Obama’s Administration The Most Transparent Ever? Not By A Long Shot

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In 2009 Obama promised to be the most transparent administration ever:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/72g7qmeP1dE[/youtube]

We have since found that it has been one of the most secretive administrations ever. Vince wrote last summer about the lack of transparency and cronyism involved in ObamaCare:

…the violations of that transparency pledge were greatest during the passage of arguably the single most important – and worst – piece of legislation ever to come across a President’s desk: ObamaCare. Euphemistically named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare single handedly would open the door for regulation of anything in the American economy and the lives of the American people. The legislation inspired protests that have not been seen in decades. Needless to say, ObamaCare was and is controversial.

So it’s particularly interesting that Barack Obama chose that legislation to introduce some of his most potent behind the scenes dealings. Although it was known at the time that the administration was discussing the various elements of ObamaCare with Big Pharma, it wasn’t until three years later that the hypocritical interworkings of the negotiations would became public. In typical Washington fashion, the President traded (dropped) legalizing the importation of drugs from Canada and using government purchasing power to drive down drug prices in exchange for the pharmaceutical industry spending tens of millions of dollars in support of ObamaCare. The point here isn’t that the President engaged in anything particularly unusual, but rather his hypocrisy in explicitly promising an unprecedented level of transparency and then to immediately engage in secret deal making upon taking office.

Even the left was upset about the lack of transparency:

“In the beginning of 2010, [Obama] said he made a significant mistake by abandoning some of his pledges related to transparency,” said Josh Gerstein of Politico, “and that going forward they would do things differently. Seems to me we are forward and it seems to me we’re not doing things any differently.”

It was a more-in-sadness-than-in-anger critique of Obama often heard from the political left, and the moderator, the Sunlight Foundation’s Daniel Schuman, was apologetic. “We’re placing a lot of blame at the administration,” he observed. “Or blame isn’t the right word — maybe responsibility.”

…By certain measures, “overall secrecy has actually increased rather than declined,” said Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “Criminalization of unauthorized disclosures of information to the press has risen sharply, becoming a preferred tactic. Efforts to promote public accountability in controversial aspects of counterterrorism policy such as targeted killing have been blocked by threadbare, hardly credible national security secrecy claims.”

A Washington Post report from this past summer concluded that “by some measures the government is keeping more secrets than before.” Those making Freedom of Information Act requests in 2011 were less likely than in 2010 to get material from 10 of 15 Cabinet agencies, which were more likely to exploit the law’s exemptions.

Also, the National Declassification Center, which Obama established in 2009, had by the summer of 2012 reviewed only 14 percent of the pages it was assigned to review and declassify by the end of 2013.

Examples abound what with his secrecy regarding his ties to Fannie Mae, his prosecutions of whistleblowers, his ignoring of FOIA requests, or even his planned regulatory changes for the coming year.

And the ever expanding list continues to grow with the news that the person Obama appointed to head the EPA had a secret email account to bypass the FOIA:

The name Richard Windsor may sound innocuous, but it is allegedly one of the secret “alias” email accounts used by Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

“That is the name — sorry, one of the alias names — used by Obama’s radical EPA chief to keep her email from those who ask for it,” Chris Horner, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of the new book “The Liberal War on on Transparency,” told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

And isn’t it interesting that she is now resigning:

A Washington attorney suing the Obama administration for access to alias emails sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claims that a recent decision by the Justice Department to release thousands of those emails next month contributed to her resigning Thursday.

Jackson, in a brief written statement, said Thursday she is leaving the EPA after four years on the job, for “new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference.”

The agency did not offer an explanation. But Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the scrutiny over the alias emails is clearly a factor.

“Life’s full of coincidences, but this is too many,” he told FoxNews.com. “She had no choice.”

She had no choice because she got caught. Meanwhile Obama has been the most secretive President in recent history and he gets another four years. The MSM and the left would cry, whine and moan about Bush and a lack of transparency but the only way for anyone to get worked up over Obama’s secrecy is to force their hand with a lawsuit.

Hypocritical and pathetic.

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If there is a prize for best investigative reporter on the web it should be awarded to Chris Horner.
He must be in nomination for it.
His climate/warming globalony investigations are legendary.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/tag/freedom-of-information-act/

Yet most who voted for this President are either unaware or simply don’t care about issues like this as long as the freebies continue to roll in.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, the only real crime in Mitt Romneys 47% comment is that he was being brutally honest and sometimes people don’t like hearing the truth about themselves.

There were several things obama has been open about:

(1) He indirectly said he wants a civilian security force that can defeat the military.
(2) Electric rates need to skyrocket.
(3) Gas prices need to skyrocket.
(4) The wealthy need to pay a lot more in taxes.
(5) The Constitution is outdated.
(6) We should use other country’s laws to make decisions in the USA.
(7) I want your guns.
(8) The USA isn’t exceptional.
(9) He wouldn’t wear an American flag pin.
(10) He wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance.
(11) He apologized to the world for the USA being so successful.

After he was elected president the first time, his wife said that for the first time she was proud of America.

Any open-minded person that looks for the truth in things, has to admit that obama has openly said he hates America, and that he wants to transform it into something else. One advantage I have is I don’t have to try to defend, or try to condemn any party. I can tell it like I think it is.

On the issue of transparency, soon you will be naked, then what? Impeachment is long over due.

@MOS 8541: #4
Unfortunately, to impeach a president, they must do something that ranks in the treason category. Bill Clinton should’t have been impeached. It isn’t treason to have sex with THAT woman. obama wanting to run the USA into bankruptcy so he can eventually declare martial law, is treason to me. Being a president without a birth certificate, Social Security card, Selective Service registration card, and probably not even an Illinois drivers license, is treason to me.

The dumbing down of America…makes it easier for Government and those like Ofraud, his crony’s and his administration to confiscate power, money, Liberty, Freedom….all at the expense of Americans who rally FOR Americans to HAVE and KEEP these things that are inherent to being an American…

I realize there are greater issues regarding Ofrauds fraudulent claims of “transparency”….There are also a lot of ways in which he is very Transparent and so very immoral….

He exploits the greed, sloth, and envy of group(s) of Americans while being just as greedy and lazy himself… [btw-he admits to being lazy]… all this at the expense of those Americans who are very much the opposite…

He even encourages this behavior…at the expense of the hard working and successful in America.

The Promise [and execution] of a Health Care System that will confiscate even more Money, Freedom and Liberty through regulations, heavy taxes and more laws…yea, it’s coming…

Is this the ‘Fundamental Transformation of America” jargon he is talking about??

@ #4/5 – I cannot say what I was secretly hoping when he was ‘swimming’ in Hawaii on his vacation at our expense…

@Smorgasbord: Hey Smorg, Clinton wasn’t impeached for having sex with Lewinsky, he was impeached and subsequently disbarred for lying. His basic and obvious dishonesty, basic traits for liberals, is what got him impeached.

Saying “I did not have sex with that woman” was a far bigger crime than having sex with her, and I still don’t understand why anyone would give him any credibility. Which says an awful lot about the lack of character and principles displayed by liberals.

The fool is an example of exemplary mediocrity, he is bannal, common and obedient to the crowds and his”party”. he has learned how to be what he was asked to be. This shadow of his vanity is yet to eclipse him. he is the refined caricature of stupidity and venality. he will have no historical presence, neither will his administration. his presence will be a lesson in historical failure and corruption-noting new for a democ”ratic” regime. he is dominated by an absurd, ridiculous and total passion for outward appearances, the inessential, the insubstantial. he is a grandiose failure by historical measures.

@FAITH7: #6
Look back in history. I can look back in over 60 years of my own history. Countries that were taken over without a war, were taken over from within. The ones who took it over infiltrated that country’s government, schools, churches, civic organizations, and started some of their own organizations, with the sole purpose of bringing that country down. We have done, and are doing, these things to other countries, and other countries and groups are doing the same things to us. How can I tell these things are going on in the USA? Let’s look at what was done to other countries and compare it to what is going on in the USA today:

(1) When was the last time your preacher preached the “Old Time Religion” type sermon?
(2) When was the last time you saw a TV show or movie that had a morale lesson in it?
(3) When was the last time daddy was still married to mommy? If he was, when was the last time he and mommy loved each other and taught their kids moral values?
(4) When was the last time you saw a TV show or movie where someone in it used drugs, and others didn’t like them using them?
(5) When was the last time congress passed a law FOR THE PEOPLE, and not for themselves?
(6) Why do some politicians want to restrict your right to own guns, or know who owns them? When a country is overthrown, one of the first things the new rulers do is go after the ones who own guns so they can’t fight back.

The above has happened to the countries that were overthrown by another country, or forces within that country. Hitler is a good example of this. Compare the above to what is going on today in the USA. I am getting more worried by the less this congress is doing for WE THE PEOPLE, and the more they are doing for themselves, or whoever they are doing it for. Who are they working for?

@Scott in Oklahoma: #8
I don’t know where it is in the Constitution, but a radio talk show host read the part about impeachment, and the offense has to be on the standard of treason.

Clinton got credibility because the propaganda media keeps building him up. Some of the ways he helped balance the budget was:

(1) Didn’t give pay raises to the military for several years. My son said he hadn’t had a pay raise for three years. I don’t know how long after that he got one.
(2) Reduce the funding for the intelligence gathering agencies. Because of this, we had to bring back a lot of foreign agents we had around the world. We had two agents in Iraq at that time. Both were called back. We then had to rely on foreign countries for info. Some time later, 9/11 happened.
(3) Some soldiers overseas were housed in housing that had been condemned.
(4) He reduced the Navy tanker ship fleet to half.

Smorgasbord
yes all of it and more from the other, and let AMERICANS DIE, 4 GREAT AMERICANS,
THEY ASK FOR HELP 17 TIMES, AND DENIED,AND WHERE MASSACRE,
IS THAT TREASON TO YOU, IF NOT WHAT IS.
HE CAMPAIGN INSTEAD OF OPENING THE MARKET FOR COAL AND OIL IS THAT TREASON TO THE PEOPLE, SO MANY CANNOT FIND A JOB BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE,
THE DEMOCRATS ARE COVERING FOR OBAMA FAILURES, IS THAT TREASON,
THE SPENDING SPREE SO MANY OF THEM IS THAT TREASON WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLE HURT
BY A WEAK ECONOMY IS THAT TREASON,
VOTE FOR REVENGE IS THAT TREASON,

I see they announce the DEAL IS DONE
DEAL REACH BETWEEN SENATE AND WHITE HOUSE
VP BIDEN MEET WITH DEMS ABOUT THE DEAL TO SELL IT TO THEM,
THEY ROLL THE PEOPLE ON A FREAKING ROLLER COASTER
SCARING EVERYONE TILL THIS LAST MINUTE DEALS, WITH OBAMA REFUSE TO CUT EXPANSES,
NOW THEY SAY NOT SURE YET

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL HERE
HOPE YOU GET A GOOD YEAR COMING

@ilovebeeswarzone: #12
As I mentioned, the fact that he is an illegal president, and the fact that I think he wants to overthrow the government, is a good reason to charge him with treason, and take him out of the white house and put him in the Big House.

Smorgasbord
we have enough facts, now when do we activate the resolution,
we must call on the SEALS TO PRESENT AN OPERATION ,
BYE

@ilovebeeswarzone: #16
Why hasn’t ONE republican looked into obama’s fake birth certificate, Social Security number, and Selective Service registration card? Could it be the party has been infiltrated? If so, by who?

Smorgasbord
I thought of that too, and after those who questioned it publicly like the last one was whats his name?
geez OKAY I GOT IT, DONALD TRUMP, HE ASK AND OFFER A DEAL TO GET HIS PASSPORT,
MAYBE THEY ARE NOT TAKING THE PROOF AS ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE,