointed that Mr. Obama has yet to fulfill this particular campaign promise, I am willing to give his administration the benefit of the doubt. I am optimistic that when they get the technical kinks worked out, this 5-day comment period will become standard procedure, as promised. And I find myself agreeing just a little bit with zedalis. While I wouldn't say that people who are upset about this "broken promise" are necessarily "whining," I do feel that even if he never keeps this particular promise, we are so much better off as a country under an Obama administration that I'm willing to overlook it.

"The White House says it's just working out the kinks..."

My first impression (and that's all it is, so don't roast me for it) is that the "kinks" aren't about posting the bill for public review, but how to handle the high flow of traffic (both in and out) that will undoubtable hit the antiquated abacus of a computer system the previous technophobic administration left behind.

As zedalis pointed out, the bill is online and can be read by anyone who wants to read it.

I agree 100% with Zedalis, if the american public were so interested, so concerned, they have the tools they need to communicate via the internet!

PEOPLE WAKE THE HELL UP!

You put these folks in office, take responsibility and look into their records, actions, inactions, moral flaws, etc.

YOU CAN communicate with these people electronicall or via US MAIL. But advice from a long time Veterans Advocate, send mail via US Postal service to their state address not their DC address which could take months to be received.

But going to:

http://thomas.loc.gov/

You can send E-Mails to your state elected officials quite easily and very fast!

And next time they're due up for election, think about their record, check them out, and vote them out of office if they don't live up to expectations (reasonable ones) and bring in fresh new blood!

We put them in office, WE CAN TAKE THEM OUT!

Oh my, I guess the ever changing stimulas bill was still changing and was/still considered an emergency?

It is evident to me that I have less power than any member of Congress. However, I am cognizant that the White House has established the 'Office of Public Liason,' which allows any individual to send his or her comments to Valerie Jarrett. Unfortunately, she probably doesn't read every single message, but someone probably does.

See for yourself:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl/

To "zedalis" and "LordVador": I find your commentary disappointing. Citing the attempt by the media to uphold accountability in politics as "naive" or "laughable" is a tired line. Yes, it's true, that politics often tend toward empty promises and retreating transparency. However, after two terms of a legitimately closed book administration and a new Commander in Chief who really would seem to be embody change, it is not surprising that Ciarelli and others find this lack of transparency suspect.

Ciarelli is doing what all Americans should do. He is holding the administration accountable. To this point, how would it disadvantage the Obama team to post the bill five days prior? Do we really believe that the public will all stay up late on a week night reading 700 pages and then bog down the process with calls to their senators the next morning? Strangely, I don't.

In fact, I believe that some of the only people would actually read up on the bill's details are writers like Ciarelli here. And I, for one, would appreciate the highlights on my iphone while I'm on the train to work.

Holding politicians accountable is by no means laughable. It's a tradition that is, if nothing else, American.

Transparency is so important - I hope Obama will understand it!