POLITICAL GLAUCOMA: Or how I stopped worrying and learned how to give up on waiting for Obama’s TRANSPARENCY PROMISE
That cartoon bubble above Obama’s head now reads … “I HOPE you’ll understand, I CHANGED my mind.”
Obama’s Transparency Promise: We’re Still Waiting
David L. Sobel | Electronic Frontier Foundation
When President Obama – in one of his first official acts – committed his new administration to an “unprecedented” level of transparency, EFF applauded the change in policy. Likewise, when Attorney General Holder, at the President’s direction, issued new guidelines liberalizing agency implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we welcomed it as a “particularly promising development.” But we also noted that it remained to be seen whether reality would match the rhetoric as the new policy was applied, particularly in the context of pending lawsuits – several of which EFF is pursuing – that challenge Bush-era decisions to withhold requested information.
Unfortunately, the early indicators are not encouraging.
Since this is unlikely to CHANGE any time soon, there’s no need to HOPE that things will get better. Y’all should probably put this on your, “Move along people, there’s nothing happening here” list. That’s what President Obama did with all his past affiliations.
Tags: EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of Information Act, Political accountability, Transparency promise
