Obama hides Sherrod emails in Breitbart lawsuit

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Obama-Transparent

After a while it gets difficult to decide what Obama’s biggest lie is. Transparency is right up there:

Obama says his is ‘most transparent administration’ ever

President Obama on Thursday hailed his administration for its transparency.

“This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama said during a Google Plus “Fireside” Hangout.

“I can document that this is the case,” he continued. “Every visitor that comes into the White House is now part of the public record. Every law we pass and every rule we implement we put online for everyone to see.”

(That one was dead before he even said it)

The ironically named Josh Earnest doubled down on that a couple of weeks ago

The White House on Sunday stood by President Obama’s position that he continues to be the most transparent president in U.S. history, despite widespread complaints from journalists and other Americans about a lack of information or apparent misinformation.

“I have a responsibility in this job to try to help the president live up to his commitment to be the most transparent president in history,” new White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

Earnest said he “absolutely, absolutely” sticks by Obama’s line about having the most transparent administration, after continued criticism about apparent attempts to not make full disclosures.

Among the criticisms are that the president and his administration misled Americans by telling them they could keep their existing health insurance plans under ObamaCare, intentionally tried to conceal what sparked the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya in which four Americans were killed and prosecuted federal employees who should have been protected under the whistleblower protection act.

Shirley Sherrod was in the process of suing Andrew Breitbart over a video Breitbart released in 2011 when Bretibart passed away in 2012. Subsequent to Breitbart’s passing, Sherrod then moved to substitute Breitbart’s widow Susie Bean Breitbart as defendant in the lawsuit.

As part of the litigation, Breitbart’s lawyers were seeking email between the White House and Sherrod. Administration lawyers have resisted handing over the requested emails (sound familiar?) and have already been blasted by a judge:

A federal judge delivered a severe tongue-lashing to a Justice Department lawyer Thursday, slamming the Obama Administration for its handling of demands for government records in the libel lawsuit fired Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod filed against conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.

During a 40-minute hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon repeatedly ripped into the government and DOJ trial counsel David Glass for resisting requests from both sides in the case for government files and e-mails that might be of use in the litigation. At one point, the judge snapped at Glass, ordering him to “sit right down.”

The most transparent administration in history is still concealing the emails:

The Obama administration is fighting to keep secret hundreds of pages of emails detailing White House involvement in the 2010 firing and attempted rehiring of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod after the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart published a blog post and video clips suggesting Sherrod was a racist.

Lawyers for Breitbart’s business partner, Larry O’Connor, filed the White House and USDA documents in federal court in Washington in May in connection with a libel suit Sherrod filed over the blog post, which appeared on Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com website. However, last week, Justice Department lawyers urged U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon to keep the documents from the public by maintaing them under seal.

Court filings are normally public, but the Justice Department said the emails from the accounts of nine White House staffers and an additional number of Agriculture Department officials should be kept under wraps in part because the public already has enough information through official statements about Sherrod’s forced resignation and the ensuing events.

“The parties to this case have no need for ‘public access to the documents at issue’ because they can litigate under seal any issue to which those documents are relevant. Neither does the public at large have any need for access to those documents. As the United States has acknowledged in this case, plaintiff’s resignation from USDA ‘implicate[d] sensitive issues and significant public interest,” DOJ lawyers Charles Glass and Arthur Goldberg wrote. “Those matters have already been addressed, however, by the statements about plaintiff made by Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack and by then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at or about the time of plaintiff’s resignation. Those matters have also been addressed by the thousands of pages of documents dealing with plaintiff that USDA has produced to the public pursuant to [the Freedom of Information Act].”

In the July 13 motion (posted here), the Justice Department lawyers also invoke a deference to “Presidential confidentiality” as a basis for keeping the contents of the emails secret.

“The Office of the President occupies a ‘unique position in the constitutional scheme’ and ‘the public interest requires that a coequal branch of Government afford Presidential confidentiality the greatest protection consistent with the fair administration of justice,'” Glass and Goldberg wrote, quoting the 2004 Supreme Court case granting such deference to Vice President Dick Cheney in connection with records relating to the Energy Task Force he headed.

Christian Adams wondered who’s paying the freight for Kirkland and Ellis:

Given Kirkland’s exceedingly high hourly rates, one can safely assume that Sherrod’s lawsuit is probably being bankrolled by a third party, or by Kirkland & Ellis itself.

Sherrod should disclose who is paying for the high-dollar litigation against a conservative news outlet. If it is Sherrod, she should say so. Or, is it other clients of Kirkland & Ellis, such as Starwood Hotels, Walgreens or Avis/Budget Car Rentals, through their fees in other matters subsidizing Kirkland lawyers working for Sherrod pro bono? Perhaps it is an unseen third party? Either way, if it isn’t Sherrod paying the bills, she ought to disclose to the media who is paying them.

Obama’s being re-elected might ultimately be the most fitting punishment for him and those who elected him. Had he not been returned to the White House he would have escaped the ignominy he is going to deservedly gather. He just might be President long enough for the house of lies he keeps building to collapse upon him.

As ye sow, you know….

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Government transparency is a one-way mirror. They can clearly spy on us, but all we see is a wall. Liberals see their own smiling reflections in the mirror, contently thinking that is what is on the other side.

This is the same mentality as Benghazi, the border assault and the IRS issues. It is more important to protect the reputation of the political organization than to allow the truth to be revealed. The lives and livelihood of US citizens have no value to this administration when there may be adverse political activity revealed.

And yet Cheney never released the attendee or the agenda at his infamous energy meeting with oil executives.

This administration and President are transparent. Perhaps the most transparent ever. There is no mistaking what their motives and goals are and their transparent attempts to cover their disastrous failure of an administration doesn’t quite do the trick.

They have made the IRS more transparent than they used to be as well.

many OBAMA smidgeons are rising from under his feet,
HE MIGHT SLIP IN THE SLIME AND BREAK A LEG,
IF HE DOESN’T LOOK WHERE HE WALK,
ONCE THE CAN OF SMIDGEONS IS OPEN, YOU CANNOT CLOSE IT BACK.

“This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama said during a Google Plus “Fireside” Hangout.

Clearly, Obama is referring to his espionage on every American citizen tomake everything possible about our lives transparent to The All Powerful State. As he was referring to us, and not him and his corrupt and tyrannical Chicago political machine, his linguistic contortions are as clear as those of his OFA trolls.

The main reason Breitbart used a snippit from SS’s speech was he wanted to show, not HER ”racism,” but the racist response of the audience which was the NAACP.
As soon as it was learned that SS had been fired the whole context was showed and her ”racism” was debunked.
Then, red-faced, the WH had to TRY to re-hire her.
But she wouldn’t have it.
Money was what it has all been about.
How to destroy Brietbart by costing him so much?
And, even after his death, that’s not going to work.
But to try to hide the WH collusion in this lawfare is silly.
Either the Emails Show White House Input on Sherrod Ouster or they don’t.

Lately, the Obama WH has twisted law into pretzels.
They argue that a law doesn’t mean what it plainly says (in ObamaCare)
And now here they argue that court filings, which are normally public, should be kept under wraps.
What will the new Black’s Law Dictionary look like if Obama wins on either of these?

@This one:

And yet Cheney never released the attendee or the agenda at his infamous energy meeting with oil executives.

Let’s see… here are all the different times Cheney promised to be the most ethical, most open, most honest and most TRANSPARENT administration of all time:

1.

critics crying foul over ARIZONA MISS EXECUTION,
THE MOTHER OF THE VICTIM SAID , MY FATHER WAS IN A POOL OF BLOOD,
NO ONE WAS OUTRAGE,
and that happen many times enough for me to notice, it always leave a sour taste,
i was trying to figure the word to call that, WHAT OFFEND THE WRONG SIDE OF OUTRAGEOUS,
THE SIDE OF WHO START THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE HAMAS HATERS AND THE DEFENDER OF THEIR COUNTRY HAVING THE RIGHT TO DEFEND, BUT THOSE I WILL CALL REVERSE MINDS PICK THE HATERS
TO YELL OUTRAGE, KERRY DID TOO HE WAS CAUGHT IN THE FEW WORDS, AND OBAMA PICKEDTHE HAMAS BY NOT WORDS BUT CLOSE TO A HALF BILLION, THAT SHOULD HAVE GONE TO ISRAEL,
WHO WOULD NOT USE IT TO KILL, BUT HAMAS USE ANY MONEY TO KILL,
AND WE NOTICE QUITE A FEW SIMILARITY ON THE OBAMA PICKING THE WRONG SIDE, BE IT THE CRIMINALS OVER THE VICTIM, THE ILLEGAL OVER THE AMERICANS,
PICKING THE ATHEIST OVER THE CHIRISTIAN GOD LOVING CITIZENS,
PICKING THE IRS ABUSIVE ACTIONS EVEN CRIMINAL TO THE RECIPIENTS OF THEIR ABUSES, GOOD FAMILIES,
AND ON AND ON IT WAS SINCE HE BECAME PRESIDENT, EVEN CHOSING THE WRONG ONE FOR A TASK
HE OR SHE IS NOT FIT, AND THE INDOCTRINATION HE HAD ORDER TELL US OF HOW IT CHANGE THE JUDGEMENT OF HIS FOLLOWERS DOING THE SAME CHOICE, AND ENDING IN TROUBLE FOR MANY OF THEM,
LIKE ONE WHO PLAY THE MUSIC ON THE OPOSIT NOTE,
i call anti music,
THE ONLY WORD I FOUND IS REVERSE THINKING,
i could expand more on it, but i ‘ll leave it there,
BUT THERE IS A BETTER NAME MORE PRECISE, I AM STILL SEARCHING FOR IT, AND WHY IS IT DONE,
AND FROM WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE BRAIN DOES IT COME FROM, HOW DEEP IS THE DAMAGE,
one playing that game could put a word like building ,
the other put destroying, and on and on,
I BUILT MY BUSINESS, NO YOU DIDN’T BUILT IT, THIS ONE CAME FROM HIS MIND CONDRATICTING WITH THE OPOSING
NEGATIVE, HE IDN’T HAVE THE TIME TO
REFRAIN THAT ANSWER COMMING FROM
DEEP HIS GUTS FEELING, HE MUST HAVE REGRETTED IT,
BECAUSE IT SHOWED HIS INNER SELF, which read,
i don’t want you to own anyting , because i own it all,
and i alone choose who to give to,

SiliConMan says:
“This is the most transparent administration in history.

SiliConMan

Apparently this and other posters greeted Obama in town on his last West Coast fundraiser.
Heh.
MORE:

SiliConMan – Obama in Silicon Valley