Report Faults U.S.’s Efforts at Transparency

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In his first full day at the White House almost 14 months ago, President Obama declared openness and transparency to be touchstones of his administration, and he ordered federal agencies to make it easier for the public to get information on the workings of government.

Indeed, Mr. Obama’s administration has posted White House visitor logs online, it has made public the once-classified memorandums on torture policies in the George W. Bush administration, and it has developed an internal system for archiving its own unclassified e-mail messages.

But a new report released Sunday by a private research group, the National Security Archive, suggests that the results of Mr. Obama’s push for transparency have been decidedly mixed across the federal government, with progress slow and erratic.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/us/politics/15open.html

[OnyxCollie]

1. Hoperific!

[MissMarple]

2. Beautiful dog.

Oh, and I hear Obama's magick wand has gone missing. ;)

[OnyxCollie]

3. My dog found it.

[No Elephants]

4. How could anyone possibly expect them to keep their own promise of transparency?

Gee, if only there were some way--other than magick wands--for an employer with a huge staff and many agency heads to get people who work for him in the Executive Branch to do what he mandates.

But no employer is ever able to do anything that.

[No Elephants]

5. Startting off the administration by resisting FOIA requests may not have set the best

example, and there was the funny info on recovery.com. Still, --are there any more Bushies still there whom Cheney forgot to put under civil service that we can weed out and replace with honest people?


"For instance, it found that only 13 of the 90 agencies it queried appear to have taken “concrete steps” to implement the administration’s order."

13 oout of 90. 13 out of 90.

Not 13 out of 90 that have actually implemented it, mind you. Only 13 out of 90 that have at least taken concrete steps.






"More than a third of the agencies, 35 in all, said they had no internal documents showing how or whether the new Freedom of Information policies were being put into effect. Among those are three that have been at the center of public policy debates and at times have been accused of excessive secrecy: the Central Intelligence Agency, the Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission."

Well, three tough cases, to be sure. But, what about the other 32 agencies in this group of 35?


No documents whatever, but no disciplinary action?




"Seventeen federal agencies did not respond to the requests, despite a requirement that they do so within 20 business days."


So, when they failed to respond within 20 business days, no further action was taken?