Why did President Obama rewrite the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America?
An April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructed the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved “White House equities.” You might rightly ask,
What the heck are White House Equities?
That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the public.A serious breach
The Greg memo is described in detail in a new study made public today by Cause of Action, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group that monitors government transparency and accountability.
How serious an attack on the public’s right to know is the Obama administration’s invention of the “White House equities” exception?
“FOIA is designed to inform the public on government behavior; White House equities allow the government to withhold information from the media, and therefore the public, by having media requests forwarded for review. This not only politicizes federal agencies, it impairs fundamental First Amendment liberties,” Cause of Action explains in its report.
Equities are everything
The equities exception is breathtaking in its breadth. As the Greg memo put it, any document request is covered, including “congressional committee requests, GAO requests, judicial subpoenas and FOIA requests.”
And it doesn’t matter what format the documents happen to be in because, according to Greg, the equities exception “applies to all documents and records, whether in oral, paper, or electronic form, that relate to communications to and from the White House, including preparations for such communications.”
Essentially, the change gives the White House effective carte-blanche to decide what information it wants to divulge and how to present it, but perhaps just as sinister, the change means FOIA deadlines are a thing of the past. Since the White House equities exception took effect, it may potentially be impossible for some requests to meet the 20-day mandatory response deadline.
Is this actually “the most transparent administration in history?”
Source: Washington Examiner
screw “king” obobo….the dictator needs to be impeached!
Obama, is at it again!
WHY WERE HIS RECORDS SEALED???????????? HIDING SOMETHING(S0?????
Dictator
Obama is the president our constitution was supposed to protect us from
Impeach
Obama is a corrupt criminal who thinks he can change any law on a whim!
THIS PRESIDENT IS TRYING HIS BEST TO DESTROY THIS COUNTRY AS WE KNOW IT. HE MUST BE STOPPED
He won’t accept responsibly ,he always blames somebody else He knows he will be challenged in the Supreme Court and probably loose, but by the time it comes up on the docket the damage will already be done and there will be no way to reverse it. Mark my word these so called crisis’s will come in rapid succession until the end of his term.
People of this great earth something needs to be shared with all of you. We are all in danger of crumbling what greatness we had at achieving marvelous feats in many areas of humanity be it from civilized acts, science, honest government, god, and anything and all thing related to our human interactions. We are going to kill each other off and destroy ourselves prematurely if this small form of guidance I am going to explain is not taken into account and at least tried it. What I have to share is based on the happenings here in the Americas, but this idea and path to a rightful world goes to all humanity and all nations for we are all a nation under one god whether that god may be or how you name him. The devil has many names and cultures have many demons and cultures have different gods, but god has many names as well and all of our interpretations of god is but one god because he fights fire with fire and also has many names. so this leads me to start with the point of the matter and that is we walk with god and do what he does and fight fire with fire. The devil sits on the throne of American Leadership and the world is filled with evil acts and hatred. What happened to the nation that was supposed to lead the world into a thrive by example. Power, money, greed, and the wicked who prosper is what happened. The testing of humanity for we did not spawn from thin air and science and god are hand in hand. People of Mexico and Central America let me approach you as a first American whom loves you. I see what is going on and it takes mere research to see what is happening. Innocent people are caught between evil acts, mutilation, poverty, etc. and a supposedly great nation that hates them. Well that is not going to help and America needs to step up in being an example of real freedom once again by setting aside the pride and understanding that it was founded on immigration. Fight Obama and the corrupt American government by playing their own game. Our president attracts those from the south with false promises like a false god does only to gain votes and assure those votes for further evil that will come after his reign is over….his presidency. Fight him at his own game. The people of America need to stop trying to follow righteous crusader-like ideologies and yet try to pick and choose which guidelines of a crusader to follow for the last, not least, and most important law of a true crusader for justice is to help the helpless and the people of Mexico and all South America are looking to us for help. Because of our new American complacency those people have no choice, but to look in a negative direction of living to merely stay alive and have bread on the table. The narcos say they help the poor as the devil helps evil prosper and that evil goes and does the devils work and aiding the innocent they too kill. I implore to the American people to help those that come from a strong background and let them feel loved by us Americans for we need them on our side to prosper and topple our tyrannical government and their horrid governments as well. We need be a nation with true crusader ideologies again. Why am I seeing and reading so much hatred on this vast web towards those in a helpless state? Why is ok for us Americans to think it is ok to have an opinion on the evil doings of evil people in parts of the world, but find it all at the same time plausible to want to shoot and murder the innocent trying to come here to break free of violence? The documentaries and documented words of the innocent are out there and they want to escape the violence as we want to escape a violence we see as possible in our own nation. I would expect that if we were in a similar situation that we would very much appreciate a helping hand. Americans this is how we do something to aid in this entire situation and that is create a larger army of ourselves based on true righteousness an, whether you believe in it or not, godly tactfulness. People of Mexico and Central and South America please forgive us Americans and may we all learn to love and prosper and work together to fight an evil that is already working together against all of us. People of America please follow this guideline. This is where we start our revolution. Setting aside the selfishness. I plead to you all to please at least attempt what it is I am telling for it is not me telling you, but something that I spent this early part of my life not believing in until now and you may still not have faith so go forth having faith in each other despite where we were born. Do this and if opposition is met than it is because it will work and if opposition is made I will reveal myself and gladly take the fall at the hands of the opposition, but continue on the path of compassion for one another. It is time we stop fighting and stop pursuing a the end of humanity. I love you all. Americans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, the oppressed in all parts of the world, the gay community, the atheist community, the scientific community, the followers of god, everyone and anyone is loved despite our living conditions for no one is better than any other. Our we ready to do the right thing finally?