It may seem like a cheap prank but the Obama administration, which
has proven to be among the most secretive, has actually issued its
second “Open Government National Action Plan” that promises to build on (delusional) “past successes.”
Even the president’s many friends and supporters in the mainstream media have conceded that government secrecy has actually increased significantly since
he moved into the White House, despite promises of an “unprecedented
level of openness in government.” Instead, federal agencies have found
creative excuses to keep an alarming number of public records secret,
according to an analysis conducted several years ago by a national news
organization.
The problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to a
number of reports and probes. Just a few months ago a national news
conglomerate reported that the administration even uses covert government accounts to
keep electronic mail from becoming public. When the news outlet tried
accessing records of the illegal secret accounts, one federal agency,
the Department of Labor (DOL) tried collecting north of $1 million for
its list of email addresses by claiming it had to pay 50 people to work
three weeks retrieving the records.
Judicial Watch encounters these sorts of obstacles regularly in its
never-ending work exposing government corruption, which goes hand in
hand with secrecy and often forces litigation. The Obama administration
has kept JW quite busy and in court often. How bad is the problem? A few
years ago JW President Tom Fitton told Congress how,
under Obama, government agencies have actually created additional
hurdles and stonewalled even the most basic Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) requests. “The Bush administration was tough and tricky, but the
Obama administration is tougher and trickier,” Fitton told lawmakers.
Fitton testified before the House and Senate during “Sunshine Week,” a
national initiative by the news media, nonprofits and other
organizations to promote government transparency.
The administration’s new action plan is a sequel to a 2011 initiative
that it claims set “26 commitments” that have already “increased public
integrity, enhanced public access to information, improved management
of public resources and given the public a more active voice in the U.S.
Government’s policymaking process.” The new model will ambitiously
modernize the administration of FOIA and significantly expand open data
initiatives across the federal government to increase transparency.
This is laughable considering the administration’s history of secrecy without accountability.
(Click link below to read more)
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About Me

- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
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