White House press corps sued for doing Obama's 'bi

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by Twisp

He isn't lying. Common sense dictates you only let essential personnel into a meeting like that. I do not recall him ever saying he would allow reporters into a high level meeting of national security importance. If he did, please let us know.

Besides that, there are 47 other nations attending this. I can imagine that they would not want reporters there, as well.

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we?

Dude, that came from the Washington Post.

the Post isnt exactly World Net Daily...

[Ferd]

WeHii is a liar. a big fat liar.

I knew he would be because dems said that bush was a liar and what ever they say about the other guys is what they are about to do.


WeHii said he would be transparent. said he would put negotiations on CSPAN.

what we got was back room deals and big payouts and special jobs for brothers.

Liar is too nice a word.

Plutarc was right. Those who do not get involved in politics will be governed by thier inferiors.

[Twisp]

Originally Posted by BeenThinkin

I'll see if I can get the news media to send you your own special reports. Of course you would argue with them. If you don't have time to listen to the news I don't have time to relay it to you. Do your own research. I know what it said and I listen daily!

For you to act like there has not been any isolation by Obama is ridiculous and I won't waste my time sending you links! Have a good day!

BT

I watch the media. I read numerous sites online. I have not heard of what you are talking about. Since you can't provide links to them, I assume you have not either.

[Twisp]

Originally Posted by Ferd

Dude, that came from the Washington Post.

the Post isnt exactly World Net Daily...

lol, good point. That is true.

I still say that this doesn't make him a liar. It makes sense to me that reporters would not be allowed in this meeting. Obama has been transparent on a lot of other issues/meetings.

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by Twisp

I watch the media. I read numerous sites online. I have not heard of what you are talking about. Since you can't provide links to them, I assume you have not either.

Twisp, did you ever hear of the AP - Associated Press?

Monday, December 07, 2009

AP blasts Obama's lack of transparency

Are the media waking up to this administration's duplicity?

It's hardly the image of transparency the Obama administration wants to project: A workshop on government openness is closed to the public.

The event Monday for federal employees is a fitting symbol of President Barack Obama's uneven record so far on the Freedom of Information Act, a big part of keeping his campaign promise to make his administration the most transparent ever. As Obama's first year in office ends, the government's actions when the public and press seek information are not yet matching up with the president's words.

"The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails," Obama told government offices on his first full day as president. "The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears."

Obama scored points on his pledge by requiring the release of detailed information about $787 billion in economic stimulus spending. It's now available on a Web site, http://www.recovery.gov. Other notable disclosures include waivers that the White House has granted from Obama's conflict-of-interest rules and reports detailing Obama's and top appointees' personal finances.

Yet on some important issues, his administration produced information only after government watchdogs and reporters spent weeks or months pressing, in some cases suing.

Those include what cars people were buying using the $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program (it turned out the most frequent trades involved pickups for pickups with only slightly better gas mileage); how many times airplanes have collided with birds (a lot); whether lobbyists and donors meet with the Obama White House (they do); rules about the interrogation of terror suspects (the FBI and CIA disagreed over what was permitted); and who was speaking in private with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (he has close relationships with a cadre of Wall Street executives whose multibillion-dollar companies survived the economic crisis with his help).

The administration has refused to turn over important records. Obama signed a law that let the Pentagon refuse to release photographs showing U.S. troops abusing detainees, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates then did so. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, has refused to release details about the CIA's "black site" rendition program. The Federal Aviation Administration wouldn't turn over letters and e-mails among FAA officials about reporters' efforts to learn more about planes that crash into birds.

Just last week, a State Department deputy assistant secretary, Llewellyn Hedgbeth, said at a public conference that "as much as we want to promote transparency," her agency will work just as hard to protect classified materials or information that would put the United States in a bad light.

People who routinely request government records said they don't see much progress on Obama's transparency pledge.

"It's either smoke and mirrors or it was done for the media," said Jeff Stachewicz, founder of Washington-based FOIA Group Inc., which files hundreds of requests every month across the government on behalf of companies, law firms and news organizations. "This administration, when it wants something done, there are no excuses. You just don't see a big movement toward transparency."

Those with any sense of decency, any sense of moral rightness, any common sense, will see this administration for what it is... and the fact that the AP is doing so, finally, is truly heartening.

What many of us have known since the campaign last year is becoming known by more and more as each day passes.

We're led by radical cadre of hard core leftists hell bent on changing this country not for the good but for the furtherence of their agenda using every means possible but especially duplicitousness and deception.

Hats off to the Associated Press for a refreshing piece of reporting.

BT

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by Twisp

I watch the media. I read numerous sites online. I have not heard of what you are talking about. Since you can't provide links to them, I assume you have not either.

Try this Twisp....

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...re-was-mistake

BT

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by BeenThinkin

Try this Twisp....

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...re-was-mistake

BT

Again Twisp!

Obama Says Lack of Transparency on Health Reform Was a 'Mistake'
POSTED: 01/26/10

In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer on Monday, President Obama said he regretted not making Congress' drafting of the health care reform bills more accessible to the public. Calling the murkiness of the health reform proceedings a "mistake," Obama partially admitted to the charge many supporters of the bill have leveled against him since the Republicans won a decisive Senate victory last week: that he has failed to solidify Americans' confidence in health reform.

"We had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after a while, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right," Obama said. "But I had campaigned on process -- part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up, transparency. . . . The health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don't know what's going on."

Obama said that since some of the key negotiations over the health reform bill have happened behind closed doors, the electorate has focused on the fact that they involved "backroom deals." But even while accepting responsibility for the fact that Americans do not understand the health care bill, he defended his administration's transparency.

"I think it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency, we've executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Obama said. "I mean, this is the first White House in history where you know anybody who has walked into my office, anybody who has walked into the White House, you actually have a record of who comes in. We have put more stuff on the Internet than ever."

BT

[Twisp]

Originally Posted by BeenThinkin

Again Twisp!

Obama Says Lack of Transparency on Health Reform Was a 'Mistake'
POSTED: 01/26/10

In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer on Monday, President Obama said he regretted not making Congress' drafting of the health care reform bills more accessible to the public. Calling the murkiness of the health reform proceedings a "mistake," Obama partially admitted to the charge many supporters of the bill have leveled against him since the Republicans won a decisive Senate victory last week: that he has failed to solidify Americans' confidence in health reform.

"We had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after a while, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right," Obama said. "But I had campaigned on process -- part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up, transparency. . . . The health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don't know what's going on."

Obama said that since some of the key negotiations over the health reform bill have happened behind closed doors, the electorate has focused on the fact that they involved "backroom deals." But even while accepting responsibility for the fact that Americans do not understand the health care bill, he defended his administration's transparency.

"I think it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency, we've executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Obama said. "I mean, this is the first White House in history where you know anybody who has walked into my office, anybody who has walked into the White House, you actually have a record of who comes in. We have put more stuff on the Internet than ever."

BT

Sounds to me like he made a mistake on the health care transparency issue, realized it, said it was a mistake, and apologized for it. So that is one issue. Anything else? The article you posted from the AP in Dec 2009 seemed 50/50 on transparency/non-transparency. Pretty good coming from an article with a palatable fear-mongering bias.

[Twisp]

Here is a link covering Obama's campaign promises on transparency. He seems to be doing pretty good on transparency, so far.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me.../transparency/

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by Twisp

I watch the media. I read numerous sites online. I have not heard of what you are talking about. Since you can't provide links to them, I assume you have not either.

Maybe you didn't read this, TWISP!!!!

The Washington Post

NEWS | POLITICS | OPINIONS | BUSINESS | LOCAL | SPORTS | ARTS & LIVING | GOING OUT GUIDE | JOBS | CARS | REAL ESTATE |SHOPPING


Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; A02

World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.

They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.

In the middle of it all was Obama -- occupant of an office once informally known as "leader of the free world" -- putting on a clinic for some of the world's greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.

The only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama's eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: "I'm going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session."

Reporters for foreign outlets, admitted for the first time to the White House press pool, got the impression that the vaunted American freedoms are not all they're cracked up to be.

Yasmeen Alamiri from the Saudi Press Agency got this lesson in press freedom when trying to cover Obama's opening remarks as part of that limited pool: "The foreign reporters/cameramen were escorted out in under two minutes, just as the leaders were about to begin, and Obama was going to make remarks. . . . Sorry, it is what it is."

Alamiri's counterparts from around the world wrote of similar experiences in their pool reports. Arabic-language MBC TV's Nadia Bilbassy had this to say of Obama's meeting with the Jordanian king: "We were there for around 30 seconds, not enough even to notice the color of tie of both presidents. I think blue for the king."

The Press Trust of India, at Obama's meeting with the Pakistani prime minister, reported, "In less than a minute, the pool was asked to leave." The Yomiuri Shimbun correspondent found that she was "ushered out about 30 seconds" after arriving for Obama's meeting with the Malaysian prime minister. A reporter with Turkey's TRT-Turk went to Obama's meeting with the president of Armenia, but "we had to leave the room again after less than 40 seconds."

Even the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, was more talkative with the press than Obama. Michelle Jamrisko, with Japan's Kyodo News, noted in her pool report that Hu, at his session with Obama, spoke to the Chinese media in Chinese, while Obama limited himself mostly to "say hello to the cameras" and "thank you everybody."

Obama's official schedule for Tuesday would have pleased China's Central Committee. Excerpts: "The President will attend the Heads of Delegation working lunch. This lunch is closed press. . . . The President will meet with Prime Minster Erdogan of Turkey. This meeting is closed press. . . . The President will attend Plenary Session II of the Nuclear Security Summit. This session is closed press."

Reporters, even those on the White House beat for two decades, said these were the most restricted such meetings they had ever seen. They complained to both the administration and White House Correspondents' Association, which will discuss the matter Thursday with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

The restrictions have become a common practice for the Obama White House. When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came to the White House a couple of weeks ago, reporters were kept away. Soon after that, Obama signed an executive order on abortion, again without any coverage.

Over the weekend, Obama broke with years of protocol and slipped off to a soccer game without the "protective" pool that is always in the vicinity of the president in case the unthinkable occurs. Obama joked about it later to Pakistan's prime minister, saying reporters "were very upset."

In "bilateral" meetings with foreign leaders, presidents usually take questions, or at least trade statements. But at most of Obama's, there were only written "readouts." Canada: "The president and the prime minister noted the enduring strength of our bilateral partnership." India: "The two leaders vowed to continue to strengthen the robust relationship between the people of their countries." Pakistan: "President Obama began by noting that he is very fond of Pakistan."

Finally, away from other leaders, Obama took reporters' questions for 20 minutes. They were tough and skeptical questions that punctured the banal readouts: pointing out that the nonproliferation agreements weren't binding, noting China's equivocation on sanctions against Iran, and pressing Obama on the failure to curb North Korea's weapons. The Post's Scott Wilson asked Obama if he would call on Israel, which skipped the summit, to declare its nuclear weapons.

"I'm not going to comment on their program," Obama said.

Not surprising. But it's still important that the questions are asked.

Good day! Hope you took time to read this, being as you asked for it!

BT