Another Obama Record … In Censorship Of Government Files & Denial Of FOIA Requests

US Sets New Record For Denying, Censoring Government Files

 

 

 

” For the second consecutive year, the Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

  The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

  It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

  Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000.

  The government’s new figures, published Tuesday, covered all requests to 100 federal agencies during fiscal 2014 under the Freedom of Information law, which is heralded globally as a model for transparent government. They showed that despite disappointments and failed promises by the White House to make meaningful improvements in the way it releases records, the law was more popular than ever. Citizens, journalists, businesses and others made a record 714,231 requests for information. The U.S. spent a record $434 million trying to keep up.

  The government responded to 647,142 requests, a 4 percent decrease over the previous year. The government more than ever censored materials it turned over or fully denied access to them, in 250,581 cases or 39 percent of all requests. Sometimes, the government censored only a few words or an employee’s phone number, but other times it completely marked out nearly every paragraph on pages.”

 

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Change: Many Federal Agencies Receive “F”s On Transparency Report Cards

Federal Agencies Get Poor Marks On Sunshine Week Scorecards

 

 

 

 

 

” Despite President Obama’s pledge to run the “most transparent administration in history,” federal agencies are still struggling to meet White House benchmarks, and at least three ignored Freedom of Information Act reporting requirements, according to several recent reports released in conjunction with Sunshine Week.

  The government watchdog group Cause of Action released a Freedom of Information Act report card for 15 federal agencies that receive the bulk of all FOIA requests. Six of the 15 agencies received failing grades. Three agencies—the Departments of Education, Homeland Security and Treasury—earned “F” grades for failing to comply with the law’s annual reporting requirements.

“ Our oversight mission—which focuses on transparency, and accountability in the Federal government—depends upon agency compliance with FOIA,” Cause of Action executive director Dan Epstein said in a statement. “Based on our findings over the past three years, Cause of Action has no reason to believe that agency performance under FOIA has improved, which is simply unacceptable to taxpayers who deserve a government that operates in the open.” 

Besides FOIA compliance, agencies are also lagging in other areas. An audit by the National Security Archive released Friday found that only 40 percent of agencies have followed laws requiring them to post records released through FOIA in their electronic reading rooms.”

 

Read on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hillary Warned State Employees Against Using Private Email & Even Fired One Ambassador

Internal Cable From Clinton State Department Office Barred Use Of Personal Email

 

 

 

View this document on Scribd

 

 

 

 

” An internal 2011 State Department cable, obtained by Fox News, shows that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons — while at the same time, Clinton conducted all government business on a private account.

  Sent to diplomatic and consular staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, bearing Clinton’s electronic signature,  made clear to employees they were expected to “avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.” The message also said employees should not “auto-forward Department email to personal email accounts which is prohibited by Department policy.” “

 

 

   Not only did Hillary send out a warning to staff against using private email accounts for State Department business but in 2012 the US ambassador to Kenya , Scott Gration , was fired for doing exactly that :

 

 

” The following year, Scott Gration, then U.S. ambassador to Kenya, was forced out of office. One of the offenses cited was his continued use of a private email account in violation of State Department policy as set forth in Clinton’s cable, according to The Daily Caller. “

 

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Secretary Of State Clinton Never Had A Government Email Account

Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email At State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules

 

 

 

 

 

” Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

  Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.

  It was only two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department. Mrs. Clinton stepped down from the secretary’s post in early 2013.

  Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach.”

  How could this secretive practice in any way be acceptable in a public official ? We fail to understand how this could be conceived as anything other than a blatant attempt to control what parts of her “official” business are made available for public view .

“ I can recall no instance in my time at the National Archives when a high-ranking official at an executive branch agency solely used a personal email account for the transaction of government business,” said Mr. Baron, who worked at the agency from 2000 to 2013.

  Regulations from the National Archives and Records Administration at the time required that any emails sent or received from personal accounts be preserved as part of the agency’s records.

  But Mrs. Clinton and her aides failed to do so.

  How many emails were in Mrs. Clinton’s account is not clear, and neither is the process her advisers used to determine which ones related to her work at the State Department before turning them over.”

   No matter how one looks at it , EVERY correspondence of EVERY government official , making allowances for certain matters of national security , are PUBLIC property , generated in the public interest and paid for with public funds and thus are required to be archived and saved for future investigation . 

   How is Hillary’s staff picking and choosing exactly what correspondence the taxpayers , historians , reporters and regulators have access to any different than shredding documents or Nixon’s missing Watergate tapes ? And this woman thinks she deserves to be president . Shame , shame , shame …

   It’s not like Mrs Clinton has a stellar record of forthrightness to fall back on . As a matter of fact her past history belies exactly the opposite what with her being fired from the Watergate investigation , Travelgate , Whitewater , Rose Law firm billing records etc. On the contrary the woman is the picture of obfuscation and secrecy , much like her old boss .

Read it all at the NY Times 

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Pressure Mounts On FCC For Public Review Of Proposed “Net Neutrality” Rules

FCC Chief Pressed To Release Net Neutrality Rules

 

 

 

 

” A key Republican lawmaker in Congress called for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to make proposed net neutrality regulations public before a planned Thursday vote on the measure.

  In the latest wrinkle in the Republicans’ battle to quash Wheeler’s proposals, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who’s also the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter today to Wheeler, questioning whether the FCC has been “independent, fair and transparent” in crafting the rules to protect content on the Internet.

” Although arguably one of the most sweeping new rules in the commission’s history, the process was conducted without using many of the tools at the chairman’s disposal to ensure transparency and public review,” he said.

  Chaffetz urged Wheeler to publicly release the 332-page draft order that was given to the other four commissioners nearly three weeks ago and appear at a House Oversight hearing Wednesday before a vote at the FCC’s monthly meeting Thursday.

  Also today, FCC commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly too asked for Wheeler to release the proposal to the public and postpone the Thursday vote to allow for 30 days of public comment.”

 

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If Obama’s “Net Neutrality” Is So Good Why Can’t We See It ?

Why Can’t The Public See Obama’s Proposed Internet Regulations?

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Republican senators Mike Lee, Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul have all been high profile opponents of the Obama administrations current plan to regulate the internet — in particular, Lee has called the regulation a government “takeover” of the internet and says it amounts to a “a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on.”

  And when Lee says that the American public isn’t aware of what’s going on, that is in no way hyperbole. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has emerged as a hero for those opposed to the regulation because Pai has been taking to the airwaves decrying the fact that the public is not allowed to see 332 pages of proposed internet regulation before they are potentially passed. Pai’s crusade to make the proposed regulations public is the theme of the the latest ad from Protect Internet Freedom: ” (see above)

 

 

Thanks to Mark Hemingway and the Weekly Standard . Whatever happened to Obama’s promise of “all laws will be published on web for five days before a vote” ?

 

 

 

    Like every other promise from the most “honest , open and transparent” administration ever , it’s bull***t . For those with selective memory the video below contains all the promises on transparency and openness in one convenient location:

 

 

 

All we seem to get from this wondrous administration is lies , lies and more lies . 

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FCC Commissioner Shows Cover Of “Net Neutrality” Regulations And That’s All The Public Gets To See

Republican FCC Commissioner Slams ‘Obama’s 332-Page Plan To Regulate The Internet’

 

 

Click the pic for Mr Pai’s Twitter post and read the comments

 

 

” Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on Friday raised the first of many criticisms to come about FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s aggressive net neutrality plan distributed to commissioners Thursday, which Pai described as “President Obama’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet.”

  In a statement released Friday, Pai lamented the fact that the 332-page plan, which he tweeted a picture of himself holding next to a picture of Obama, won’t be released to the public until after the commission votes on its implementation later this month.

“ President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works,” Pai said. “The plan explicitly opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes on broadband… These new taxes will mean higher prices for consumers and more hidden fees that they have to pay.”

  In his initial cursory overview of the plan, the commissioner said it would hinder broadband investment, slow network speed and expansion, limit outgrowth to rural areas of the country and reduce Internet service provider (ISP) competition.

“ The plan saddles small, independent businesses and entrepreneurs with heavy-handed regulations that will push them out of the market,” Pai said. “As a result, Americans will have fewer broadband choices. This is no accident. Title II was designed to regulate a monopoly. If we impose that model on a vibrant broadband marketplace, a highly regulated monopoly is what we’ll get.” “

 

Daily Caller has more on the secret plans for State control of the internet 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Trey Gowdy: 47 Inspectors General Repudiate Obama Claims Of “Transparency”

47 Inspectors General Accuse Obama Administration Of Stonewalling

 

 

” Inspectors general from a variety of different government agencies have testified before the House Oversight Committee, and new Chairman Jason Chaffetz, about the lack of cooperation and transparency from high ranking officials. In this first hearing of the 114th Congress Wednesday, 47 inspectors general were present from the Department of Commerce, Defense Intelligence, the EPA, the Equal Opportunity Commission, Homeland Security, NASA, and the Peace Corps.

  Trey Gowdy was a guest on Tuesday’s edition of On The Record with Greta Van Susteren to explain that these IG’s are independent auditors who work for the taxpayers to find government waste, fraud, and abuse. Gowdy said these IG’s discovered the GSA, Fast and Furious, and IRS scandals. The Inspector General Act of 1978 states, in Section 6, that each inspector general is authorized to have access to all records, reports, documents, and materials. Gowdy said that these IG’s are not getting requested materials from the departments.

“ The administration managed to bring all those different groups together, like they have never, not brought any other groups together; and they’re all in agreement that the administration is not giving them the documents they need,” the congressman said.” 

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Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of TSA Whistleblower

Supreme Court Backs Former Air Marshal In Whistleblower Case

 

 

 

 

” The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a former air marshal can seek whistleblower protections for disclosing sensitive information to the news media about the absence of security officers on certain flights.

  On a 7-2 vote, the court rejected arguments made by President Barack Obama’s administration, which was seeking to reverse an appeals court ruling favoring whistleblower Robert MacLean, who was fired for the 2003 leak.

” I believe the ruling will give other federal employees more confidence to expose wrongdoing,” MacLean, who was fired in 2006 and now works in residential construction management in California, said in an interview.

  The legal question was whether MacLean’s actions may be protected by the U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act, a law that protects employees if a disclosure exposes unlawful conduct, gross mismanagement or threats to public safety.

  In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court concluded that U.S. Transportation Security Administration regulations that prohibited MacLean’s disclosures did not have sufficient legal force to bar him from receiving protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act.”

 

Reuters has the whole story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Courageous Canadian Student Campaigns For Budget Transparency

Olivia Dorey Wants You To Know How The Government Spends Your Money

 

 

 

” Former House of Commons page Olivia Dorey was once one of the people hand-delivering the federal budget to MPs when the finance minister rose to deliver his speech.

  That task inspired her to try to read through a budget so she knew better what it contained.

” And I couldn’t. I couldn’t find the numbers, I couldn’t make sense of what they were trying to explain … I’m used to doing my own personal budgets, and this book, this book was nothing like a budget to me,” she said in an interview in Ottawa.

  Dorey studies public administration at the University of Ottawa, and is interested in politics. But she still couldn’t figure out the budget. That experience jarred her to begin a personal mission to build a website where people could key in some basic demographic information and find out how the federal budget affected them. 

  Some of that information is available — specific funding for a hospital or transit, for example, or qualifications for Old Age Security — but much of it is simply not publicly accessible, or hard to follow after an initial announcement.

  That’s led Dorey to start lobbying MPs to build budgets differently.

” If I can’t understand public finance and find the information I need, what hope do other Canadians have understanding it?” Dorey said.

  She believes federal, provincial and municipal budgets should be clear enough that people like her grandparents in Bridgewater, N.S., who don’t have university educations, can understand them. Her campaign led her to a strong ally: former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page.

  Right now, there are several documents you have to read if you want to track a funding promise, including:

• The budget, the annual planning document for government spending.
• The estimates, which contain much more detailed information about spending.
• The supplementary estimates, the update to the estimates.
• The departmental performance reports, which recap how much was spent out of the amount budgeted, and staffing levels. “

 

Story continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pelosi: Gruber Who ?

Nancy Pelosi On Jonathan Gruber: Then And Now

 

 

 

 

 

” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a 2009 press conference, praised MIT health economist Jonathan Gruber’s work on the Affordable Care Act, advising that reporters inspect his findings on the topic.

  Today — on Nov. 13, 2014 — Pelosi told reporters that she “didn’t know who [Gruber] is,” adding that the noted economist didn’t help congressional Democrats draft the massive healthcare law.

“ I don’t know who he is. He didn’t help write our bill. And, so, with all due respect to your question, you have a person who wasn’t writing our bill, commenting on what was going on when we were writing the bill who has withdrawn – withdrawn some of the statements that he made,” the House minority leader said during a press conference Thursday.

  Pelosi’s contradictory statements come after conservative activist groups and various news outlets have uncovered past controversial comments from Gruber on the Affordable Care Act.”

 

Thanks to the Washington Examiner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Too Little – Too Late , Journalism Groups Finally Complain About Obama’s ‘Politically-Driven Suppression Of News’

Censorship: 38 Journalism Groups Slam Obama’s ‘Politically-Driven Suppression Of News’

 

 

 

 

” In unprecedented criticism of the White House, 38 journalism groups have assailed the president’s team for censoring media coverage, limiting access to top officials and overall “politically-driven suppression of the news.”

  In a letter to President Obama, the 38, led by the Society of Professional Journalists, said efforts by government officials to stifle or block coverage has grown for years and reached a high-point under his administration despite Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to provide transparency.”

 

 

   Among the “journalist’s” complaints , which we would color a fine example of “too little , too late” and for which the media have only themselves to blame are :

 

 

” • Officials blocking reporters’ requests to talk to specific staff people.

• Excessive delays in answering interview requests that stretch past reporters’ deadlines.

• Officials conveying information “on background” — refusing to give reporters what should be public information unless they agree not to say who is speaking.

• Federal agencies blackballing reporters who write critically of them.”

 

 

This might really have mattered if the entire mainstream media collective hadn’t spent the past six years making the current administration into the hive of secrecy and lies that it is and we find it exceedingly difficult to dredge up any sympathy for those responsible for foisting the most corrupt and inept presidential administration EVER on us through their clear dereliction .

    Read the rest of Paul Bedard’s piece here and try to hold back your tears for the lowly media hacks that have allowed themselves to be trivialized into a position of nothing more than whiny spectators . Boo Hoo Hoo 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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RNC Files Suit Against The IRS … On Tax Day

Happy Tax Day: RNC Files Lawsuit Against IRS For ‘Illegal Stonewalling’ Of Scandal Documents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” The Republican National Committee, just in time for Tax Day, is filing a lawsuit against the IRS over what it calls “illegal stonewalling” of its request for documents related to the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. 

  The RNC called the agency’s refusal so far to produce the documents “unacceptable and inexcusable.” 

” We’re filing this suit because the Obama administration has a responsibility to be transparent and accountable to the American people. The IRS has a legal obligation to answer our inquiry for these records,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “If the IRS and the Obama administration don’t have anything to hide, why not answer the request?” “

Fox News has more

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EPA Transparency Is Non-Existent … Despite Rules To The Contrary

Time To End The ‘Secret Science’ At The EPA

 

 

 

” Here’s an interesting fact: Scientists hoping to be published in the journal Science are told in advance that they must agree to make available “all data necessary to understand and assess the conclusions of the manuscript.” The stipulation is commonplace in the scientific and academic communities, where research results must be transparent and reproducible to be credible.

  That’s supposed to be the way it is for the federal government, too. Here’s how the policy is described by the Administrative Conference of the United States: Federal officials are expected, to the maximum extent possible, to “identify and make publicly available (on the agency website or some other widely available forum) references to the scientific literature, underlying data, models, and research results that it considered. In so doing, the agency should list all information upon which it relied in reaching its conclusions, as well as any information material to the scientific analysis that it considered but upon which it ultimately did not rely.”

  Unfortunately, “secret science” is the norm at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing of a subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. As the committee’s chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, said, “Transparency and independent verification are basic tenants of science and must inform sound environmental policy. When the EPA does not follow these basic steps, it fails in its obligation to the American people and raises suspicions about whether its regulations can be justified.” “

 

   The notion of transparency in government has amounted to nothing but talk in recent years and nowhere is that more evident than in the regulatory morass that is Obama’s EPA . As the Wall Street Journal notes :

 

” The federal government has no business justifying regulations with secret information. This principle has been supported by two of the president’s own science and technology advisers, John Holdren and Deborah Swackhamer. “The data on which regulatory decisions and other decisions are based should be made available to the committee and should be made public,” said Dr. Holdren in testimony before the committee last year. Executive-branch rules dating to the Clinton administration require that federally funded research data be made publicly available, especially if it is used for regulatory purposes.”

 

   While the rules are plain enough , even for government workers to understand , transparency is difficult if not impossible to come by in the world of the EPA .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Media Icon Exposes Obama’s War On The Press

Hersh Joins Woodward On The Ramparts Of Truth

 

 

 

” Famous Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh is turning his attention to the Obama administration. He told a left-wing conference over the weekend that the administration is using the NSA on a regular basis against government officials talking to the press. “If they want to, the government is capable of tracking any of us anytime, anyplace,” he said.

Hersh claimed there have been cases of people inside an intelligence service who have talked to reporters and have been told, “We know you’ve talked to this guy such and such a day, cut it out.”

As an example of how the administration manipulates the media and the public, Hersh cited the sacking of United States Army General Stanley McChrystal for making derogatory comments about President Obama and Vice President Biden, while Director of National Intelligence James Clapper remains in his job after lying to Congress.

McChrystal was caught by journalist Michael Hastings in a Rolling Stone article “making fun of the President, making fun of [Joe] Biden, and for that, of course, McChrystal got fired,” Hersh noted. “Here comes Clapper,” he went on. “He looks [Senator Ron] Wyden (D-OR) in the eye at the famous hearing you all know about and lies through his teeth, and nothing happens to him.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Benghazi Survivors Forced Into Non-Disclosure Agreements

Congressman Says Benghazi Survivors Forced to Sign Non-Disclosure Forms

” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA,  said sources told him that survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and now the Virginia congressman is demanding to know who else was forced to sign the documents.

  “According to trusted sources that have contacted my office, many, if not all, of the survivors of the Benghazi attacks – along with others at the Department of Defense and CIA – have been asked or directed to sign additional Non-Disclosure Agreements about their involvement in the Benghazi attacks,” Wolf said on the House floor. “Some of these “new” NDAs, as they call them, I have been told, were signed as recently as this summer.” ”

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Benghazi Survivors Forced Into Non-Disclosure

Congressman Says Benghazi Survivors Forced to Sign Non-Disclosure Forms

” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA,  said sources told him that survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and now the Virginia congressman is demanding to know who else was forced to sign the documents.

  “According to trusted sources that have contacted my office, many, if not all, of the survivors of the Benghazi attacks – along with others at the Department of Defense and CIA – have been asked or directed to sign additional Non-Disclosure Agreements about their involvement in the Benghazi attacks,” Wolf said on the House floor. “Some of these “new” NDAs, as they call them, I have been told, were signed as recently as this summer.” ”

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Apparently “Richard Windsor” Has Lots Of Company … Secret Government Email Accounts Abound

 

Emails Of Top Obama Appointees Remain A Mystery

 

 

 

” Some of President Barack Obama’s political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages, according to a review by The Associated Press.

The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery: Most U.S. agencies have failed to turn over lists of political appointees’ email addresses, which the AP sought under the Freedom of Information Act more than three months ago. The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay more than $1 million for its email addresses.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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State-Level Nonprofits, Super PACs Fly Under The Radar

Lax State Rules Provide Cover For Sponsors Of Attack Ads

 

 

 

” While much criticism has been lobbed at the federal system for failing to adequately identify who is spending money to influence campaigns, 35 states have independent spending disclosure laws that are less stringent than federal election law.

In fact, in 30 states it’s impossible to total how much money outside groups are spending on campaigns, information that is mostly available when it comes to federal contests.

That’s according to a new 50-state analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which graded the states on disclosure requirements for super PACs, nonprofits and other outside spending groups.”

 

 

    To see in detail how your state ranks in the battle against soft money click Report Card .

 

 

Report Card

” The National Institute on Money In State Politics graded each state by the strength of their independent spending disclosure laws through April 2013. It looked at:

• Does the state require reporting of independent expenditures, political spending that urges voters to support or oppose a candidate but is not coordinated with the campaign?
• Does the state require reporting of the target, the identity of the candidate who is the subject of the independent spending?
• Does the state require reporting of position, whether the spending supports or opposes the target
• How does the state monitor “electioneering communications” — advertising that airs close to an election that names a candidate but does not urge viewers to vote for or against the candidate?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Amnesty Crowd Is About To F**K The People Once More

REPORT: ‘GANG OF EIGHT’ TO OPPOSE AMENDMENTS TO THEIR IMMIGRATION BILL

 

 

 

” In response to Nakamura’s article on Monday, Gang of Eight member Sen. Marco Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant told Breitbart News that his description of the process being worked on is not correct. “The legislation that the eight senators are working on is only the start of the process; we expect several committee hearings, a full debate, and an open process for other senators to offer amendments,” Conant said. “It’s premature to speculate about what sort of amendments might be offered, but if another senator offers an amendment that improves the legislation consistent with the principles Senator Rubio has outlined, then I would expect members of the group of eight to support it.”

But Rubio’s words are unlikely to do much to assuage the concerns of conservative Republicans in Congress, especially as fellow Gang of Eight member New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Pat Leahy, and other Democrats appear poised to rush whatever bill the bipartisan group comes up with through as fast as they can once the legislative text is presented.

Nakamura notes the bill is expected to be around 1,500 pages long, and that the Gang of Eight “is trying to strike a deal in which all the members agree to oppose any amendments to the core provisions, even if they might agree with the amendments, people familiar with the talks said.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Report: Gang Of 8 Plan To Imitate Obama On Obamacare By Jamming 1,500 Page Bill Down Americans’ Throats Quickly And With No Changes (patdollard.com)
• “Gang of eight” hoping for immigration bill this week, Schumer says (cbsnews.com)
• Republicans Accuse Colleagues of ‘Secretly’ Drafting Immigration Bill (foxnews.com)
• Is the GOP setting Chuck Schumer up as the fall guy if Marco Rubio pulls out of immigration reform? (dailykos.com)
• Rubio, Graham Pump the Breaks on Immigration Reform Deal (21border.com)
• Deal or No Deal, Rubio Wants More Immigration Hearings (rollcall.com)

 

 

 

 

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Transparency …

US Citing Security To Censor More Public Records

 

 

 

” WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. government, led by the Pentagon and CIA, censored or withheld for reasons of national security the files that the public requested last year under the Freedom of Information Act more often than at any time since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press.

The AP’s analysis showed the government released all or portions of the information that citizens, journalists, businesses and others sought at about the same rate as the previous three years. It turned over all or parts of the records in about 65 percent of requests. It fully rejected more than one-third of requests, a slight increase over 2011, including cases when it couldn’t find records, a person refused to pay for copies or the request was determined to be improper.

The administration cited exceptions built into the law to avoid turning over materials more than 479,000 times, a roughly 22 percent increase over the previous year. In many cases, more than one of the law’s exceptions was cited in each request for information.

In a year of intense public interest over deadly U.S. drones, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, terror threats and more, the government cited national security to withhold information at least 5,223 times – a jump over 4,243 such cases in 2011 and 3,805 cases in Obama’s first year in office. The secretive CIA last year became even more secretive: Nearly 60 percent of 3,586 requests for files were withheld or censored for that reason last year, compared with 49 percent a year earlier.

Other federal agencies that invoked the national security exception included the Pentagon, Director of National Intelligence, NASA, Office of Management and Budget, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Communications Commission and the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.”

 

 

 

Illustration By Jeff Parker

Related articles

• US citing security to censor more public records (modbee.com)
• Analysis: US cites security to censor public records (foxnews.com)
• Feds cite security to censor records (wcpo.com)
• Report Finds Obama Still Secretive Despite Transparency Vow (hispanicbusiness.com)

 

 

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Transparency … Drone Data Down The Memory Hole

 

AIR FORCE ERASES DRONE STRIKE DATA

 

 

” (Foreign Policy) – Quietly and without much notice, the Air Force has reversed its policy of publishing statistics on drone strikes in Afghanistan as the debate about drone warfare hits a fever pitch in Washington. In addition, it has erased previously published drone strike statistics from its website.”

 

Related articles

• AF Removes RPA Airstrike Number From Summary (huffingtonpost.com)
• Air Force Erases Drone Strike Data Amid Criticisms (patdollard.com)
• Did Rand Paul Scare the Air Force into Erasing Drone Strike Data? (freedomoutpost.com)
• US Air Force scrubs drone strike data from reports (rt.com)
• AF removes drone-strike number from summary (wnd.com)
• US Air Force scrubs drone strike data from reports (hangthebankers.com)

 

 

 

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Obama Lies Compilation

 Change You Can Believe In

What Do You Know , More “Richard Windsors” At EPA

 

Another Top EPA Official Caught Using Private Email Account

 

 

 

 

” Emails released by the Environmental Protection Agency show that acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe used a private email account to conduct official business, which violates EPA policy and has raised questions about whether he was trying to shield communications from public disclosure.

The emails show that Perciasepe was using a non-official “perciasepe.org” email account to conduct official business — the second high-ranking to be caught doing so this year.

Last month, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported that EPA Region 8 Administrator James Martin had used his private “me.com” email account to correspond with environmental activists. Following this report, Republicans Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana and Rep. Darrell Issa of California opened up an investigation into Martin’s email activity, arguing that the official may be trying to skirt federal transparency laws.”

 

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