TheAgitator.com
Stuff You Can’t Make Up
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009The Obama administration is sponsoring a workshop on government transparency . . . that will be closed to the public.
Obama has approved startup money for a new office taking part in Monday’s closed conference, the Office of Government Information Services. It was created to resolve disputes involving people who ask for records and government agencies. But as evidenced by the open-records event behind closed doors, there is a long way to go.“We’d like to know, when they’re training agencies, are they telling them the same thing they’re saying in public, that they’re committed to making the Freedom of Information Act work well and make sure that agencies are releasing information whenever possible while protecting important issues like individual privacy and national security,” said Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, of which The Associated Press is a member.
The closed conference will provide tips for FOIA public liaisons on communicating and negotiating with people who make requests, and introduce the new Office of Government Information Services to them, said Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy, which takes the lead on government openness issues.
Pustay said she planned to say the same things at the private workshop that she would say publicly. She offered these reasons to explain why it was closed: She wanted government employees to be able to speak candidly, and the conference would be in an auditorium at the Commerce Department, where she said a government ID was required to be admitted. The AP and other news organizations routinely enter government buildings to cover the government.
Pustay said she is looking for ways to improve how the government responds to information requests, which costs roughly $400 million each year.
The director of the new Office of Government Information Services, Miriam Nisbet, said the event was closed to make sure there would be room for all the government employees attending.
“I can understand skepticism anytime a meeting for government people is not necessarily open to the public,” Nisbet said. “However, everything that is discussed there is absolutely available for the public to know about.”
Well played, Mr. Obama. Well played. I obviously underestimated the size of your nuggets.
In order to read my comment, you must file a FOIA request.
I do think there’s some merit in making sure that government employees feel comfortable speaking out about issues they are having with transparency. As anyone who reads this site knows, many if not most government agents feel very little obligation to do anything in the public eye, or to turn over any records they happen to not feel like turning over. To correct this attitude and clear up any misconcpetions about what has to and doesn’t have to be turned over it is likely helpful to hear from those people who have such poor attitudes or are otherwise confused. Some press-friendly conference where everyone sits around and goes “well of course I will release that, people have a right to know” will reek of total bullshit and we’d be right to call Obama out on that for conducting some bullshit transparency “play” as though his administration is not arguably the 2nd-least transparent administration in history.
Having said all that, any criticism directed at Obama for all of this is totally legitimate, especially given his horrific track record as …. arguably the 2nd-least transparent administration in history.
The height of hilarity!!
“However, everything that is discussed there is absolutely available for the public to know about.”
Of course. Just file a FOIA request.
They could always record the session and release it later.
Won’t happen!
Hidden cameras discovered an in-depth discussion on the construction of a memory hole. As a demonstration, the blueprints of this device were placed inside said hole.
it’s funny. kinda.
You’re looking at it all wrong. A workshop on transparency is conducted in the exact same manner as a workshop on sexual harassment.
** sarcasm warning **
it is a shame that we haven’t invented a device that could capture images of the event and broadcast them to people outside the building. or maybe even better, if only we had invented a device, that could record, in text format, all the words that were said during the conference. something like that would be really useful, as the names of the speakers could be redacted, thereby providing the ability to “speak freely”.
if only. that would be great. perhaps we could establish a super-secret panel to study it.
Damn, and I was so relieved when I heard how dedicated Obama was to open government and how important he thinks it is for a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” to make sure those people are fully informed. I was thrilled to think that, for once, we had a head of state who really planned to aggressively apply the same technology to government information that already brings almost all other knowledge into our very living rooms. I had an image of a new paradigm wherein all government agencies ask not if something needs to be made available to the public, but immediately makes almost all information available as a matter of standard procedure, making the majority of FOIA requests unnecessary. I was anticipating the day when all government information was easily searched as we’ve been doing for years in the non-government world. I was ecstatic to know that someone finally recognized that doing this was not a special public service, but actually a basic obligation that any government with integrity and a sense of responsibility would have been doing all along.
Then I woke up.
They need to keep it closed so that employees will be free to speak? If govt employees were so quiet, where do all the leaks come from?
Why not just have the Ministry of Truth process all FOIA requests?
At a price of $5 per page, everything redacted, request fulfilled 1 year later after lengthy court battles, and with no way of knowing that the info you get is even close to accurate data. Let it be open to the public and be filmed, it’s taxpayer money funding it.
Radley, you Republican shill!!! Sheesh!
I think Douglas Adams had it best. It involves burying in a peat bog, too.
Obama pledges more openness: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/08/open-government-directive_n_384018.html
#13 You’re under the impression that they don’t?
Pustay said she is looking for ways to “improve” how the government responds to information requests, which costs roughly $400 million each year.
+++++++++++
Now why in the world would she want to do that?
How do you pronounce *Pustay* anyway?
Everyday I’m both gladdened and worried that I read 1984.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Sons and Daughters of Liberty,
There are only two types of human beings.
One type just wants everyone to leave everyone else alone and these humans are students and advocates of the Philosophically Mature Non-Aggression Principle.
The other type refuses to leave others alone and these humans are the Mobocracy Looter Minions with their hords of bureaucrats, jackboots, and mercenaries that perpetuate the perpetration of the loot and booty gravy-train. Rob-peter-to-buy-paul’s-vote bread and circuses of the doomed Amerikan Empire.
You are either the one…or the other.
The John Galt Solution of Starving The Monkeys is the only solution. Stop funding and forging your own chains and shackles. What are you leaving for your children, grandchildren, and humanity!?!
The Mobocracy Looter Minions must be allowed to consume everything around them, then each other, and finally themselves. There is no other way. Ayn Rand wrote about it over fifty years ago and it rings as soundly today as it did then.
Get your copy of Starving The Monkeys by Tom Baugh today, before the book is banned and the author is hunted down and Vince Fostered!
Sincerely,
John and Dagny Galt
Atlas Shrugged, Owner’s Manual For The Universe!(tm)
http://www.starvingthemonkeys.com/
http://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/introduction.php
http://marcstevens.net/
http://www.freedomainradio.com/
.
Seriously, is really that shocking!! What else was expected from Obama and his army!!