Obama Closes Doors on Openness, page 1
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Topic started on 21-6-2009 @ 09:17 AM by GuyverUnit I

Obama Closes Doors on Openness


www.newsweek.com
As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies."
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 21-6-2009 by GuyverUnit I]


reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 09:18 AM by GuyverUnit I
The hard line appears to be no accident. After Obama's much-publicized Jan. 21 "transparency" memo, administration lawyers crafted a key directive implementing the new policy that contained a major loophole, according to FOIA experts. The directive, signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, instructed federal agencies to adopt a "presumption" of disclosure for FOIA requests. This reversal of Bush policy was intended to restore a standard set by President Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno. But in a little-noticed passage, the Holder memo also said the new standard applies "if practicable" for cases involving "pending litigation." Dan Metcalfe, the former longtime chief of FOIA policy at Justice, says the passage and other "lawyerly hedges" means the Holder memo is now "astonishingly weaker" than the Reno policy. (The visitor-log request falls in this category because of a pending Bush-era lawsuit for such records.) Administration officials say the Holder memo was drafted by senior Justice lawyers in consultation with Craig's office. The separate standard for "pending" lawsuits was inserted because of the "burden" it would impose on officials to go "backward" and reprocess hundreds of old cases, says Melanie Ann Pustay, who now heads the FOIA office. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt says Obama "has backed up his promise" with actions including the broadcast of White House meetings on the Web. (Others cite the release of the so-called torture memos.) As for the visitor logs, LaBolt says the policy is now "under review."


Where is the change?

This article is from Newsweek.
I believe they were in the tank for Obama during the election, so this can't be written off as biased attack. Do you think some of the media is suffering buyer's remorse?

www.newsweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 21-6-2009 by GuyverUnit I]


reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 09:42 AM by Watchdog-Finland
reply to post by TravisYah


Lets see how brainwashed they are, if they act then its ok if not then they are brainwashed


reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 10:36 AM by Watchdog-Finland
reply to post by mikerussellus


Oh okey thanx for that info, so i guess hes jsut another lying Politician then right?, oh well i know many had hopped he can do right, but i havent seen anything such yet, well i cant complaine hes not my president, and i will not flame you guys for it, lets all hope He will do what he had promised to you guys

Cheers


reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 10:37 AM by GTORick
reply to post by TravisYah



The fighting is in rounds and we are still in round 1. Aside from that, the MSM; as has been mentioned by several members in recent threads, does not publicize or cover the protests that do happen.

Where do you get off calling US citizens cowards? Where exactly do you come from? Australia? Canada? China? Vietnam? Poland? Italy? Israel?


reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 10:58 AM by mikerussellus
Originally posted by GTORick
reply to
post by TravisYah



The fighting is in rounds and we are still in round 1. Aside from that, the MSM; as has been mentioned by several members in recent threads, does not publicize or cover the protests that do happen.

Where do you get off calling US citizens cowards? Where exactly do you come from? Australia? Canada? China? Vietnam? Poland? Italy? Israel?


But most of the sheep here are cowards. They'd rather believe the platitudes of Obama than open their eyes and see the truth.



reply posted on 21-6-2009 @ 11:41 AM by earlywatcher
Obama did campaign on openness. no openness so far. he campaigned on bringing home the troops. troops aren't home from iraq; more troops sent to afghanistan tough no actual plan that i know of. campaigned on transparency, allowing people to see content of bills before the vote. not so far. new stuff: taking over industries; giving more power to the fed. so far this is a continuation of the bush presidency except for appointments of "czars" with no accountability to facilitate the power grab and bringing in the main broadcast networks as arms of the government while "punishing" fox by refusal of access because they present critics as well as proponents of obama policies.

if this was going on anywhere else, america would be encouraging revolution to these oppressed people.

there has been a trend for some time of having movie and tv people "handle" presidential campaigns and staff the PR sections. This administration has taken it to a whole new level. The people who refer to the obama administration as a reality show are literally correct. every detail of every thing is managed carefully for its message. We've learned that michelle's image is incredibly carefully managed to the last detail to make her nonthreatening and popular because she ultimately wants to participate in policy decisions but doesn't want the firestorm hillary got. we know obama's speeches are carefully worked out with NLP techniques that were powerful during the election, possibly next now.

what we don't know is how people really feel about all this. the media: tv and newspapers, magazines, entertainment industry keep telling us these folks are rock stars beloved of all people and doing a fabulous job, fascinating beyond reason, etc but there is no way of knowing if the actual people of this country feel that way.

i've heard a few friends say--friends who totally believed in obama and voted for him--this is not what i had in mind when i voted for him. i'm not sure people are buying the reality show being broadcast, but it's hard to say.

i am not surprised to hear from the illinois folks that they knew what he was. how could anyone who rose up through the chicago political machine be open? that is impossible? how could people have believed that he did this but was "clean"?

maybe this program has switched from reality show to video game. the obama white house video game. what next?
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