Free Republic

On This Week this morning, I noted to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs that there was some deal-making that went on as the health care reform legislation hit the House and especially the Senate -- the kind of deal-making that was one of the reasons that President Obama, then Senator Obama, pledged on the campaign trail that "we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." PolitiFact labeled that a broken promise...

Violating its own guarantee of unprecedented transparency, the White House is blocking an investigation into the controversial firing of an inspector general who exposed one of President Obama’s political supporters—a California mayor—for misusing federal funds. First Lady Michelle Obama was reportedly behind the contentious June dismissal of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin and congressional investigators want to interview the aide (Jackie Norris) who may have given the order. At the time Norris was the First Lady’s chief of staff but the White House counsel’s office has blocked investigators from interviewing her, according to a national news report. Norris is currently...

The Puget Sound Business Journal has done yeoman’s work investigating the storied history of WaMu. (See The Rise & Fall of WaMu and The Last Days of WAMU).I just found their most recent work, The fight for WaMu documents. It details some of the more absurd redactions that were made to the documents they requested of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding communications between WaMu’s regulators. The redactions were rather absurd:And my personal favorite:So much for more transparency under the new Adminsitration . . .

The Illinois Policy Institute has launched a new great spending transparency resource for the State of Illinois. IllinoisOpenGov.org is modeled after the the successful template developed by the Maine Heritage Policy Center and features a wealth of information. While the Illinois state government's spending transparency portal ITAP (which stands for Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal) created earlier this year provides access to state employee salary information, as well as agency expenditure and contract information and information relating to corporate accountability and professional licenses, IPI's website goes further. In IPI's own words, IllinoisOpenGov.org does the following: * Makes the details of...

The Puget Sound Business Journal for months has asked the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the federal agency that regulated Washington Mutual, to release internal communications between WaMu's regulators. The newspaper made its requests under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the decades-old law that requires federal agencies to disclose public documents. Of particular interest were internal emails, which could help explain why regulators seized the bank in September 2008 even though WaMu appeared to meet regulatory standards for operating banks, despite its burden of bad loans. (You can read the second installment of our six-month investigation about that decision...

You can't have a closed-door meeting about the need for fewer closed-door meetings and expect anyone to take you seriously. That's like writing a memo to order fewer memos. Such folly is business as usual in the Obama White House. President Obama promised a historic level of transparency from his administration but hasn't delivered. On Dec. 7, the president had a "workshop" on government openness that was closed to the public. Perhaps Mr. Obama didn't want the public to hear about some of his less-than-glamorous transparency report cards. This comes on the heels of a purported transparency Web site -...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

There's plenty of cause to be skeptical of climate-change theology because global-warming advocates are secretive about their data. If climate-change research were all on the up-and-up, there would be no reason to hide it. So far, the spotlight has been on Britain's University of East Anglia and its refusal to release surface temperature data, which is by far the most comprehensive long-term data available on the subject kept anywhere in the world. In an effort to pooh-pooh the cover-up, global-warming activists are trying to reassure a curious public that this isn't a concern because some other data sources purportedly show...

Definition: The irony that the most transparent administration in history does all of its governing behind closed, partisan doors. An image of what it looks like is at the below link.

Didn't President Obama promise that his administration would be the most transparent administration in history? Of all of the POTUS' broken promises that is probably the most nefarious. There are so many examples of how the president has either forgotten, or is intentionally disregarding that promise. For example there was the deliberate hiding of the cost of cap and trade, or hiding the middle class tax hikes in the Obamacare bill, not letting his Czars testify before congress, the stonewalling by Eric Holder regarding the voter intimidation by the black panthers, and most recently trying to invoke executive privilege to...

Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens....

Oversight: If the White House really believes that AmeriCorps' inspector general was "confused" and "disoriented," how about open congressional hearings where the American people can see for themselves?The storm that erupted after the firing with one hour's notice of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general overseeing AmeriCorps, has not died down. Pressed for an explanation as to the reasons for the firing and why the law requiring Congress to be given notice and reasons 30 days in advance was not followed, the White House has resorted to old-time Chicago-style political smears.

One of Sen. John Kerry’s daughters was arrested early this morning for driving under the influence, Los Angeles police confirmed. Alexandra Forbes Kerry was pulled over in Hollywood for a traffic violation and was arrested for DUI at 12:40 a.m., Officer Sara Faden said. Kerry posted $5,000 bail at 5:20 a.m. Faden would not confirm Kerry’s blood alcohol level or what substance the senator’s daughter was under the influence of. Developing...

AmeriCorps Inspector General Shredded White House Documents at Request of Agency’s Spokeswoman Thursday, November 12, 2009 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – The acting inspector general of AmeriCorps said he shredded White House documents at the request of an agency press spokeswoman that pertained to the controversial firing of the previous inspector general, who was ousted after investigating a political ally of President Obama. The e-mail message from agency spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer seemed urgent, as she wrote: “WH documents were sent in error. Can you please destroy them? And can you confirm you receive this e-mail?” Acting IG Kenneth...

*snip* Yes, and a resounding, fervent promise by the newly elected President Obama: "My administration will bring a new transparency in our governance." That sounded so good, didn't it? *snip* Our president informed the Muslim world that "America is no longer a Christian nation," and that because of the number of Muslims in our borders that we might be considered "a Muslim nation." These and other similar comments amazed the over 80 percent of Americans who still identify themselves as Christian. *snip* But the issue that makes his notorious promise of "transparency" seem so hollow – and false – is...

Opaque Obama Sarah Carlsruh, November 3, 2009 In a Memorandum to the heads of his executive departments and agencies, President Barack Obama said that his “Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government” and will “work together to ensure the public trust.” But at an October 26th Judicial Watch education panel, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), argued that the Obama Administration’s decided failure to be open with the American people has caused them to begin to lose the public trust. Congressman Issa, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, presented his views on...

It has been one week since the Senate Majority Leader announced he sent his health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the American people are still not allowed to see Sen. Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare. Late last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) authored a letter to Reid demanding that Senators be given the opportunity to read the same bill that Reid sent to CBO. The American people have a constitutional right pursuant to the First Amendment to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In the name of transparency and participatory democracy, Senator Reid should...

Of particular significance is the visit by ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson who met with White House political director Patrick Gaspard in March. The purpose of the meeting with Gaspard, a former ACORN employee himself, was not disclosed. Levenson, who is also a registered lobbyist for New York ACORN, is the charming fellow whom Glenn Beck threw off his set May 6 for calling the TV host a racist. He's been helping to coordinate ACORN's public disinformation strategy which relies heavily on lies and misdirection. It is worth noting that Levenson's visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wouldn't in itself be untoward...

The White House on Friday released a small list of visitors to the White House since President Barack Obama took office in January, including lobbyists, business executives, activists and celebrities. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33556933/ns/politics-white_house/

I wanted to make sure you saw this video of Pelosi using the Capitol Police to man a barricade to close her health care event to the public and any Republican in Congress. If they won't even let you attend the event where they announce their health care plan, imagine how little freedom you would have over your health care decisions if their plan passes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-P-lRoquGY

Today marks a major milestone in government transparency -- and an important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous disclosure.....A lot of people visit the White House, up to 100,000 each month, with many of those folks coming to tour the buildings. Given this large amount of data, the records we are publishing today include a few “false positives” – names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else. In September, requests were submitted for the names of some famous or controversial figures (for example Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert...

So much for the most open and ethical government everFinally, it is clear what President Obama meant when he said this would be the most "transparent administration in history." -SNIP-After The Times' report revealed the administration's "donor maintenance" program, reporters from other news organizations followed up at the daily White House press briefing, where White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to dodge questions by referring reporters to the Democratic National Committee. But who controls every aspect of what happens at the DNC? The White House. And when the DNC sells access to government officials, who employs those officials?...

A House Democratic leader strongly hinted Friday that amendments won’t be allowed on the healthcare bill. Hispanic members, abortion-rights opponents, supporters of “single-payer” healthcare and liberal members are all clamoring for the chance to offer amendments to the landmark legislation. Some want to change the bill, while others want to make a point or gauge support for their proposals. But Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key player in the healthcare debate, said Friday he doesn’t expect those groups will have much of a chance. “Unless there are major problems I would expect the opportunity for amendments to be very limited,...

High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior officials and use of White House facilities in exchange for thousands of dollars in donations, documents reveal. During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings. High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents...

Remember the promise of transparency that helped win the Presidency? All bills passing Congress would be posted for 5 days before signed. Seems the rules have changed. Apparently the pledge only applied to non-emergency bills and everything is an emergency in the New Republic. The first bill signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was apparently an emergency. We had to pass the pork-laden stimulus bill before any of the Best-Congress-Money-Can-Buy could read it otherwise unemployment might reach the unacceptable 8% range though most of the provisions wouldn’t kick in for months or years. The Bums-Rush is also...

Remember when Barack Obama was running for president and he promised that, unlike secrecy-obsessed George Bush and Dick Cheney, he would insist on a “transparent” administration that wouldn’t hide information from the American people unless it was absolutely necessary? That would have been nice. But of course it turns out it was just talk. Obama has only been president for 10 months and already he is just as casual as his predecessors about demanding secrecy for things that have no good reason to be kept secret at all. Why, for instance, is the Obama White House fighting so hard to...

Ahhhhh, here's that "transparency" on display once again: A well-known Democratic strategist in Virginia is blasting the White House for placing anonymous quotes in the Washington Post in a pre-emptive effort to blame Creigh Deeds for what might be a loss in the state's upcoming gubernatorial election. David "Mudcat" Saunders, who gained political fame helping Democrat Mark Warner reach out to rural voters during Warner's successful 2001 gubernatorial bid, told CNN Friday that trying to blame Deeds is "bulls**t" when Democrats around the country are "just tired of politics." ~~~ In a story published Friday, a senior administration official told...

Under the "health care" heading on the White House Web site, a paragraph reads: "The President has vowed that the health reform process will be different in his Administration – an open, inclusive, and transparent process where all ideas are encouraged and all parties work together to find a solution to the health care crisis." But after dozens of televised hearings, round tables, markups and press conferences, top White House officials are now meeting in the Capitol with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Max Baucus of Montana, away from Republicans and the press,...

7 promises that then candidate Obama has already broken. We hope that all the people of the ObamaNation are happy with their president.

Hobby Lobby Brittany Fortier, October 15, 2009 Are lobbyists discouraging some of the best and brightest in the private sector from working for the government? The Center for American Progress (CAP) hosted a conference on September 14, 2009 to discuss the role that special interests have in shaping American policy and whether current laws are effective in restraining excessive abuses of the system. Bob Kaiser, Associate Editor and Senior Correspondent for the Washington Post and author of So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, argued that the main purpose of today’s lobbyist is...

James Kirchik, writing in a recent issue of The New Republic, ponders the Administration continued insistence that there was a “coup” in Honduras. He concludes: In the immediate wake of Honduras’s constitutional crisis, it was understandable that the administration, caught by surprise, might jump the gun in its denunciation of the military action as a “coup.” Now, three months later and with legal repudiation from within its own government, U.S. policy has become a mistake in search of a rationale. Among other things, Kirchik notes the Law Library of Congress analysis: ...according to a recently released and widely overlooked report...

John McCain's campaign is still being audited by the Federal Elections Commission, while Obama – the only presidential candidate in history since the public finance system was established to decline public funds during the general election – may have escaped similar scrutiny by the FEC. An FEC spokesman told WND that the commission is obligated to complete an audit of McCain's campaign because he received public funds during the general election. "Under regulations, that is automatically audited by the FEC once you receive public funds," he said. "For the Obama committee, there's a possibility, just like with any other committee,...

Despite gaining momentum for increased transparency in government, some leaders in Congress are still trying to keep taxpayers in the dark. A discharge petition has been circling the House of Representatives to get Rep. Brian Baird’s bill, requiring a 72 hour waiting period for all legislation before it can be voted on, to the floor. The petition has garnered 178 signatures, only 30 short of the necessary 218 to get it a vote. However, Leader Boehner has posted on his blog that Rep. Walz (most likely on the behalf of the Speaker) is trying to co-opt these efforts by circulating...

A group of eight Democrats today asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the health care reform bill to be posted online for 72 hours before a vote on the measure and once again before a vote on the conference report that will meld the House and Senate versions. The senators told Reid that health care reform should be more transparent and easier for their constituents to understand. A CBS poll released last month showed that two-thirds of Americans say the issue is confusing and just 31 percent say they have a clear understanding of what reform will mean for...

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." --Thomas Jefferson The principle of "informed consent" is well established in American law and life. Whether preparing to undergo surgery or take out a loan, consumers have a right to full disclosure of the risks and consequences associated with the transaction. Only after the consumer has reviewed such information and been informed of the relevant facts can he be deemed to have given his consent to proceed. Imagine, then, going to the hospital for major surgery, only to be...

A libertarian non-profit organization in Washington today announced it was filing suit against the Obama administration for failing to adequately disclose global warming documents. As we reported two weeks ago the Competitive Enterprise Institute deemed inadequate the Treasury Department's response to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on cap-and-trade. Months after the FOIA request, Treasury responded by giving CEI five documents and emails, when the group had expected 50. "Your response fails any reasonable test for compliance with FOIA and constitutes an effective denial of our request," CEI's Christopher Horner stated in the notice of appeal filed with...

Last week the Senate Finance committee turned down an amendment that would have required a the Obamacare bill to be posted on the internet and a 72 hour waiting time before it was voted on so the congress and the public could read the bill. The amendment was turned down because the Democrats thought it was a stalling tactic. The latest Rasmussen survey reports that it isn't a delaying tactic but the will of the people.

Senator Baucus' Senate Finance Committee easily rejected the inclusion of a government- run "public" insurance option, backed by President Barack Obama, in its version of the health care reform bill. The panel voted 16-8 against a government-run insurance plan in the first of several battles expected in Congress over the issue, one of the most contentious in the raging U.S. debate over health care reform. Even though the Public option is gone, there is plenty more danger in the Baucus plan that they democrats are hiding, such as * The true cost of the bill. * Democrats don’t know how...

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) introduced a discharge petition last Wednesday that would compel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to permit a vote on a House rule change that would force a bit of transparency on the Democrat leadership. House Resolution 554 would require that all major legislation be posted on the web for public review for a minimum of 72 hours before it could be brought to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. No more dropping thousand-page bills and hundreds of pages of amendments at the last minute barring not only the public but members of...

The government is failing to disclose the full details of how the $700 billion bailout of the financial sector has been implemented, the program's top government watchdog will say on Thursday. Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), will testify to Congress that the government's "basic attitude" on the transparency and accountability of the program "remains a significant frustration."

WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Democrats have just rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes. Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting. Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks. The Democrats say that unlike other committees, the Finance Committee works off conceptual language that describes policies — instead of legislative language that ultimately becomes law, and which the GOP...

WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes. Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting. Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.

Representative Rob Bishop’s (R-UT) is concerned about how the Department of the Interior is – or perhaps more appropriately isn’t - working with the Department of Homeland Security to secure our borders, and he let Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar know it at a hearing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRT5C9_YiI0] of the Committee on Natural Resources. As evidence of the issue’s gravity, Bishop points to a 2004 Interior Department report that had never been released to the public. According to the report the vast majority of the Organ National Pipe Monument in Arizona has been so degraded that it has lost its ‘wilderness’...

Glenn Beck just tweeted this - view the video!

Transparency and taxes are a study in contrasts. No one is against transparency (publicly), but few, if any, elected officials actively work toward making Nevada's government more open to the public. Few politicians support taxes (publicly), but when Nevada legislators get together behind closed doors, that's all they seem to talk about. Consider, for instance, the 2009 Legislative Session, when Nevada legislators passed a series of tax increases amounting to a record-setting billion dollars in hikes. Many citizens know few — if any — of the details behind those tax increases, because legislative leaders of both parties conducted the negotiations...

The Obama administration says it will release names of most visitors to the White House, starting at the end of this year. Information on visitors in the first eight months of his administration will remain secret — unless you know which names to ask for. The White House called the release of information "voluntary," continuing to argue the Bush administration's position that full disclosure is not required by the Freedom of Information Act. After being sued twice by a nonprofit organization seeking the records, the Obama administration said Friday it will post the visitor logs online. The release will be...

Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill? This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest tax increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporters' arguments.

Junk Science: The EPA may be considering closing the watchdog office that exposed the flimsy evidence of man-caused warming. So much for the administration's promise to "restore science to its rightful place."Recently we commented on the plight of Dr. Allen Carlin, the EPA senior research analyst at the National Center for Environmental Economics who dared to say, in essence, that emperor Al Gore and his environmental sycophants at the Environmental Protection Agency wore no clothes. The EPA had been working on an "endangerment finding" that would say carbon dioxide, rather than being the basis for all life on earth, was...

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Why are these Obama documents off-limits to Americans? 1. Certified copy of original birth certificate 2. Columbia University transcripts 3. Columbia thesis paper 4. Campaign donor analysis requested by 7 major watchdog groups 5. Harvard University transcripts 6. Illinois State Senate records 7. Illinois State Senate schedule 8. Law practice client list and billing records/summary 9. Locations and names of all half-siblings and step-mothers 10. Medical records (only the one page summary released so far) 11. Occidental College Transcripts 12. Parent’s marriage Certificate 13. Record of baptism 14. Selective Service registration records 15. Schedules for trips outside of the United...