What Transparency Looks Like to the Obama White House

Heritage Foundation ^ | February 28th, 2010 | The Foundry

[opentalk]

Things that are transparent: Saran Wrap, glass, water. Things that aren’t transparent: brick walls, mountains, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Or so it would seem, if you take a look at the CEQ’s response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in which the Chamber asked for the release of documents relating to agency records on global warming.

As the Chamber notes, “CEQ had identified 87 documents totaling 759 pages that were responsive to our request. HOWEVER, they could not release most of the documents because they ‘originated’ with another agency.”

So what did CEQ produce? An entirely blacked-out, redacted, Sharpie-markered e-mail, pictured above. (You can also take a look at a PDF of the document, courtesy of the Chamber.)

The Chamber says the response to their FOIA is astonishing, given President Barack Obama’s call for transparency beginning with day one in office:

On his very first full day in office, President Obama sent a memorandum to his executive agencies extolling the virtues of transparency and open government and directing them to facilitate public access to information. To further that directive, Obama issued a second memorandum encouraging agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” when responding to public requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA):

---The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears

[Dallas59]

It’s only transparency when it involves the “previous” administration.

[paulycy]

[combat_boots]

[philman_36]

...President Barack Obama’s call for transparency beginning with day one in office...
Once again his lips were moving and if they were moving he was lying.
There is no trust, neither extended nor given.

[combat_boots]

[opentalk]

This double speak ,(imo) is intentional as a way to manipulate.

[cranked]

Jack Squat transparency:

[philman_36]

This double speak ,(imo) is intentional as a way to manipulate.
Double speak is only usable on the gullible, of which there are many.

[lionheart 247365]

Glen Beck is 0bama’s official Transparency Czar . Were it not for Beck ,,,, Americans would not know much about this secretive , covert , arrogant dictator .