Guess who's blocking the release of visitors logs

[sciwizam]

Obama blocks list of visitors to White House

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

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The Obama administration is arguing that the White House visitor logs are presidential records ? not Secret Service agency records, which would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The administration ought to be able to hold secret meetings in the White House, "such as an elected official interviewing for an administration position or an ambassador coming for a discussion on issues that would affect international negotiations," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

These same arguments, made by the Bush administration, were rejected twice by a federal judge. The visitor logs are created by the Secret Service and maintained by the Secret Service, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in 2007 and again this January. CREW had requested records of visits to the Bush White House, as well as the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney, by leaders of Religious Right organizations.

I thought a thread about this would be already posted here, considering we had some good discussions here, here and here.

Repeating a popular sentiment expressed in the aforementioned threads, "What do they have to hide?"



On a serious note, it's kinda disheartening to see how much this administration's policies regarding secrecy issues parallel the previous administration. Of course, Gibbs' answer today was the policy is under review.

 

[babylon5]

Disappointing.

 

[DealMonkey]

Bush f'ing ruined it for everyone. I think it was Rove who claimed Obama would have difficulty giving up the level of executive privilege the previous administration had forged. He was right.

 

[Appledrop]

well yeah, Obama is no different or worse than Bush when it comes to corruption...
You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

 

[OCGuy]

Maybe the joos arent keeping Wright out of the WH.

 

[MovingTarget]

I can see not immedeately releasing such records for many reasons. I didn't hold that against Bush. However, once a reasonable amount of time has passed we the people deserve to know. The problem with this is that we must define 'reasonable'. The Energy task force meetings Cheney had weren't released in a 'reasonable' time frame by any means. Hopefully Obama sees reason here.

DealMonkey is right though. Obama, like any executive, is hesitant to give up powers he inherited in office. We'd probably still be bitching had the Republicans invoked the 'nuclear option' in the Senate over judicial nominees as the Dems would now be using that in their favor. What goes around comes around.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: Money
well yeah, Obama is no different or worse than Bush when it comes to corruption...
You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

The President is Black?

 

[Corn]

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Bush f'ing ruined it for everyone. I think it was Rove who claimed Obama would have difficulty giving up the level of executive privilege the previous administration had forged. He was right.

LOL, typical lefty logic: Its Bush's fault!

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: babylon5
Disappointing.

+1

Originally posted by: Money
well yeah, Obama is no different or worse than Bush when it comes to corruption...
You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

A guy named money lectures about corruption.

Anyway, unknown?

I guess so, other than the 2004 presidential nominee, John Kerry, selecting him to give the convention address that got massive national attention and immediate press reaction about him as a promising presidential candidate - a lot better platform than a lot of the candidates have.

Oh ya, and all the years' coverage in the meantime of him as a likely candidate.

Every presidential candidate 'has help'. Don't pretend the Republians don't have a lot more skeletons in the closet - literally (ask the Bushes about Geronimo's skull) - with their help.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Corn

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Bush f'ing ruined it for everyone. I think it was Rove who claimed Obama would have difficulty giving up the level of executive privilege the previous administration had forged. He was right.

LOL, typical lefty logic: Its Bush's fault!

lol that was fast. i evoke Bushwin's Law.

 

[her209]

I don't see any reasons why the visitor logs should be withheld other than to withhold information regarding possible Presidential nominees.

 

[MovingTarget]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Corn

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Bush f'ing ruined it for everyone. I think it was Rove who claimed Obama would have difficulty giving up the level of executive privilege the previous administration had forged. He was right.

LOL, typical lefty logic: Its Bush's fault!

lol that was fast. i evoke Bushwin's Law.

Bushwin's law? Bush wins? Damn, no wonder we lost.

 

[Drako]

Transparency we can believe in!

 

[OrByte]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Corn

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Bush f'ing ruined it for everyone. I think it was Rove who claimed Obama would have difficulty giving up the level of executive privilege the previous administration had forged. He was right.

LOL, typical lefty logic: Its Bush's fault!

lol that was fast. i evoke Bushwin's Law.

Bush grabs executive power

next president maintains power

the citizens lose

not difficult a concept to grasp.

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Money
well yeah, Obama is no different or worse than Bush when it comes to corruption...
You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

The President is Black?

yeah, as much as he is white

 

[RKDaley]

Originally posted by: Money

You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

What kind of serious 'help' are you alluding to?

 

[lupi]

I've lost count, is that 3 dozen or 4 dozen campaign promises/platforms he's up to in the broken category?

 

[JKing106]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Money
well yeah, Obama is no different or worse than Bush when it comes to corruption...
You dont think there was some serious 'help' in getting this young, quite unknown black man elected President?

The President is Black?

There goes the neighborhood. Mary, we're moving!

 

[Craig234]

If the righties who want to post on this only post if they posted against Bush doing it at the time, if I recall correctly that will mean no posts from any righty. Hypocrites.

 

[Corn]

You heard it here first folks: Is "righties" who are hypocrites, Obama gets no mention.

Lefty logic saves the day again.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Corn
You heard it here first folks: Is "righties" who are hypocrites, Obama gets no mention.

Lefty logic saves the day again.

It's Craig. Logic never enters the picture in that twisted little peabrain.

 

[shrumpage]

Because they have a hell of a lot to hide. It's their modus operandi to try to avoid any public accountability for their use of public power.

They want those they conspire with not to be identified, in this case.

 

[NeoV]

"I've lost count, is that 3 dozen or 4 dozen campaign promises/platforms he's up to in the broken category?"

So this issue of visitor logs means there have been no improvements in the 'transparency' area? It's 100% or nothing now?

 

[Corn]

NeoV gives inspiration to Obama's next campaign slogan: "If you thought Bush sucked, I suck 5 percent less."

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: Corn
NeoV gives inspiration to Obama's next campaign slogan: "If you thought Bush sucked, I suck 5 percent less."

:laugh: ...unless you count spending, socialist gov't take overs, invoking "God", etc...



*************8

I wonder if anyone ever asked 'the One' during the campaign about this issue. Probably not... but it'd be interesting to see what he said then vs now...