Obama Closes Doors on Openness

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]

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]

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama.......it is always the same, and will always be the same. Voting in this country has become a joke. At least they hide it a little better than Iran.

Originally posted by Ace High
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama.......it is always the same, and will always be the same. Voting in this country has become a joke. At least they hide it a little better than Iran.

At least the Iranians can muster a pair to dismantle a government if they feel necessary, at this point its safe to say Americans and British are now TV-numbed cowards.

reply to post by TravisYah

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

One day the people of America will learn there is nothing a citizen can do politically to convince the government to change for the people. Our vote means SFA because who the **** does one vote for when they are all puppets ? Is Ron Paul really THE one and only that has the balls to make a stand with and for his people ? Or, is he just wind in a bag blowing smoke until he gets his strings. I fear the people of America will have to rise up as the citizens of Iran have. Our pride must be swallowed and our balls must drop before we unite together and strive for a true change. All governments provide the bare minimum they can get away with and we the people let them get away with everything including murder. Until then, they (government) will continue to propagate and dumb down the people of America.

[edit on 21-6-2009 by disfugured]

I lived in Illinois when Obama was a state senator. He was a crook then, no change now.
Pretty much nothing he does surprises us.

To say that Obama 'closes doors on openness' would mean that at some point those doors must have been open. The truth is, that at no point in career has Obama ever really had openness or transparancy.

I guess what depresses me is that most people don't care.

I feel like Charlton Heston in Soilet Green screaming, "It's people! They're making it out of people!".

And the rest of the population is going, "Shut up! We're eating."

so i have heard now mix feelings about Obama, Is he really that good what ive heard or is he just another Criminal in the office? im not American so i cant know what´s going on there, i just know what i read in the news here

What a hypocrite.....I voted for him because I actually believed he would do what he said and well it just makes me even more pissed when I read daily he hasnt done anything different than the others.

Originally posted by Watchdog-Finland
so i have heard now mix feelings about Obama, Is he really that good what ive heard or is he just another Criminal in the office? im not American so i cant know what´s going on there, i just know what i read in the news here

It depends on who you talk to. Some think that he is the Messiah. The second comming of the anointed one. A superhero. He can do no wrong and he is perfect.
Then there are those of us that knew of him in Chicago, knew he was a crook, a liar, and wants to turn America into a socialist ideal.

It all depends on what you want in a politician.

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 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?

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.

WOW....saying one thing and doing another. This has been Obama since he has been elected. Color me suprised!


The reason that the meetings are classified are because they can't release the tapes of Obama extorting the coal miners just like Gangsters do.


DUH.





[edit on 21-6-2009 by bismarcksea]

Obama's entire life is a closed, locked and sealed book. It has been since day one and his well paid lawyers have seen to that. How anyone thought he would run his administration differently is beyond me.

Be very afraid of the day when the dark cloak actually comes off of Obama. It will not be pretty.

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?