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100 pages of e-mails and documents

President Obama on Thursday hailed his administration for its transparency. “This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama said during a Google Plus “Fireside” Hangout. “I can document that this is the case,” he continued. “Every visitor that comes into the White House is now part of the public record. Every law we pass and every rule we implement we put online for everyone to see.” The president said this holds true even on the issue of the attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a controversy which he said was “driven by campaign” politics and one that...

The White House held an off-the-record briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon to discuss recent revelations about the Benghazi investigation, sources familiar with the meeting tell POLITICO.

LOS ANGELES — A California law that created an agency to oversee national health care reforms granted it broad authority to conceal spending on the contractors that will perform most of its functions, potentially shielding the public from seeing how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent. The degree of secrecy afforded Covered California appears unique among states attempting to establish their own health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's signature health law. An Associated Press review of the 16 other states that have opted for state-run marketplaces shows the California agency was given powers that are the most restrictive...

NOTE: Full title of article is, "In rare public Q-and-A with reporters, Obama denies knowing Benghazi terror-attack survivors have been forbidden from talking to Congress" ---------------------------------------------------- At least four career officials have hired lawyers as they prepare to share sensitive information with CongressWould-be State Department whistle-blowers claim harassment, intimidationObama: I'm not familiar with this notion that anybody's been blocked from testifying' President Barack Obama said during a rare public session answering reporters' questions that he was unaware of any efforts to prevent survivors of the 2012 Benghazi, Libya terror attack from testifying before Congress about what they experienced. 'I'm not...

Harry Reid and Wal-Mart hope nobody will notice their online revenue raid. Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That's probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible. As early as Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill that was introduced only last Tuesday. The text of this legislation, which would fundamentally change interstate commerce, only became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend. And you thought ObamaCare was jammed through Nancy Pelosi's...

Steve Emerson just broke the shocking news that the Saudi National, Abdul al-Harbi, first questioned in the Boston bombing, is going to be deported on "national security grounds." He is from a very powerful Saudi family with many terrorist ties. Abdul al-Harbi is a devout Muslim from Medina. I said it takes longer than 15 hours to investigate all of Abdul al-Harbi's relatives, friends, acquaintances, and business and school friends. Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped...

Last reports indicated video of a suspect planting a device was obtained, but there is no ID on the suspect. If they have no ID on the suspect, would not showing the video to the public possibly reveal who the suspect is? Would friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers or possibly his neighbors be able to ID the suspect? It's already been announced world wide the video was obtained at one of the bomb sites in front of a retail shop. So it would not seem likely the investigation would be compromised, since the suspect himself would already know they had video...

According to an ABC News report, senators from the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform are expected to drop their bill, estimated at around 1,500 pages, on Tuesday, mere hours before the only scheduled Senate hearing on the topic. “A bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce its long-awaited immigration bill on Tuesday, Senate sources confirmed to ABC News,” Jim Avila and Jordan Fabian wrote on Friday. “Four Democrats and four Republicans, known as the 'Gang of Eight,' wrapped up months of hard-fought negotiations this week and will put forth a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has responded to a letter dated November 13, 2012 from Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) regarding the agency's ammunition purchases. Sen. Coburn published the response on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs website yesterday, April 1, 2013. The response, dated February 4, 2013, says that DHS buys ammunition in bulk to "significantly lower costs."

Top Environmental Protection Agency officials used computer instant messages to try to circumvent open-records laws, according to a new lawsuit filed late last week by a researcher who has been demanding the agency comply with the law. Christopher C. Horner, the researcher who earlier uncovered that EPA officials were using private email addresses to conduct official business, said that in going over some of those earlier records he discovered the agency was using instant messages, too. He now is suing to get a look at those records, which he said EPA has refused to release. “It seems we have uncovered...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has broken its silence on the most popular file in its digital vault. The one-page memo, dated March 22, 1950, was addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover from Guy Hottel, then head of the FBI's Washington, D.C., field office. It relayed some information from an informant. The subject: FLYING SAUCERS INFORMATION CONCERNING "An investigator for the Air Force stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico," Hottel writes. "They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three...

Over the next 10 years health reform will impose upon us about $1 trillion in new taxes and it will take another $716 billion out of Medicare, imperiling access to care for the elderly and the disabled according to Medicare's Office of the Actuaries. It will impose a mandate to buy health insurance on most people and fine us if we don't comply. It will compel all but the smallest employers to provide insurance to their employees and fine them if they don't. Since economic theory teaches that workers pay for health benefits with lower wages and fewer non-health...

Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ) has come out and demanded that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explain why the Department of Homeland Security has been engaging in huge amounts of purchases of ammunition over the past year. Rep. Lance has called on Congress to get involved in ascertaining DHS’ stockpiling of ammunition which is enough to wage a 20 year plus war, which has most certainly caused a shortage in the public market. “I think Congress should ask the Department about both of those issues and I would like a full explanation as to why that has been done and I...

The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that. In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections. He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who...

Obama's Chilling Crew   By Andrew WaldenFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Why is there so little media investigation of the financing behind Barack Obama’s early political sponsor—and now convicted felon—Tony Rezko?      The dual US-Syrian citizen Rezko--who assisted Obama in the purchase of his Chicago mansion--was heavily funded by loans from Iraqi-British ex-Baathist billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.  According to testimony at Rezko’s trial, Obama met Auchi at an April 3, 2004 event at Rezko’s home during Obama’s 2004 US Senate campaign.  The Times of London reports discovering, “state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent...

Obama the Transparency President: I Want 'To Clear Out the Press So We Can Take Some Questions' By Tim Graham Created 02/25/2013 - 1:04pm At his media blog for The Washington Post, Erik Wemple expressed amazement at how "President Obama finished an address to members of the the National Governors Association at the White House by saying, 'What I want to do is clear out the press so we can take some questions.'” This is the latest example of how Team Obama has utterly failed to live up to its promise of being the most transparent administration in American history,...

President Obama on Thursday hailed his administration for its transparency. “This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama said during a Google Plus “Fireside” Hangout. “I can document that this is the case,” he continued. “Every visitor that comes into the White House is now part of the public record. Every law we pass and every rule we implement we put online for everyone to see.” The president said this holds true even on the issue of Benghazi, a controversy which he said was “driven by campaign” year politics and one that Congressional Republicans were clinging to even though...

Respect for private property at riskAt least you have to give President Obama high marks for creativity in his latest attempt to curtail freedom and individual rights. Specifically, I’m talking about Mr. Obama’s assault on private property rights through the abuse of the Endangered Species Act. I strongly support protecting endangered species. No one I know wants to see a species go anywhere near extinction. The far-left environmentalists in the Obama administration, however, have gone way beyond this by settling litigation with their allies in environmental groups behind closed doors. Through these secret settlements, they are advancing a much more...

BREAKING: Obama to hand over drone documents ahead of Hagel hearing Posted by CNN White House Producer Lesa Jansen Washington (CNN) - Amid new controversy over his administration's targeted killing of American citizens, President Barack Obama has yielded to demands from Congress to turn over to them classified Justice Department legal advice justifying the policy. The president's move comes on the eve of confirmation hearings Thursday for his CIA director-nominee John Brennan, and complaints from senators - including several Democrats - about secrecy surrounding the drone policy.

A judge is holding secret hearings in the case of the man convicted in the 2001 killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers have revealed the purpose of the hearings, which have been taking place in Washington behind closed doors. Several media organizations, including The Associated Press, are petitioning to open the proceedings. The next hearing takes place on February 7. Ingmar Guandique was convicted in 2010 of killing Levy, whose body was found in Washington's Rock Creek Park. The case captured the nation's attention because of Levy's relationship with California congressman Gary Condit. Condit was...

Because accepting donations from those distasteful, money-grubbing corporations is just not acceptable --- except, you know, when you really need the money.In 2008/2009, President Obama’s inaugural committee (amidst much self-promoted fanfare, I might add) decided to buck precedent and announced that they would not be accepting corporate donations or individual donations in excess of $50k in a grandiose display of thwarting special interests.Now, of course, the situation is quite different --- worn-out donors and a still-"recovering" economy mean that the inaugural committee is totally okay with corporations and the wealthy possibly ingratiating themselves with Team Obama. It is what it...

Let’s pretend that in the spring of 2012 Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, John Engler of the Business Roundtable, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, and Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association began to organize an assembly of right-leaning groups. Let’s pretend that in the months since there had been not one but two meetings where these luminaries joined with representatives of Christians United For Israel, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Tea Party Express, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the American Petroleum Institute to discuss strategy and promote a series of “structural...

When did "women's health" become reduced to just contraception and abortion? So much so, that all knees bend at the altar of Planned Parenthood, which works hard to ensure that this remains the case. Karen Handel most recently made this point to me, and she's well-suited to do so. This past year, she was at the center of a firestorm over Susan G. Komen for the Cure cutting its ties with Planned Parenthood as part of a grant overhaul. (The former Komen executive has since authored a book, "Planned Bullyhood," whose title well captures what happened.) Komen's singular purpose is...

A second Environmental Protection Agency official stands accused of using a personal email address to shield communications with environmental activists from public disclosure. Court documents show that EPA Region 8 Administrator James Martin corresponded with the Environmental Defense Fund — where he previously worked as an attorney — through his private email account.

The White House on Tuesday afternoon reached out to major philanthropic foundations not typically associated with gun control to gauge how much they are willing to get involved in President Obama’s future gun violence prevention efforts, according to a person on the call. The call, which featured Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, and members of Vice President Biden’s staff, was largely a “listening session,” according to the person on the call, who represents a foundation invited to participate. The person said the call...

In 2009 Obama promised to be the most transparent administration ever: http://youtu.be/72g7qmeP1dEWe have since found that it has been one of the most secretive administrations ever. Vince wrote last summer about the lack of transparency and cronyism involved in ObamaCare: ...the violations of that transparency pledge were greatest during the passage of arguably the single most important – and worst – piece of legislation ever to come across a President’s desk: ObamaCare. Euphemistically named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare single handedly would open the door for regulation of anything in the American economy and the lives of...

Set aside for now the troubling changes in the Obama administration’s position on whether former Bush officials should be prosecuted for suggesting tough interrogation tactics against terrorists. Set aside the manifest unfairness of prosecuting lawyers merely for doing their job of giving legal advice. Set aside the raft of other reasonable objections to the proposed prosecutions, including a justifiable aversion to witch-hunts. Instead, consider how flagrantly President Barack Obama violated his repeated promises that he would run a transparent and honorable administration. His administration’s selective and highly prejudicial release of only partial information about CIA interrogations clearly was designed to...

No, you won’t learn what you’re seeking to learn in the request itself. Don’t be ridiculous. That will take months. What you’ll learn is exactly how much effort the people with a legal duty to service the public’s constitutional right to disclosure of public records will put into failing in that duty while concocting an excuse for that failure. Yesterday, we went to court against Butch Speer, the clerk of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and Glenn Koepp, the secretary of the state Senate. Our business there was to secure a writ of mandamus against Speer and Koepp in order...

Obama Says All Gun Buyers Should Face Checks By JARED A. FAVOLE WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Wednesday said all gun buyers should be subject to background checks, offering his most specific proposal in the wake of the shooting spree at a Connecticut school and setting up a potential fight with gun-rights advocates. "This time words must lead to action," Mr. Obama said from the White House, where he also announced that Vice President Joe Biden would oversee an effort to get ideas for changing gun and mental-health laws to Congress. "The fact that this problem is complex can no longer...

(CNSNews.com) - The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General says it will investigate whether EPA officials -- including Administrator Lisa Jackson -- used alias email accounts to conduct official government business, thereby shielding those communications from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Jackson reportedly used the name "Richard Windsor" on an official email account from which she may have sent messages on the administration's coal policy. Chris Horner of the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute says he discovered Jackson's "false identity" while doing research for his book, "The Liberal War on Transparency.” Horner said he came across an "obscure" EPA...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won't testify to Congress next week on Benghazi, after fainting and suffering a concussion Saturday and due to her ongoing stomach ailment. "While suffering from a stomach virus, Secretary Clinton became dehydrated and fainted, sustaining a concussion," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement. "She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office...

".... likely in concert with the White House — and to the chagrin of many HHS employees — Sebelius and other senior HHS officials decided that word could too easily get out about the firewall project. If it did, it would alert people to UnitedHealth Group’s having gained a potentially huge competitive advantage — a political concern for the White House on the cusp of the election, especially in light of the crony capitalism charges that have plagued this administration. Therefore, HHS, under Sebelius’s leadership, suspended work on the firewall and told United-Health Group not to alert the SEC to...

Now that’s compliance for you. The blackout from these “influential progressives” – as the White House so boosterishly calls them — raises an historic prospect. Could this be the first White House meeting with journalists in which more information about the proceedings came from the White House than from the journalists? After all, the White House did at least issue this statement: “This afternoon at the White House, the President met with influential progressives to talk about the importance of preventing a tax increase on middle class families, strengthening our economy and adopting a balanced approach to deficit reduction.”

On 12/07/12, We the People, WhiteHouse.gov wethepeople@whitehouse.gov wrote: Your petition “rescind invite to Gangnam Style rapper PSY to perform for Pres. Obama at Christmas party over troop killing song lyrics” has been removed from the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov because it was in violation of the We the People Terms of Participation. This petition was removed for the following reason: o The petition was outside the scope of We the People. Learn more about the We the People Terms of Participation: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/terms-participation Learn more about the We the People Moderation Policy: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/moderation-policy If you would like to request...

At House Speaker John A. Boehner’s request, Senate leaders and Representative Nancy Pelosi have been excluded from talks to avert a fiscal crisis, leaving it to Mr. Boehner and President Obama alone to find a deal, Congressional aides say. All sides, even the parties excluded, say clearing the negotiating room improves the chance of success. It adds complexity as the two negotiators consult separately with the leaders not in the room. But it also minimizes the number of people who need to say yes to an initial agreement.

WASHINGTON — At House Speaker John A. Boehner’s request, Senate leaders and Representative Nancy Pelosi have been excluded from talks to avert a fiscal crisis, leaving it to Mr. Boehner and President Obama alone to find a deal, Congressional aides say. All sides, even the parties excluded, say clearing the negotiating room improves the chance of success. It adds complexity as the two negotiators consult separately with the leaders not in the room. But it also minimizes the number of people who need to say yes to an initial agreement. [Snip] This time, while Mr. Boehner has made himself the...

At a meeting with the Business Roundtable on Wednesday morning, President Obama publicly warned Republicans that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling. But after those opening remarks, reporters were ushered out of the room so Obama could talk to the gathered CEOs in private. “”Yeah, I think the press is … they’ve probably got enough there to spin a story,” Obama said as the reporters were kicked out of the room. The Roundtable is a business lobbying group made up of high-powered executives whom the president is hoping to rally to his side in the “fiscal cliff” fight.

Kyl suggests Benghazi 'cover-up' Sen. Jon Kyl, (R-Ariz.) suggests the Obama administration orchestrated a "cover-up" of the events that led to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. "There are three questions that have to be answered," Kyl said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," appearing on a panel with three other retiring senators. "Why weren't the warnings about the need for security heeded? Why weren't the requests for help during the ted attack answered and why did the administration think...

MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military inspectors will begin a survey flight this week above the United States under the international Open Skies Treaty, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said. Russian experts will conduct the survey flight over the US territory in a Tupolev Tu-154 M/LK-1 aircraft during the period from November 25 and December 3, a spokesman said. The flight will start from the Travis Air Force Base, California. Its maximum range will be 4,250 kilometers (2,600 miles). During the flight, Russian and US specialists will operate surveillance equipment on board of the aircraft as set out in...

Today, the White House officially refused to release photos of US officials during the September 11 terrorist attacks on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that ended with the deaths of four Americans. CBS News requested the photos on October 31; the White House has routinely released photos showing members of the Obama administration in their hero poses during national security crises. That happened most famously with pictures of the Obama administration key players clustered into the White House situation room during the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Barack Obama promised his administration set a new standard in transparency: I will also hold myself as president to a new standard of openness .... Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency. Obama even issued a memo My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. He declared his to...

Former CIA Director David Petraeus stoked the controversy over the Obama administration's handling of the Libya terror attack, testifying Friday that references to "Al Qaeda involvement" were stripped from his agency's original talking points -- while other intelligence officials were unable to say who changed the memo, according to a top lawmaker who was briefed.  Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News that intelligence officials who testified in a closed-door hearing a day earlier, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, said they did not know who changed the talking points. He said they...

In a blockbuster report, John Solomon, the former Associated Press and Post reporter, has ferreted out the president's daily brief that informed him within 72 hours of the Sept. 11 attack that the Benghazi attack was a jihadist operation.Citing officials directly familiar with the information, Solomon writes in the Washington Guardian that Obama and other administration officials were told that "that the attack was likely carried out by local militia and other armed extremists sympathetic to al-Qaida in the region."He adds: The details from the CIA and Pentagon assessments of the killing of Ambassador Chris [Stevens] were far more...

White House says did not heavily edit talking points on Benghazi ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE | Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:25am EST (Reuters) - The White House did not heavily alter talking points about the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, an official said on Saturday. "If there were adjustments made to them within the intelligence community, that's common, and that's something they would have done themselves," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told reporters. "The only edit ... made by the White House was the factual edit as to how to refer to the facility." After a...

The House science committee is demanding the White House explain why top administration officials are using secret e-mail accounts and other techniques to conceal their taxpayer-paid activities from public oversight. The evidence of officials’ efforts to evade transparency laws includes EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s use of the fake name “Richard Windsor”, and hidden e-mail accounts, according to a Nov. 16 letter sent by the committee to several White House officials, including Jackson. (RELATED: EPA chief’s secret ‘alias’ email revealed) (snip) “The use of these [hidden] accounts could seriously impair records collection, preservation, and access, therefore compromising transparency and oversight,” said...

Trust is an invaluable asset for any leader. It's promised in every political campaign. But trust must be earned and reearned every day, and it's hard to regain once lost. President Obama came into office promising hope, change, and unprecedented transparency. After four years of unimpressive economic progress, unabashed partisanship, and imperial power politics, he's asking us to entrust him with another four years in office. Are you ready to trust him again? Has he earned your trust or do you have serious questions that go unanswered? Why would he sign bills that had to be passed for us to...

Cornered by reporters with video cameras, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama's reelection campaign, attempted to defend the kill list...The second notable statement concerns the killing of 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.. ADAMSON: ...It's an American citizen that is being targeted without due process, without trial. And, he's underage. He's a minor. GIBBS: I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children. I don't think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about...

Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show. The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

It was a little much when President Barack Obama said that he was "offended" by the suggestion that his administration would try to deceive the public about what happened in Benghazi. What has this man not deceived the public about? Remember his pledge to cut the deficit in half in his first term in office? This was followed by the first trillion dollar deficit ever, under any President of the United States -- followed by trillion dollar deficits in every year of the Obama administration. Remember his pledge to have a "transparent" government that would post its legislative proposals on...