So Much for ‘Transparency’

On 22 September 2008, candidate Bamster promised that we would have 5 days to examine bills in public before they were signed.

When there’s a bill that ends up on my desk, as President, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.

He also promised accountability.

21 January 2009
The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is to make it transparent so the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they’re being made, and whether their interests are being well served.
….For a long time now there’s been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over.

So much for transparency.

White House officials and Senate Democrats are meeting in private to iron out differences on a healthcare overhaul that could affect every American. In public, they’re united by a common enemy: the health insurance industry.

The inside game and the outside game are intersecting on Capitol Hill, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid testifying at a public hearing in favor of revoking health insurers’ antitrust exemption — then huddling behind closed doors with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and committee chairmen to finalize the bill.

With negotiations set to continue through the week, some Democrats were hoping that health insurers had actually done the overhaul drive a favor by going on the attack in recent days with two reports slamming health legislation in the Senate.
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/us_health_care_overhaul/2009/10/15/272483.html

And so much for accountability.

The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama’s health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot — particularly in light of ABC’s health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.

The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/27/abc-nbc-refuse-air-advertisement-critical-obamas-health-care-plan/

Fox News is the only broadcast media that questions and scrutinizes Obama’s hypocrisy, socialist agenda, and radical friends and appointees, to any extent.  Unlike the rest of the MSM conglomerate, they refuse to be his lapdog. That’s why the White House has its panties in a wad over the criticism.

Calling Fox News “a wing of the Republican Party,” the Obama administration on Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization. 

“What I think is fair to say about Fox — and certainly it’s the way we view it — is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party,” said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. “They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is.” 

Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett. 

“It’s astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming,” Clemente said. “It seems self-serving on their part.” 

In recent weeks, the White House has begun using its government blog to directly attack what it called “Fox lies.” David Gergen, who has worked for President Bill Clinton and three Republican presidents, questioned the propriety of the White House declaring war on a news organization. 
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/12/white-house-escalates-war-words-fox-news/

The White House has gone on the offensive against its critics in the press, singling out Fox News and going so far as to accuse the News Corp.-owned network of waging a “war against Barack Obama”.

……a blog post on WhiteHouse.gov in which the White House denounced what it called “Fox lies” and “an attempt to smear the administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States”.

The White House blog singled out Glenn Beck, a conservative talk show host on Fox, for criticism, saying his program “has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.”

Beck has been a relentless critic of the Obama administration and labelled the president a “racist” in a July appearance on another Fox program.

“This guy is, I believe, a racist,” Beck said, adding that Obama, America’s first black president, has a “deep-seated hatred for white people”.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said the White House may be lashing out at Fox “because the Democratic base is starting to be more critical of Obama.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6311216/White-House-accuses-Fox-News-of-waging-war-against-Barack-Obama.html

Glenn Beck dissects Obama’s administration night after night. He asks tough, pointed questions that the White House refuses to answer. Nothing on his program is fabricated. He shows transcripts, videos, and documentation of every single criticism he makes. He’s thorough and does his research. 

Obama deserves every bit of cross examination he gets.  He’s a dangerous, stupid man who has no business being in charge of a democratic republic. His words, deeds, associations, and policies, are indicative of a nihilist who cannot stand disagreement or those who won’t conform to his edicts.

As further proof of what belies the “transparency” claim, the Democrat Cabal is drafting their own healthcare bill behind closed doors, without opposition, dissent, or debate. The American people have been shut out of the process by frightened lawmakers who don’t like to be confronted by their constituents over bad legislation.

The best disinfectant is sunlight. Get used to it, Obama.