Averse to Sunlight

What a difference a month's sabbatical can make; unfortunately, the US political and economic scene--they are increasingly the same item--have changed little.  There is a timeline that deserves discussion; it is O-buma's MUTHA, or Most Transparent Administration in History, now that the prevaricator-in-chief has finally gone belly up on the issue of honesty.

This 2007 article from Reason magazine reveals that then presidential candidate Barack O-bufoona signed The Oath of Presidential Transparency.  In this oath he pledges to conduct the "Most Transparent Administration in history...[signaling] that whether it's earmarks, directives, or ongoing management of taxpayer expenditures, the goal of transparency will be evident through all policy making aspects of" his administration.

In another part of this oath, The Bum agreed to "full and robust implementation of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act," promising to create a "free and fully searchable website that will list every recipient of every federal award."  This was due to be completed by January 1, 2008, but--gosh, what a shock--it has yet to be completed, even though the bill authorizing the FFATA was co-sponsored by O-buma.

The Empty Suit claimed that every "American has the right to know how the government spends their tax dollars" and "ensure that our government is transparent and accountable to the American people."  Odd, is it not, that there has been so little national mainstream media coverage of the O-bomunist being hoist by his own petard?

Now, let's fast forward past O-buma and his lackeys' weaseling WelfareHealthCare past Congress with legislative sleight of hand, stonewalling press coverage of his feckless and tardy response to the Gulf oil disaster, refusal to create a budget for 2011 outlining the Theftocrats' plans for more theft-and-spend attacks on the economy, resolute refusal to enforce immigration laws in order to import millions of welfare recipients, back room dealings with Joe Sestak, the New Black Panther Party, public and private sector unions, clandestine coffee shop meetings with lobbyists, blocking access to White House logs, and devious schemes to nationalize the US economy through bailouts, stimulus programs, and health care.  How very transparent of you Brick-a-Brack O-buma.

This article reveals that the shadow president shuffled his ethics czar Norm Eisen off to the Czech Republic far away from US media access.  He was replaced with one of Chief of Staff Rham Emmanuel's ideological twins, another of the administration's "cutthroat Chicago political fixers," Bob Bauer.  Bauer has been outed by the Sunlight Foundation as someone who shows "disdain for openness and far greater belief in the good intentions of those in power than those trying to check the powerful."

In it, the article chronicles 15 examples starting February, 2009, to May, 2010, of O-buma's lies concerning transparency.  Now, the O-bumunistas have finally, through Bauer, closed the "curtain on transparency." He has shown that he "is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians."  Bauer is described as a partisan advocate who defended Rham "Emmanuel's offer of a job to Joe Sestak" to get him to drop out of a Senate race in favor of turncoat and party hack Arlen Specter.

It is revealing that O-buma's point man on transparency and ethics asserts derisively that "disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned."  The ethics czar questions the ethics of disclosure, presumably in favor of shady back door deals with corrupt lobby group representatives.  Yuck!  Bauer crows that government regulations concerning political contributions and lobbying can be circumvented, that "it will be done in other ways [by those] who are professionally creative, the money will find an outlet."  Yes, it will as long as the fox continues to guard the hen house.

May your gods be with you.