Transparency Update Revisited

I'm reposting two things I wrote about Obama's lack of transparency. He doesn't seem to remember what he has said, so we have to.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Transparency Update
These are the words of Team Obama from the dot gov website: "End the Practice of Writing Legislation Behind Closed Doors: As president, Barack Obama will restore the American people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent. Obama will work to reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee mark-ups and conference committees, to be conducted in public. By making these practices public, the American people will be able to hold their leaders accountable for wasteful spending and lawmakers won't be able to slip favors for lobbyists into bills at the last minute."
The reality was that the stimulus bill was written behind closed doors and and now the conference committee to forge an agreement between the House and Senate versions will take place behind closed doors.
Obama also promised a period of five days between congressional passage of a bill his signature to allow public examination and comment. He has yet to keep that promise. Which makes one wonder if he is ducking public examination and comment.
But he also promised bipartisan governance but appears to be in fact uninterested in that.
He also promised to not have lobbyists in his administration. But he has made a Raytheon lobbyist a deputy secretary of defense. And the rest of his administration is filling up with lobbyists. His pants are on fire and he will probably have the embarrassing fire extinguished by a lobbyist. Posted by Chris M. at 1:29 PM

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Transparency Update: The Unvetted President
Some things the public has a right to know that will never be available or are still kept out of the public record:

1. OccidentalCollege records — Not released
2. ColumbiaCollege records — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — ‘not available’
4. Harvard College records — Not released
5. Selective Service Registration — Not released
6. Medical records — Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule — ‘not available’
8. Law practice client list — Not released
9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate — Not released
10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth — Not released
11. Harvard Law Review articles published — None
12. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
13. Record of baptism — Not released or ‘not available’
14. Illinois State Senate records — ‘not available’ Posted by Chris M. at 2:02 AM 2 comments