Joe Biden update: He meets on transparency today. But the meeting is closed

latimesblogs.latimes.com...

In fact, today's Biden schedule highlight is a meeting with the chief of transparency for economic recovery. But, unfortunately, the transparency meeting is non-transparent, closed to the press. (See his full schedule below.) Which makes it -- what? -- secret openness? Open secrecy?

I think I'd choose "Open secrecy". Sounds better.

Here's his schedule for the day:

The "pool spray" mentioned has nothing to do with aquatics. It's a coded message to media that a few select members will be allowed in to take pictures briefly -- possibly for only a few seconds -- as Biden and his guest pretend to continue their previously private conversation as if the meeting was open.

DAILY GUIDANCE FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT, Thursday, January 14, 2010:
In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. These briefings are closed press.

At 11:30 AM, the Vice President will meet with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to discuss the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This meeting is closed press.

Afterwards, the President and the Vice President will have lunch in the Private Dining Room. This lunch is closed press.

At 1:00 PM, the Vice President will meet with Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi in the Roosevelt Room. There will be a pool spray [see definition of pool spray above] at the bottom of this meeting; gather time is 1:45 PM in the Brady Briefing Room.

(UPDATE 2:20 p.m.: The White House issued its own report on this closed meeting. Both paragraphs are added below at the end of the VP's schedule.)

Then, at 2:15 PM, the Vice President will meet with Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board. This meeting is closed press.

I guess they allowed "pool spray" in that lunch so his ENTIRE schedule wasn't closed to the press.

What liars!

[edit on 15/1/2010 by Iamonlyhuman]

Well, he had to do it, Obama was hung up on his knees with unions and deciding when to head out campaigning again.

Thanks Iamonlyhuman, interesting, but sadly no surprise. This isn't the first time that terms like transparency and openness are interpreted by the Obama administration in a quite unusual way.

Federal workshop on openness closed to the public

The Obama administration is conducting a workshop on government openness for federal employees behind closed doors Monday, a private training session for freedom-of-information officials to learn about a new U.S. office that settle disputes between the bureaucracy and the public.

The decision to preclude the public and the media from attending Monday’s openness workshop left advocates scratching their heads, given President Barack Obama’s campaign promise to make his administration the most transparent ever.

“If they’re getting marching orders, why shouldn’t the public be there?” said Jeff Stachewicz, founder of Washington-based FOIA Group Inc., which files hundreds of requests every month across the government on behalf of companies, law firms and news organizations.

www.boilingfrogspost.com...

This extract is from the article called Secret reports, Secret budgets, Secret operations, Secret courts … A Secret Government!. The article is authored by Sibel Edmonds.

Obama promised accountability and open proceedings. It's a shame, that he is a liar like most politicians. Any trust in him is misplaced.