White House Office Exempts Itself from Freedom of Information Regulations

 Bizpac

The self-proclaimed most transparent administration ever has taken another step to make itself less transparent.

USA Today reported Monday that the White House is removing regulations that subject its Office of Administration to Freedom of Information Act requests. The announcement came on National Freedom of Information Day, the day after the beginning of “Sunshine Week,” a seven-day period that celebrates open government and freedom of information.  The White House claims the move is consistent with court decisions proclaiming the office is not required to obey the transparency law. Critics aren’t buying it.

“The irony of this being Sunshine Week is not lost on me,” Anne Weismann from the liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Monday.

“It is completely out of step with the president’s supposed commitment to transparency,” she added. “That is a critical office, especially if you want to know, for example, how the White House is dealing with email.”

Other White House offices have always been exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, according to USA Today. But the Office of Administration — which handles record-keeping duties such as archiving emails — was always considered under the law.  That’s ending in the sixth year of the Obama administration.

“This is an office that operated under the FOIA for 30 years, and when it became politically inconvenient, they decided they weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act any more,” Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch said.  In a notice set to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register, the White House announced the Office of Administration is no longer complying with FOIA requests based on “well-settled legal interpretations.”

“You have a president who comes in and says, I’m committed to transparency and agencies should make discretionary disclosures whenever possible, but he’s not applying that to his own White House,” Weismann told USA Today.

The White House said it will not allow a 30-day public comment period, making the rule final.

____________________________________

Too bad if you want to know who it was that made those ‘well-settled’ legal interpretations, because they don’t want to hear your questions or comments and now you can’t file a FOIA request to get more information. It’s done. Tick-a-lock.

Perhaps, as one commenter suggested, they are withholding information because it leads to dangerous thinking. Best just to get back to work comrades.

Gallup: Both Parties Poll Below 40 percent Favorability

In a Gallup poll released Monday, 37 percent of Americans view the Republican Party favorably and 39 percent view the Democratic Party favorably.  This is because in many respects both parties are vestiges of the 20th Century and do not reflect the the will of even the real people who make up the respective parties, never mind the people who operate outside of the parties.  

Disgruntled Republicans were the first to really break with their party. The Democrats, filled with folks who embrace a more union lockstep mentality have been slower to voice their displeasure, but even they are leaving the herd.  People are fed up. They are increasingly empowered thanks in large part to the Internet. This poll is just a blip in an ongoing American trend.

"Except for a brief spike to 51% for the Democrats after Obama was re-elected in 2012, both parties' ratings have registered below 50% since 2010. The descent to sub-40% ratings for both parties marks a new low in an already inauspicious trend...."

As far as the Democrats go, guess that Hopey Changey thing hadn't worked out so well.....

Read More 

More Nonsense From The Nutsack of Congress

DEPT. OF PEACEBUILDING?

DEMS GO NUTS ON VISIONS OF GLOBAL NIRVANA

Rep Barbra Lee ( Dimwit-CA)

By Cheryl Chumley

The latest Democratic brainstorm is a "got to see it to believe it" piece of legislation aimed at stopping wars around the world – by creating a Department of Peacebuilding.

How very forward-thinking of the left. Or perhaps, more specifically, how forward-thinking of Rep. Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who devised the piece of legislation, H.R. 1111, with the creative fortitude to begin its descriptive text with reference to our Founding Father's vision for our nation, followed closely by quotes from the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.

Only the boldest of Democrat could suggest the establishment of such a massively bureaucratic government venture by waving the very founding documents that pressed limited federal powers.

Points for Lee for the sheer impudence of it.

The cost? This bill calls for "such sums as may be necessary" for the newly created department, including what's needed for the various created offshoot offices to give out grant dollars to those schools and non-government groups desiring to be trained on all matters of peace.

The bill only has a handful of cosponsors – all Democrats, and more to truth, all the most leftist-of-left Deemocrats. And it's probably not going anywhere near the full House floor for a vote, at least while Republicans still hold the majority. But that's not really the point.

The larger issue is: Why do politicians always think they can solve all the world's problems?

Lee and her Department of Peacebuilding supporters no doubt truly believe that simply spreading the word of peace – by getting together and sitting down in a group, identifying problems, rationalizing solutions, hashing out consensus and shaking hands on an agreement – will somehow, miraculously, bring about a peaceful coexistence among all of humanity. But that's just naïve to the level of ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous; that's the mentality the Obama administration touts on all its foreign policy dealings with even those nations that want to harm the West.

It's that line of thinking that defies the truths about war and peace and the matters and motivations of human hearts. It negates the fact that true evil exists – and fails to recognize evil as the springboard for war. And it outright ignores common sense principles. In Lee's mind, and those of her cohorts, the solution to war is building a new government facility and creating a new federal bureaucracy and hiring new government workers who will talk and meet and give out taxpayer dollars so more government workers can talk and meet. 

It just doesn't make sense that making a new federal department -- and throwing money at a new government bureaucracy -- will purify the human heart to the point that worldwide peace prevails.

Editors Note: Ms. Lee represents a district that includes Berkley Ca. She graduated fron UC. Berkley in 1973 and went to work as a aid to Ron "RED" Dellums 1975, and later was elected to his seat. She is in her 9th term as a congress peoples, and has never held a public sector job. The above story should then be of no surprise....... 

Loyal Opposition and Patriotic Dissent:

"President Obama's powers never cease to amaze. He has made it suddenly fashionable to question others' patriotism for dissenting on foreign policy, and has turned the Democrats -- yes, the Democrats -- into a presidential guard who respond with unthinking fury to skepticism about their leader's claims to ever-expanding executive power. ...

"During the Bush administration, none other than Hillary Clinton angrily lamented: 'I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic.

We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.'  "We agree. The notion that Congress has a patriotic duty to be seen but not heard on Iran is absurd. But it serves at least one purpose, as it illustrates the hypocrisy of those who once proclaimed dissent to be patriotic." — The Editors, The Washington Examiner

A Good Monday Morning

Kim Jong Un To Be First World Leader Into Space

(MFNS - Pyongyang) -  Not to be out done by their Chinese neighbors, the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea announced Friday they have successfully completed it's first historic test of it's new space launch vehicle (see Video Below) that will propel the DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong -Un into orbit and space history. 

Much was made of the strange disappearance from public view by Leader Kim last year. In fact Kim was undergoing difficult and intense training at the DPRK Space Science and Appliance Repair Institute of Pyongyang. During the rigorous training, Kim was fitted with radio receivers planted directly into his brain and given a more aerodynamic hair style.  

Test will continue under the deep cover of secrecy, and no firm launch date is set.  

U.S. Intelligence had no comment on the news other then saying their satellite eves dropping had pick up a lot of giggling coming from the area of North East China. 



Video Stolen Courtesy of  The Woodsterman Cultural Observer

Obama Once Again Shows Lack Of Dignity As President

Obama Tweets ‘climate denier’ Tourney Bracket

The president would be better served leaving satirical stuff like this to experienced undignified blogger like us, and probably use his free time to attend courses on Civics, Geography and American History at his local community college or something...
Lord knows he needs it.