White House No Longer Honoring FOIA (Didn't anyway, now official)

Source, MSM, USA Today

WASHINGTON — The White House is removing a federal regulation that subjects its Office of Administration to the Freedom of Information Act, making official a policy under Presidents Bush and Obama to reject requests for records to that office.

The White House said the cleanup of FOIA regulations is consistent with court rulings that hold that the office is not subject to the transparency law. The office handles, among other things, White House record-keeping duties like the archiving of e-mails.

I can't believe I voted for this guy in 2008

I refer you to this video during his first election cycle.

Its not the administration's right or legal power to do so. They are required to obey and enforce the law.

Wait , He did promise the most transparent government ever . He won a Nobel Peace prize (before he took office) based partially on that promise. Also , did he not win a transparency in government award (just shortly after he was sworn in) (under closed doors) ?
How could this be ? Say it aint so OP

a reply to: raymundoko

So they are finally making what their policy has been for the last 6 years official. Here's the best part of the article:

But the timing of the move raised eyebrows among transparency advocates, coming on National Freedom of Information Day and during a national debate over the preservation of Obama administration records. It's also Sunshine Week, an effort by news organizations and watchdog groups to highlight issues of government transparency.

The bureaucrats running the two-party system will now only produce administrations like this. It will stay this way until something drastic happens. I understand not wanting to vote anymore and just moving to the hills.

originally posted by: newWorldSamurai
The bureaucrats running the two-party system will now only produce administrations like this. It will stay this way until something drastic happens. I understand not wanting to vote anymore and just moving to the hills.

On the serious side . could it be this was set in place to protect certain information from this current Administration from getting out to the public ?
Hmmm , wonder what they have to keep well hidden for eternity ....

And I apologize. Noob hit reply in the wrong place

originally posted by: here4this
Wait , He did promise the most transparent government ever . He won a Nobel Peace prize (before he took office) based partially on that promise. Also , did he not win a transparency in government award (just shortly after he was sworn in) (under closed doors) ?
How could this be ? Say it aint so OP

Yup he did, he also said he'd do a bunch of other things that he never did or turned them in to something else.

I see no good reason for them to do this beside them planning something else they would not like others to see. Guess they got tired of use looking up their sleeve.

a reply to: here4this

It wasn't just this administration. The policy and running FOIA requests around in circles started with Bush and simply continued with Obama. Now it is officially acceptable.

a reply to: raymundoko

I agree with you 100% . All the Administrations I can remember have decided to "lock down" certain documents from the public. I just found it ironic that the one that promised more transparency , more FOIA releases , a more open and honest government......

Well it says elsewhere e-mails are required to be kept and can be released after five years.
The other thing is that the regulations on FOIA are outdated possibly everywhere and need revision because of changes in the law, that's a bit slack, as it might not allow what would have been a proper request before any updates, after updates have been made, and it might need to be something to watch out for in the future.

Sorry if this is off track but here in the UK they just stick a D notice on it for a 100 years . Transparent ? lol Pull my middle leg its got a bell on it. Just dont complain or they will send a drone for you. No point in heading for the hills either Drones go every where.

a reply to: raymundoko

The FOIA law already spells out exceptions and exemptions. FOIA applies to all branches of government.

This would be another one of those idiotic Obama flouting the law left brain hip checks.

God I wish we could get the ball rolling an impeach him and throw his ass in Prison. Ironically enough the intent of the law was because of people like Obama who want to rule in secrecy.

Time to once again contact your reps and ask them to review the law and if needed make the changes to force Obama into compliance.

originally posted by: projectvxn
Its not the administration's right or legal power to do so. They are required to obey and enforce the law.

This is so true and for some reason when I read it, I started busting out laughing....Pretty terrible that happens! What would happen if we all put petitions together for every piece of information we ever wanted on ATS? If we had millions of signatures for releasing any and all info for aliens, JFK, watergate, etc....Would we get what the people asked for?

a reply to: raymundoko

How much more proof do liberals that half a brain need........This man is just like the man before him a puppet for the real power.


Consolidation of power is happening right before our eyes.

I didn't see this coming with Obama's promise of a transparent administration or anything.

Just like the fools who really believed we would be finished with these silly wars in the middle east.

I guess people actually believe what these puppets say.

Its fine though America, go back to sleep and let the masters play.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

I do not think it is so much of a belief as it was a hope that a young man not of the Ol Boys Group would actually be different than most of the ones before him. Oh , well. Remember Hope and Change? I guess 2 statements are in order
1) Hope is all someone has left who has nothing else left
2) I hope I have enough change left over to buy something to eat.

With the mess surrounding Hillary and her emails and the secrete bad agreement with Iran part of me wonders if those incidents are the catalyst for Obama to once again take the "I am above everyone else" stance.

FOIA requests have been filed now for information about Clinton and her private email servers. A double standard has also been noted between senior officials and rank and file workers and what happens when they refuse to sign an outoing form stating they turned over all information, classified and non classified, to the state department before leaving.

Apparently rank and file are required to sign it. If they refuse an investigation can be launched into why they refuse to sign it and they can have retirement, last pay, 401k withheld and the person can actually be terminated.

Those in senior positions apparently aren't held to the same standard.

We also should look at the most recent court rulings against Obama for Obamacare, Lois Lerner, Fast and Furious...

originally posted by: raymundoko

I can't believe I voted for this guy in 2008

I feel exactly the same way.

Unfortunately the options since I could vote have been Obama, Romney, Obama, McCain, Bush, Kerry, Bush, Gore, Clinton, Dole.

I'm not naive. To get to the point of being nominated you will have had to wade through a decade of hardball politics. No Presidential candidate will be squeaky clean.

But it would be nice if there was one that was intelligent, rational, in touch with the common problems of modern USA, not reactionary, understood the concept of scope management, avoided mission creep, didn't degrade Constitutional rights and stopped waging open and clandestine warfare without a comprehensive strategy to win a clear objective.

a reply to: PointDume

We had one of those Presidents once... unfortunately his Presidency ended Nov 22 1963.

a reply to: here4this

But he is another gear of the same machine. If you truly want change you don't wait for it or have faith that it will happen. You have to go out and make change.

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Einsteins definition of insanity is someone who does the same actions but expects a different result.