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Obama Administration Transparency Getting Worse
schwit1 writes "The government's own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that halfway through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records. In category after category — except for reducing numbers of old requests and a slight increase in how often it waived copying fees — the government's efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took office."
“This is the most transparent administration in history,” -- Barack Obama, February 2013
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." -- Napoleon, Animal Farm, by George Orwell
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Unless someone is planning to pull a Kennedy on him, he's got 34 months to go...
Oh please NO! I don't want to get Biden as president with all the sympathy of having to take over under those circumstances. Not on your life.
I'll keep the guy I know over dementia prone Biden who would be wheels off nuts. Obama will be totally emasculated by the end of this year when his party looses the Senate. Let him spend his last two years in office planning for his presidential library. If we are ever going to fix this, he has to stay in office and be marginalized as much as possible.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
You really think Obama is going to act like other former presidents and leave DC for Chicago or Hawaii? His ego would never allow for it. He will stay in DC and be a thorn in the side of whoever the next president is (Dem or Rep).
As to Biden....tell me again why Palin was so bad compared to Biden again?
How about if we start by acknowledging that there was never supposed to be a "ruling class" and elminating that philosophy from our culture.
"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
Because Palin was a soundbite politician. She had an open distaste for carefully considering all sides of an issue, favoring the use of quick slogans ('Drill Baby Drill') to win over the unthinking. It's always hard to tell a politicians image from reality - behind closed doors she could have been a genius in all things - but the image she carefully projected was of the quick-thinking renegade who didn't have the time to actually read any reports or listen to advisers, but instead promised she could run a country on gut instinct and American luck.
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
Yeah, because the GOP has proven that once in power, they govern for the benefit of all, compromise with minority positions, and pursue policies that balance the interests of capital and labor.
Oh that's right, they nominate telegenic yes-men who rubber stamp a pre-existing agenda that inflames international tensions and entrenches white, christian, business owners disproportionately into positions of power.
Unless you do some research on your own and look at her very real track record of reform in Alaska, then yes she is only a soundbite politician.
It would be more accurate to say she was a working class mother who ran for office and made changes to a state rife with cronyism. Unless you do some research on your own and look at her very real track record of reform in Alaska, then yes she is only a soundbite politician.
She is / was a working class mother who ran for office and made changes to a state rife with cronyism.
But she didn't have the right pedigree, and she had that funny accent, and she presented a threat to the status que, so she had to be portrayed as a caricature that the left felt politically correct to destroy.
Some people bought into the program. 'the image she carefully projected was of the quick-thinking renegade who didn't have the time to actually read any reports or listen to advisers, but instead promised she could run a country on gut instinct and American luck'
It's no wonder we have the Tea Party, and this year (if the IRS is held in check) things will start to change.
Ask yourself this, what is the accepted image of the Tea Party as put forth by the media? Why is that?
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback
Really? You (schwit1) must be disappointed on a regular basis.
Sorry, even if Obama really wanted to change things, he's still an elected. The bureaucracy marches on and very rarely cares about the comings and goings of temporary staff, even if they are the boss.
Then I see the kids who are put into the foster care system and see how fucked up they become. Only White babies get a chance at a loving home - and even then - if they have developmental problems, all bets are off (You WILL see them on death row.).
I am troubled.
So full of it more likely. I had a very good friend take a crack baby into her home for foster care and fought in the courts for four years before they would finally release the child to her for adoption. Mother completely abandoned her. Father serving a life sentence for multiple murders. But the state felt they were doing her an injustice allowing a white woman to adopt a black child. That little girl is doing great now and will get a free ride at her mother's college because of employment.
But it's much easier to bitch about (insert rant about races here) apparently than actually do something.
Because Palin was a soundbite politician.
Which politician ISN'T after the soundbite? With the media today, it's ALL about the soundbite, because they refuse to actually spend 5 min explaining what the real positions are. It takes too much time and doesn't sell advertisements.
But I have a few sound bites for you to classify... "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period." "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." "not even a smidgen of corruption" "What difference does it make" or to include the original article, "the most transparent administration in history."
Palin wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but we would have been worlds better off with that administration over what we got and the headlong rush into partisan bickering that ensued.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Is anything critical of this administration right wing or are they so wonderful in their totality that they are like pony, butterfly farts? Anytime something is posted that is published you proglocrats look like a bunch shambling, drooling zombies. Wake up, you got snookered, get over it and open your eyes. This guy is the worst president every and you fucks need to own it and fix it...
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
serve : v to rule "I'd like to thank Senator Linepockets for his many decades serving us."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"Yes we can," "Change we can believe in," "Common sense gun laws," "Most transparent administration"
a law that would simply require the president to obey the law!
When the executive is subject to the law, you have a democracy or a republic
When the exectuive is able to write or change the law, you have monarchy and tyranny
I never thought the Democrats would be able to out-evil themselves in Presidents - their guy, Woodrow Wilson, was my previous bet for the absolute worst as he, among other things, segregated the US government by race (that's right, if you were educated by unionized school teachers (Democrat activists) you probably thought the US was ALWAYS segregated by race and that this ended with the civil rights act under Johnson in the 1960's). Black Amercians were always free in the northern colonies and they even participated in the Revolutionary war. The southern colonies had slaves before, during, and after the Revolutionary war (until the civil war). The Constitution DID NOT count blacks as 3/5ths of a person... it counted "non-free" persons as 3/5ths (i.e. blacks in the north were always full people and only southern slaves were 3/5ths for purposes of allocating seats in congress (to prevent southern states getting so much power in congress that they could spread slavery further)). The REAL introduction of OFFICIAL race-based segregation within the US federal government was by Democrat President Woodrow Wilson. Even on his WORST day, however, Woodrow Wilson did not imagine he was above the Constitution and could write and re-write laws on his own.
you can keep your transparency