This is NOT the way the Freedom of Information Act is supposed to work

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072103534.html?sub=AR
AP IMPACT: A political filter for info requests

By TED BRIDIS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 21, 2010; 7:36 PM

WASHINGTON -- For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured hundreds of requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.

The department abandoned the practice after AP investigated. Inspectors from the department's Office of Inspector General quietly conducted interviews last week to determine whether political advisers acted improperly.

Please read the entire article at the link. This is not what I would have expected from The Obama Administration or Napolitano. They were clearly not following the letter, the spirit or the intent of the law. The fact that they stopped the practice after the AP looked into it is an acknowledgement of that.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/nation/la-na-ticket21-2010mar21
A little secret about Obama's transparency
The current administration, challenged by the president to be the most open,
is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than Bush did.

March 21, 2010|By Andrew Malcolm

The Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican did.

Transparency and openness were so important to the new president that on his first full day in office, he dispatched a much-publicized memo saying: "All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA."

[truebrit71]

1. Ahh..I love the smell of 'Change' in the morning...

:eyes:

Boy did we ever get sold a bill of goods..

At least with a republican in office you KNOW you are going to get fucked..with a Dem it takes a while..

[piratefish08]

2. I feel overwhelmed with all the transparency coming from Washington....

[Poll_Blind]

3. K&R, that's nasty. Using FOIA requests as indicators to snoop on the requesters...

...is something I'd expect from Bush, not Obama.

PB

[izquierdista]

4. That's what you get from an unknown

I had a hunch when this rocket started streaking skyward at the 2004 Democratic convention that all was not what it seemed. That's why I initially wanted the long term congressman who was known to be a progressive since the '70s when he was mayor of Cleveland. Seems like Sarah Palin wasn't the only candidate that was poorly vetted in the 2008 race.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Same here, except I'd still take him any day over Clinton.

That's the shitty situation I've found myself in for a while. Both the Clintons are in bed with big money. Obama isn't necessarily in bed with big money but he plays ball too frequently with the Devil for my tastes.

Shitty choice.

PB

[crikkett]

10. I wonder how many Homeland Security employees - Bush hires - were replaced

when Obama took office.

Bush created the Dept of Homeland Security, so everyone with any tenure there was a Bush admin hire.

Who stood to benefit from continued secrecy? The people who kept up the practice until AP shed light on it.

I don't blame everything on President Obama. I know the government is bigger than one man. I don't expect eight years of corruption to be dismantled in a year and a half.

[Poll_Blind]

13. +1 What you said. I think historians are going to forget that point when...

...giving an overall assessment of how "progressive" or "conservative" Obama's administration really was.

Still, nothing preventing him from gutting the place and filling it with his own people, just like Bush did.

PB

[LWolf]

5. k&r

[no limit]

6. But come on guys, atleast he sucks a bit less than the republicans do

so get out there and work your ass off for the guy.

[laughingliberal]

8. I was pleased when Obama announced more openness in relation to FOIA. This is disappointing. nt

[nashville_brook]

9. wow -- this is not expected.

[ReverendDeuce]

11. I hope that is sarcasm...

I knew we got duped within three months of the inauguration... :(

[Greyhound]

12. Not the way it's supposed to work, but inevitably how it does and will.

Regardless of who is in office, power seeks power and DHS has far too much power, much more than should ever be concentrated in one organization.
:kick: & R